I'm not really sure what's happening
Replies
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Sounds like your body is telling you that around the bottom of your weight range is not where IT wants to be, even if that's where YOU would like it to be. As someone who has recovered from anorexia as a teenager, your behavior sounds a lot like a restrict/binge cycle that many people go through during recovery. Might there be something medically wrong that blood work or a trip to the endocrinologist might turn up, sure. But you might want to consider why this particular weight is so important for you to maintain. Do you get these symptoms when you are at 125 (a perfectly healthy weight for your height)? Between the extreme initial weight loss (20lb in 2 months on a small frame), the intense exercise routine, the way you talk about not liking being at a higher weight, the difficulty eating when you're stressed, the mental difficulty it would cause you to see a higher weight on the scale, temporarily losing your period, and the excessive hunger even after eating lots....all that points to a concern over whether you might be entering disordered eating territory (whether it's intentional or not). Or really it seems like the way your body is behaving is how someone who is going through recovery feels.
I would highly suggest that on top of the blood work go talk to an eating disorder therapist. Get a referal from you PG. See what they think. Maybe I'm way off...but it can't hurt to consider. I hope you find answers and feel better (mentally and physically!!).14 -
Maxematics wrote: »First off, I really want to thank everyone who commented and/or showed my initial post support. Waking up to that this morning made me feel a lot better. Instead of making several posts in response, I'm going to respond to the comments in this one post.
Those who commented about getting bloodwork and/or my thyroid levels checked; I agree. I have some time off coming up and now that I have a pretty good health insurance plan, I think it's a wise decision. If everything is normal, at least I know so there's really no harm in getting everything checked. Thank you.
About needing a break, I think that may be true. Luckily for me I have a decent one coming up. I'm a full time math teacher and also teach two phys ed classes per week. The end of the year is really hectic and my brain is always focusing on all the things I have to get done to the point where it's hard to rest. I'll be so tired at the end of the day but can't stay asleep to save my life. I've been taking this liquid sleep inducer vitamin at the end of the night and it's been working thus far but it's only been a week so I can't say for sure. I think I also needed a mental break from tracking my food or weighing myself, so I've at least been doing that. I don't want to develop a poor relationship with food or tread the line of an ED because I feel like that's where I'm headed if I keep worrying so much.
As far as my weight being too low, I don't disagree. 105 is the lowest healthy weight for my height and it isn't my goal. In times of extreme stress, I don't have an appetite and that combined with moving around all day is usually when I hit that low weight. When that happens, I incorporate more calorie dense foods (spoon or two of PB before bed) and make it a point to bring myself back up to 113ish. Staying between 110 and 115 is my happy range; it's where I feel best, perform best, and look best. However, that's something I'm in control of and okay with; I'm not okay with feeling desperately hungry after eating 2000 calories. To me that's letting me know something isn't right.
I've looked up a new PCP since I have a new health insurance plan and intend on scheduling an appointment. In the meantime, I've ordered some B12 and vitamin D in liquid form. I get around 400% vitamin D daily through my supplements but maybe I'm not absorbing it. I've been a vegetarian for almost a year so my B12 could also be low.
Thanks again everyone for the responses; I truly cannot express how grateful I am.
Hi there,
I just wanted to mention that you shouldn't start taking the supplements before your test or they could mask a deficiency. Good luck!
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@Maxematics Your post has expressed what I could have written. I am 37, very small-framed, 5'5 1/2" at this point 117-120 lbs. In the past 5+ years I lost ~50ish lbs. Last year I got to 112. Hunger was through the roof no matter what(high satiety foods) I ate. I frequently experienced hyperphagia. I think there are so many factors as to why my body experienced this discord...maybe not enough rest, maybe stress, maybe my deficit was too steep, maybe my Fitbit underestimated significantly, who knows. 3-4 months ago I made a decision to rest more and practice maintenance. I gained a few pounds in the process, I am ok with it at this time. If someday I decide to lose 3-5 lbs I might do it super slowly (0.5-1 lb. a month). Maybe a small deficit will be less abrasive on my body, who knows. I second what NoreenMarie and appulum suggested. Up your calories slowly(Fitbit might be underestimating especially when you are on your feet, fidgeting, gesticulating, but not getting step count), take more rest days and maybe take a short break from weighing for a short season. Hugs.3
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Our bodies do their best to be at a homeostasis level. Every body has a different level but the level of body weight you're trying to hit is just not a healthy or sustainable level. Your body will do everything it can to keep your vital organs healthy.
