Biofeedback, in a health and fitness sense, is a collection of different bodily signals that tell us how well our body is functioning. These signals typically stem from your body’s hormonal balance and function.

• Negative biofeedback changes indicate that our body has had enough of whatever we’ve been doing and is ready for a change.

• Positive biofeedback is an indication that our body is liking the changes we’re making…it’s happy with us again.

Biofeedback is an incredibly important component of your health + fitness, as it comprises essentially every signal your body makes, or stops making, to let you know when it is hormonally balanced or hormonally out of sync.

Common biofeedback signals include:

• Hunger cues (or lack thereof): the absence or presence of hunger cues is a crucial biofeedback signal and one of the easier ones to identify. Our bodies are not meant to be in a longterm deficit and our metabolic function takes a hit when we diet too hard or too long. Hunger cues are a positive biofeedback signal that your body is using the energy that you’re giving it. That’s a good sign! Honor your hunger cues and respond to them. Disruption to your hunger cues is a negative biofeedback signal. The longterm absence of hunger cues can be indicative of metabolic down regulation. Metabolic down regulation is a component of metabolic adaptation, a collection of responses used by our body in response to changes in nutrition. When people claim they have a slow metabolism, oftentimes they are really just experiencing metabolic down regulation in response to a longterm caloric deficit!

• Cravings: cravings are your body’s way of telling you what it’s lacking. Have you ever noticed how you crave carbs when you’re on a diet? Most diets involve carbohydrate restriction; a craving for carbohydrates indicates that your body is being deprived of this essential nutrient!

  • Nutritional deficiencies are often the most common reason for changes in hunger cues and/or cravings.

    • Carbohydrates are your body’s preferred macronutrient and it is what your brain uses to function; if you deprive your body of carbs, you’re depriving your brain (the motherboard) of it’s preferred source of energy and it creates a domino effect to the rest of the body. Fats are responsible for your hormone regulation; if you deprive your body of fats, you’re going to negatively affect hormone regulation which, again, adversely affects other bodily functions that rely on healthy hormone function.

• Poor sleep

  • Trouble falling asleep, restlessness throughout the night, waking up with no energy, etc.

• Digestion

  • Constipation, diarrhea, etc.

• Energy levels

  • Low sex drive

  • Chronic fatigue — when we train to hard or too often, our energy starts to decline rapidly and your daily activities in and outside of the gym feel much harder

• Stress

  • Mood swings, irritability, etc.

• Dehydration

• Strength stalls or plateaus:

  • Plateaus in the gym, everything feeling heavy, etc.

  • Inability to continue with your normal workout split because you consistently feel tired and weak is a sign that your body isn’t able to continue growing and building strength.

Biofeedback is a tool that helps us know when we’ve gone too far – when we’ve dieted too long, trained too hard, not prioritized recovery, etc. Your body is an adaptation machine – when you put too much stress on it, it is going to adapt. for better or for worse. One way it does that is to start shutting down certain functions such as hormone regulation, muscle protein synthesis, and fat breakdown, to conserve energy. Moral of the story: being aware of your own personal biofeedback is crucial, especially for long term results.