Am I Eating Enough?
A question that comes up so often during consults, and also on social media: How do I know how much I should be eating? How do I know if I am eating enough?
First of all, it’s SO much more complex and nuanced than just whacking your height and weight into an online calculator or app to give you a number. This MAY be a rough indication, but all too often is really not that accurate at all…
The ‘optimal’ number of calories or amount of food that you require per day actually varies on a quite large number of factors, such as your age, sex, height, weight, both day-to-day activity levels and exercise amount, duration and intensity, as well as the amount of lean mass on your body, any underlying medical/health conditions, and your current goals.
For the majority of people that come to see me for help with their nutrition, and all too common across the board in the world of active and health-orientated individuals, they are under-fuelling for their requirements - that is, not eating enough food/calories to meet the demands of both their day-to-day activity levels PLUS the exercise or training they do.
People with any level of dietary restrictions, which includes plant based diets, or those focused on eating mainly unprocessed whole foods, are often at greater risk of this happening, simply because of the exclusion of a greater number of foods and the foods they DO choose are typically lower in energy density, whilst being larger in volume and more filling!!
The risks.
Under eating for your energy requirements can lead to something we call ‘low energy availability’. This essentially means that your body isn’t receiving enough energy for all of its necessary daily functions, after the energy required for exercise and daily activity has been taken away. This is serious because if not addressed, it can lead to your body having to make adaptions to how it functions in order to save energy (and keep you alive, essentially!), which affects many of our different body systems and both our immediate and long term health and wellbeing.
Signs and symptoms.
So, how do you know this is happening?
Our bodies are very good at communicating that something is not right. Some of the signs or symptoms that you may experience as a result of under eating include:
Constantly low energy levels and feeling tired all the time.
Poor sleep, including inability to fall asleep and waking frequently.
Digestive issues, such as constipation and bloating.
Getting sick often, and taking a long time to recover when you do get sick.
An increase in injuries, and slow wound healing.
You find yourself thinking about food, like ALL the time, and have an inability to feel satiated after meals.
Feeling hungry all the time!
Irregular menstrual cycles, or losing your menstrual cycle, for females.
Loss or reduction of libido.
You find that your performance and/or strength has stopped improving, or perhaps even is declining.
Inability to build muscle mass.
Inability to concentrate and feeling like you have ‘brain fog’.
Feeling irritable, down and moody all the time.
Important to note:
This can happen to any body, of any gender, body size, weight and shape, and any activity levels. You do not have to be an elite athlete, exercising for hours and hours a day, or underweight (or even have lost weight, although this does increase the risk!) to be in an under fuelled state. It is just as serious, no matter what your body looks like.
What do I do about it?
Beyond the obvious advice of ‘just start eating more’ - which is SO much easier said than done, and can in fact be really hard to do depending on the personal barriers you face in making those changes (this post may help, by the way!) - the best way to both determine if you are under fuelling for your needs, and help you make the necessary changes to ensure you are best supporting your body for your needs and goals (and learning HOW to do this!), is working with a sports nutritionist or dietitian, such as myself.
Each person is SO individual. Therefore what this looks like, and how this is achieved, will be different for each person.
If this post has resonated, and you would like further help, guidance and support in this area, please don’t hesitate to reach out here, we can see how I can best help you, or learn more about one-on-one nutrition consults here.
