Below is an instruction that describes a task. Write a response that appropriately completes the request. ### Instruction: How quickly can you develop nutrition-based anemia?Thanks to lockdown and a breakup, something I thought never possible happened--I (28/F) began relapsing into anorexia, which I recovered from several years ago. For the past month, my diet has cratered, generally hitting 700-1000 calories a day. What I do eat is horrible--popcorn, Clif bars, and protein shakes. That's it--no other foods. Needless to say, I have lost a significant amount of weight, and I was thin to begin with. (For reference, I'm 5'2 and am 99 lb now--I was about 105 before).I run for 30 min 4x a week. Lately it has become harder and harder; my heart rate skyrockets, and I tire quickly. Is it possible for anemia to have set in due to poor diet already? I've struggled with that in the past due to the ED, with similar symptoms.(To be clear, I *know* I have to address my eating disorder; I am not so naive as to reduce the problem here to just anemia. I've done this rodeo before; I've already hit the weight I said I would stop at, and of course I am still restricting, because that's just how EDs work. I am seeking therapeutic help.). ### Response: It will be hard to tell you that and honestly probably easier to just get your labs checked. In theory, yes, it can happen but it would require a lot of conditional circumstances existing prior to this month to tip you over. In reality, probably not:You need to be iron deficient prior to this month so that your body can't make adequate RBCs this monthYour blood cells typically last up to 120 days, so you shouldn't drop significantly in a single month under normal circumstances even if iron deficientYou are female and if menstruating, that could be a source but usually it isn't enough in a single month (unless you were anemic to begin with or severely iron deficient to begin with or heavy menses)Honestly, your fatigue, heart rate, exercise intolerance is probably due to your inadequate caloric intake and your body trying to preserve energy (and breaking down your body fat/muscle).