You're fighting it with unrealistic and unhealthy weight goals.14 -
I have no advice to add. Just hoping that a rest week is helpful mentally and physically. It can be hard to do, but give your mind and body the treat of rest. When you get back at it, hopefully you'll feel what I like to call "fresh legs" (and arms, etc). You won't have lost anything in that short time. I hope you can figure this out.3
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Maxematics wrote: »I just want to preface this post by saying that I've been around these forums for a while and have always found them helpful. I never thought I'd post something like this and I feel kind of embarrassed about it but I'm hoping that there are people who have had a similar issue and can maybe give me advice.
I started MFP in June 2015 at 139 pounds; I'm 5'3", 34 years old. I lost 20 pounds within the first 2.5 months and eventually got down to 107ish by July 2016. Since then it's been up and down; whenever my weight gets that low I end up rebounding to 115. The worst time was when I hit 125 in December 2017. Sidenote that there is nothing wrong with being 125 pounds, it's just not the right weight for me. I used to do IF a few years ago and just really didn't see the benefits, eventually lost my period, then ended up being super hungry all the time and gaining back some weight. It took like a year to bounce back from that.
This leads me to now. I got down to 108 pounds around a month ago and then my period was late but eventually came and only lasted a few days. Also there is zero chance of pregnancy in case anyone thinks to ask. Since then I've been battling excessive hunger. I've stopped trying to fight it and just let my body do its thing; some days I eat more and some I eat less. I figure that maybe the very low end of the BMI range isn't my happy place. I wasn't trying to lose weight either as my goal is maintenance it just seems to happen as I lose my appetite due to work stress, etc. I've stopped weighing in daily because post binge weights exacerbate my anxiety and guilt. I've stopped tracking food for the same reasons as I was becoming obsessive. I felt like I just needed to hit reset.
At first I felt better but now I feel like it's getting worse. Today was the worst of all as I've just finished eating ~1500 calories on top of what had to be a minimum of 2500 for the day already. I also feel zero discomfort or fullness and like I could even eat more food.
To give more background, I'm pretty active. I workout 45 minutes to an hour six days per week. I do resistance training four times per week and do straight cardio two times per week. My heart rate is high during resistance training; I'm not doing super heavy low rep sets with breaks. I also usually get 12 to 20K steps on my Fitbit with an estimated TDEE that's usually between 2000 and 2500. I'm fairly muscular and lean aside from my stomach these days due to water weight bloat. I've been working out consistently for years and I'm pretty fit.
Thanks if you've read all of this so far. My whole point is I'm not really sure why I feel so desperately hungry. I also get days where I feel too exhausted to do anything beyond my morning workout and shower. That's usually on the weekends. I get around six hours of sleep per night but I try so hard to get more. On the weekends I do get a bit more because my brain isn't thinking about my job. I don't like the feeling of being ravenous even right after eating hundreds of calories. It's concerning and I obviously want to get a handle on it before it gets out of control. I always seem to but I really don't want to gain ten pounds back just to feel too soft and try to cut again. I'm curious if anyone, especially anyone with stats similar to mine, has gone through something similar. I'm wondering if I should actually see a doctor at this point. I'm so confused, upset, and tired of going through this and feeling like I have to fight tooth and nail against myself.
Thanks again if you've read this; I appreciate it.
