#196: What Happens When You Don’t Eat Enough

Too many people are trying to lose weight by eating less—and it's backfiring. In this episode, we talk about why your body actually needs more fuel, not less, to function, thrive, and reach your goals. From understanding how protein, fats, and carbs work to spotting the signs of undereating (like fatigue, hair loss, and cravings), this episode clears up the confusion and gets real about what balanced eating really looks like.

Plus, learn how to shift your mindset from restriction to nourishment—because eating well isn’t about punishment, it’s about power. 

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Transcript

#196: What Happens When You Don’t Eat Enough


[00:00:00] So your body needs fuel in order to function optimally. And what I find so often is people coming and trying these different diets or different things in order to lose weight. You know, they're trying to lose weight the quickest way and they're not worried about what their body, you know, like what about if they're getting a balance of food or anything else.
They're just doing well. I've read that this works. My friend told me she did this. So I'm gonna try to do the same thing, but I want you to really start to understand that your body needs fuel. So we need protein, we need fats, and we need carbs. And if you grew up like me, we were taught to stay away from fats.
And I see so many people that are scared of carbohydrates, but please don't be scared of them. We need all of them. So you need all of them, but we need to find a balance, okay? So you need to find a balance. In, in getting that mix. The thing is, is that most people I come across, uh, are [00:01:00] undereating and we've talked about, uh, what a calorie deficit is.
And, and this coincides with that is because most people are already undereating. And they're wondering why they can't lose weight because they're already not eating enough for their body to function optimally. If you are like me, and I know most people are the same, we wanna live as long as possible.
You wanna live a good quality life. So getting the a good mixture of proteins, fats, and carbs is gonna help your body function optimally. And when you are not getting enough fuel for your body, it will start switching things off. It will start switching things off. Because it doesn't know when it's gonna get it.
Your body is designed to survive, not to staff. So it is going to do what it needs to survive, and it will shut off things that we don't need, that we don't need in order to survive. It is [00:02:00] really, really important to start to looking at food as fuel. So you know, if you. If you've got a goal that you wanna be able to run around with your kids, if you've got a goal that you wanna have glowing skin, I know people spend hundreds and hundreds and thousands of dollars on in the cosmetic industry.
Do you know what a lot of that stuff comes from within? Comes from within. So spend some time and make sure that you are, you are fueling your body correctly and, and do that first. Understand that, that there's things that you are in control of and you can get this balance of, of the food. And the food is what's gonna fuel you.
The food is gonna fuel you to walk through your day to run up those stairs or walk up those stairs to get in and out of your car, to do any exercise, to do anything. You need to get this right amount of fuel if you are under ic. So some signs that you could be under. Eating is that you are obviously lacking energy and you're tired all the time, so your body's trying to conserve your energy.[00:03:00] 
If you feel cold. So if you're always feeling really, really cold or more cold, colder than the people around you, again, that's a sign of undereating. Um, if you are, especially in younger kids, they're, um, if they're not eating enough, their growth is impaired. And, you know, just on that thinking about kids with, with what they're eating, we, we all tell our kids that the thing is you just know it all.
You do actually know it all. You're telling your kids that they've gotta eat good foods and blah, blah, but you don't do the same for yourself. You don't. I watch moms all the time. They prepare foods for their, their children for school. They prepare foods for their partners to go to work, but they don't do it for themselves.
You need to put you as number one. You know, you need to be the number one because if you are not okay, you are the powerhouse. You're the one that holds everyone together, and if you are not okay. Everything else falls apart. And I know that happens in every household. We preach to our kids about them eating and that they have to eat this and that in their lunchbox, but we don't do the same for ourselves.[00:04:00] 
Just doesn't make sense. So loss of hair is a big thing of when we're not eating it again, the body is getting rid of the things that it doesn't have to have in order to survive because you're not fueling it properly. It's going to. It's gonna start dropping off those things. Um, skin problems. So I, I really wish I understood all of this when I was a teenager.
Uh, 'cause I'd be interested to see how my diet affected my skin. I, I did have, um, I did have pimples and I was on a, um, medication to. To, you know, stop the pimples. And I just wonder how much it would've changed if I'd changed my diet. Constipation. So, because we're not getting enough fiber, you're not fueling your body correctly.
Um, you'll notice, you might notice it more constipated and depression. So again, you know that lack of energy and everything else can lead to depression. So that, that, that's all some signs of what. Uh, can be a sign of that you're undereating. So we do need a balance of the protein, fats, and carbs. So [00:05:00] they all play a vital role into how, into your energy needs and how your day runs.
