Research
Hormonal
Low energy availability (LEA), defined as ≤30 kcal/kg LBM/day, acts as a potent disruptor of the endocrine milieu, triggering acute hormonal, metabolic, and physiological dysregulations in both females and males.
To maintain hormonal health, ensure your daily energy intake minus exercise expenditure, divided by your lean body mass, stays above 30 kcal/kg. This is critical for both men and women exercising regularly.
GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Insufficient EA due to increased exercise, reduced energy intake, or a combination of both, is a potent disruptor of the endocrine milieu.
Why this rating
Based on prospective experimental studies, though limited in duration.
Source
Low energy availability: history, definition and evidence of its endocrine, metabolic and physiological effects in prospective studies in females and males
José L. Areta et al. · European Journal of Applied Physiology · 2020
DOI 10.1007/s00421-020-04516-0
narrative_reviewCited 183×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- The algebraic definition of Energy Availability (EA) has evolved to improve accuracy, with the current standard calculating EA relative to Lean Body Mass (LBM) rather than Total Body Mass (BM), subtracting non-exercise energy expenditure from gross exercise expenditure.Strong
- Short-term manipulation of energy availability (≤5 days) triggers acute endocrine and metabolic dysregulations, but the long-term physiological effects of chronic LEA remain causally unproven due to a lack of long-duration prospective studies.Moderate
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