Low Energy

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born_of_fire74
born_of_fire74 Posts: 776 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Not low motivation but low energy as in I've gotten myself out of bed, over to my crossfit class and I'm struggling to get through the workout or lift the weight I know I'm capable of.

I got down to 125lbs and started recomping close to two years ago to reduce my BF%. Recently though, I became frustrated with my progress so I've been doing a small cut since mid-July. I've definitely noticed a difference in my BF% but I'm also noticing a marked lack of vigour during periods of high exertion.

I'm 5'4" and currently weigh ~131lbs +/- 2lbs depending on the day; perfectly within the normal range however I'd still like to reduce my BF% futher. I've never had a proper scan or measurement so I'm not certain but I'd put myself in the 22-23% range based on photo comparisons and the not-so-great calculators available on line. I'd love to get down closer to 20% and be actually lean for the first time in my life.

That said, I'm at a bit of a loss here. Am I shooting myself in the foot with my small cut? It's only about 200 calories/day (can't seem to get to 250 with what I want to eat most days lol) and I'm eating back all my exercise calories. Could it be my macro split? I'm currently 35C/35F/30P. Do people that bulk and cut have issues with their energy levels when cutting? Is this normal and I'm just inexperienced? Is there something else I'm not thinking of? Any advice, suggestions or comments are greatly appreciated.

Thanks!
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Replies

  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    My energy levels when cutting are far better when I have a sporadic deficit rather than every day deficit. The majority of my days are at maintenance calories even when cutting a few pounds.

    I also tolerate a deficit much easier on a cardio day rather than a strength training day - the higher calorie allowance from my cycling seems to make a difference, whether that's a physical difference due to the volume of food or just a "feeling" due to being greedy is any body's guess. An occassional 1000 cal deficit on the day of a long cycle ride I find easier to tolerate than a 250 deficit on a weights day.

    Why not try a simple maintenance break to see what happens?

    The other thing to think about is your training - could the fatigue be an over-training / under-recovery issue rather than a calorie issue?


  • mrschwarten
    mrschwarten Posts: 194 Member
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    I have absolutely no cutting experience, so I can't offer you anything there. But, I wonder, are you getting enough sleep? Having stress at work? Low on iron/vitamin D/other mineral? When I have trouble I almost always overlook those things and after investigation, those things are almost always the culprit.
    Good luck!
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,966 Member
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    mrschwarten wrote: »
    I have absolutely no cutting experience, so I can't offer you anything there. But, I wonder, are you getting enough sleep? Having stress at work? Low on iron/vitamin D/other mineral? When I have trouble I almost always overlook those things and after investigation, those things are almost always the culprit.
    Good luck!

    Ya, I'm anemic and when my iron gets out of whack, I have crippling fatigue.
  • born_of_fire74
    born_of_fire74 Posts: 776 Member
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    @sijomial I've only been working a small deficit for about 7 weeks now. Could it already be time for a maintenance break? I was eating at maintenance while recomping for close to 2 years prior to that. I'm also not sure it's exercise fatigue as I'm only doing what I have done since June of 2017--7kms of dog walking/day and crossfit weekday mornings. Seems strange for the fatigue to hit me after having such an established routine for so long.

    @mrshwarten and kshama2001 Definitely getting enough sleep. I don't go to crossfit in the early mornings unless I've had 7 hours of sleep otherwise I'm a bag of dooky all day. I take a D supplement on my doctor's advice. 2000iu/day over and above my multi (which has 400iu IIRC) but she's never indicated any concern over iron. I am getting into the menopause years though not actually menopausal as of my last checkup and blood test. Is low iron something that can be associated with perimenopause or menopause so maybe it's sneaking up on me?

    Thanks for the responses. I'm not trying to quarrel with you or devalue your input, just looking for clarity.
  • psychod787
    psychod787 Posts: 4,088 Member
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    born_of_fire74 wrote: »
    @sijomial I've only been working a small deficit for about 7 weeks now. Could it already be time for a maintenance break? I was eating at maintenance while recomping for close to 2 years prior to that. I'm also not sure it's exercise fatigue as I'm only doing what I have done since June of 2017--7kms of dog walking/day and crossfit weekday mornings. Seems strange for the fatigue to hit me after having such an established routine for so long.

    @mrshwarten and kshama2001 Definitely getting enough sleep. I don't go to crossfit in the early mornings unless I've had 7 hours of sleep otherwise I'm a bag of dooky all day. I take a D supplement on my doctor's advice. 2000iu/day over and above my multi (which has 400iu IIRC) but she's never indicated any concern over iron. I am getting into the menopause years though not actually menopausal as of my last checkup and blood test. Is low iron something that can be associated with perimenopause or menopause so maybe it's sneaking up on me?

    Thanks for the responses. I'm not trying to quarrel with you or devalue your input, just looking for clarity.

