Bites & Body Love (v)

The Signs and Symptoms of Under-eating: How Calorie Restriction Affects Your Mind and Body

• Jamie Magdic

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In today's episode, we go over...

  1. Introduction: Overeating vs. Undereating
    • Overeating gets more attention, but undereating poses significant risks.
    • Importance of addressing the physical and mental health impacts of eating too little.
  2. What is Undereating?
    • Consistently eating fewer calories than the body needs.
    • Often unintentional, influenced by stress, dieting, or busy schedules.
  3. Signs of Undereating
    • Physical Symptoms: Fatigue, hair loss, cold intolerance, weakened immunity, digestive issues.
    • Mental Symptoms: Mood swings, anxiety, difficulty concentrating.
    • Behavioral Patterns: Skipping meals, over-reliance on caffeine, obsessive thoughts about food.
  4. Risks of Chronic Undereating
    • Hormonal imbalances, weakened immunity, and loss of bone density.
    • Slowed metabolism and long-term health consequences like heart and cognitive issues.
  5. How to Eat Enough
    • Listen to hunger and fullness cues.
    • Work with a dietitian for personalized guidance.
    • Focus on variety, balance, and avoiding restrictive eating.
  6. Shifting the Narrative
    • Undereating is harmful despite diet culture messaging.
  7. Conclusion
    • Pay attention to your body’s signals.
    • Food is essential nourishment, not a source of fear.


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Speaker 1:

Welcome to another episode of Bites and Body Love with V. I never explained that before, but the V in love and the podcast name is to show action as a verb rather than love as a noun, because to love our body is to take actionable steps in that direction. To practice that through body respect, through how we speak to it, to how we feed it, how we listen to it, how we befriend it, how we become companions. So never explained that before. Anywho, welcome to Bites and Body Love. I'm excited to have you here today. We are going to be talking about the signs and symptoms of under eating and before we go into that, just to introduce myself for folks who are new to the podcast my name is Jamie you see her pronouns.

Speaker 1:

I am a registered dietitian and body image specialist. I'm the owner of a group practice of 12 plus dietitians that help people through their recovery, and also the owner of Jamie LLC, which has programs and courses to help people to reach full recovery. No stone unturned All good stuff that I'm really excited about, because I love helping people get to that finish line. I do believe in full recovery and I am fully recovered myself, and so I like to scream it from the rooftops and help everyone get there, because once upon a time I did not think I was going to get there and now I am very happily on the other side, with no distressing thoughts of food and body image, and helping other people to get there too. So I really like spreading that message. Okay, that was a long intro. Let's get into the signs and symptoms of under eating. Okay, that was a long intro. Let's get into the signs and symptoms of under eating.

Speaker 1:

Now there is so much talk about overeating and all the fear around overeating and consuming too much. That is where the conversation is. It is never about the dangers of under eating. There are so many, there are so many. And so when we're talking about health, of course, diet culture, because of weight stigma, because of body image, because of our view of bad bodies and good bodies and the messages we get because of that fear of weight and weight gain and body size, the message we often receive is to be afraid of overeating, that our body cannot handle it, that there are so many bad things that are going to happen if we overeat, and never, ever, ever do we talk about the very real realities and harms of under eating, not eating enough and harms of under eating, not eating enough, which often happens because of our fear of overeating, so we don't trust our body. We don't trust our body with a certain amount of food we don't trust, so we try to make sure we don't overeat and, in turn, we under eat and there's a spectrum of under eating, there's a spectrum of undereating, there's a spectrum of disordered eating and restriction. But we're going to talk just in general today about the symptoms and signs that you may have and be experiencing if you are undereating and what happens due to that. Okay, so we really under. Eating deserves our attention, it deserves this conversation for our physical health, our mental health, our holistic health, and so today we're going to honor that conversation and have it.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so what does under eating mean? What does under eating mean? This is a complicated question, actually, because it is going to be different for every individual and the only way you can understand if you are truly under eating sorry, I'm getting over being sick If you are under eating, is by having that connection to your body and understanding what your cues are and practicing listening to that and have been doing that for a while and if your body is at the right place, weight wise, and you're not underweight. So this is a question that you'll want to dive into more in depth with your treatment team, with me and my program, true Fruit and Body Image Freedom. But it is very individualized. So if you are under eating, what under eating means, though essentially generally okay, although it's going to look different for everyone and I'm not going to give those specifics what it means is you're consistently getting fewer calories than what your body needs, ok, or you're not getting enough of the variety of calories, right. You might be under eating essential fats or carbohydrates, ok, but under eating we're going to define that as consuming fewer calories than what your body, as consuming fewer calories than what your body, what your individual body needs, which only your individual body can tell you. And you can only find that out if you're connected and practice that connection and respect with your body, to find that out over time with practices and see how your body feels, okay.

