Normal to have an energy crash mid day?

LiLee2018

So I just started to seriously jump rope a week ago. I was sedentary before that, but my energy level on the average was pretty steady throughout the day.
Since I started jumping rope though, my energy crashes by about mid day (jump rope in the early morning). Is this normal when you first start working out?
I normally have a SF monster in the morning and MAYBE a cup of coffee too, but that's it for caffeine and that used to be enough. Now, I feel like I'm needing more just to keep myself awake.

Did this happen to you when you first started? If so, about how long did it take for your energy to feel normal again?

L1zardQueen

Are you eating back the calories burned jump roping?

Jthanmyfitnesspal

I'm in my 50s and my energy drops in the afternoon quite often (but not always, it's hard to predict). It can be worse or better depending on if I exercise in the early morning. Certainly the quality of my sleep is a big factor. Also, having too much caffeine in the morning can make the afternoon worse. I don't know what an SF Monster is, but if it's one of those Monster Juice drinks, then you are getting a lot of caffeine, and god help you when it wears off!

The best remedy is to take a little lie-down, but many work environments aren't amenable to that ( ). It is still very helpful to take a break, move around, and eat a snack (whole fruit works for me). Also, if you have a time of day where you become less productive, that's a good time to exercise. Thus, the 2PM workout is born!

So, as for adding morning exercise, give it a little time and see what happens. Add a little walk when you get tired.

Best of luck!

heybales

If your deficit attempt (rate of loss) was already bordering on unreasonable - this easily could have pushed it over the edge.

Normally the body adapts to that by slowing you down in other subtle ways normally not even noticed.
If you are crashing now, those other ways have probably already happened - meaning you were already burning less than you possibly could have.

Now your body to conserve even more calories because of a deficit bigger than it wants is really going to make you slow down.

If that is reason - you can keep it up and see if your nails get brittle, skin gets dry, hair falls out. Other forms of slowing you down. Oh, being really cold because it doesn't want to generate heat.
That's an extreme way of proving that's what it is.

Or just take a reasonable deficit (which means eat more on days you do more) and let your body burn as much as it can through normal activities.

No - it's not normal unless undereating too much.

ninerbuff

Lol, luckily for me I NAP in the afternoon. I've been napping for the last 16 years. The flexibility of my job allows it and it's great for my evening clients because I'm NOT wanting to just finish the day and leave.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

SnifterPug

I used to have terrible energy crashes mid afternoon in the days when I ate a very carb heavy breakfast and then a very carb heavy lunch. Exercise didn't really factor in those days.

Nowadays it is very rare for me to get an energy crash but occasionally it happens if I have had a very intense exercise session that morning. It won't typically happen until mid afternoon.

rosebarnalice

The timing of exercise can definitely affect my energy levels.

Although I've tried many times, working out early in the morning really doesn't work well for me. I feel crabby and schlubby through my whole workout, and I sort of sag all day.

I prefer to exercise after work and before dinner. But I know others for whom that would be a terrible time for them.

Get to know your body and your brain!

LiLee2018

I do eat more on days that I exercise. BUT maybe my daily intake is still too low b/c I am experiencing a lot of what @heybales mentioned.

SF monster= Sugar Free Monster... yes the energy drink lol

I wish I could nap, but have my youngest at home and about the time that my energy tanks, I have to go pick up my other 2 at school. Plus napping always messes up my sleep at night.

callsitlikeiseeit

my energy is naturally highest in the morning. I have my coffee, no breakfast, and am perfectly content to go to the gym, pool, run errands, whatever my morning holds that day.

and then I eat lunch.

Sometimes I start to slip mid afternoon, 2 or 3ish, BUT we live on a farm and are up at 330/4 am. We go to bed super early, too- in bed by 7. hubby falls asleep before I do (around 8), but I'm usually only a half hour or hour behind him. if I need it, ill have a cup of coffee to get me through the afternoon and supper and then go to bed

LiLee2018

rosebarnalice wrote: »

The timing of exercise can definitely affect my energy levels.

