"I'm barely eating."
Severe undereating causes cortisol release, as it's the definition of a bodily emergency. Beachbody® offers many kick-start (or express) eating plans where you undereat for a few days, but you're always encouraged to get back to a solid maintenance calorie level quickly. A short period of strategic undereating with proper hydration will help your body dispense of unneeded food (most of us chronically overeat) and regulate bodily functions. Go too long, however, and chronic cortisol release is the result.
This is a tough situation because our natural reaction to weight gain is to eat less. When you're exercising, it's important to keep your eye on workout performance, as opposed to how much weight you're losing. You should be eating enough so that your daily workouts improve over time. As long as that's happening, your body is adapting, your metabolism is increasing, and you will lose weight provided you also don't overeat.
You don't want your body to go into "starvation" mode. This is a process where your body will store food regardless of the activity you are doing in order to survive. Eating 3 meals and 2 snacks a day will continually keep your body fueled and maintain a healthy metabolism. Nutrient dense foods verses nutrient deficient foods are key. I will cover these foods types later in another blog.
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