Speaker 1:

So now I want to clarify that under eating for some people is sometimes unintentional. It can stem from stress, busy schedules, misinformation, right, being just not thinking enough about it, from diet trends. So it isn't always intentional. Most of the time it isn't intentional and we actually, because of the messages we receive, we think that we are doing the right thing. Okay, so I again, always when I'm speaking to you and we're having these conversations, I don't want any shame to come up here as you learn more about maybe some behaviors you have or maybe some things that you weren't unaware of prior to listening to this podcast. Okay, no shame. All the compassion in the world I'm sending out to you because this stuff is hard and we are so confused, because the messages are so confusing. Okay, so it's not intentional. I understand some, some. For some people it's not intentional, for some it, some it is, and compassion to both of those groups of people.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so now that we defined what under eating is, let's talk about the signs and symptoms of under eating. We're going to talk about the physical symptoms, the mental and emotional symptoms and the behavioral patterns as well. Today we want to name that. Very unfortunately, these signs and symptoms that we're going to be talking about today are not an all-inclusive list. This is not an all-inclusive list. There are so many things that can happen when we undereat and when we undereat consistently. So if you are experiencing other symptoms, they're very valid, but we're just not going to talk about all of them today, all right, so let's dive into first the physical symptoms.

Speaker 1:

When your body doesn't receive adequate fuel, it's going to prioritize the vital functions over others. Okay, now there's a wonderful study called the Minnesota starvation study. I have a podcast episode on that. You can go check that out and it goes through what happens to these men in these in this study that were underfed intentionally for days and days and days, and what happened to their body physically. So this is a great. That's a great one for physical symptoms and that's another way you can find out if you have similar symptoms to those men that were experiencing that starvation.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so when the body doesn't receive adequate fuel, it prioritizes vital functions over others. What does that mean? That means your body requires a certain amount of food and calories and energy to do what it does, and it does a lot. All the symptoms, the systems of your body do a lot to keep you going. It's pretty wild and in order to keep that going, it needs fuel to keep that up and sustain that. Okay, so if you're not getting enough fuel, what your body is going to do? In a very smart, survival based way, it's going to take those calories that you're giving it and it's going to give it to the vital systems, because that's what they need to keep you alive. And that means your other, your other, the other parts of your body, the other systems are not going to get enough. And then this is what happens when those other systems shut down and don't get enough fuel.

Speaker 1:

Okay, number one, pretty obvious, pretty obvious one. But at the same time, oh, diet culture sucks because it it's just going to blame us and and, uh, give us other reasons for why this symptom happens, but the number one one thing that can happen very often is you're going to have lack of energy and be tired and fatigued. Okay, I'm going to say it again, you're going to be tired and you're going to lack energy. So, if you are blaming yourself and you're saying I'm out of shape or I am tired all the time, okay, well, let's back up. And I want to ask you are you struggling with disordered eating? Are you dieting? Are you restricting calories? Are you ignoring your hunger?

