How to build enough energy, to start building more energy? oof
Geocitiesuser
Posts: 1,429 Member
What a pickle.
I'm in the worst shape of my life, and now that I am a "remote worker" all mandatory exercise has been removed from my life.
I was good for about a week and a half doing cardio and some body weight exercises. I'm not new to this, I don't need to learn about nutrition or how to properly exercise, but I am COMPLETELY void of energy.
Just rolling out of bed feels like it takes a large chunk of my energy reserves. Normally exercise builds more energy, but there is some sort of hump I'm not able to get over. I'll wake up at 7am and find myself going to lay down at 6pm exhausted.
I suppose the answer is "just do it", and "try and try again". But I'm so tired. Always so tired. 20 minutes of cardio and 30 push ups makes me sleep for 12 hours. Not to mention eating 2200 calories somehow makes me feel like I'm starving. Absolute worst shape of my life.
Motivate me or tell me how to escape this
This year+ long lock down may literally kill me, as I've put on over 100lbs in the blink of an eye.
I'm in the worst shape of my life, and now that I am a "remote worker" all mandatory exercise has been removed from my life.
I was good for about a week and a half doing cardio and some body weight exercises. I'm not new to this, I don't need to learn about nutrition or how to properly exercise, but I am COMPLETELY void of energy.
Just rolling out of bed feels like it takes a large chunk of my energy reserves. Normally exercise builds more energy, but there is some sort of hump I'm not able to get over. I'll wake up at 7am and find myself going to lay down at 6pm exhausted.
I suppose the answer is "just do it", and "try and try again". But I'm so tired. Always so tired. 20 minutes of cardio and 30 push ups makes me sleep for 12 hours. Not to mention eating 2200 calories somehow makes me feel like I'm starving. Absolute worst shape of my life.
Motivate me or tell me how to escape this
This year+ long lock down may literally kill me, as I've put on over 100lbs in the blink of an eye. 2
Replies
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Just to tack on, I even quit smoking, and cut down on coffee, about a month ago. It hasn't helped, surprisingly. My energy levels are that bad that I was willing to quit cold turkey. I eat my veggies. I take a multi. :shrug: It's noon and I'm ready for bed2
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Look at your protein.
Also get bloodwork done at the doctor, if you haven't.
That said, the thing that did most for my energy was... losing weight. As in my TDEE has gone UP weight lower weight so I'm eating more to maintain now than I was 35lbs ago.3 -
wunderkindking wrote: »That said, the thing that did most for my energy was... losing weight. As in my TDEE has gone UP weight lower weight so I'm eating more to maintain now than I was 35lbs ago.
That's the challenge. Building up enough energy to continue losing weight/building health. As it stands now, even if I ate 1800 calories I day, I'd lose a miniscule amount do to the extreme lack of energy and exercise. I work on a computer. I don't.... move. At all.
In the past I at least had a baseline of walking to my car and into/out of an office. Now I'm so out of shape that I just literally don't move. So... might be a bit of a different situation.1 -
What is your age?...how much overweight are you?...have you been checked medically?...do you suffer from depression?
Any of these factors could be the reason you are tired...too many “ ifs “ to give you any advice2 -
I don’t mean to sound like a hard *kitten*, but you either do, or you don’t.
It’s there on the other side, waiting for you, but no one can push you there except yourself.
You either accept where you are, the aches, pains, GERD, exhaustion, the frumpiness and dumpiness, and everything else that goes with it, or you make up your mind that this is the day.
This is all said with much love. Trust me, I’ve been there, so I know what you’re feeling. I still have days like that, but now for different reasons. (Pollen season and yoga butt, I’m looking at YOU!)
4 -
Well yeah, i even said that in my original post. The will is there, but the energy there. There is a physical barrier that I can't seem to get past. Like I said, moderate exercise causes me to sleep for 12 hours, and I'm in pretty dire straights.
