When working with clients, most of the time I discover that in their efforts to “eat better” they’re really doing their body a disservice and underfueling. The way our energy balance works is that we take in calories from food and our bodies burn calories through activity, digestion and other body processes, and day-to-day activities. When we look at energy availability, we again are taking a look at our calorie intake, minus the energy we use during training. Whatever is left over is our ‘energy availability, and what our body has left to utilize for basic health and daily processes.

There are instances where we may be putting our bodies in a state of low energy availability and this can occur either from intentional changes to training or nutrition or it can be unintentional. Either way, the effects are the same and this can cause some major disruptions in our physiology. Our hormones, metabolism, and other systems start to make adjustments for this lack of energy. Your body may start to increase fat storage, decrease hormone production, alter metabolism, and impair energy utilization.

Note that I mentioned that your body will start to increase fat storage. Your body turns on this sort of survival mode. So you may not be underweight or even losing weight in a state of low energy availability. Now let’s think about any time you’ve tried restricting calories for weight loss… if it didn’t work, or you hit a plateau, low energy availability was likely the issue. You stayed in a deficit for too long or you put yourself in a very extreme calorie deficit that your body was not happy with.

This is why understanding how to cycle your nutrition based on your training phases is SO important. Your nutrition for off-season won’t look the same as pre-season, won’t look the same as in-season. Also depending on your goals… Are we looking to change body composition? Do you need to gain muscle mass? Are we focused on sports performance?

Do you think you may be suffering from low energy availability? Take a look at some of these symptoms:

• Fatigue
• Recurring injury
• For females, absent or irregular menstrual cycles
• Poor performance
• Irritability
• GI problems
• Recurring infection or illness
• Depression

Your food intake affects your WHOLE self as you can see by some of the symptoms listed above. Don’t let your health get away from you and make sure you’re fueling to realize your full potential!!

Comment or email me and let me know if you’ve experienced anything like this! I would love to help.