Speaker 1:

Because when you're doing those things, of course you're going to be tired, you do not have enough calories, your body's going to struggle to maintain the energy for these daily activities, tasks that once felt like effortless. They might become draining. You might find yourself needing frequent rest. You're just going to, you're going to feel it in your body. It's going to be hard to get through the day or get through certain activities in the day, and you're it's. You should feel energized. Okay, bottom line, you should feel energized. You should feel like, when you're going to do that exercise, that you have energy to do that exercise. Not saying it's not might not be hard physically in some ways if you're pushing yourself, but you should feel like you have energy to get through it. If you don't, you are not fueling yourself adequately. Now this one fatigue and lack of energy.

Speaker 1:

It's wild how people or how we blame ourselves and we can blame everything else other than the fact that we are not getting enough food in right Because we don't want to look at that. We don't want to. That's scary, you know sometime for our disordered eating thoughts and our giving up dieting. But I remember. I'm going to share a personal story. I remember one time when I was shopping with my sister and my mom and I did not eat a lot that day and I was so tired shopping and they had energy and I just was watching them and they had so much energy to shop and talk and and, but they were both, like you know, excited and I was not. I didn't have the mental capacity to really be excited. I was, you know, pretty down and I was so tired and I remember in that moment I was blaming myself like, oh, what's wrong with me? I'm just not doing the healthy things, I'm not eating healthy enough, I'm not doing, you know, I should be exercising more. All these crazy ridiculous things, rather than, hmm, I need to be treating myself with more self-compassion and taking better care of myself by resting more and eating more. No, anything but that, right. So, anyways, that's a physical symptom to pay attention to, and if you're experiencing that, I would question that.

Speaker 1:

Of course, there's other reasons for fatigue and lack of energy, but let's see if we are. If it's due to food, okay. Next one hair thinning or hair loss. Undereating can lead to nutrient deficiencies, especially in protein, iron, essential fatty acids, and these all are very crucial for healthy hair growth. So, hair being brittle if it's shedding excessively, growing back thinner, hair thinning and hair loss could be a sign of malnutrition. Cold intolerance, so always feeling cold. Low energy intake can slow down your metabolism, causing the body to produce less heat. So constantly feeling cold, even in warm environments, is definitely a hallmark of insufficient calorie intake.

Speaker 1:

Another one and remember this is not an exhaustive list, I'm not going to give you all of them here. Another important one to pay attention to is digestive issues constipation and bloating Big big things when it comes to not eating enough. Digestive issues, I want to say almost everyone I have worked with and work with who is under eating has digestive issues and sometimes it's like what came first the IBS or the disordered eating. Sometimes they can work together and IBS can cause disordered eating and disordered eating can cause the IBS, and IBS can cause disordered eating and disordered eating can cause the IBS. So why does this happen? Why do we have digestive issues when we are not eating enough? Well, a lack of food can slow down your digestive process, leading to constipation. Okay, so I'm going to say that again. If you're not getting enough food in, it's going to slow down your digestive process and, additionally to that, reduced energy levels can impair your gut motility, causing bloating and discomfort. Okay, so if you're having digestive issues and you are not eating enough, another reason to experiment increase your calories and see what happens. Now I want to say it's not going to get better right away. You have to consistently eat more and eat enough to start seeing any of these issues really start to resolve, especially depending on where you're at in your disordered eating and your recovery. So, again, work with a dietician on this specifically. Okay.

Speaker 1:

Next physical symptom, next physical sign that you are not eating enough is a weakened immune system. Okay, so a weakened immune function, chronic under eating, is going to suppress your immune system. It's going to make you susceptible to more illnesses, infections or prolonged illnesses or not getting better. I hear this often from people when they are feeling sick and they have some disorder eating thoughts and mentality, they feel guilty that they are not able to move because they are feeling sick and so they decrease their food intake. No, your body needs food, even if you are, especially if you're resting, especially if you're resting and feeling sick. You need to take care of that immune function. Okay, you, not having enough food is definitely going to make you more susceptible. Dieting is going to make you more susceptible to illnesses and not feeling good and not being able to get better. Okay, we got to give our body systems the adequate amount of calories to do what it needs to do to take care of us, like protect us against these bugs. Okay, very, very important To protect us against anything we might be experiencing chronically. You know, any kind of chronic condition we have. We have to feed it appropriately to help it out. Okay, next one disrupted menstrual cycle. So for those who menstruate under eating is going to lead to irregular or missed periods due to those hormonal imbalances. So a disrupted menstrual cycle is another thing we see a lot.

