Are you an under-eater? If you are, you could be suffering from eating disorder. Not only overeating but under-eating is also a chronic lifestyle problem. Not eating enough or lack of calories may lead to many health ailments.

On one hand the modern society is dealing with the problem of obesity, on the other, under-eating is also becoming a growing pattern especially among figure-concious youth in an effort to have slim-trim body. Unfortunately, quite the opposite, you may find your clothes tighter than before. Strange but true. No budging of body weight. Seriously frustrating!

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Your body doesn’t like much bigger caloric-deficit. It may affect your body’s metabolism radically, triggering reduction in active thyroid hormone, shutting down of sex hormone production and rise in stress hormones like cortisol. Elevated cortisol leads to both leptin and insulin resistance. It is a disastrous hormonal state that can contribute retaining body fat keeping body weight high. If you’re eating too less and exercising too hard to lose weight, just check whether the technique is working. You may end up receiving bad health and more weight.

The combo of high-intensity exercise and under-eating may become a reason of hypoglycaemia. It’s a state when blood sugar is below 70 mg/dl, though few people may feel the symptoms of high blood sugar levels. Suffering from hypoglycaemia, one may feel like eating more of sugary foods, junk foods and indulge in overeating too. It may result in low and high blood sugar swings that is very dangerous for a person’s health.

The body temperature of people who eat very less may always remain low. Due to this, they may always feel frigid.

Inadequate calorie intake can develop nutrient deficiencies, including iron, folate and vitamin B12, causing a range of health illnesses.

When a person doesn’t eat enough calories, his stomach empties slower and the lining of his intestinal tract can shrink. It may damage the digestive system so severely that food may not be digested properly.

If you’re not getting enough food, it can cause constipation due to the effect of under nutrition of thyroid hormone. Make sure you’re not eating too less if you’re not having a bowel movement every couple of days.

Not eating enough may cause insomnia and other sleep disorders. Increased calorie intake from carbohydrates can make you fall asleep faster and sound for long hours without any interruption.

Long-term calorie restriction may lead to hair loss. It happens due to nutritional deficiency whether that be calories, protein or both. If you want to stop hair loss, start consuming a calorically appropriate, protein rich and nutrient dense whole food diet.

Under-eating may drag you to a state of anger and irritability. When your brain receives less blood sugar, it stops functioning optimally. It may result in mood swings between cheery and fearful thoughts.

Low calorie diet and high intensity exercise may prevent a woman from getting pregnant. Few cases have shown that after switching to a high calorie diet, some of the women finally got pregnant.

A simple way to roughly estimate the lowest amount of calories a person should consume in a day is to multiply his/her ideal body weight in pounds to 10. For example, a woman of height 5’5” should weigh 125 pounds ideally. So, she should consume at least 1250 calories per day. Caloric restrictions for longer periods may cause malnutrition. If you’re following an exercise schedule and low-calorie diet to lose weight, you should not lose more than two pounds a week. If you’re losing more than that, it’s alarming!

Make sure you’re not severely under-eating!