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Running Myself into a Corner: The 5 Exercise and Diet Mistakes I Made That Slowed My Metabolism and Crashed My Hormones

When I look back on my early 20s, I can see how desperately I wanted to change my body. I had gained some weight and felt uncomfortable, and I made a firm decision: I was going to get the weight off no matter what it took.

The problem was, I went about it in the worst way possible. I dove into fitness and dieting with an “all or nothing” mindset, chasing quick results with extreme restriction. And while it did make me thinner at first, over time it wrecked my metabolism, crashed my hormones, and left me feeling exhausted and broken.

I spent seven years repeating the same mistakes before I finally understood what my body was trying to tell me. I’m not sharing this as medical advice—I’m not a doctor—but I am sharing it as someone who learned the hard way that trying to punish your body into submission will only backfire.

Here are the five biggest mistakes I made—and what I wish I had done instead.

Mistake 1: I Only Ran and Avoided All Strength Training

Back then, I was convinced that running was the fastest way to lose weight. I looked up charts that compared calories burned by different exercises, and running seemed unbeatable. So that’s what I did, day in and day out.

At first, it “worked.” I lost weight and got very skinny. But what I didn’t realize was that my metabolism was slowing down behind the scenes. Because I had no muscle to support my body, I became completely dependent on burning calories manually.

That meant I had to run every single day just to maintain my weight. And not just for a short jog—what started as 45 minutes a day crept up to 60, 70, even 80 minutes. At one point, I was running three hours a day. I had literally made myself a slave to running.

The other problem? I wasn’t supporting my running with any strength training nor with enough nutrition. Which meant that I lost muscle.

Mistake 2: Ignoring Strength Training Altogether

I thought lifting weights was a waste of time. After all, I was obsessed with calorie burn, and lifting didn’t seem to burn nearly as much as running.

What I didn’t understand is that muscle is what keeps your metabolism fast, flexible, and healthy. Every pound of muscle on your body makes you burn more calories at rest. By running constantly and avoiding weights, I wasn’t just burning calories—I was burning through my own muscle tissue.

If I had started strength training, I would have built a stronger, leaner body that naturally burned more energy all day long. Instead, I made my metabolism slower and slower until I was stuck in a cycle where cardio was the only thing keeping me afloat.

Here’s the truth I wish I’d known: you don’t lose weight first and then “tone up.” You build the base first by getting strong. That’s how you create a body that can handle fat loss without crashing.

Mistake 3: Never Taking Rest Days

For years, I worked out almost every single day. Six or seven days a week, always intense, never light. Even when I did take a rest day, I felt guilty about it.

Sometimes, I’d even make up for it by running extra hard the next day. Rest felt like failure.

But what my body desperately needed was recovery. Without it, I was constantly fatigued, sore, foggy, and weak. My sleep got worse. My mood tanked. I was running myself into the ground.

Now, I know better. I only train three or four times a week, and I fill the other days with walking and active recovery. Rest is where your body heals and grows stronger. Without it, more exercise just means more breakdown.

Mistake 4: Training Fasted Every Morning

My mornings in those days were painfully predictable. I’d wake up, go to the bathroom, hop on the scale, and then head out for my run—always on an empty stomach. No food. No water. Nothing that might make the scale tick upward.

I believed this was the best way to burn fat. But what I was really doing was putting my body under enormous stress.

Training fasted can spike cortisol, your body’s primary stress hormone. Over time, this constant stress wrecked my hormonal health. My endurance got worse, my body struggled to recover, and I eventually lost my period for 10 years.

Women’s bodies are especially sensitive to this kind of stress. When we train hard without fuel, we’re asking our systems to perform without the building blocks they need. It’s no wonder my hormones gave out.

Today, I always eat before training. It fuels my workouts, helps me build muscle, and actually supports hormone balance instead of destroying it.

Mistake 5: Severely Restricting My Eating

The final—and maybe most damaging—mistake I made was my eating habits. I tried to get by on as little food as possible.

I avoided protein and fat almost entirely, and always kept my calories as low as possible. I cooked without oil, limited myself to tiny amounts of butter, and lived off oatmeal, pasta, and “safe foods” I thought were low-calorie. For years, I ate so many baby carrots (because they were zero points on a popular diet program) that I still struggle to eat raw carrots today.

I thought I was disciplined. But in reality, I was starving myself—and my body let me know. My metabolism slowed to a crawl. My energy disappeared. My hormones flatlined.

Yes, I got thinner. But the price was enormous: I lost my health, my vitality, and my freedom.

Lessons I Learned the Hard Way

Looking back, I can see that my obsession with being smaller came at a cost I didn’t fully understand at the time. By only running, skipping strength training, avoiding rest, training fasted, and restricting food, I put my body into a constant state of survival.

The result was predictable: a sluggish metabolism, fatigue, and hormonal chaos.

But here’s the good news: the body is resilient. Once I started fueling it properly, lifting weights, resting, and treating food as nourishment instead of an enemy, everything changed. My energy came back. My hormones began to regulate. My periods returned. My metabolism started working with me instead of against me.

Final Thoughts

If you recognize yourself in my story, please take this as a loving warning. You don’t have to run yourself into a corner like I did.

You can build the body you want by supporting it—not punishing it. Strength training, eating enough, fueling your workouts, and prioritizing rest will give you the strong, flexible, responsive body you’re looking for.

Don’t make the mistakes I made. Learn from them. Your metabolism, your hormones, and your future self will thank you.