The Athlete's Kitchen ~ Copyright: Nancy Clark, MS, RD 2/00
"My body must have a metabolic defect-I'm always hungry."
"I don't know if I need to see a nutritionist or a psychologist. I often devour a box of crackers in the blink of an eye. I feel like I'm binge-eating...and that scares me."
"I try not to keep cookies in the house, because when they're there, I eat them--too many of them."
For many active people, food is a feared enemy. Runners, skaters, and rowers alike try to stay away from it. They endure hunger all day. When they do succomb to food, their eating tends to be a fast and furious frenzy that's seemingly out-of-control. Some of these clients have a full-blown eating disorder, but the majority are simply hungry. Too hungry.
Being hungry all the time is not a personality quirk. Rather, hunger is the body's request for fuel. Hunger is a very powerful physiological force that creates a strong desire to eat. Unfortuantely, in our thin-is-in society, many active people fail to honor this simple request because they fear food as being fattening. The thought of eating elicits a sense of panic: "Oh no, if I eat, I'll get fat."
Not the case. Most athletes eat without getting fat! Food, after all, is fuel. But problems do arise when food is denied and deprived (as happens with a strict reducing diet), when hunger becomes the norm. The result is an abnormal physiological state that is known as starvation.
Starvation has been inflicted upon many people, including third world natives suffering from famines, poverty-stricken people at the end of the month when no food money is left, and victims of the World War II concentration camps. Starvation is also common among athletes who are intent on losing weight. These include wrestlers, light-weight rowers, jockeys and others who participate in sports with weight limits, as well as the athletes who simply believe thinner is better and diet themselves to (supposed) perfection.
The question arises: What's the cost of starvation?
What happens to the body and the mind when food is restricted and body weight is abnormally low? In 1950, Ancel Keys and his colleagues at the University of Minnesota studied the physiology of starvation. They carefully monitored 36 young, healthy, psychologically normal men who for 6 months were allowed to eat only half their normal intake (similar to a strict reducing diet or anorectic eating). For 3 months prior to this semi-starvation diet, the researchers carefully studied each man's behaviors, personality, and eating patterns. The men were then observed for three to nine months of refeeding.
As their body weight fell to 25% below baseline, the researchers learned that many of the symptoms that might have been thought to be specific to anorexia or bulimia were actually the result of starvation. The most striking change was a dramatic increase with food preoccupation.
The subjects, similar to people with anorexia, thought about food all the time. They talked about it, read about it, dreamed about it, and even collected recipes. They dramatically increased their consumption of coffee and tea, and chewed gum excessively. They became depressed, had severe mood swings, experienced irritability, anger and anxiety. They became withdrawn, had little sexual interest, and lost their sense of humor. They had cold hands and feet, felt weak and dizzy, and their hair fell out. Their basal metabolic rate (the amount of food needed to exist) dropped by 40% as the body adapted to conserve energy. (Do these changes sound familiar to anyone you know?)
During the study, some of the men were unable to maintain control over food; they would binge eat if the opportunity presented itself. During the refeeding period, many of the men ate continuously--big meals followed by snacking. Several ate until they were uncomfortably full, became nauseous, and then vomited. These abnormal eating behaviors lasted for about 5 months; by 8 months, most of them regained their standard eating behaviors. On average, they initially regained 10% more than their original weight, but then gradually lost that excess and returned close to their baseline weight.
So what can we learn from this starvation study?
1. Preoccupation with food is a sign your body is too hungry. Hunger creates a very strong physiological drive to eat.
2. Binge eating stems from starvation. If you worry about being unable to stop eating once you start, you have likely gotten too hungry.
3. Weight is more than a matter of will power. That is, if you lose weight, your body will fight to return to a genetically normal level.
4. Dieters who restrict to the point of semi-starvation are likely to regain the weight they lost--plus more. Hence, if you want to permanently lose weight, you simply need to push yourself away from the dinner table when you are content but not stuffed, when you can say to yourself, "I've had enough to eat. I could have more but I'd rather not because I'd rather be a little leaner."
You might find it helpful to know how many calories you are supposed to eat to maintain or to lose weight. To do this, simply--
· Take your weight and multiply it by 10. This gives your resting metabolic rate (RMR, the amount of energy you need to simply exist, pump blood, breathe, etc.). If you weigh 140 pounds, your RMR is about 1,400 calories--the amount you'd burn if you were to run for 14 miles!
· Add to your RMR about half that number for activities of daily living. For example, if you weigh 140 lbs. and are moderately active (without your purposeful exercise) you need about 700 calories to come and go.
· Next, add calories for purposeful exercise. For example, a 140 pound person would need about 1,400 calories (RMR) + 700 (daily activity) + 300 (for 30 minutes of aerobic activity) = 2,400 calories to maintain weight. To lose weight, deduct 20%--to about 1,900. This translates into 600 calories for breakfast/snack, 700 for lunch/snack, and 600 for dinner/snack--and that's the reducing diet!
The next time you get into an eating frenzy and wonder if you are borderline bulimic, calculate your day's intake. You'll likely see a huge discrepancy between what you have eaten and what your body deserves. Recognize hunger's power--and stop getting too hungry!
Nancy Clark, MS, RD is nutrition counselor at Boston-area's SportsMedicine Brookline and author of Nancy Clark's Sports Nutrition Guidebook, 2nd Edition. To order this best-selling book, send $20 to Sports Nutrition Materials, 830 Boylston, St #205, Brookline MA 02467 or visit
Sports Nutritionist & Author - About Nancy.
