The moment I picked up a barbell in 2019, it was love at first squat. In a matter of weeks, I had become a quintessential gym rat. I bought my own extra-padded barbell pads and creatine, and signed up for my very first strength-training program.
In short, I was locked in and ready to “get jacked.” But in reality, it would take me years to see improvements in muscle tone because I didn’t realize that my nutrition was my biggest blind spot, even though I believed the opposite.
When my hair started falling out, I knew something was wrong
I didn’t eat ultra-processed foods. I ate fruits, vegetables, and healthy carbs, and made sure to have a protein shake after every workout. For years, I thought my lack of progress in the gym came down to a lack of effort. I was sure that it must be something besides my nutrition that was the problem, but by February 2022, I could no longer ignore that my hair had started to fall out.
If I had my hair in a ponytail, I started noticing that my hair had clearly thinned out, and every time I washed my hair, the drain would clog up. I had other symptoms too, like fatigue and feeling cold all the time. I knew something was wrong, and decided to take a micronutrient blood test. I ordered a test online and went into my local hospital to have my vitamin D, E, B12, magnesium, iron, copper, and selenium levels checked.
And the results? Not great. I had deficiencies in vitamin D, zinc, and copper — all micronutrients that explained my hair loss and fatigue. The doctor explained over the phone that it was most likely caused by my diet, and I needed to make changes if I didn’t want my deficiencies to get worse and lead to more serious health concerns.
I had been unintentionally under-eating
From the beginning of my strength training journey, I never gave a second thought to the amount of calories I was consuming. I thought it was something people only did to lose weight, and because that wasn’t my goal, I didn’t need to worry about it.
After getting my blood test results, I began tracking my calories on FitBit. I wanted to understand where I was going wrong with my diet. On average, I learned that I was eating between 1200 and 1400 calories per day, barely enough for someone of my height and weight who was sedentary, let alone someone lifting four times a week. According to online macro calculators, my body burns roughly 1,457 calories a day just at rest, before any exercise. Factor in my workouts, and I need around 2,000 calories a day to maintain my weight. I wasn’t eating nearly enough to build muscle or fuel my workouts, which led to nutritional deficiencies.
Using guidance from MacroFactor (which has a dynamic nutrition plan that adjusts diet recommendations to fit your metabolism), I started eating at least 2,000 calories per day and 120 grams of protein, which aligns with the recommended 1.6 to 2.2 grams per kilogram of body weight to maximize hypertrophy. And over the course of the next year, I began to notice changes. My hair was falling out less in the shower, I no longer felt cold all the time, and I gained more lean muscle mass.
I’m eating and training for longevity
Aesthetics is a lovely by-product of strength training, but it’s never been my primary goal. Going to raves at 60, climbing Kilimanjaro at 70, and staying physically active for as long as possible is what motivates me to wake up for the gym at 6 am.
To keep up with my future self, I need muscle mass. After 30, women lose as much as 8% per decade, a process that accelerates between 65 and 80 years old. Now, that might not seem like a lot, but if I already lack muscle, the gradual loss will begin to interfere with daily activities like walking, standing up, or carrying groceries.
That’s not a life I want to live. I want a body strong enough to carry me through the many, many decades of life I hopefully have on this planet. To get there, I need to invest in my health, starting with the amount of food on my plate.
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