So I'd be curious to hear from other people who were in that situation, that can offer their story or inspiration.
"If you want to be a millionaire just make more money duh"1 -
I now regret coming here looking for words of advice or inspiration So silly of me. I'll deal with it on my own. 0
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Geocitiesuser wrote: »Well yeah, i even said that in my original post. The will is there, but the energy there. There is a physical barrier that I can't seem to get past. Like I said, moderate exercise causes me to sleep for 12 hours, and I'm in pretty dire straights.
So I'd be curious to hear from other people who were in that situation, that can offer their story or inspiration.
"If you want to be a millionaire just make more money duh"
You sound just like my clinically depressed daughter who struggles just to get out of bed when she is at her lowest. Maybe the switch to be a "remote worker" might be a factor?
If you think it is a physical problem then your first port of call is your Doctor for some tests. If you think it might be depression your Doctor is also the route to follow.
No-one can actually motivate you, that must come from yourself and I'd suggest getting self-motivated to get to the cause of your no energy/tired all the time issue is step one.
Step two would be to stop filling your house with food if you have managed to gain so much in such a short time. In terms of the very limited resource of motivation using it when shopping once or twice a week is far more efficient than trying to be motivated to eat less of available food every waking hour.
You aren't going to exercise away 100lbs of excess weight and BTW I'd feel pretty exhausted too if I had to carry all that extra baggage around all day.6 -
I DID carry around that much weight. All I can tell you is, you’ve got to make the decision to either seek medical help if you think it’s a medical issue, therapy of you think it might be depression or if, like me, it was simply a matter of not being able to stop, you’ve got to put on your grown up panties and make a plan.
I went to years and years of sales seminars where they preached “have a goal, make a plan, take the steps to get there”.
I always felt such a failure, like I was the worst salesperson in the world. Couldn’t bring myself to do it. But with weight loss, now I understand.
Don’t feel regretful for coming here for advice or inspiration. That’s a first, tentative small step.
We are here pulling FOR you, not pulling you down.
Hugs.8 -
If you want “stories”, here is mine. I have lost more weight since posting this. Ultimately went too low (which still sounds unbelievable to me) and deliberately chose to put a few back on.
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10763291/my-turn-to-overshare-my-adventure/p1
I sincerely hope you will stay with MFP and post in the forums and let us know how you do. The forums here have been helpful beyond any words I could ever express.4 -
I have ME/CFS, my body literally doesn't make sufficient ATP (energy), so I feel pretty qualified to speak to this.
First, get thee to a doctor and have standard blood tests run, to rule out and deficiencies, medical issues, possible depression, etc.
Second, exercise, what are you doing for cardio? Did you start out with less and build up? Over what sort of time period? Deconditioning is real, and it takes some time to rebuild and push through that. I'm assuming the wanting to exercise is at least in part to increase energy expenditure for weight loss. If so, you may be better served right now by just increasing NEAT (non-exercise thermogenic activity), aka just move more. Set an alarm/timer to get up and move about for a couple of minutes every hour. Go for a gentle 5 minute walk at lunch time, then 7 minutes, then 10. Then add another walk in the evening, building up the time the same. There's a whole NEAT thread that I believe is linked in one of the forums' 'most helpful posts' sticky.
You do not need to be doing hard out cardio for 20 minutes plus 30 pushups (fwiw, that would probably render me useless for a month, like, just not even an option for me). Nice to work up to and beyond if/when you're able, but not necessary for weight loss. Pushing hard to the point where you have no energy is counter-productive. You'll just dial down your subconscious movement to compensate, and probably burn fewer calories overall than if you skipped the workout and just aimed for more incidental movement.
I've dropped 15kg since October, with probably more days not being able to exercise than days I've been able to go for a walk (and many with very limited movement, like sub 1000 steps). It's slowing now with smaller deficit due to smaller me, but that's okay. I do what I can within my limits.