Although I've tried many times, working out early in the morning really doesn't work well for me. I feel crabby and schlubby through my whole workout, and I sort of sag all day.

I prefer to exercise after work and before dinner. But I know others for whom that would be a terrible time for them.

Get to know your body and your brain!

I have to do it early right now or I won't do it at all. One of the things I'm battling is my laziness lol. If I put off exercising, I'll make every excuse not to do it, so I do it before I can talk myself out of it.
BUT I understand though. Maybe putting it off until later in the day would be better for me. One thing at a time though. I'll definitely keep this in mind in the future.

heybales

So here's a potential extra deficit the body may not like.

Did you select the MFP activity level Sedentary (Not very active on app)?

Because that isn't true with 3 kids, one at home all the time. And household chores nights and weekends.
Mothers with desk jobs discover the same things have to be done nights and weekends still, so they are still Lightly-Active despite the 8 hrs of sitting work, it's the other over 8 hrs daily and weekends that makes up for it.

middlehaitch

Something else to take into account along with all the excellent adequate nutrition and calories info above.

It sounds like you have just started and gone into it whole hog.
I totally understand having to do it regularly and stick to it so you will build the habit, but you may be going in just too fast moving from a ‘sedentary’ lifestyle (just meaning non exercise, 3 children is not really sedentary.

Try backing off. Not sure how long you are jumping rope per session or frequency, but say you are doing daily, switch to alternate days with a complementary exercise (yoga, tai chi) on the alternate days.
Your body will thank you, especially your knees, skipping can be hard on them.

Or/and cut your skipping time in half and do a walking routine (Leslie Sansone (?) on YouTube), to fill your allotted work out time, until you get your stamina up.

Too much too fast can be exhausting and sometimes cause unneeded injury.

Get your calories and nutrition at a level that you are fuelling your activity while still losing, as said above in PPs, and work your way slowly into the exercise.

(I’m not familiar with caffeine at high levels, but is your high caffeine in the am contributing to an afternoon crash? Something to ponder and maybe work with)

Cheers, h.

AnnPT77

Doing high intensity exercise is extra fatiguing, especially if done daily. If the jumping is high intensity for you, maybe alternate with something lower intensity, or do low intensity mostly and high once a week or thereabouts.

Your SF Monster and/or coffee are nutritionally negligible. Are you exercising before you eat? If so, consider eating something before you exercise. Some people do well exercising fasted, others crash and burn. (Truth in advertising: I crash and burn.) There's no weight loss or health magic in fasted exercise, no matter what some of the diet hucksters say. (Fasted training can help endurance athletes train for better fuel utilization during long-duration competitions, but you don't sound like That Person, really, yet.)

Even if eating before exercise, adding exercise can push us over the edge into too-high cumulative physical/psychological stress, leading to fatigue. (Other stressors can include a calorie deficit, a stressful home/work life, a pandemic, under-nutrition, poor sleep, and more. They add up.) If this resonates, consider managing the total stress load better, starting with the most controllable factors, whatever those may be in your life.

Bottom line: No, not normal to crash mid-day. Also, potentially (probably) fixable. Try some of what people have suggested, let us know how it goes, if you feel up to it?

Best wishes!

Whatsthemotive

Thank you for asking the question. I learned too.

LiLee2018

Nah. Other than doing just regular parent things, I'm pretty sedentary. Or I was.
I've been taking about every 3rd? day to rest so I'm not jumping rope every day.
I do have A LOT of stress in my life though and my sleep in general is usually pretty crappy so I'm sure those aren't helping anything.
I'll have to figure out something though and see what helps.

kshama2001

SnifterPug wrote: »

I used to have terrible energy crashes mid afternoon in the days when I ate a very carb heavy breakfast and then a very carb heavy lunch. Exercise didn't really factor in those days.

Nowadays it is very rare for me to get an energy crash but occasionally it happens if I have had a very intense exercise session that morning. It won't typically happen until mid afternoon.

Yes, I used to get crashes before I realized I needed more protein in relationship to carbs.

I will also crash after something unusually intense for me, like snow shoeing.