    God bless ya.. I wish I could do cross fit. I am just too dang old and beat up! Best of luck.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    born_of_fire74 wrote: »
    @sijomial I've only been working a small deficit for about 7 weeks now. Could it already be time for a maintenance break? I was eating at maintenance while recomping for close to 2 years prior to that. I'm also not sure it's exercise fatigue as I'm only doing what I have done since June of 2017--7kms of dog walking/day and crossfit weekday mornings. Seems strange for the fatigue to hit me after having such an established routine for so long.

    Agree - it doesn't seem likely to be exercise/training related.
    (My cuts are a bit different as they are before big events so I'm doing the double whammy of deficit plus ramping up exercise.)

  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,013 Member
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    born_of_fire74 wrote: »
    @sijomial I've only been working a small deficit for about 7 weeks now. Could it already be time for a maintenance break? I was eating at maintenance while recomping for close to 2 years prior to that. I'm also not sure it's exercise fatigue as I'm only doing what I have done since June of 2017--7kms of dog walking/day and crossfit weekday mornings. Seems strange for the fatigue to hit me after having such an established routine for so long.

    @mrshwarten and kshama2001 Definitely getting enough sleep. I don't go to crossfit in the early mornings unless I've had 7 hours of sleep otherwise I'm a bag of dooky all day. I take a D supplement on my doctor's advice. 2000iu/day over and above my multi (which has 400iu IIRC) but she's never indicated any concern over iron. I am getting into the menopause years though not actually menopausal as of my last checkup and blood test. Is low iron something that can be associated with perimenopause or menopause so maybe it's sneaking up on me?

    Thanks for the responses. I'm not trying to quarrel with you or devalue your input, just looking for clarity.

    When you switched to a deficit, did you change your macro %s or the food you were eating much? Like less carbs, more protein or cut back sweet coffees so you are unintentionally having less caffeine or something like that?
  • born_of_fire74
    born_of_fire74 Posts: 776 Member
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    @kimny72 When I started cutting, the only thing I did was drop 250 calories off of my daily allowance--no change to macros. I only drink one (large) cup of coffee early in the morning and don't do any caffeine at all after noon otherwise I have a hard time sleeping. This has been my habit for easily a decade so no change there either.

    Maybe I've dropped more calories than I thought because I eat back only the most modest estimate of exercise calories I get between the two disparate amounts my fitness tracker gives (one for specific exercises and one for the overall day) and MFP? I'm down ~3lbs since I started with the deficit which doesn't seem like too much for ~7'ish weeks.

  • HoneyBadger302
    HoneyBadger302 Posts: 1,980 Member
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    I'm working to lose the fat right now after "recomping" from last November until about 2 months ago. My workouts noticeably suffer even in a "reasonable" deficit (not losing more than a pound a week, and not even that over time), but I can workout intensely while maintaining.

    I got my fitness pretty good and it was holding steady, so I decided I wanted to lose the fat more right now, so I've switched (temporarily) to light workouts to maintain what I have as best I can while losing. Finding I need more sleep, too - getting up at the same time for my "intense" workouts just wasn't happening. Not being exhausted and not losing energy during the day makes it a lot easier to keep my deficit up than trying to lose while too tired.
  • Cassandraw3
    Cassandraw3 Posts: 1,214 Member
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    born_of_fire74 wrote: »
    @kimny72 When I started cutting, the only thing I did was drop 250 calories off of my daily allowance--no change to macros. I only drink one (large) cup of coffee early in the morning and don't do any caffeine at all after noon otherwise I have a hard time sleeping. This has been my habit for easily a decade so no change there either.

    Maybe I've dropped more calories than I thought because I eat back only the most modest estimate of exercise calories I get between the two disparate amounts my fitness tracker gives (one for specific exercises and one for the overall day) and MFP? I'm down ~3lbs since I started with the deficit which doesn't seem like too much for ~7'ish weeks.

    Based on a 250 cal/day deficit, I would say you are losing pretty close to on track at 7 weeks. How long has this tired feeling been going on? It could just be you need a couple (2-3) days of eating at maintenance to refuel your body. That seems to help me when I have an overall tired feeling. It could also be hormonal imbalances that cause a couple off days.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,966 Member
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    born_of_fire74 wrote: »
    @sijomial I've only been working a small deficit for about 7 weeks now. Could it already be time for a maintenance break? I was eating at maintenance while recomping for close to 2 years prior to that. I'm also not sure it's exercise fatigue as I'm only doing what I have done since June of 2017--7kms of dog walking/day and crossfit weekday mornings. Seems strange for the fatigue to hit me after having such an established routine for so long.