**************
Annnnnd, I just went to check OP's profile to see if I could gain any further insight, and it seems they threw their toys out of the cot and quit *insert eyeroll*. But rather than delete the above, which I used precious energy typing to try to help someone out, I'm going to leave it, in the hopes it may help someone else.14 -
@Nony_Mouse I can’t tell if they threw the towel in or not, however, I certainly hope not. They’ve logged in for well over 1,000 days and had hundreds of comments with lots of “insightful” checkmarks.
Perhaps there’s more going on than what we see here. If so, I sincerely hope they find away to turn things around and find themselves in a better place.
I would feel awful if I’d unintentionall scared a long time user and great board contributor off. Or anyone else for that matter.
We are all trying to reach the same goal, and I’ve seen nothing but genuine support here for one another.
Sincerest apologies @Geocitiesuser May tomorrow be a brighter day for you.7 -
@springlering62 - you said absolutely nothing to warrant that flounce (account definitely appears to have been deleted), and have nothing to feel guilty about.5
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Well I'm not OP but I got great inspiration from the above responses.
I'm not new to weight loss, I lost and maintained a 70 lb loss for several years. But this year I packed on fat. I barely exercised and started eating crap foods that have zero benefit and eating in excess. And I'm 59..i cant jump around or run like the old days.
I had a wake up call and you all gave me a lot to think about.
I've also been in sales so I too have heard all the seminars..make a plan! And follow the plan!
I've got a goal of a hiking vacation this fall. And darn it..I'm going to do it!
Thanks!
@springlering62
@sijomial
@Nony_Mouse5 -
Well I'm not OP but I got great inspiration from the above responses.
I'm not new to weight loss, I lost and maintained a 70 lb loss for several years. But this year I packed on fat. I barely exercised and started eating crap foods that have zero benefit and eating in excess. And I'm 59..i cant jump around or run like the old days.
I had a wake up call and you all gave me a lot to think about.
I've also been in sales so I too have heard all the seminars..make a plan! And follow the plan!
I've got a goal of a hiking vacation this fall. And darn it..I'm going to do it!
Thanks!
@springlering62
@sijomial
@Nony_Mouse
About the only thing I would have harped on a bit more after scanning the thread is... a doctor's visit by the OP.
Given the symptoms, if she were someone I knew IRL, I would be concerned about depression, iron/red blood cell levels, maybe even thyroid levels and would like to know that a competent professional had ruled out basic health issues as factors in terms of how she felt...1 -
Geocitiesuser wrote: »Well yeah, i even said that in my original post. The will is there, but the energy there. There is a physical barrier that I can't seem to get past. Like I said, moderate exercise causes me to sleep for 12 hours, and I'm in pretty dire straights.
So I'd be curious to hear from other people who were in that situation, that can offer their story or inspiration.
"If you want to be a millionaire just make more money duh"
Maybe it’s my story you’re looking for.
I was diagnosed with fibro, Cfs, arthritis, and a few other things one day. I went to the Dr. for shingles pain. I couldn’t sleep, couldn’t remember a time when I didn’t have tears in my eyes.
The Dr. very kindly looked me in the eyes and said “Honey, you’re a mess.” He asked me where I wanted to start. I said “sleep”. I think I could deal with everything better if I could just sleep.
Sounds like you’ve got that one down.
Then he said, you’re gonna cry. It’s gonna hurt. He helped me with the sleeping. I had to help myself with the rest. I had him test my vitamin D level. It was very low. I took the pills. I quit sugar. I tried to eat 100% healthy foods—no treats at all for a while. I started exercising. I had a pedometer. I started with 300 steps a day. That’s all, all day. But I tried to get my 300 steps in every day. That’s where I started building. Most people take more steps than that in a day just going to the bathroom. I planned every trip. Dirty dishes in one hand, dirty clothes in the other. To the laundry room, clothes in, to the kitchen, dishes in sink, glass of water in one hand, can of tuna, spoon and can opener in the other. Back to bed, rest before I had the tuna for lunch.
