Research
Hormonal
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.
While short-term low energy availability clearly disrupts hormones, we lack long-term prospective data to definitively predict the chronic health outcomes of sustained LEA in humans.
ModerateQualifiesMEDIUM confidence
the body of evidence determining causal effects of LEA on endocrine, and physiological function through prospective studies is comparatively small, with interventions typically lasting ≤ 5 days.
Why this rating
Highlights the limitation of existing prospective data.
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
- 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.Good
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