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to undereat

to undereat

1 5.6
Eat less food than your body needs
  • verb
  • /ˌʌndərˈiːt/
translation icon : comer poco
  • Cutting calories, which involves calorie counting, portion control, and all those obsessive habits, does lead to weight loss, but it also causes hunger due to the person undereating.

Examples

  • I recently was on the gaps protocol and was doing well, and then had a couple of days where I undereat, and wham!

    Blog text (32)
  • Hello, I just realized I may have been majorly undereating, so I'm asking for your advice.

    Blog text (30)
  • I weighed myself today, and it seemed like I gained a lb. I was wondering, am I undereating, overeating, or what?

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  • In saying this, where you perceive there is restriction within reason, I would try not to restrict or undereat (although don't reach for the HFCS, lol).

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  • Many athletes undereat during training, which can lead to fatigue and poor performance.

  • If you frequently undereat, you may struggle with low energy levels and overall health.

  • Doctors warn that undereating can result in serious health issues, including nutrient deficiencies.

Synonyms

to eat like a bird
vsto undereat
  • Informal
1 6.0

To eat only a very small amount of food

focuses on too little food for maintaining health or energy
to underconsume
vsto undereat
6.7

Eat or drink less than your body needs

applies specifically to too little food that harms health or energy

How Much

to binge
12 4.5
to overeat
14 3.1
to eat
1.0
to undereat
1 5.6
to fast
58 4.6

Surface Forms

undereat infinitive
undereat past
undereating present participle
undereats third person singular
undereaten past participle

Morphology

undereat = eat (transparent) = under + eat

Formed by the productive prefix 'under-' meaning 'insufficiently' plus the verb 'eat'; the meaning 'eat too little' is directly inferable.

Etymology

Undereat is made from under- and eat, where under- means 'not enough' and eat means 'to eat food'. So, to undereat is to eat less than you need for good health or energy.