With all the diet and exercise trends swirling around, it's tempting to think that what works for some people showing off their "gains" on social media will work, or even be healthy for you.  It might not even be healthy for them. 

One long-standing trend is that to lose weight, especially fat associated with weight, working out more and eating less is key.  While there is logic in there, going overboard on it can create adverse effects that significantly impact your physical and mental health.  Let's explore five of those impacts. 

1. Fat Gain

For weight loss, well that just defeats the purpose, now doesn't it?  They say that there's a method to the madness but this one just seems to bring the madness. 

Working out excessively while eating very little can put the body into stress mode.  

While some stress can be good for motivation and achieving goals, continually being in a stress mode is bad.  It floods the body with a particular stress hormone called cortisol and that sends all sorts of messages to our systems that it wouldn't normally send... one of which is to hold onto its fat. 

For women especially, one of the highest stress triggers centuries ago was famines when they still had to breastfeed their babies, and the bodily response was to hold onto their fat reserves for a sustainable supply of energy.  Our bodies still do that today despite food being more readily available. 

So repeating the cycle of working out more and eating less can increase this adverse effect or our weight won't budge at all.  This also begs another question.  Where does the energy come from for workouts then, if not your fat and your diet?  Take a look at number two. 

2. Muscle breakdown

The energy for workouts comes from our diets, our energy stored in body fat... and breaking down muscle[i].

When we workout, our muscles endure some breaking down.  This is why we're often sore during the first couple of sessions getting back into an exercise regime, or when ramping things up. 

When we lose weight too, we do lose a bit of muscle mass.  This is why it is important to incorporate some strength training/weight training into our regular exercise, to build back those muscles.  Strength training has the added bonus of building strong bones and staving off bone diseases like osteoporosis.  For any workout, it is important to rest well, as that is when a lot of repair processes happen. 

No matter the exercise, if we don't replenish our protein in our diet, our muscle tissue will break down and struggle to heal.  

This goes for people not wishing to gain muscle mass and simply looking to drop weight.

It does not mean that meat is all you need to eat, or it needs to engorge the surface area of your plate every meal.  Lean meat, lentils, beans, and protein-rich grains like quinoa and millet can be incorporated into meals in quick and easy recipes.  Green leafy vegetables like kale and spinach also support muscle health.  And using good carbs that are more whole foods can provide that energy without your body looking to consume its muscle tissue to make up for the lack of fuel. 

3. Muscle, cartilage and bone disease

Food not only fuels us, it builds us.  We do not absorb nutrients from the atmosphere so it is the only way we can get the substance we need to keep going. 

The body has amazing regenerative capabilities, but when it is stressed too intensely or for too long, it often leads to disease.  

It's the old adage of "something's gotta give".  Working out has a plethora of benefits, but it can over-stress a body that is not being well taken care of. 

Even teenagers, who seem to have masterfully efficient metabolisms, especially when they play sports, may need to adjust their diets to incorporate more nutrient-dense foods because playing hard takes a toll on their muscles, joints and cartilage, even for low-impact exercises.  If they don't rely frequently on balanced meals, they can become deficient.  

Very soon and sometimes years later, muscle and joint diseases can occur, some acute like tennis elbow, and more chronic like arthritis.  While some people may have genetic predispositions to certain diseases, diet is often a primary factor in their onset and management. 

4. Poor moods and poor stress-management

Eating very little can suck the joy out of life.  And when you don't replenish what you've worked out, you can immediately get "hangry".  And it's a given... Anyone can make poor decisions when they're hungry.  Continued reliance on this method can lead to issues like eating disorders, which are far too common across all genders, ages, and classes.

Teenagers especially go through a lot of big life changes while they are still growing and developing.  Not eating balanced meals that cover the main food groups with ample volume can leave them feeling empty in more ways than one.  Stress can also affect appetite so they can flip-flop between periods of not wanting to eat to binging large volumes or yielding to cravings of calorie-loaded foods that are not the healthiest options.  This affects weight, muscle mass, and even skin conditions, and they in turn, struggle with their body image and mood regulation.  It can become a vicious cycle, impacting both physical and mental health. 

Good eating habits are better tools for stress management than relying on trends or moods to dictate our diet when they both come and go like the tides of the sea. 

Keeping good habits can create the discipline that carries over well into adult life.  This doesn't mean chaining yourself to the dinner table to finish your plate every day.  Having a few healthy favourites to swap out now and again, and learning some good food prep skills can get both your mind and body prepared to enjoy what you eat and feel a sense of accomplishment that comes from creating something you and others like. 

5. You get sick

You ever been sick at the gym?  It sucks!  Please go home.  Rest.  Recuperate.  And never do that again. 

70% of our immune system is in our digestive tract[i].

If we are not replenishing it with a proper diet, it has nothing.  Our blood that holds our body's antigens that fight off germs and diseases is also replenished by... You guessed it - food!  Feed yourself! 

During the times we are sick, we lose the motivation to do many things, and working out might be the last thing we feel like doing.  Continuing to do our regular workouts while being sick can further break down the body and ramp up our stress mode. 

So it's a good idea to resume it afterward.  This can still affect our habits and self-talk.  If we were doing something good for ourselves and still got sick, why do it anyway?  Even after we get better?  Good needs to be good for you on multiple levels.  What's good for the body should also be good for the mind, or it needs to be reconsidered. 

Summary

Here's everything wrapped up as to why the working out too much and eating very little method is a bad idea. 

1. Fat gain: This can happen because this method puts the body continually into stress mode and it tends to hold onto its fat reserves for a sustainable supply of energy. 
2. Muscle breakdown: No matter the exercise, if we don't replenish our protein in our diet, our muscle tissue will break down and struggle to heal. 
3. Muscle, cartilage and bone disease: When a body is stressed too intensely or for too long, which is what this method does to it, it often leads to disease, both acute and chronic, both very soon and sometimes years later. 
4. Poor moods and poor stress management: Good eating habits are better tools for stress management than relying on trends or moods to dictate our diet when they both come and go like the tides of the sea.  
5. You get sick: 70% of our immune system is in our digestive tract.  So eat. 

Notes

This article contains no text pictures to ensure that every word can be read aloud by a text-to-speech application. And was tested using Google Chrome’s “Read Aloud” add-on.

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Bio

Tiffany Persaud is a freelance writer who has written for clients and organizations in Canada and the USA, on topics ranging from books, films and media, to health and employment skills. She has her website (https://tiffany-persaud.writing.io/) where she publishes many pieces just like these each week.

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