Introduction

Under-eating and extreme dieting have been normalized in today’s society. We often see people praising it as a sign of great self-discipline and health. However, this is just a glorified issue that is detrimental to your health.

Being under your caloric maintenance for a long period of time will cause various health issues and disrupt your hormonal health as well. Your body does not have enough calories or energy to support your basic bodily functions. This can affect people of all ages, sizes, and genders, even if they look inherently “healthy.” If they are undereating, they aren’t at a stable state.

Hormonal Disruptions and Menstrual Irregularities

No periods

One of the most common effects from chronically undereating or underfueling yourself is  Hypothalamic Amenorrhea (HA). This is a condition where your reproductive organs, the ovaries, stop ovulating because there is not enough energy to support their needs. Therefore, it resorts to shutting this organ down to conserve energy for your “more” essential organs, like your urinary system/ digestive system. This also indicates that your hormones are imbalanced and out of whack.

Impact on Reproductive Hormones

Your key reproductive hormones, such as estrogen, luteinizing hormone (LH), and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) will dip tremendously. These hormones don’t just affect your period; they affect your entire body. Estrogen controls your cardiovascular health and mental health. Additionally, having low LH and FSH will pause ovulation, making you infertile. Even if you don’t want any kids, having no period is a sign your body is not functioning correctly, affecting your hormonal health.

Bone Health Complications

Reduced Bone Density

When you undereat, your bone health also deteriorates. Estrogen decreases while your cortisol, stress hormones, increases. One of the roles of estrogen is maintaining bone strength, so when it is low due to energy deficiency, bone formation slows down. Cortisol also speeds the process of bone degradation. These two factors, acting together, will reduce bone mineral density, making you more prone to injuring or fracturing your bones. This can lead to osteopenia (low bone mass) or osteoporosis (brittle bones).

Metabolic and Thyroid Effects

Lowered Metabolic Rate

When you are undereating, your thyroid hormones will be affected, especially triiodothyronine (T3) and thyroxine (T4).  These hormones control your metabolic health. In order to conserve energy, your body lowers T3 and T4 levels, causing fatigue, cold intolerance, sluggishness, and difficulty concentrating. Your metabolism slows down to conserve your energy.

Impaired Growth and Development

This mainly applies to adolescents, teens, and younger ages. During your growing age, you need fuel and energy to develop. Undereating will disrupt growth hormone levels while suppressing your hormones. This will stunt growth, delay puberty, and delayed development of secondary sex characteristics. This will prevent the individul to grow into their full height potential and properly developing. 

Mental and Emotional Impact

Mood Changes

Undereating will affect neurotransmitters in your brain, such as serotonin and dopamine, causing higher levels of anxiety, depression, mood swings, and brain fog.

Food Preoccupation

When you are not fueling yourself enough, your body will constantly send hunger cues as a natural survival response. This will cause obsessive thoughts about food, eating, and body image, which will be mentally draining on the individual. This will consequently create an unhealthy mentality associated with body image and food, something that is supposed to be an enjoyment in life.

Other Physical Health Consequences

Immune Suppression

Eating less will make your immune system weak, causing your body to become weak and less tolerant to viruses or other illnesses. You might experience tiredness all of the time as well as coldness. 

Digestive Issues

Since your digestive system is not being put to work as often, it is slowed down. This results to constipation, bloating, and abdominal discomfort. The reason for this is because lowers gut motility means a decrease in the production of digestive enzymes.

Hair, Skin, and Nail Changes

You are not receiving all of the nutrients and vitamins you need if you are undereating. This will cause fair loss, dry flaky skin, and thin brittle nails. There isn’t enough energy to fuel and properly build these body parts, weakening them.

Long-Term Health Risks

Cardiovascular Complications

• Low blood pressure 
• Abnormal heart rhythms (arrhythmias)
• Dizziness
• Fainting
• Weaken the heart muscle

Conclusion

Summary of Key Takeaways

The dangers of undereating should not be glamorized by societal beauty standards. They are detrimental to human health and paints a terrible image of what is “healthy”. Not eating enough food means you have an energy deficiency, which could be life-threatening. Undereating causes imbalanced hormones and period loss to weakened bones, slowed metabolism, mental health struggles, and cardiovascular risks.

It is so important to nourish your body and to block out the negative and normalized harmful dieting culture in today’s society. Your health is so much more important than how much you eat or what your weight says. Do not link your self-worth to some numbers and embrace who YOU are naturally, without trying to mold yourself to someone you’re not. Prioritize your health, not a dangerous lifestyle.

Resources

• Cleveland Clinic: Hypothalamic Amenorrhea – Causes, Symptoms & Treatment
  
• ACUTE Center for Eating Disorders
  
• Lara Briden: Are You Eating Enough to Get a Period?
  
• PMC: Hypothalamic Amenorrhea and Long-Term Health Consequences
  
• Verywell Mind: Eating Disorders and Hypothalamic Amenorrhea
  
• Equip Health: Amenorrhea and Eating Disorders