Speaker 1:

Now, just because you're not experiencing it doesn't mean that your undereating is not significant. So, if you're that's another thing to name about all of these If you're undereating and you're not experiencing any of these, wow, you're lucky. You're lucky your body might be a little bit more resilient. Now, I can't say it's always going to be that resilient. And the other ways in which it's impacting you is still significant, and how it's impacting your mental and emotional health, which we're going to get into in a second, is significant and important to name. If you're not experiencing these, it does not mean you are not sick enough. It does not mean you are not sick enough. It does not mean you are not sick enough. It just means that your body is resilient in those ways, and every body is different.

Speaker 1:

For me, for a very, very long time in my disorder eating and eating disorder I didn't have a lot of these things, a lot of these physical symptoms. Right, a lot of times we can feel quote, unquote maybe feel like we're feeling good physically while our other parts of our health are struggling. So does not mean you're not sick enough, it's significant. Okay, so those are some physical symptoms. I'm not going to go through all of them, but those are really just naming a few. So fatigue, lack of energy, hair thinning, hair loss, cold intolerance, digestive issues, constipation, bloating, weakened immune system, disrupted menstrual cycle are only a few Headaches are going to. I want to like list the other 20. I think I have an Instagram post that names a bunch of other physical symptoms as well, but we want to go into the other things as well today. So we'll wrap it up with physical symptoms and move on to the mental and emotional symptoms of undereating. And, again, the reason we're going over all this is because we need to understand the realities of undereating and what it's doing to our health our physical health, our emotional health. It's so talked about of overeating, but there are so many horrible side effects and consequences of undereating, so that is why we are paying attention to that today. Okay, all right, mental and emotional symptoms Undereating doesn't just affect the body.

Speaker 1:

It's going to take a toll on your mental health and your cognitive function Big time, ok, big time. Do you ever notice when you, when you skip a meal, you don't eat enough, and what happens to your mood? And then what happens when you do eat? Right, mood swings, irritability. Irritability and low mood are going to happen if you are not eating enough, because the brain requires a steady supply of glucose to regulate your mood.

Speaker 1:

I'm going to highlight glucose Carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are the main energy source that your brain thrives off of. It needs carbs, okay. So if you're eating, if you're reducing your carbs or eliminating or not getting enough carbs in, then you think you're eating enough calories. Well, if you're not getting the glucose, you're still under eating, the necessary nutrient that your body needs and your mind needs in order to help your mood and to help all your system. So glucose is very important. So, again, mood swings, irritability and low mood will happen with under eating because you're going to deplete your energy reserves. So you're going to have heightened irritability, emotional sensitivity and feelings of depression and low mood. So make sure you're eating enough. Make sure you're eating enough and then your mood will pick up in general over time. With a better nutrition, with more nutrition, with being at the weight you should be at, so gaining the necessary weight, you're going to see a major improvement in your mood. It has had such a huge impact.

Speaker 1:

There's something else I wanted to say there, something that has to do with yeah, I guess, just working with with clients. I want to name that when clients are in a low mood and they're not eating enough, they're not at the weight they should be in a low mood and they're not eating enough, they're not at the weight they should be, and sometimes they can feel like well, you know they don't always link the fact that they're stressed and the fact that they're stressed, the fact that they have the like low mood and low depression and not a lot of hope, and maybe like negative thoughts that this is going to come into play for a few different reasons, but a big reason for that is because your brain and your body do not have enough calories and it does lead to a depressed state. Okay, other mental and emotional symptoms difficulty concentrating or brain fog. Without enough energy, cognitive functions like memory, focus, problem solving are going to become compromised. So if you find that the tasks requiring mental effort are overwhelming, impossible, hard to get through, take a very long time, you cannot focus, ask yourself am I eating enough? When's the last time I ate? Start experimenting, increase your calorie intake, increase the frequency of food and see what happens.

