“My Stomach Feels Bloated Whenever I Diet” | Indigestion in a 20-Year-Old Female Dieter

“I try to reduce the amount I eat and eat healthily, but why is my digestion so poor? No matter what I eat, my stomach feels bloated and sometimes the pit of my stomach hurts. It feels like there’s a rock here.”

Su-jin (pseudonym) in her mid-20s had severe stress due to job preparation and internship life. Due to a lack of confidence, she recklessly started a Low-carb High-fat (LCHF) diet. At first, it was mainly salads, but soon she extremely restricted carbohydrates with boiled eggs for breakfast, chicken breast salad for lunch, and protein shakes for dinner. Weight dropped after a month, but her stomach always felt stuffy and bloated. Pain at the end of the pit of the stomach, occasional heartburn, and severe constipation also appeared. She said she was anxious at every meal and eventually worried about whether to give up the diet.

In gastrointestinal function imbalance during a diet, three major factors act in complex combinations.

First is rapid dietary change. The stomach needs time to adapt to different types or amounts of food than usual. Particularly, extreme carbohydrate restriction or protein-oriented diets break the balance of stomach acid secretion and digestive enzymes, slowing the digestive process and eventually causing gastrointestinal function imbalance.

Second is excessive restriction of specific nutrients. If fat intake is reduced too much, bile secretion becomes difficult, making fat digestion hard, and fiber deficiency induces decreased bowel movement and constipation. Micro-nutrient deficiency essential for gastrointestinal mucosa health also brings functional decline. In this case, the stomach cannot help but be uncomfortable no matter how little you eat.

Third is stress. Diet pressure, difficulty in dietary management, and impatience over weight increase cortisol levels and affect the autonomic nervous system. Stress hinders gastrointestinal peristalsis, makes stomach acid secretion irregular, and worsens the gut microbiota environment, deepening indigestion. These three factors mesh like gears to throw gastrointestinal function into confusion. You can think of the analogy where the stomach becomes like a small boat endangered in a storm.

Let’s find out how to wisely use digestive enzymes and probiotics. Sometimes external help is also good. Digestive enzymes help break down food and reduce the gastrointestinal burden. Probiotics, the key to gut health, improve the gut microbial balance and help improve indigestion and constipation. However, instead of consuming unconditionally, it is important to select a product suitable for yourself after consulting an expert. As there are various types of digestive enzyme and probiotic products on the market, weigh the ingredients and effects carefully.

You must remember the risks of extreme dietary restriction and diet side effects. Rapid calorie restriction or total exclusion of specific nutrients has a short-term weight loss effect, but in the long run, it can cause serious nutritional imbalance and gastrointestinal disorders. Total carbohydrate restriction worsens gut health by reducing dietary fiber intake, which becomes food for beneficial gut bacteria, and induces fatigue due to energy lack. Excessive protein intake can also put a burden on the kidneys. Such extreme attempts must proceed after consultation with a medical professional. Remember that a diet ignoring body signals can eventually harm health.