How to Spot Burnout vs. Starvation

Imagine you’re driving a high-performance car. One road says “Floor it all the time” (overtraining). The other says “Drift without refueling” (undereating). Either way—you end up stalled on the shoulder, engine smoking. In fitness, these are twin threats: training too hard without rest, or eating too little for the workload you’re asking of your body. Both lead to the same terminal condition: diminished performance, worn-out physiology, and a silhouette of what your progress once was.

“Overtraining and under-fueling are often twin saboteurs masquerading as discipline.” — Journal of Sports Medicine & Physical Fitness, 2025

Both require attention. Why? Because pushing more doesn’t always produce more—not once your body is screaming for recovery, nutrition, and balance.

Overtraining: When Volume Eats Your Vitality

What it is

Overtraining Syndrome (OTS) describes a state where training stress chronically exceeds recovery capacity—resulting in deteriorated performance and systemic fatigue.

Major red-flags

• Elevated resting heart rate or blood pressure — your system can’t calm down at night.

• Persistent heavy legs, frequent illness, slowed recovery. 

• Mood swings, irritability, loss of appetite and unintended weight loss. 

Stat Call-out: One review reported 18-32% lower testosterone or IGF-1 levels in athletes with OTS.

How it happens

When training remains high but recovery and nutrition are low, cytokine activity, cortisol and sympathetic overdrive accelerate. Nutrition acts as a linchpin: even OTS research notes that appetite suppression and energy deficits worsen outcomes. In short: excess volume + insufficient recovery/nutrition = meltdown.

Undereating: The Silent Saboteur

What it is

Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S) describes systemic dysfunction when energy intake fails to match demand. It’s more than “eating a little less”—it’s the body depriving itself of the fuel needed to support training, hormone function, immunity and repair.

Key warning signs

• Disrupted menstrual cycle or libido drop — clear endocrine red-flags.

• Loss of muscle, bone density dropping, frequent injuries, immune crash.

• Flat mood, digestive issues, low appetite despite high activity load.

Stat Call-out: Up to 47% of collegiate athletes screened were at risk for low energy availability—and 22% of them had both LEA & eating disorder risk.

Why it matters

When you undereat, your bodily systems go into conservation mode—repair takes second place, hormones drop, performance decreases. And ironically, you may still feel like you’re making progress because you see numbers drop, even as your resilience collapses.

Recognizing the Overlap: Overtraining or Undereating?

Here’s the brutal truth: these two conditions overlap more than they diverge. Research indicates many athletes with OTS are undereating—meaning you might be chasing “too much training” when the real culprit is “too little fuel.”

Symptom	Overtraining Alone	Undereating/RED-S Alone
Elevated resting HR	Strongly present	Possible when compensatory stress rises
Appetite loss	Yes — from dysregulation	Yes — from restrictive intake
Performance drop	Yes	Yes, but slower to show
Hormone dysfunction	Possible	Very likely
Nutrition deficiency	Risk factor	Central issue

“The body doesn’t care whether you’re crashing from too much work or too little fuel—it just shuts down the engine.”

Diagnostic Checklist: Is It Happening to You?

Step 1 – Track your physiological data

Keep tabs on resting heart rate, HRV, mood, sleep and appetite. Persistent deviation for 7-14 days? That’s a flashing amber light.

Step 2 – Match training load to nutrition

If your training volume jumped 20% and you didn’t increase calories 10-15%, you’ve built a debt. The acute: chronic workload ratio may help identify risk (though it's imperfect).

Step 3 – Check for threshold symptoms

• You’re training but feel weaker

• Appetite or mood is off

• Sleep is heavy but non-restful

• Injuries or illness creeping in

• Performance markedly down despite rest

All of those are warnings. Don’t wait for a blow-out.

Recovery Strategies: How to Reboot the Engine

Fuel the system

Prioritize high-quality carbs, lean protein and healthy fats. Correcting energy deficits is the key step in RED-S and OTS alike. Ensure you hit at least 45-60 kcal/kg/day (or higher depending on volume) until symptoms improve.

Pull back workload

Cut training volume/intensity by 40-60% for 1-3 weeks. Shift focus to mobility, active recovery, low-intensity movement.

Sleep & stress management

Aim for 7-9 hours of high-quality sleep. Poor sleep multiplies risk of both OTS and LEA. Integrate meditation, breath work, walks outside. Let your parasympathetic system (rest-&-digest) win some rounds.

Rebuild progressively

Once symptoms begin to fade, ramp training back slowly. Use felt-sense data not the calendar. Rebuild your engine before you floor the throttle again.

Prevention: The Smart Delay Strategy

• Periodize every 6–8 weeks — build a micro-cycle, then a Deload week.

• Schedule nutrition around training, not after. Fuel your work, don’t bail by 1–2 hours post-session.

• Build strength first, volume second. The heaviest squat won’t save you from a thousand inefficient reps.

• Track recovery data. HRV, morning pulse, mood—all give you early warning signs.

When to Call for Help

Persistent symptoms lasting 4+ weeks despite rest? You might need a complete reboot. OTS can require months or years of recovery in some cases.

RED-S requires multi-disciplinary support (nutritionist, endocrinologist, psychologist). You’re not weak for needing help—your body’s smarter than your ego.

Here’s what you must remember:  More effort doesn’t always equal more gains. Sometimes it equals more risk.  Less fuel doesn’t mean more control. It means more damage.

Don't wait until your vehicle breaks down to inspect the engine. Listen to the whispers: sluggish legs, quiet hunger, flat sleep, elevated pulse—they’re not minor; they’re messengers.

You’re stronger than the statistics. You’re smarter than the shortcuts. Now go into training not just with intensity, but with intelligence.

If you’re experiencing these warning signs, don’t guess. Let’s inspect. Let’s recalibrate. 👉 Call (973) 352 – 0933 and book a free movement & nutrition audit with our coaches at Evolve. We’ll dig into your metrics, fuel, training load and build a recovery-forward plan that moves you forward—for real.  Because power isn’t just in the grind; it’s in the renewal.