One of the things I often talk to women about is why chronically undereating and dieting isn’t such a good idea even if they want to lose weight. Women frequently complain about being tired, exhausted, diagnosed chronic fatigued, adrenally fatigued, whatever. Just tired.  How are we as women supposed to thrive when we don’t get enough energy and nutrition from good quality food? How do we have enough energy to exercise, to think clearly, to look after kids, to lead the modern busy lives most women live, without sufficient fuel in the tank? 

Then as women we tend to think we probably do get enough calories because of the guilty but often uncontrollable binge eating in the mid afternoon or after dinner. This binge eating is directly related to calorie restriction, undereating and skipping meals earlier in the day. It’s the flip side of the coin, and the best way to handle it is to eat proper meals. Especially a protein and quality-carb filled breakfast (not sugary cereal based), because it helps fuel our day, prevents bingeing, and helps us feel grounded and stable. 

Women are often surprised when I point out that our cortisol is highest in the morning. It’s what wakes us up from sleep. If we don’t eat, or worse, just have a coffee, we can get through for a while. But where does the energy come from? High cortisol- a stress hormone. We need cortisol- but having a huge cortisol spike in the morning will often lead to a crash later in the day. And running on stress hormones instead of fuel from food, is not good for long term health. 

Due to that higher cortisol, we can get moving in the morning- and being the morning, our willpower is also strongest so we can ignore hunger signals as well. Our willpower is usually not so strong enough later in the day, but also bingeing is the body taking over and saying enough, we need to eat. 

Guess what chronically high cortisol also leads to? Weight gain, especially around the middle. 

What helps to calm cortisol in the morning? Food. Healthy carbs. Protein. Then we have steady blood sugar all day, as long as we eat a proper lunch and dinner, perhaps even a quality snack or two. 

What has been shown to help most women is to eat within an hour of getting up in the morning. Preferably within half an hour. It doesn’t have to be a lot. If you exercise in the morning, then eat something beforehand, even an apple or a date is better than nothing- it calms down that cortisol. Most women find they do not fast as well as men, and it does not work for our physiology. It doesn’t help you lose weight to exercise fasted, it doesn’t work that way. You will get fitter more easily with some energy in your system. It will help your metabolism speed up. If you don’t feel like eating first thing in the morning, you can actually train yourself to, by starting to eat again in the morning. Your body will wake up and start being hungry again.

It’s also relevant for people who are anxious, stressed, volatile, or any mental health issues. Keep the brain well fuelled. Don’t let your blood sugar drop. Have your breakfast, lunch, dinner and a couple of small healthy snacks ready. Balanced blood sugar and a well fuelled body is conducive to mental and emotional balance. 

So when I say well fuelled, what am I referring to? A whole-food diet with carbs from fruit and vegetables, whole grains and legumes. Protein from dairy (if tolerated), meat, seafood, soy, some protein powder or collagen if required to top up. Vegetarian and vegans can get plenty of protein if they focus on it. The protein helps maintain and build muscle, and is also satiating. But if you have a particular and different way of eating that’s working for you….thats ok too.

Once we are eating in a stable fashion, at a maintenance level, enough to fuel ourselves, not trying to lose weight but feeling more stable emotionally, not hungry all the time, not living on stress hormones fuelled by caffeine or even overexercising, and the metabolism has warmed up….then, if weight loss is desired, a small calculated deficit can be brought in. This can be much more sustainable and effective. 

Women have different bodies to men. Most research around exercise, weight loss and nutrition has been done on obese men. There is a whole wave of new research coming through by women such as Dr Stacy Sims, who is an expert on women specific training and nutrition needs. Her tag line is women are not small men. We need the healthy carbs, and we need to eat enough, and to eat during the day, from breakfast onward, not in the evening. Fasting is best done by women between dinner (no after dinner snacking) and breakfast- a natural overnight fast, in rhythm with nature. 

So starving, tired women…I implore you to eat enough, and to fuel your day with good food, starting with breakfast….you do not need those calories, that nutrition, at the end of the day, but at the beginning.