Look up research done by Anne B. Loucks on energy availability in athletes. Very informative and helpful read.3 -
I agree with a lot of what NovemberSkye wrote. You appear to be accidentally wading into ED territory. I would also note that BMI is not a good gauge for you if you are more muscular than most women. That means you are already underweight and not in a good weight range for your body. Whether you like the way this weight looks or not, you body is not happy at this weight.9
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Maxematics wrote: »rheddmobile wrote: »You mentioned becoming a vegetarian - how’s your protein? If I don’t get enough high-quality protein I feel starved, and it can be tricky on a vegetarian diet. It’s also very easy to eat low fat while vegetarian, and some people need more fat to feel satiated. Try playing with your macros and see if it helps.
I’m thinking the main issue is stress and not enough sleep, though. Hope you feel better after your break!
Thank you. I actually eat more protein than I need. I average about 130 grams per day but it's not unusual for me to hit 150 grams. It's rare that I'm ever below 120 grams. However, in all of my rethinking of things today I did decide to reincorporate fish into my diet to start. As far as I can remember, I wasn't having these issues when fish was in my diet a few days per week.
My macros are usually 40/30/30. In looking back at my last week logged 5/27 to 6/2, I averaged 138 protein (22%), 274 carbs (44%), 95 fat (34%). In case anyone asks about sugar, 77 grams average. 164 protein (35%), 192 carbs (35%), 84 fat (30%), 50g of sugar the prior week. I'm always below my recommended MFP sugars but not for any reason other than I just don't have a big sweet tooth.
Thank you again; I hope I feel better after my break too.
@Phirrgus Thank you so much! I really appreciate it.
How is your protein quality as a vegetarian: Are you getting a fair amount of your protein from sources that are complete protein (contain all of the essential amino acids in reasonable proportions)? If not, do you rely heavily on the same incomplete protein sources often, which would create more risk for a limiting amino acid(s)?
I'm not asking as a vegetarian skeptic/hater, because I've been vegetarian for 45 years myself. It's no longer believed that we need to combine incomplete proteins in one and the same meal to get adequate effective protein levels, but we do need to get the full set within a reasonable time range. Simply varying the sources widely can help, but in the face of possible nutritional issues, it may be sensible to think about this a little more closely than that.
Your idea of adding back fish sounds like a good experiment, in this sense. It should be possible to get adequate protein as a vegetarian, even a strict (plants only) vegetarian . . . but it isn't thought-free, especially at first.
BTW, the stress/sleep strand of this seems potentially important, too. Good sleep hygiene (consistent bed & wake-up times) can be part of this picture, but naps a slippery slope to increased problems (varies by person, though). Meditation could be a useful tool in your toolkit, if you haven't already tried it, both for stress reduction, and as a practice that will encourage sleep if you have "mind racing" wakefulness, or at least give your brain some restfulness when you can't sleep.
Best wishes!4 -
Thanks again to everyone that has responded since I last commented.
@NovusDies Yeah, I know the sugar doesn't matter but I figure I'd mention it in case someone brought it up. I know there are posters here who think sugar is the root of all evil.
@apullum I usually get one full rest day. One of my PE classes is on my rest day and I still get 10 to 20K steps on that day just from moving around. My PE class is just 45 minutes of medium intensity Zumba, dancing but lots of jump moves and I get quite sweaty, but I didn't think it was a big deal in comparison to my actual workouts which are more intense. There were a few weeks in a row prior to last week where that class was canceled though, so for a few weeks it was just the walking on my rest day. I guess that explains why many Saturdays I just want to sleep and veg out all day.
@NovemberSkye I truly appreciate your response but I think there is some confusion. I lost 20 pounds in two months five years ago and I've been around 115 pounds ever since. The only times my body has gone through this was the two times I was under 110 pounds which is something that has only happened two times in five years; around this time in 2016 and now. Both times being under 110 was not a goal or intention on my part but I'd rather gain weight slowly than just be uncontrollably hungry for weeks.