Speaker 1:

And the last one we're going to talk about is increased anxiety. All right, so chronic hunger, low blood sugar, is going to amplify those feelings of anxiety. It's going to lead to obsessive thoughts, it's going to lead to anxious thoughts and it's definitely going to increase the obsessive thoughts around food and food, guilt and guilt around eating and body image and those negative thoughts. But it also just increases anxiety overall. It increases this. There's a lot of science behind all of what I'm saying, but there's a lot of science that I've read and used with clients to show hey, this increased feeling of anxiety that you have, this is due to not eating enough. So just right there for mental emotional symptoms. Those all suck, those do not feel good to feel, irritable and low mood and have mood swings and we have constant anxious thoughts and have a brain fog and finding difficult to concentrate or think this is all due to lack of food intake.

Speaker 1:

Okay, all right, now let's go into behavioral patterns that happen so under. Eating is often accompanied by specific habits or patterns that reflect an unhealthy relationship with food, like avoiding meals, eating very small portions, over-reliance on caffeine and stimulants for energy, obsessive thoughts around food or eating rules and compensatory behaviors. All right, so behavioral patterns that can increase with inadequate nutrition definitely impact our behaviors and the way we interact with food and body image. And again, this is why, when we start practicing body respect and eating enough, these behaviors that we rely on they're tied together. They are like, they feel, they feel safe. So as soon as when we start letting go, when we start eating more, are those behaviors, we're also going to practice letting go of those behaviors as well.

Speaker 1:

This one I'm not going to spend too much time on. I want to just point you in the direction of going to the episode on the Minnesota starvation study that I think will be extremely helpful for you. So check that out the Minnesota starvation study to learn more about the behavioral patterns and what's so interesting about the behavioral patterns in that study is that it shows these men did not have a disordered eating relationship with food. That was disordered. They did not have a complicated relationship. It was very neutral and positive these men's relationship with food and body image. However, when they decreased their food intake right, that's what the whole episode, what this episode is about when they weren't getting enough calories in in that experiment.

Speaker 1:

Behavioral patterns for those men, like everything I just named avoidance of meals, eating very small portion, playing with their food over reliance on caffeine and gum, obsessive thoughts about food, eating very small portion, playing with their food over reliance on caffeine and gum, obsessive thoughts about food, looking through cookbooks all these rules that started happening. These all started happening behaviorally due to the decrease of food. So sometimes we think of behavioral patterns leading to the decrease of food, and that does happen, right. But also the decrease of food can lead to behavioral patterns. I hope that's making sense. It's making sense in my brain, so I hope it's. Let me know if it doesn't and I can re-explain it on a different episode or we can chat about it on Instagram. But super, super important, so go check out that episode. Other symptoms to watch out for after we talked about behavioral, emotional and mental, and the physical symptoms, I'm just going to name some other ones that might not fit into those categories.

Speaker 1:

Okay, sleep disruption. So chronic hunger can interfere with your sleep, and not even chronic, it can just be, you know, hunger from not eating enough that day and it could lead to difficulty falling asleep and staying asleep throughout the night. I hear this a lot and this is something like I'll tell my friends or family members and they're like I had a hard time sleeping yesterday and I'll tell them did you eat enough? And if they don't know, I tell them hey, next time you can't sleep, wake up and go eat a meal. Every time they do that, they're able to fall asleep. My ex-partner when he would have a hard time sleeping, it's like go eat a banana, go eat peanut butter. As soon as that happened, I was able to fall asleep.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so sometimes we unintentionally do not eat enough as well, and so that's going to definitely disrupt your sleep and that's that's a big reason. You know, you can tell by all these things that you're not getting enough food in. So once you get to a place where you are at a healthy relationship with food and body and you're eating enough, you'll notice when you're not, because these will be very obvious to you when you are, you know, have a headache, when you can't focus, when you're having sleep disruptions. So you'll be able to start knowing and listening and trusting your body enough to be able to understand oh, I did not eat enough because I'm experiencing this, I gotta go take care of that because this is what my body needs.