Out of bed 3 or 4 times a day. That’s about as bad as I can imagine.
I decided I was never gonna be 100% better, but I could be 2 or 3 % better. Vitamin d= 2% better. Better food= another 2% better. Better sleep= another 2% better. Consistent 300 steps a day, no more, no less =2% better. I just kept building.
15 years later, I can walk 6 to 7 thousand steps, but if I walk 8000, I won’t do much at all for 3 days after.
I’m still building. I’m healthier and more energetic at 71 than I was at 70.
It kinda sounds like “Honey, you’re a mess.” Where will you start?11 -
OP, if you are peeking in to see everyone’s reaction to you deleting your account - there’s no shame in admitting you overreacted.
There are really only two possibilities - there’s something physically wrong or there’s something mentally wrong. Because sleeping all day and being exhausted all the time isn’t normal. It’s not a personal failing. Something is wrong. Due to the timing I’m guessing you are suffering from depression, which is a real problem, caused by chemicals in your brain, and not something you can just decide to ignore and get over. But it could be a physical problem. There are a million and one possible physical problems so I’m not even going to make suggestions. But you need to see a doctor. Use whatever limited energy you have to get yourself a doctor’s appointment and go to it.3 -
Well I'm not OP but I got great inspiration from the above responses.
I'm not new to weight loss, I lost and maintained a 70 lb loss for several years. But this year I packed on fat. I barely exercised and started eating crap foods that have zero benefit and eating in excess. And I'm 59..i cant jump around or run like the old days.
I had a wake up call and you all gave me a lot to think about.
I've also been in sales so I too have heard all the seminars..make a plan! And follow the plan!
I've got a goal of a hiking vacation this fall. And darn it..I'm going to do it!
Thanks!
@springlering62
@sijomial
@Nony_Mouse
About the only thing I would have harped on a bit more after scanning the thread is... a doctor's visit by the OP.
Given the symptoms, if she were someone I knew IRL, I would be concerned about depression, iron/red blood cell levels, maybe even thyroid levels and would like to know that a competent professional had ruled out basic health issues as factors in terms of how she felt...
It's a male. He was into martial arts, and there's a thread he started over a year ago with him breaking boards--hook kick.2 -
Well I'm not OP but I got great inspiration from the above responses.
I'm not new to weight loss, I lost and maintained a 70 lb loss for several years. But this year I packed on fat. I barely exercised and started eating crap foods that have zero benefit and eating in excess. And I'm 59..i cant jump around or run like the old days.
I had a wake up call and you all gave me a lot to think about.
I've also been in sales so I too have heard all the seminars..make a plan! And follow the plan!
I've got a goal of a hiking vacation this fall. And darn it..I'm going to do it!
Thanks!
@springlering62
@sijomial
@Nony_Mouse
About the only thing I would have harped on a bit more after scanning the thread is... a doctor's visit by the OP.
Given the symptoms, if she were someone I knew IRL, I would be concerned about depression, iron/red blood cell levels, maybe even thyroid levels and would like to know that a competent professional had ruled out basic health issues as factors in terms of how she felt...
Seconded.
OP asked, “Motivate me or tell me how to escape this”, and if OP quit less than 3 hours later reading replies from those who were trying to do either (or both), then for me that’s a sure sign that there’s something wrong and they need advice from a doctor.
[Unless, of course, flouncing off in a huff is ‘very normal’ for the OP, in which case it isn’t an additional symptom, just a life choice.]2 -
@bebeisfit i had a walking pilgrimage scheduled in Spain last year. I had a good time “practicing” around town with my loaded backpack, although I got some oddball looks. I hope your hiking trip happens and is WONDERFUL.
@corinasue1143 i see you around all the time but this is the first time I’ve heard your story. You completely inspire me.