I think my anxiety around weighing in and seeing a surplus on MFP definitely border on ED territory. However, I never eat less than 1800 calories gross and normally average 2200 gross calories. 125 pounds is a perfectly healthy weight for someone who is 5'3" but it's not a good weight for my body type. If I built more muscle for years and ended up being 125, that would be a different story but my body composition for the past five years is one that looks fluffy at 125 and best at around 115. Under 110 is definitely not a goal for me. My starting weight was 139 in 2015 which is actually a goal weight for a lot of people my height, so it's fair to say that I already had a starting weight that is good for another body type at 5'3" but not mine.
The difficulty eating is more of a busy brain thing than an ED thing. If I'm busy with a task, especially if the task has strict time constraints, I cannot focus on anything else. I would much rather sit down and enjoy food later than wolf it down in the middle of time-sensitive work that requires my full attention. However, the other things mentioned really make me think about what things my body may be going through that I'm not recognizing. I'm a workhorse and I always tell myself I should not be tired, I did not do enough, etc. I wasn't seeing an ED therapist but I was seeing a therapist for a year and a half up until a few months ago. When I stopped seeing them was when I lost more weight and my weight got too low. I think breaking off that relationship hurt more than I wanted to admit even though it had to be done because it wasn't a good fit.
In any case, your response gave me a lot to think about. Thank you.
@naomi8888 @girlwithcurls2 @dmt4641 @Tolstolobik Thank you all for your responses. It gives me more to think about.
@RipDon Thanks for your responses. I really want to make clear that 108 was never a goal weight. My happy range is 110 to 115 pounds which has been extremely sustainable and realistic for me for the past 4.5 years.
@AnnPT77 I was a vegetarian for eight years in the past so I tried to stick to the foods I used to eat. I eat quinoa sometimes, edamame, chickpeas, beans/rice. I eat a lot of things with pea protein in them. String cheese and Greek yogurt. Whey protein powder sometimes. Protein brownies made with wheat protein for dessert. A bunch of vegetables and fruit throughout the day. I cannot eat most tofu because it's preserved with calcium sulfate and I'm allergic to sulfates and sulfites which severely limits what I can eat; I can't even use things like dried spices unless I pay for $10 a bottle no-preservatives organic dried spices. Also vegetables with a high sulfur content are off-limits because they can sometimes also cause hives.
I also drink BCAAs in the morning and I have a protein powder from Vega with BCAAs. I don't have an extremely varied diet due to my allergies. I went back to chicken and fish after my allergy diagnosis but stopped eating it in September because that's when I started my new job and we aren't allowed to eat meat on the job so it kind of just stuck when I realized I didn't miss it and never ate it daily anyway. However, I was given clearance to eat whatever I want on the job due to my allergies and just never went back to incorporating it again.
I agree on the meditation. I actually do have a consistent bedtime and wake up time, usually in bed by 8 pm and up by 4 am unless I have something special to do. The nap thing is usually only on the weekend but doesn't always occur. I try to avoid it by distracting myself but then it boils down to "I'm hungry and I'm tired" so I choose to nap rather than eat more after just eating a full meal and snack, as I figure being tired is exacerbating my hunger.
Thanks again everyone. I hope writing all my responses in one post rather than making several responses in a row is fine.12 -
For your sleep issues, look into tart cherry juice. You mentioned you have a hard time staying asleep; there's lots of anecdotal evidence that tart cherry juice helps with this specific problem. My father and several friends experienced less interrupted, more consistent sleep after incorporating tart cherry juice. It's available at health food stores.10
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So what you are experiencing is very similar to what bodybuilders experience when they compete. Very low bw or bf can increase ghrelin and reduce leptin. This generally causes extreme hunger. Add in lose of period can compound it.
In fact, Stephanie Buttermore recently did a video on what i am describing
https://youtu.be/d_qxQtdRTds
But you lost weight quickly, you were stressed and you work out a fair amount, with highly daily activity.