Speaker 1:

Okay, other symptoms to watch out for with under eating it's gonna be physical weakness or muscle loss or inability to gain muscle. So when the body doesn't receive enough calories, it's going to break down your muscle tissue for energy. That's going to lead to decreased strength and decreased endurance. Those athletes are people who work out and exercise, who are not eating enough. They're not going to be able to build calories I'm sorry, build muscle. They're going to feel weak when they're exercising. Other symptoms dull or dry skin because of the lack of those essential vitamins and fats that are going to result in that dry, flaky skin.

Speaker 1:

And then cravings or episodes of binge eating. This is very big too. So our body binges because our body is not getting enough food. So under eating is going to trigger purposely. Our body is very smart. It's going to trigger those intense food cravings and periods of overeating because your body is trying to compensate for the calorie deficit. So binging is a great survival mechanism that our bodies have. Not everyone has that, which I think. Again, if you're binging, that's your body trying to take care of you. So we shouldn't be shaming the binge and shaming ourselves. We should get curious about why am I binging? Your body is trying to protect you. We need to be eating more. I have a ton of episodes on those, so check those out too. For binging and overeating.

Speaker 1:

Okay, let's talk about some long-term risks of undereating that happen as well. Um, and I'm going to list these out there's I have a lot of descriptions here on this, but I don't want this episode to be too, too long, um, but I do want to talk about the the long-term risks of under eating. We chat, we chat about the short term, like what you would be experiencing, but these are the very real effects of under eating long-term. And again, we hear so many of the long-term impacts of overeating, right, that we should be afraid of, but there are. So I'm looking at this list here, this very significant list of things that happen when we under eat and it's scary. So under eating can seem harmless, but and that's only because of the messages we get but it can have very serious and lasting effects on the body. So we're going to take a closer look at the potential long term consequences here.

Speaker 1:

Okay, we talked about hormonal imbalances with irregular menstrual cycles. Additionally, there's other hormonal imbalances that can happen over time. Chronic undereating disrupts the body's ability to produce and regulate very essential hormones. So that's going to manifest as those menstrual irregularities complete loss of periods. Irregularities, complete loss of periods.

Speaker 1:

Low testosterone can result in muscle mass decrease, fatigue, fertility issues, disruption of your thyroid hormones can lead to slow metabolism, fatigue, difficulty regulating body temperature and then, in addition to those hormonal balances, over time we have a weakened immune system, as I had named. This is going to lead to not being able to have a robust immune response. It's going to lead to increased susceptibility to infections, slower wound healing, prolonged illnesses. It's going to lead to a lack of proteins and vitamins and minerals that compromise our immunity, like vitamin C and zinc. There's a loss of bone density that can happen. So insufficient intake of enough calories is going to be insufficient intake, most likely, of calcium, vitamin D and other bone-supporting nutrients. That can lead to osteopenia, which is low bone density, or osteoporosis, which is brittle bones. Additionally, those hormonal imbalances we were talking about, that reduces estrogen. That exacerbates bone loss as well and over time this is going to lead to risk of fractures, chronic pain, posture issues.

