- Achieving and maintaining
a healthy weight can be difficult in modern
society, where food is abundant. However, not eating enough calories can also be a major health concern. Whether it's due to
intentional food restriction for rapid weight loss or a decreased appetite or other reasons. So this video, I'm exploring five signs that you're not eating enough. Number one, low energy levels. Calories are units of energy that your body uses to function. Generally speaking, if you take in more calories than needed, you will store most of that as excess fat. If you take in fewer calories than needed, you will lose weight. Now, restricting intake to fewer than a thousand calories daily, can slow down your metabolic
rate and lead to fatigue since you're not taking in enough calories to support even the basic
functions that keep you alive. Eating too little has
particularly been linked to low energy levels in older people, whose food intake may decrease
due to reduced appetite. Other studies in female
athletes have found that fatigue may occur when
calories intake is too low to support a high level
of physical activity. This seems to be most
common in sports that emphasize thinness, like
gymnastics and figure skating. And even light physical activity like, walking or taking the stairs
may cause you to tire easily, if your calorie intake
is well below your needs. Number two, you have sleep issues. While overeating may
cause sleeping difficulty, it appears that strict dieting can cause sleeping issues as well. Animal and human research has shown that starvation lesson calorie restriction leads to sleep interruptions
in slow wave sleep, also known as, deep sleep. In one study of 381 college students, restrictive diets and
other eating problems will lead to poor sleep
quality and low mood. In another small study of 10 young women, four weeks of dieting
led to greater difficulty falling asleep and decrease in the amount spent in deep sleep. Feeling as though too
hungry to fall asleep or waking up during
the middle of the night because you're hungry, are major signs that you're not getting enough to eat. Number three, hair loss. Losing hair can be very distressing. It's normal to lose several
strands of hair per day, however, if you find
that hair is accumulating in the shower drain or in your hair brush, then it could be a sign that
you're not eating enough. Many nutrients are needed to maintain normal, healthy hair growth. Inadequate intake of calories, protein, biotin, iron and other nutrients is a common cause of hair loss. Basically, when you don't
take in enough calories and key nutrients, your body will prioritize the health of your heart, brain and other organs over hair growth, so keep that in mind. Number four, irritability. If little things have begun to set you off, that never used to before. One of the reasons could
be not eating enough. Irritability was one of several issues experienced by young men who underwent calorie restriction as part
of the Minnesota starvation experiment during World War Two. These men developed
moodiness and other symptoms while consuming an average
of 1,800 calories per day, which was classified as semi-starvation for their own calories needs, your needs maybe lower of course. A more recent study of 413
college and high school students also found that
irritability was associated with dieting and
restrictive eating patterns. To keep your mood on an even cue, don't let your calories drop too low. Number five, feeling cold all the time. If you constantly feel
cold and you never used to, then not eating enough
food could be the cause. Your body needs to burn a
certain number of calories in order to create heat
and maintain a healthy, comfortable body temperature. In fact, even mild calorie restriction has been shown to lower
core body temperature. In a control study of
72 middle age adults, those who consumed an average
of 1,700 calories daily, had significantly long body temperatures than the groups who consumed
2,300 to 2,900 calories regardless of physical actvity. In a separate analysis of the same study, the calorie restriction group experienced a decrease in T(3) thyroid hormone levels, whereas other groups did not. Now, T(3)s are hormones that helps maintain body temperature
among other functions. So it really seems like the more severely you slash calories,
the cold you're likely to feel. As you can see, it's not just overeating that can be problematic for
developing health problems. This is especially true
when we look at severe or chronic calorie restriction. Instead, if you're trying
to lose weight quickly but sustainably, make sure that you do eat at least 1,200 calories per day. Thanks for watching, make
sure to give this video a thumbs up, if you found it informative and don't forget to subscribe to the Authority Nutrition Youtube Channel by clicking at the red subscribe
button below this video. (uplifting music)