ETA: On top of taking a diet break, i would cut down on the exercise, especially the cardio. You walk a lot and then add a good amount of cardio on top.9 -
Hello, I am in a similar situation to you I believe and ever doing a lot of investigation online and I will be seeing the doctor as well. For me I wonder if this could be the same for you if you are in a state of over training. This can lead to that fatigue that you mentioned and also not being able to sleep well and feeling exhausted. I also one through a similar phase where I could just not eat enough food I craved sweets terribly and I was like a bottomless pit this is another symptom of over training for me personally I am going to take 2 to 3 weeks off from the gym and see how I feel after doing some research to realize how over exercising and over training can affect hormones.4
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I think you may be underestimating the cumulative effect that all your activity has on your body. It’s easy to do that when you see some of your activity as easier than whatever you consider your “real” exercise to be.
I’m currently taking some time off because I did exactly that. I was following my usual running routine, but also doing more walking on my “rest” days. And because I wasn’t taking the walking as seriously as I took the running, I wound up with three consecutive 8+ mile walking days (not intentionally, just a few short walks throughout each day) and did not factor in enough rest.
I put on five pounds of water weight and was so tired that I couldn’t complete my usual runs, and it took me a week or so to figure out the problem. That’s why I’m sitting on my butt this week. I think you should also try a week or so of sitting on your butt14 -
I think you may be underestimating the cumulative effect that all your activity has on your body. It’s easy to do that when you see some of your activity as easier than whatever you consider your “real” exercise to be.
I’m currently taking some time off because I did exactly that. I was following my usual running routine, but also doing more walking on my “rest” days. And because I wasn’t taking the walking as seriously as I took the running, I wound up with three consecutive 8+ mile walking days (not intentionally, just a few short walks throughout each day) and did not factor in enough rest.
I put on five pounds of water weight and was so tired that I couldn’t complete my usual runs, and it took me a week or so to figure out the problem. That’s why I’m sitting on my butt this week. I think you should also try a week or so of sitting on your butt
...oh. I think you may have just explained some issues I'm having. I log the 5+ miles of walking I do on my daily commute, and the 3 miles or so walking to and from the gym on Saturdays, but I don't mentally count them as 'proper exercise'. 'Proper exercise' is my BodyPump classes (2-3 per week, the two weekday ones requiring me to get up at 5am and do a lot of driving) and hiking (14+ miles on currently half my Sundays).
For some reason, my period has been MIA since January and I'm going to bed at like 8pm most evenings. And when I say 'for some reason', I think I mean 'because I am a moron'.18 -
I think you may be underestimating the cumulative effect that all your activity has on your body. It’s easy to do that when you see some of your activity as easier than whatever you consider your “real” exercise to be.
I’m currently taking some time off because I did exactly that. I was following my usual running routine, but also doing more walking on my “rest” days. And because I wasn’t taking the walking as seriously as I took the running, I wound up with three consecutive 8+ mile walking days (not intentionally, just a few short walks throughout each day) and did not factor in enough rest.
I put on five pounds of water weight and was so tired that I couldn’t complete my usual runs, and it took me a week or so to figure out the problem. That’s why I’m sitting on my butt this week. I think you should also try a week or so of sitting on your butt
...oh. I think you may have just explained some issues I'm having. I log the 5+ miles of walking I do on my daily commute, and the 3 miles or so walking to and from the gym on Saturdays, but I don't mentally count them as 'proper exercise'. 'Proper exercise' is my BodyPump classes (2-3 per week, the two weekday ones requiring me to get up at 5am and do a lot of driving) and hiking (14+ miles on currently half my Sundays).
For some reason, my period has been MIA since January and I'm going to bed at like 8pm most evenings. And when I say 'for some reason', I think I mean 'because I am a moron'.
You are not a moron and that is *exactly* what I did. I see walking as just light activity. Running is my “real” exercise. So when I walked a couple miles here and a couple there, I didn’t see it as doing very much. I didn’t even get it when I started feeling really tired or when my nagging hip and knee discomfort started acting up. Putting on a bunch of water weight, though...that will get my attention. I’m in maintenance and my weight does not fluctuate that much unless there’s a problem.
I can’t weigh in on the period part since I haven’t had one in about 7 years (thank you, IUD) but as for the rest...go forth and sit on your butt8 -
I think you may be underestimating the cumulative effect that all your activity has on your body. It’s easy to do that when you see some of your activity as easier than whatever you consider your “real” exercise to be.
