Diet and fitness fatigue

fit_chickx

Diet and fitness fatigue

I have been maintaining approximately five years. (I’ve lost over 100 pounds)
I distance run and lift. I feel Ike I’m pounding myself into the ground. I have no energy to get through the rest of the day. I work out three to four times a week, I do different types of cardio for an hour. lifting days. Forty-five mins to an hour. Saturdays twice a month are long runs.

I maintain in the 130’s I give myself a ten-pound bounce range to maintain. When the scale goes up I go back to 1000/1200 calories low carb to drop weight. Maintaining I eat about 1300 more other days. Still low carb (I’m a type 1 diabetic)

I’ve reached my weight goal and distance running goals (5K,10K, half and full marathon) Now I’m questioning why am I doing all this at my age? *laughing*

I’m taking a solid week or more off dieting and I’m not going to the gym. I need to reevaluate my goals.

Rfblanchette

It's easy to push yourself too hard with exercise. Weight loss or maintenance has a lot more to do with what you put in your mouth than what you do in the gym. There is no need to beat yourself up with your fitness routine. You have to come up with a routine that you can maintain and enjoy without putting your body into a constant state of inflammation. Chronic cardio is a term Mark Sisson came up with to describe the condition you are in. You feel bad because you are breaking your body down daily and it is in a perpetual state of inflammation as it tries to heal. A lot of endurance athletes suffer from this. You need to ramp down the intensity of your workouts and get plenty of rest in between.

I used to be a chronic exerciser. I would exercise no matter how I felt, no matter what the weather, nothing stopped me. You know what I got for it? Two herniated discs in my back, worn out shoulder joints, and chronic pain in my feet. I'll be 49 in a month or so and I have a different attitude about exercise now. I take it much easier. Being super fit won't help you live longer anyway. In fact, excessive aerobic exercise will damage your heart. (Look it up on Google. Most marathoner's have scarred hearts.) Moderate exercise is the key to longevity and good health. Walking is the best all around exercise. No equipment necessary and it won't wreck your heart or your joints. I walk 3 miles, 6 days per week. I jog just one day per week. Strength training is great too but you don't have to be a maniac about it. I lift twice per week for 15 minutes each session.

I would recommend that you read some of Mark Sisson's (of Primal Blueprint fame) articles on exercise. He used to be a competitive Ironman triathlete and had the same problems you are having. I would also read the book The Anderson Method by William Anderson about calorie counting. I have used Anderson's method along with MyFitnessPal to lose over 40 pounds so far. Anderson has a method for maintenance too that is common sense and will allow you to eat more on weekends so you don't feel deprived. Anderson lost 140 pounds and has kept it off for 30 years. He knows maintenance.

Don't give up. You just need to let your body recover a bit. Don't believe the lies that age won't affect you either. It affects everyone. That doesn't mean you can't do what you want to do. It just means you can't do it with the same intensity. You are supposed to enjoy your life. Not beat the crap out of yourself every day in pursuit of some fitness goal. Your body is talking to you. You need to listen to it.

Five years is an awesome streak and I hope to be there someday too. You should be proud of yourself!

Tedebearduff

fit_chickx wrote: »

Diet and fitness fatigue

I have been maintaining approximately five years. (I’ve lost over 100 pounds)
I distance run and lift. I feel Ike I’m pounding myself into the ground. I have no energy to get through the rest of the day. I work out three to four times a week, I do different types of cardio for an hour. lifting days. Forty-five mins to an hour. Saturdays twice a month are long runs.

I maintain in the 130’s I give myself a ten-pound bounce range to maintain. When the scale goes up I go back to 1000/1200 calories low carb to drop weight. Maintaining I eat about 1300 more other days. Still low carb (I’m a type 1 diabetic)

I’ve reached my weight goal and distance running goals (5K,10K, half and full marathon) Now I’m questioning why am I doing all this at my age? *laughing*

I’m taking a solid week or more off dieting and I’m not going to the gym. I need to reevaluate my goals.

You never mentioned your sleep habits which would be the most important thing for fatigue... well recovery in general is the most important thing IMO. A week off is always needed I do it twice a year when I go away with the wife! 100% wait until youre done and see how much stronger you are and feel!

middlehaitch

Not sure if your height or age but at 130 and not eating back exercise cals you are seriously under fuelling your body eating ~1300 cals a day.

This underfuelling explains the ‘have no energy to get through the rest of the day’.

Your calorie intake has compromised your NEAT. This means you are moving less. Moving less means you need less calories.
It can end up being a viscous cycle.

If you up your cals to the cals MFP recommends for maintenance while you are taking your exercise break, your daily energy levels should increase.

You will probably see a weight gain, ignore it, it is extra water and waste transiting your system and will even out over time.

Once you start back exercising, eat those calories, you need the fuel. Better fuelling means better performance.

You may want to revisit your logging and tighten it up by using a food scale and checking entries against the mfg label/website or the USDA..

Cheers, h.

(I’m 102lbs and started maintenance at 1200 cals with ~200 cals for exercise 5x60 per week. (So a TDEE of 1350 a day)

Over time I’ve upped my cals so I now have a TDEE of 1750 (maintaining 10yr). The gradual increase in cals increased my daily energy levels, so I did more, and improved my performance in the gym. Kind of the vicious cycle of energy depletion when underfuelling in reverse)

J72FIT

fit_chickx wrote: »

Diet and fitness fatigue

I have been maintaining approximately five years. (I’ve lost over 100 pounds)
I distance run and lift. I feel Ike I’m pounding myself into the ground. I have no energy to get through the rest of the day. I work out three to four times a week, I do different types of cardio for an hour. lifting days. Forty-five mins to an hour. Saturdays twice a month are long runs.

I maintain in the 130’s I give myself a ten-pound bounce range to maintain. When the scale goes up I go back to 1000/1200 calories low carb to drop weight. Maintaining I eat about 1300 more other days. Still low carb (I’m a type 1 diabetic)

I’ve reached my weight goal and distance running goals (5K,10K, half and full marathon) Now I’m questioning why am I doing all this at my age? *laughing*

I’m taking a solid week or more off dieting and I’m not going to the gym. I need to reevaluate my goals.

This is a good idea. IMO sounds like over-training, insufficient calories, or both...

AnnPT77

Nutrition adequacy? Calories, for sure, but protein, iron, B12, D, among others? Blood tests are better than self-diagnosis: Been tested for nutritional factors lately? Thyroid would be a good thing to test, too, if it hasn't been done recently.