Speaker 1:

Additionally, slow metabolism and weight regulation happens over time, with chronic under eating. Chronic under eating is going to slow down your metabolism and it's going to complicate your weight regulation. Your body has a weight set point I have a podcast on that and that weight regulation is something that our bodies do for us throughout our lives in a way to take care of us, and everyone has a different weight that your body likes to be at and that it feels best at. A different weight that your body likes to be at and that it feels best at. This becomes when we are chronically dieting or disordered eating or manipulating that it throws that weight regulation off. Okay, slows down our metabolism and throws that weight regulation off.

Speaker 1:

So really going against this like dieting like it, logically, you know, and when you look at the facts, if you are afraid of overeating and therefore you're under eating, you're actually doing the opposite of what you want to be doing in order to speed up your metabolism a lot of the time and regulate your weight and be at the best weight for your body. But of course, it's not your fault, it's the messages we receive so under eating causes the body to enter a state of metabolic adaption. It's very smart and that's where it conserves energy by slowing down the essential functions like digestion and cellular repair, and it's going to burn less calories intentionally because it needs to spare them this, spare them Um, this sorry, again sick, getting over being sick. So this can make weight regulation very difficult. The body's going to burn fewer calories even at rest and over time, this metabolic slowdown um when normal eating resumes, it's um going to be confused and um the it's um going to be confused and um the the. The body's going to be confused. We have to re-regulate it, re? Um, work with it, make sure it's getting enough um and help it to get back to a place where it feels best. So we need to give it enough calories for a while um to get back its metabolism to the right place and to start feeling um on the same team. So we've been screwing it up with under eating for a long time. We need to give it the time it needs to get back to a good place with eating enough.

Speaker 1:

Okay, despite that scariness, I understand. That's why you should get support here from someone who can hold hope and who specializes and can can can help you get there. So you're not, you don't get a cold feet in the process, um, because we're going against a lot in our society, a lot of messages that make it scary to gain weight and eat more. Okay, other potential risks are going to be your heart health. Chronic under eating is going to weaken that heart muscle, leading to low blood pressure, irregular heart rhythms and even heart failure. Cognitive impairment prolonged calorie restriction deprives the brain of glucose, impairs focus, memory and decision-making abilities. Psychological effects persistent under eating is going to increase anxiety, depression, obsessive behaviors um, all in general and also related to food and body image.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so so many signs and symptoms. I'm sure some that you noticed in yourself today if you're struggling with under eating. These are significant. These can lead to issues down the line and right now that impact all aspects of our life, all aspects and once we start eating more and taking care of ourselves and getting enough calories and getting a variety of calories, although scary, so it's going to feel very crappy at first, it starts to make us feel better. It is the solution. Going to feel very crappy at first, it starts to make us feel better. It is the solution, is the answer. Despite the messages we get in diet culture, this is the answer.

Speaker 1:

And so, if this is, if you're listening to this and you it, you know it's ringing some bells and turning some light bulbs on for you and you're understanding, wow, I need to take care of this. Wonderful. Light bulbs on for you. And you're understanding, wow, I need to take care of this Wonderful. And then, if your next thought is how do I do that? Because this is so scary and so different, get support. Do not do this alone. I am here to support you. I have a major, no stone unturned program where you can walk through to full freedom that I can help you with. So message me. Walkthrough to full freedom that I can help you with. So message me. You can DM me on Instagram jamierd underscore or you can email me at hello at jamierdcom. You can contact me with the links in my profile. I'm happy to help you because I truly believe you can get there, but I also truly believe that most people need support because it's a very it's confusing, it's scary, it's unfamiliar, um.

Speaker 1:

So, yes, but let me tell you something you can do now to start knowing how much to eat. Okay, so if you're listening to this and you're like, okay, I know I'm under eating, I'm experiencing those things, but how the heck do I start eating more? How do I know? Cause I know you're afraid of still overeating. Right, that's not going to go away. So how do you know how much to eat? Well, first of all, that takes time and practice and getting to the root of things making sure you're eating enough and eating consistently, and building trust with all foods and trust with your body, and getting to the weight that you need to be at and allowing your body to get there. So it takes a lot. So when I give you some of these little tips on how to know how much to eat, I want you to take away that that is something that should be. You should work with someone to assess that and make sure, but you can absolutely practice that. You should absolutely start practicing that as soon as possible.