I’m currently taking some time off because I did exactly that. I was following my usual running routine, but also doing more walking on my “rest” days. And because I wasn’t taking the walking as seriously as I took the running, I wound up with three consecutive 8+ mile walking days (not intentionally, just a few short walks throughout each day) and did not factor in enough rest.
I put on five pounds of water weight and was so tired that I couldn’t complete my usual runs, and it took me a week or so to figure out the problem. That’s why I’m sitting on my butt this week. I think you should also try a week or so of sitting on your butt
...oh. I think you may have just explained some issues I'm having. I log the 5+ miles of walking I do on my daily commute, and the 3 miles or so walking to and from the gym on Saturdays, but I don't mentally count them as 'proper exercise'. 'Proper exercise' is my BodyPump classes (2-3 per week, the two weekday ones requiring me to get up at 5am and do a lot of driving) and hiking (14+ miles on currently half my Sundays).
For some reason, my period has been MIA since January and I'm going to bed at like 8pm most evenings. And when I say 'for some reason', I think I mean 'because I am a moron'.
I... do the same thing. My daily commute involves a couple of miles walk -- downhill in one direction, straight uphill on the return trip -- plus whatever else needs to get done during the day. But I don't really consider it exercise because it's not like I'm working out -- I've got to get to meetings and my car somehow! And it doesn't always get ported over to MFP if my Watch or Runkeeper doesn't log it, which seems to be hit or miss.
I am relieved almost to see that I'm not the only one.
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collectingblues wrote: »I think you may be underestimating the cumulative effect that all your activity has on your body. It’s easy to do that when you see some of your activity as easier than whatever you consider your “real” exercise to be.
I’m currently taking some time off because I did exactly that. I was following my usual running routine, but also doing more walking on my “rest” days. And because I wasn’t taking the walking as seriously as I took the running, I wound up with three consecutive 8+ mile walking days (not intentionally, just a few short walks throughout each day) and did not factor in enough rest.
I put on five pounds of water weight and was so tired that I couldn’t complete my usual runs, and it took me a week or so to figure out the problem. That’s why I’m sitting on my butt this week. I think you should also try a week or so of sitting on your butt
...oh. I think you may have just explained some issues I'm having. I log the 5+ miles of walking I do on my daily commute, and the 3 miles or so walking to and from the gym on Saturdays, but I don't mentally count them as 'proper exercise'. 'Proper exercise' is my BodyPump classes (2-3 per week, the two weekday ones requiring me to get up at 5am and do a lot of driving) and hiking (14+ miles on currently half my Sundays).
For some reason, my period has been MIA since January and I'm going to bed at like 8pm most evenings. And when I say 'for some reason', I think I mean 'because I am a moron'.
I... do the same thing. My daily commute involves a couple of miles walk -- downhill in one direction, straight uphill on the return trip -- plus whatever else needs to get done during the day. But I don't really consider it exercise because it's not like I'm working out -- I've got to get to meetings and my car somehow! And it doesn't always get ported over to MFP if my Watch or Runkeeper doesn't log it, which seems to be hit or miss.
I am relieved almost to see that I'm not the only one.
Yes! I would walk to work (2.5 miles), walk a couple miles over lunch, maybe walk home. That was on my “rest day” (which was also when I’d lift and do yoga). I log all those walks, but I didn’t think of them as “exercise,” you know? To me, long runs call for full rest days; walking doesn’t. So I was definitely eating an appropriate number of calories, but not resting enough.5 -
I had a similar experience - high hunger, a weird kind of lethargy where it felt like I could push myself to do aerobic stuff but just walking felt like I could never take a full breath.