    @mrshwarten and kshama2001 Definitely getting enough sleep. I don't go to crossfit in the early mornings unless I've had 7 hours of sleep otherwise I'm a bag of dooky all day. I take a D supplement on my doctor's advice. 2000iu/day over and above my multi (which has 400iu IIRC) but she's never indicated any concern over iron. I am getting into the menopause years though not actually menopausal as of my last checkup and blood test. Is low iron something that can be associated with perimenopause or menopause so maybe it's sneaking up on me?

    Thanks for the responses. I'm not trying to quarrel with you or devalue your input, just looking for clarity.

    I was first diagnosed as anemic when I was 19 or 20, but it's gotten worse after I became perimenopausal because my fibroids blew up and increased menstrual bleeding dramatically. So, low iron is worse in my case now, but was also an issue 30 years ago. And men can be anemic, so it is not just related to menstruation.

    I think our point was sometimes you think X is the problem, when it's really Y, and we were offering iron and D as potential Y :)
  • ritzvin
    ritzvin Posts: 2,860 Member
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    sijomial wrote: »
    My energy levels when cutting are far better when I have a sporadic deficit rather than every day deficit. The majority of my days are at maintenance calories even when cutting a few pounds.

    I also tolerate a deficit much easier on a cardio day rather than a strength training day - the higher calorie allowance from my cycling seems to make a difference, whether that's a physical difference due to the volume of food or just a "feeling" due to being greedy is any body's guess. An occassional 1000 cal deficit on the day of a long cycle ride I find easier to tolerate than a 250 deficit on a weights day.

    This. I feel quite fine leaving hundreds of exercise calories on the table after extended cardio (I'm still eating an extra bigger-than-normal meal afterward), but a strength session will leave me extremely hungry far beyond the calorie burn.
  • born_of_fire74
    born_of_fire74 Posts: 776 Member
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    kshama2001 wrote: »
    born_of_fire74 wrote: »
    @sijomial I've only been working a small deficit for about 7 weeks now. Could it already be time for a maintenance break? I was eating at maintenance while recomping for close to 2 years prior to that. I'm also not sure it's exercise fatigue as I'm only doing what I have done since June of 2017--7kms of dog walking/day and crossfit weekday mornings. Seems strange for the fatigue to hit me after having such an established routine for so long.

    @mrshwarten and kshama2001 Definitely getting enough sleep. I don't go to crossfit in the early mornings unless I've had 7 hours of sleep otherwise I'm a bag of dooky all day. I take a D supplement on my doctor's advice. 2000iu/day over and above my multi (which has 400iu IIRC) but she's never indicated any concern over iron. I am getting into the menopause years though not actually menopausal as of my last checkup and blood test. Is low iron something that can be associated with perimenopause or menopause so maybe it's sneaking up on me?

    Thanks for the responses. I'm not trying to quarrel with you or devalue your input, just looking for clarity.

    I was first diagnosed as anemic when I was 19 or 20, but it's gotten worse after I became perimenopausal because my fibroids blew up and increased menstrual bleeding dramatically. So, low iron is worse in my case now, but was also an issue 30 years ago. And men can be anemic, so it is not just related to menstruation.

    I think our point was sometimes you think X is the problem, when it's really Y, and we were offering iron and D as potential Y :)

    That's exactly the sort of suggestion I was hoping for, something I hadn't considered on my own. Thanks for that.

    Based on the responses, it's starting to look like I'm just inexperienced and what is going on is fairly normal. Less calories = less energy; maybe it really is that simple. Recomp is sooooooooooooooooooooo sloooooooooooooow. *sigh* I'm reluctant to bulk and cut though because the pounds I've put on while recomping are difficult enough to see on the scale. Not sure I could handle getting actually fluffy again.

  • CharlieBeansmomTracey
    CharlieBeansmomTracey Posts: 7,682 Member
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    HoneyBadger155 wrote: »
    I'm working to lose the fat right now after "recomping" from last November until about 2 months ago. My workouts noticeably suffer even in a "reasonable" deficit (not losing more than a pound a week, and not even that over time), but I can workout intensely while maintaining.

    I got my fitness pretty good and it was holding steady, so I decided I wanted to lose the fat more right now, so I've switched (temporarily) to light workouts to maintain what I have as best I can while losing. Finding I need more sleep, too - getting up at the same time for my "intense" workouts just wasn't happening. Not being exhausted and not losing energy during the day makes it a lot easier to keep my deficit up than trying to lose while too tired.

    are you saying recomping caused you to gain fat? if so that should not have happened a recomp helps to lose fat and gain some muscle.
  • HoneyBadger302
    HoneyBadger302 Posts: 1,980 Member
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    CharlieBeansmomTracey wrote: »
    HoneyBadger155 wrote: »
    I'm working to lose the fat right now after "recomping" from last November until about 2 months ago. My workouts noticeably suffer even in a "reasonable" deficit (not losing more than a pound a week, and not even that over time), but I can workout intensely while maintaining.

