How Under-Eating Changes Your Personality (Low Energy Availability, LEA)

Have you ever noticed how differently you show up in life depending on how “fueled” you feel?

This is something I’m endlessly fascinated by: how dramatically the body can change and express itself based on the energetic state of the organism.

Think about everything your body does every single day without you asking it to:

• Seeing clearly.
• Thinking.
• Talking.
• Digesting food.
• Detoxing.
• Producing hormones.
• Keeping your heart beating.
• Contracting muscles.
• Regulating mood.

Thousands of processes. Constantly.

It’s honestly remarkable.

And every single one of those functions requires cellular energy: ATP.

ATP is the body’s energy currency. We get it through metabolism, which (very simply) is the process of converting the energy in food into usable energy for our cells (kind of like a currency exchange!!)

When the body has sufficient ATP, more systems can stay online.

Symptoms quiet down.

The body runs smoother.

You feel more you.

But when energy availability drops?

Everything changes, and we enter Low Energy Availability (LEA).

LEA is a physiological state where energy intake minus energy demand is insufficient to run the system properly.

When this happens, the body interprets the environment as resource-scarce and adapts accordingly:

• Metabolic rate is downregulated

• “Non-essential” processes are turned down

• Energy is conserved for survival

This is not a failure.

This is biology doing exactly what it’s designed to do. (Protect you!) 

To better understand LEA, let's look at the opposite state: Optimal Energy Availability (OEA).

OEA is the state where the body consistently has enough usable energy to fully support all biological functions and adaptive outputs, not just survival.

This is where thriving lives.

Thriving isn’t about hacks, supplements, or biohacks.

It’s the result of a well-supported metabolism and living in an OEA state, not LEA.

And one of the biggest issues I see in modern health circles is chronic undereating, driven by endless food rules and fasting protocols.

And when people chronically undereat (or live in restrict → binge → restrict cycles) they unknowingly induce a state of LEA.

This alone can explain many of the symptoms people struggle with today: 

• Digestive issues

• Fatigue

• Anxiety

• Low motivation

• Hormonal disruptions

• Stalled fat loss

We see this all the time.

And here’s the hard truth:

👉 You cannot out-supplement or out-biohack a LEA.

At some point, the body simply needs enough food to meet its demands.

(That does not mean stuffing yourself or chronically overeating. But it means eating enough for your needs.)

AND HERE IS ONE OF THE CRAZIEST PARTS...

The metabolic state of your body can even influence your personality.

Yes, your personality is not static.

It shifts with your energy availability.

Because your brain requires a massive amount of energy to function properly.

So... think of someone on your life: Are they boring Or are they just in a low-energy state?

In the most recent Rooted in Resilience Podcast episode released this week, Kathleen and I dive deep into this exact topic.

We walk through Chapters 40 & 41 of the Minnesota Starvation Experiment, one of the most revealing studies ever conducted on what happens to the human body when in a LEA state.

And one of the most shocking parts of the study is the dramatic personality changes observed in the subjects.

We break down:

• The 3 personality traits that increased most dramatically during starvation (you’ve likely felt these).

• Why chronic undereating alters mood, motivation, and behavior

• How to reverse out of a LEA state

• And how restoring energy availability can literally change how you show up in life 

🎧 Tune in on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts.

One last thing, because this always comes up when discussing a LEA state.

Yes, a calorie deficit (eating less) is required for fat loss.

But you should not live in a calorie deficit (this is what induces a LEA state, and what many modern diet camps lead to).

This is exactly why in the Transform: Metabolic Restoration & Fat Loss program, we use short, intentional fat loss phases (not prolonged calorie deficits that are commonly promoted today) to minimize metabolic downregulation and negative consequences.

I hope you love this episode as much as we loved recording it.