At the time I was leaner than I thought I was (just under single digit body fat), which meant I was running a higher deficit than I would have. I also was sticking towards a mostly vegetarian diet, getting protein mainly from textured vegetable protein (soy byproduct), homemade seitan, and yogurt. The high fiber and the quality of protein might have effected some of it.4 -
I hear where people are coming from with the overtraining idea, and it's a great thing to consider. I do worry a little when I see people told (at varying amounts of exercise) that they're "working out too much" or "doing too much cardio" or that sort of thing. Overtraining is very individual, very context-specific. What would be overtraining for me if repeated for days (let alone weeks) would be a big sequence of rest days for national team (Olympic) athletes in my sport.
I think that overtraining is a good thing to consider in OP's scenario, and there are markers (like an increase in resting heart rate) that sometimes occur when overtraining, that are useful inputs. Whether overtraining in a technical sense or not, when facing persistent fatigue, a rest/recovery break could be a good thing to try purely on speculation; If it's not excessively long (to the point of materially detraining), there's no real downside.
I'd point out, though, that OP says "I've been working out consistently for years and I'm pretty fit." While that doesn't mean her current routine is definitively no problem, it does imply that her threshold for overtraining (i.e., what constitutes "a lot of exercise" or "too much exercise") will differ from what it would be for those among us who've more recently become active.
My main point in commenting is not to dissuade OP from considering this, because it's a good thought. It's more to make sure we're not collectively painting a picture (for others reading) where there's some absolute level of exercise frequency/intensity/duration that's inherently "overtraining". Quite low amounts of exercise can be "overtraining" for beginners; on the flip side, routines that would be impossible for regular folks to do for a day, are fine for elite athletes to do for weeks at a time.
Moreover (of course), the context can make a normal routine have an overtraining effect for an experienced person, so the stress, sleep limitations, possible undiagnosed nutrition issues, etc., can contribute to an overtraining outcome.
Apologies for the digression.9 -
I hear where people are coming from with the overtraining idea, and it's a great thing to consider. I do worry a little when I see people told (at varying amounts of exercise) that they're "working out too much" or "doing too much cardio" or that sort of thing. Overtraining is very individual, very context-specific. What would be overtraining for me if repeated for days (let alone weeks) would be a big sequence of rest days for national team (Olympic) athletes in my sport.
I think that overtraining is a good thing to consider in OP's scenario, and there are markers (like an increase in resting heart rate) that sometimes occur when overtraining, that are useful inputs. Whether overtraining in a technical sense or not, when facing persistent fatigue, a rest/recovery break could be a good thing to try purely on speculation; If it's not excessively long (to the point of materially detraining), there's no real downside.
I'd point out, though, that OP says "I've been working out consistently for years and I'm pretty fit." While that doesn't mean her current routine is definitively no problem, it does imply that her threshold for overtraining (i.e., what constitutes "a lot of exercise" or "too much exercise") will differ from what it would be for those among us who've more recently become active.
My main point in commenting is not to dissuade OP from considering this, because it's a good thought. It's more to make sure we're not collectively painting a picture (for others reading) where there's some absolute level of exercise frequency/intensity/duration that's inherently "overtraining". Quite low amounts of exercise can be "overtraining" for beginners; on the flip side, routines that would be impossible for regular folks to do for a day, are fine for elite athletes to do for weeks at a time.
Moreover (of course), the context can make a normal routine have an overtraining effect for an experienced person, so the stress, sleep limitations, possible undiagnosed nutrition issues, etc., can contribute to an overtraining outcome.
Apologies for the digression.
I think most of us who are commenting have also been working out at fairly intense levels for a while. I’ve been running for over four years now. Under-recovery isn’t just a newbie thing. In fact, the experiences people are sharing seem just the opposite—those of us who are very active and have been very active for a while might underestimate the impact of adding additional low intensity exercise.
I think it’s also the case that lack of adequate recovery can take a while to catch up to you, and several of us have trouble figuring out that it’s what we’re experiencing, so we just keep doing what we’ve been doing and potentially make the problem worse.
OP is telling us that her “rest day” includes an exercise class and 10k-20k steps, which might not constitute enough actual rest. That doesn’t mean it’s the definite or only cause of OP’s symptoms, but I think it’s worth looking into.4
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