Nutrients

If a person eats very healthily, enough protein, fat, etc, and takes a multivitamin, would eating a few hundred under maintenance calories cause them to lose hair?  I just wonder where the line between weight loss and malnutrition is drawn.

Multivitamin tablets are no substitute for food.  'Eating healthily' means consuming enough energy (calories) in total as well as your RDA of individual nutrients.   Starving and undereating is not eating healthily.  Malnutrition is a medical condition that affects the whole body negatively. 

If someone you know is experiencing hair-loss as a result of a starvation diet then they should start eating properly and go see their doctor immediately.

What is weight loss, then?  Is it not extended starvation?

Weight loss is eating the right amount of food to support the size that you want to be.  Starvation is eating so little that your metabolism slows to extend the number of day before you'll die if you don't find more food.  Hair falls out when you're starving because it is non-essential.

just to chime in im losing hair and  i have been gaining weight for 6 months and ive now lost way over half my hair. im even at a healthy weight and still gaining, and still losing hair.

littlemissperfect gradual weight loss is not extended starvation because the heavier a person, the more calories they burn. For example, say a person who weighs 200 lbs maintains their weight on 3000 calories a day. If they eat 2500 calories a day, they will lose a lb per week (500 x 7 = 3500, which equals 1 lb). However, once that person gets down to 150 lbs, they will maintain on a lower amount of calories (2000) because they are lighter. These numbers are not accurate, but I hope my example helps. :)

So if my total burn, with exercise, is 1800, without 1650, and I eat 1500, will I be okay with the whole starvation thing?  My bmr is 1350-- as long as I eat over that, will I be okay?  I just want to make sure I am okay nutritionally.  That doesn't seem like starvation to me...

 

Does that mean eating below your BMR is starvation?

Yes you'll be fine.  If you're consuming 1400-1500 cals a day and you technically need 1800-2000 to maintain your weight then you are not starving.   To make sure you're getting the right nutrition make sure you're choosing the best foods to make up the 1500 cals.  Start with a good selection of fruit and vegetables, add in wholegrains, lean proteins, dairy products and oils.... Plenty of variety and you'll be fine nutritionally.  Every two or three weeks have a day when you consume your full 1800 and this will keep your metabolism lively.

Starvation would be to consume 1000 cals under your daily needs although starvation reactions can start to happen once an adult female goes below 1200 cals a day.  The World Health Organisation's definition of starvation e.g. Third World, is a daily diet below 1200.   Malnutrition is not dependent on the number of daily calories but on the nutrition content of foods.  Some of the biggest people are suffering from malnutrition because their diet is calorie-rich but nutrient-poor.

I can't speak as much to the weight loss v malnutrition, but I can speak a little bit to the hair loss.  I have experienced that on and off, and if you're concerned I recommend speaking with a dermatologist.  Mine is thicker or thinner in cycles, and it is especially bad when I've been overly stressed for a period of time.  But again, if you're concerned, ask your (or find a) dermatologist.

I talked to my doctor, and she said my birth control was the problem.  I just don't want to exacerbate it.  Apparently my body didn't like the ortho lo... The reason I (and she) believe it is hormonal is my skin got WAY worse and I didn't lose any hair at all for a while-- and now I am having a massive shed, just like pregnant women.  I also am genetically predisposed to hormonal hair loss, so I am just distressed.  I don't want my diet to interfere.  I am maintaining, and I eat a little under so I can have a little more on the weekend.  I was just worried.