Overtraining + Thyroid Health
If you know me: I love to exercise! My body has to be moving ALL THE TIME!
I started going to the gym when I moved to the U.S. in 2001 as I was going through a lot of stress moving from another country and going to college. I found exercise a great way to relieve my anxiety. At the time, I was into Step Aerobics and Spinning. I will go to classes once or twice a week. In 2004-2005 I discovered Latin Cardio and my world changed forever when the coordinator of Gold’s Gym in Orlando asked me to take the Zumba® Training so I can teach! I became an instructor in 2006 and only taught 2-3 classes a week. I loved teaching so much that I became a full-time fitness instructor and at one point I was teaching 15-18 classes a week plus traveling as a Choreographer. We are talking about 30+ hrs EXERCISING A WEEK for 10 years!
STOP BEFORE YOU JUDGE 😂! The problem wasn’t the 30+ hrs working out, the problem starts with the lack of information and knowledge in regards to RED-s (Relative Energy Deficiency due to sport)…will explain later!
Some of you might say: “Meli you are crazy” or most of the time I hear “Meli is a beast!”. Honestly, I thought I was killing it. I felt healthy except for the typical back pain here and there and some soreness but nothing that a great massage couldn’t solve. I will take care of my body with clean eating, massages, myofascial release, etc. But in reality, physiologically speaking: I was stressing my body to the MAX without even noticing.
The number of nutrients I was giving to my body to sustain my level of activity wasn’t enough! Exercise is healthy but, too much of it raises cortisol levels, and without knowledge of how to lower them, it could lead to a cascade of serious issues. Overtraining can hit the body psychologically too and one can experience more anxiety than usual… the list goes on!
There is a term I want you to be familiar with: Energy Deficiency and it is when the amount of food given to the body doesn’t meet demand. YUP! And guess what? the MAJORITY of active women I know are in this category more so if you work out A TON! And yes, if you were in those Dance Choreo Workshops that I taught, we burned around 1,200 Kcals in each one! There will be days that I will burn 5,000 Kcals and only eat less than 1,500 Kcals because “I didn’t feel hungry” or I was on a weight loss mentality. I can explain at another time.
Stressing the body at those levels also has a huge impact on the Endocrine System. A few years ago I started to explore a new arena in my world: my thyroid hormones and what was happening in my body. I am still not too sure if it was me being in energy deficiency for so long or a virus (EBV) or genetics or the combination of all but, I found that my TPOs were high. These hormones are not something that doctors check if your main 3 thyroid hormones are “normal”.
For a long time, I knew something was off. I kept putting pressure on my doctors to explain many symptoms I was experiencing and it wasn’t until I got my Post-Graduate in Performance Nutrition, I was able to connect so many dots that until this day no one was able to explain to me.
I’m sharing all this because I care about you and for everyone active to open their eyes and understand that we need to take care of ourselves more than ever, even if you are still feeling healthy or are “killing it!”. KNOWLEDGE IS POWER.
So I’m here, motivated to help younger women to avoid the many mistakes I did. I am here to help older women to cope with the symptoms of their overtraining. And lastly, I am here to help you understand your body a little more by giving you information that for so long I had to dig deep down, read research papers, and study so much to find answers. I hope I can help you in many ways!
In conclusion:
If you are a woman experiencing “weird symptoms” (weight gain, hair loss, fatigue, anxiety) and all is well, ask to check your 9 Thyroid Hormones which includes your TPOS to make sure nothing is going wacko there. More so: if you work out a ton!
If you work out A TON: STOP! and re-assess your workouts. Focus on Strength Training mostly if you are over 30yrs old. Endurance training won’t do anything to you for metabolism purposes.
If you are an active individual make sure that you are in ENERGY BALANCE so your body can recover properly and not run out of fumes affecting other organ systems in your body.
If you have younger females around you (daughters) teach them the importance of eating and not starving or dieting. We need to start here to stop all the disordered eating we see in young ones.
Take care of yourself! It doesn’t matter if you think you are healthy, reassess your habits and continue learning.
