I under-fuelled for years - my gut (and overall health) paid the price

I don't often share my own health journey but this particular topic is sensitive to me and something I see often in my clinic. With persistent media messaging pushing athletes to pursue leanness as well as obsess over 'clean eating' - it is also something I am becoming increasingly worried about. I hope this story helps others who may be experiencing something similar.

As a teen, like many young women and men - I struggled with my appearance for a period of time. I was playing a lot of sport - skating, soccer, social sport - training 9+ hours a week. I began restricting my food intake. At first it was quite dramatic resulting in some doctors visits. Eventually, I was eating enough to not have a diagnosed disorder or flagged concern but still chornically underfuelling based on my needs and experiencing ongoing symptoms of this that were flying under the radar.

This low grade chronic underfuelling went on for years. Thankfully, I did not end up in a RED-s situation where I needed medical intervention and a removal from my sport (which happens by the way), however, I was experiencing a range of symptoms that in hindsight would have likely been flagged as Low Energy Availability including: mental health (anxiety/depression), recurrent infections, hormone issues, slow injury healing, thyroid issues and persistent gut issues. It goes without saying that my performance was also paying a price and not where it could have been.

For the purpose of this blog - I want to focus on the underfuelling and the gut. I will say though - underfuelling can impact your health systemically in a big big way.

I had significant gut issues throughout my teens/university/early adult years. Doctors chalked it up to - chronic IBS (constipation at first and then mixed). I suffered from abdominal pain that, at times, had me buckled over, terrible mobility patterns, chronic bloating. Doctors sent me for colonscopies, which came back clear; stool tests that came back clear; and blood tests. I saw holistic doctors that had me do restrictive diets and 'cleanses' - occasionally some things helped temporarily as the downstream effects of underfuelling can be food sensitivities and micriobiome imbalances. These diets were not ideal for me as they often contributed to further underfuelling by way of restriction and an overemphasis on 'clean foods'. Eventually, symptoms came back because the upstream issue was not being addressed - underfuelling.

It was not until I started to make the connection with my fuelling needs that things started to turn a corner. As I started to eat more and meet my needs, everything improved and my gut symptoms eventually disappeared - regular motility patterns, no more bloating, no more pain.

Yes - there can be a range of things that impact our gut health it's true and it is important to look at what's going on comprehensively. For all you athletes out there however, I would definitely do a fuel check - MANY MANY people are not getting enough - whether it is by accident or by chronically keeping themselves in a small deficit. Obsession over eating clean can often lead to underfuelling by accident - not to mention, is not great for mental health - nor is it even evidence based.

I often say, that when it comes to nutrition, the two most common patterns I see are the following:

Undernourished and underfed

Undernourished and overfed

In both contexts - many people are not eating of enough of what they need. They either also completely miss the energy needs or overcompensate, often in survival mode, and get more calories out of low nutrient/low volume foods - likely still resulting in fatigue and just not feeling great. We need to focus on nourishing ourselves well in a non-obsessive balanced way. This is hard sometimes - but worth the pursuit if you are strugglign with health stuff and nutrition is a contributro.

If your symptoms are getting in the way of life and what matters, I strongly recommend you chat with someone who is qualified about it. If you have diagnosed disordered eating, it is important to work with a registered practitioner where this is in their scope - e.g. sports dietician/psychologist (Working with diagnosed eating disorders is out of my scope of practice). If you are training a lot - I would highly recommend you consult with a registered sports nutritionist or dietician. Here is a directory of registered sports nutritionists to start:

https://www.sportsnutritionistregistry.com