So we need, we need them all, so we don't need it. And I find anything that, um, cuts out any type of food group, you know, it's, it's there for a reason. It's there for a reason. So probably the most thing I come across. Is that people are undereating and protein, majorly undereating and protein. And uh, protein is if you are somebody that wants to look leaner.
If you are somebody that is, you know, you are wanting to build your muscle mass. If you are somebody that wants to have a more. Toned. Look, you need to be eating a lot more protein than what you think you do now. Protein is what is gonna help your muscles repair. It's gonna keep you full. So protein will stop you going for those, uh, snacks and other things like that.
Um, and protein, it's gonna help your, your muscles and your body repair. And lots [00:06:00] of people I find don't eat protein until the very last meal of the day, where really you wanna be able to distribute your protein throughout the whole day. So you are getting this better balance of food. You're getting this, um, the balance you are getting, you are giving your.
Body the best opportunity to absorb every little bit of protein that you can throughout the day. Now, as a guide, I aim the more muscle you have, the more protein that you will need. I aim for about 150 grams of protein a day. Uh, so that means every meal I have some form of protein in it, and protein is generally the hero of my plate.
If we think about, um, one egg has got six grams of protein in it. So if you wanna get to 150 grams is a lot of eggs. Not that I do that if you, um, a meat eater, if you use a chicken breast, so 115 grams of chicken has about 30 grams of protein in it. So, [00:07:00] so yeah. So, so that's what I find in most people, they are under eating in protein.
When people start eating. You know, they, they, and then they're, they're going to the carbohydrates because they're, you know, and it, it all comes down to planning. It all comes down to planning and, you know, planning everything out. What I find is people, they, they either, they're either don't eat enough so they're not eating enough during the day, then they come home and you know, if, if I, and I, I know my habits and we're gonna go more into that stuff, but I know my habits with food.
Um, but if I've not eaten enough during the day, then I'm gonna come home and I'm gonna be like ravenous around dinner time. So as I'm trying to make dinner, I'm gonna be trying, I'm gonna be eating everything I can see because I'm really hungry. But if I'd fueled myself correctly throughout the day, I wouldn't be getting to that ravenous point when I'm making dinner.
And during that time that I'm trying to eat, I'm eating as I'm cooking, I'm eating whatever I'm making, I, I could eat over a thousand calories. It just, it just adds up. [00:08:00] And uh, that's where people go, but I've been doing so well. You know, and then, but you know, there's these hidden calories that we don't understand.
So that's what I find. Uh, I find people that are not prepared enough, so they're looking for this quick fix or something that they can grab on the go, which is generally a carbohydrate. And again, nothing's wrong with carbs, but you need to be using it. So we need to, you need to eat the right amount of carbs for the level of activity that you are doing, and understand that if you're not using those carbohydrates up, then if you're not using them up, then you're going to, uh, they're gonna be stored, okay?
Because, and if you haven't been fueling your body correctly for a long time, your body is gonna store everything it gets because it doesn't trust you. It doesn't trust you because you've not been looking after it. Okay, so, so then it's going to store everything it gets and, but if you start thinking about your level of activity, balancing out your [00:09:00] carbohydrates with what you're doing, you know, and understand that when we wanna go for that quick thing, which look.
I do it as well. I'm nowhere near perfect. We all do it when I wanna go for that quick fix. And for me, if I'm running short of time, it's toast. And when we wanna go for that, you, it's going to, um, if you think about it from your gut point of view, that bread is going to be really quickly turned into glucose.
And if you're not automatically using their energy, you're gonna find that you're hungry really, really quick. And then in a short space of time, you are going to be looking. For something else to eat. So that's why we wanna make sure your protein will take longer to digest. It will take, um, it'll take longer to digest.
It will, um, you know, it will help keep you full. So then you're not always gonna be looking for that quick fix. And it is a bit of an art. But what we wanna start to do is we wanna start to understand that we do need to fuel our body that [00:10:00] get out of the mindset. Of that we need to eat less in order to lose weight and start reframing your thoughts that you need to fuel your body correctly, uh, in order to lose.
Weight and become your desired size and understand that we, we just need this balance, this balance of the protein, fats, and carbs. And, um, it, it's, there's a lot more into, you know, a lot more of stuff that can, uh, we can go into on this subject. But what I want to just, um, try to keep it quite simple is, um.
We need, we need to start to be seen as food, as fuel. Okay. I really like the 80 20, uh, approach. I understand that we need food as fuel, but I also understand there's some soul foods and I think there's, we should, uh, also be having those soul foods. And I think any part of your plan, those soul foods are a really, really important factor.
I always [00:11:00] incorporate. Whatever. I'm a chocolate girl and I incorporate that stuff. It, it's important. It's important and because when you feel like you're too restrictive, you're not gonna stick to it. So my food eating, uh, works around including the foods that I really love and that's what, um, we are gonna help create for you too.
Yeah.