When I was really struggling with a project we had invested heavily in, my husband said something that resonated with me. “Don’t stress, Mel. It’s better than it was before.”
I may not run fast or far, my squats may not be “*kitten* to the grass”, I’m a scaredy cat with switch-kicks, the belly roll may frustrate me, but everything is better than it was before.4 -
Geocitiesuser wrote: »What a pickle.
Just rolling out of bed feels like it takes a large chunk of my energy reserves. Normally exercise builds more energy, but there is some sort of hump I'm not able to get over. I'll wake up at 7am and find myself going to lay down at 6pm exhausted.
There's a couple of issues to unpack here. There's several reasons why you might be physically so tired, and it's not a simple fix.
There's nutrition -- what you are eating might be causing you to not have energy. Simple carbs and crappy foods with no nutrition will make you fatigued.
There's depression/anxiety -- fatigue is a common symptom. Also messes with sleep.
Thyroid issues -- it's always possible that your symptoms have little or nothing to do with your weight or fitness. Always worth a check.
What I would recommend:
Make a doctor appointment. Fatigue at this level is a real medical issue and we're not medical professionals.
Try gentle/restorative yoga.0 -
I would highly recommend trying restorative yoga...yoga designed to be gentle and restore energy. There are programs online for free (such as on YouTube). Even better, with a certified teacher. A lot of these practices literally can be done in your bed if you like.
And I won't pretend yoga will fix everything. This is a complex problem which the more holistic approach the better.
0 -
Geocitiesuser wrote: »What a pickle.
I'm in the worst shape of my life, and now that I am a "remote worker" all mandatory exercise has been removed from my life.
I was good for about a week and a half doing cardio and some body weight exercises. I'm not new to this, I don't need to learn about nutrition or how to properly exercise, but I am COMPLETELY void of energy.
Just rolling out of bed feels like it takes a large chunk of my energy reserves. Normally exercise builds more energy, but there is some sort of hump I'm not able to get over. I'll wake up at 7am and find myself going to lay down at 6pm exhausted.
I suppose the answer is "just do it", and "try and try again". But I'm so tired. Always so tired. 20 minutes of cardio and 30 push ups makes me sleep for 12 hours. Not to mention eating 2200 calories somehow makes me feel like I'm starving. Absolute worst shape of my life.
Motivate me or tell me how to escape this This year+ long lock down may literally kill me, as I've put on over 100lbs in the blink of an eye.
Talk to your doctor. Make sure you aren't deficient in something. Also, as someone who has suffered with depression, you could be depressed.1 -
Well I'm not OP but I got great inspiration from the above responses.
I'm not new to weight loss, I lost and maintained a 70 lb loss for several years. But this year I packed on fat. I barely exercised and started eating crap foods that have zero benefit and eating in excess. And I'm 59..i cant jump around or run like the old days.
I had a wake up call and you all gave me a lot to think about.
I've also been in sales so I too have heard all the seminars..make a plan! And follow the plan!
I've got a goal of a hiking vacation this fall. And darn it..I'm going to do it!
Thanks!
@springlering62
@sijomial
@Nony_Mouse
About the only thing I would have harped on a bit more after scanning the thread is... a doctor's visit by the OP.
Given the symptoms, if she were someone I knew IRL, I would be concerned about depression, iron/red blood cell levels, maybe even thyroid levels and would like to know that a competent professional had ruled out basic health issues as factors in terms of how she felt...
Seconded.
OP asked, “Motivate me or tell me how to escape this”, and if OP quit less than 3 hours later reading replies from those who were trying to do either (or both), then for me that’s a sure sign that there’s something wrong and they need advice from a doctor.
[Unless, of course, flouncing off in a huff is ‘very normal’ for the OP, in which case it isn’t an additional symptom, just a life choice.]
From memory, actually pretty typical reaction to anything he didn't like. The actual quitting is new, and completely over the top.1
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