Dangers of combining hard training and hard dieting

My wife recently restarted her fitness journey and after going hard for a week she was grounded by illness over the weekend. What happened? It was a typical case of hard training combined with hard dieting that led to suppressed immunity. I've been a victim myself chasing ridiculous targets like losing a kilogram a day 😣. Extreme I know, but like many of you I wanted results quickly and like my wife, I soon learnt a humbling lesson and that is; progress should be gradual.

What happens when you overdo it?

• Suppressed immunity

Hard dieting (under-eating) and hard training (over-training) will keep you in bed beyond 8 hours and if you're not careful, land you in the hospital.  Dieting and training are both stress factors that elevate the stress hormone cortisol. Cortisol if chronically elevated will torpedo your immune system and for gym goers the problem usually starts out as a mild flu before progressing into a nasty one. Watch out for that and adapt accordingly.

• Loose skin

Extreme dieting and/or training which results in rapid weight loss will leave you with excess skin and staggering stretch marks. The reason for excess skin is that you haven't given your body a chance to adapt to the changes and because of that you'll likely be left with a cosmetic problem that more often than not can only be resolved with surgery. With regards to stretch marks these are a likely occurrence for anyone that experiences fluctuations in body weight but if you push the weight loss agenda too far too soon you'll end up with very dramatic and unsexy consequences.

• Sleep disorder

Hunger pangs will disrupt your sleep. Inappropriate food balancing (low carb or no carbs) and food quantity will send your body into a state of panic (starvation mode) and disrupt regular hormonal functioning. You can lower your food consumption and lose weight without being overzealous. Hard dieting is a recipe for insomnia.

• Eating disorder

Overly ambitious body goals damage your relationship with food. Suddenly the foods that once brought you joy are the devil trying to sabotage you. You can eat most things every so often as long as you do so in moderation.
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How should you approach things?
Eat sufficiently to support your training OR train at an appropriate intensity that doesn't exceed your decreased nutrition, but gently helps your weight loss efforts. It's a balancing act that you must get right. Avoid combining hard training with hard dieting. You can go hard in one but keep it moderate with the other.

​You just can't "train like a horse and eat like a bird". You're asking for problems.