    I got my fitness pretty good and it was holding steady, so I decided I wanted to lose the fat more right now, so I've switched (temporarily) to light workouts to maintain what I have as best I can while losing. Finding I need more sleep, too - getting up at the same time for my "intense" workouts just wasn't happening. Not being exhausted and not losing energy during the day makes it a lot easier to keep my deficit up than trying to lose while too tired.

    are you saying recomping caused you to gain fat? if so that should not have happened a recomp helps to lose fat and gain some muscle.

    No, not what I'm saying at all.

    I already had the fat - but I also had serious muscle atrophy after a year of surgeries and complications with a badly broken leg. Getting muscle built up first was my priority, and I knew I couldn't do that in a deficit - so, I maintained and built muscle. I lost fat along the way, but didn't lose weight. Finally got enough muscle back where I was pretty happy with where I was at, which is when I decided it was time to get rid of the remaining fat pads. Been working on slowly losing it since (not at a fast loss rate, but measurable).
  • middlehaitch
    middlehaitch Posts: 8,484 Member
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    Couple of thoughts.

    Instead of going by a macro percentage split, go by grams per LBM.
    Protein 0.8-1.2
    Fat 0.35-0.45
    Carbs to fill in the rest.

    If you are lethargic, but not lacking sleep, you are probably not moving as much during the day, and your workouts are less than optimal.

    These two are dropping your TDEE and you are losing at your ~0.5 lbs a week on a lower calorie goal than you probably could.

    Try upping your cals by 100-150 and see if this gives you a better energy level. It could take a couple of weeks for your body to react to the extra energy, so don't expect the lethargy to disappear immediately.

    Definitely monitor you menstual flow if you are heading into peri-menopause.

    Cheers, h.
  • born_of_fire74
    born_of_fire74 Posts: 776 Member
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    middlehaitch wrote: »
    Couple of thoughts.

    Instead of going by a macro percentage split, go by grams per LBM.
    Protein 0.8-1.2
    Fat 0.35-0.45
    Carbs to fill in the rest.

    If you are lethargic, but not lacking sleep, you are probably not moving as much during the day, and your workouts are less than optimal.

    These two are dropping your TDEE and you are losing at your ~0.5 lbs a week on a lower calorie goal than you probably could.

    Try upping your cals by 100-150 and see if this gives you a better energy level. It could take a couple of weeks for your body to react to the extra energy, so don't expect the lethargy to disappear immediately.

    Definitely monitor you menstual flow if you are heading into peri-menopause.

    Cheers, h.

    I had already decided while walking the dog that I’ll add 100 calories back and see how it goes. Your suggestion makes me all the more confident that it’s worth trying ^.^ Cheers!
  • CharlieBeansmomTracey
    CharlieBeansmomTracey Posts: 7,682 Member
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    HoneyBadger155 wrote: »
    CharlieBeansmomTracey wrote: »
    HoneyBadger155 wrote: »
    I'm working to lose the fat right now after "recomping" from last November until about 2 months ago. My workouts noticeably suffer even in a "reasonable" deficit (not losing more than a pound a week, and not even that over time), but I can workout intensely while maintaining.

    I got my fitness pretty good and it was holding steady, so I decided I wanted to lose the fat more right now, so I've switched (temporarily) to light workouts to maintain what I have as best I can while losing. Finding I need more sleep, too - getting up at the same time for my "intense" workouts just wasn't happening. Not being exhausted and not losing energy during the day makes it a lot easier to keep my deficit up than trying to lose while too tired.

    are you saying recomping caused you to gain fat? if so that should not have happened a recomp helps to lose fat and gain some muscle.

    No, not what I'm saying at all.

    I already had the fat - but I also had serious muscle atrophy after a year of surgeries and complications with a badly broken leg. Getting muscle built up first was my priority, and I knew I couldn't do that in a deficit - so, I maintained and built muscle. I lost fat along the way, but didn't lose weight. Finally got enough muscle back where I was pretty happy with where I was at, which is when I decided it was time to get rid of the remaining fat pads. Been working on slowly losing it since (not at a fast loss rate, but measurable).

    ah ok gotcha. I have fat pads too but mine are due to an me having familial hypercholesterolemia(which is genetic) I too had surgery on a broken leg(rod,pins and screws in it). sorry you have been through so much. and glad you are getting where things are better. for me what helped my fat pads and not sure if it will help you is eating a lower fat diet. I have to do that due to my health issue but fat pads are now almost non existent but it did take awhile to see a difference in them.
  • ahoy_m8
    ahoy_m8 Posts: 3,053 Member
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    A note about anemia and menopause: barring another medical complication, less flow=less anemia. Women’s vitamins have more iron than women’s vitamins for seniors (because less iron supplementation needed without periods). It’s a good idea to check blood iron level before supplementing, though, since too much can be harmful.

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