Eat More
Have you been eating extremely low calories (e.g. 1000 cals for a female, 1800cals for a male) for prolonged period of time (e.g. 6 months), and you are experiencing one or more of these things: stopped losing weight, fatigued all the time, struggling to sleep, not making progress in the gym, binge eating, low mood, low libido?
The solution is to eat MORE. Not less.
When carbs and fats are too low, your sleep, mood, and libido are all negatively affected. A diet high in protein is more satiating; chronically low protein diets result in fatigue and big spikes and drops in energy levels. Adequate dietary fat is required for sex hormone production and function. And eating more obviously equals more energy. When you’re not hungry all the time your mood will be much more stable.
Eating more means you will be more consistent and not have out of control cravings and you’re less likely to binge eat. Binge eating can obviously have more serious deep causes, which are not always corrected by increasing your calories alone, but if the reason is linked to simply not giving your body enough calories, then it will certainly help. Being consistent, eating enough food to function optimally will mean yo aren’t ravenous all the time and cave into eating a massive serve all the wrong foods.
Eating more means you can train effectively at a higher intensity and make significant strength gains as well as recover properly. You need to be getting stronger for your body composition to positively change, and under-eating deprives your body of the nutrients it needs to perform and recover and actually get stronger.
Eating more means your body “feels safe”, and gives it a reason to let go of excess body fat it’s holding onto. Under-eating for a prolonged period of time is a stressor, your body fights back by slowing down your metabolism and storing body fat. Initially cutting calories works, but after many months, your body adapts. It’s smarter than you think, there are lots of other processes that occur to make sure you stop losing more weight or body fat. Your progress completely stalls and you’re stuck. Where to next? Cut more calories?
If eating extremely low calories was the answer, wouldn’t you continue dropping fat and functioning at your best?
By measuring your body composition regularly, and tracking other variables such as sleep quality, mood, energy levels, and training performance, you can make informed decisions about whether the calories and macros are working, or if something needs adjusting. This should not be complicated but is often made complicated if you aren’t tracking what you eat and lift, and aren’t measuring your body composition properly (e.g. using the skin fold method, not the mirror!)