Eating Disorder and complete loss of libido? (6k reps)

[torpstar711]

Hey everyone, I've been cutting for the past 9-10 months or so on and off (took a few 2-3 week long breaks in between) and have gone down from from 226 to 198. When I was cutting, I was very strict in counting my macros, down to the exact gram of every macro of what I was eating. By the end of my cut, I was eating only 1900 calories and not getting anywhere near enough fat, and I noticed that not only was I thinking about food constantly, but I was always tired/sick and I always seemed to be going through a cut-binge-restrict cycle.

The worst part was, about 4 months back I also noticed that my libido was completely gone. On a few occasions I brought girls back to my place only to have no sexual drive whatsoever, and couldn't even think about getting it up. Got bloodwork done and everything (including test levels) was fine, and the doctor could think of no other reasons as to why I was having libido problems. I tried supplementation (ZMA, horny goat weed during sex), getting more sleep, bumping up fats to 80-100g a day, but nothing seemed to be working. ***BTW I only eat "clean" foods (organic/whole foods with lots of micros)

Stupidly enough, in my pursuit for abs I continued cutting/counting calories and screwing up my libido until about a few days ago when I noticed that I was cutting-binging-restricting almost every other day. Counting calories and restricting myself had gotten to me and had turned into an obsession, so I stopped counting calories and just started shifting to an intuitive eating approach without restricting myself. Strength has gone up in the gym (from Incline DB Press 100x5 to 110x5), I'm back up to 203-204lbs and I'm happy with my physique and don't mind a little fat gain, but most importantly I just want my libido back.

Could the eating disorder have caused the loss of libido? Has anyone gone through anything like this? Tips on getting my libido back?

Pics of my progress btw (1st pic is August 2015, 2nd pic is february 2016, 3rd pic is today)


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[Jherewhoisdere]

Being in a deficit for a long time combined with low fat intake will in most cases cause loss of libido. Common problem for natural bodybuilders that diet down to extreme low levels of body fat.

To reverse this, you must do exactly the opposite of what caused it - so basically eat at maintenance/slight surplus with sufficient fat intake (0.4g/lb). Try not to think about it (if you are constantly stressing about it, it will effect you negatively as well) and give it TIME.

[ironwill2008]

You probably need to see an Endocrinologist, OP, and possibly some professional counseling convcerning your admitted eating issues. This is a poor venue for such problems.





Good luck.