Speaker 1:

So, number one listen to your body. We have to start listening to our body and in order to start listening to our body, we do have to start eating more consistently and eating more to turn on those cues if our hunger and fullness cues are off. I believe I have a podcast episode about this as well. So, number one how to know how much to eat. We have to become more intuitive by listening to our bodies, by listening to our hunger and fullness cues. The only way you can trust those hunger and fullness cues, though, are if you have them recalibrated by consistently eating and by eating enough, and by doing that for a while, so that they're turned back on and you can listen to them, because a lot of times, people say that's not hunger. That's not hunger, when it actually is a subtle hunger cue, and people are afraid to listen to their subtle hunger cues or their hunger cues, and so they are still there, they think they're listening, but they're continuing to ignore it, and also, people are really afraid of fullness cues, so they don't allow themselves to eat enough either. So this is a complicated thing that I would like to help you with. If you would like help, so listen to your body to help you with. If you would like help, so listen to your body, acknowledge it, acknowledge the energy levels that you need, based on your activity as well.

Speaker 1:

And number three is building that body trust. I have a whole episode on that, but that is where that's key. We can't we can't listen to our hunger and fullness cues if we still have major distrust in our body. Right, because we're going to be questioning it. We're not going to be listening to it. It's going to be very, very hard to practice body respect when we don't have trust in our body. So we need to build that.

Speaker 1:

And a lot of things that can get in the way of body trust is our body image, some root beliefs, some safety things here, some mental health stuff, our behaviors around food. So there's so much that we need to do to build body trust and build food trust that I absolutely am here for to help you. So, yeah, that how to know how much to eat, that listening to your body part that is going to be very complicated and I would say you should absolutely try, but I would like to check you and support you on that to make sure you're actually building body trust, because body trust is a beautiful thing to have and I want you to have the actual body trust rather than, you know, maybe a diet culture version or, still like was I, recovery version of body trust. Um, because when you have full body trust, you can truly let go of all these things and live free of those thoughts and um beliefs with food and body image that are so stressful. Okay, so I'm going to stop there.

Speaker 1:

Um, I want you to just practice shifting this narrative a bit, with this episode, which is recognizing the importance of eating enough, bit with this episode, which is recognizing the importance of eating enough. Sitting with this episode and thinking about how do I experience this, what do I think about this and how can I start practicing eating more and making sure I am not under eating, and reach out support, reach out for support. Some closing thoughts I want you to, um, yeah, help this up and take this episode to help you to raise awareness. I want you to start paying attention to the signs that your body is giving you. Um, I want to emphasize that food is something to not be feared but to enjoy and to understand, that is helping your whole body thrive, and that eating enough is a beautiful, beautiful thing that adds to your life.

Speaker 1:

Okay, and last closing thought is that I want to invite you to apply to work with me in True Food and Body Image Freedom so that you can gain that relationship with food and body image where you do not need to listen to podcasts like this. You can listen to other podcasts of interest because you do not have to worry about food and body image and you're at full recovery, which you deserve. Like I said, I believe you absolutely can get there because, although you might not trust food and you might not trust your body, I trust your body 110% is I. As long as you go through the necessary process to get to that and you don't give up and you get the right support and you get uncomfortable and you do the work, I believe, I believe you can get there. Okay, so link in profile, um, or link in show notes to that program if you'd like to apply.

Speaker 1:

It also links a few. I also will also go check out those other episodes that I mentioned as well. I would encourage you to do that. So, without further ado, I hope this was helpful for you and I will see you next time and keep empowering yourself to learn more, to build more awareness with that mindful self-compassion, and be careful of that shame that pops in. We're all on a journey. You got this. I'm excited for you and I'm glad you're here wanting something better for yourself. I will see you next time on Bison Body Love.