Feeling very tired, almost sick! Any suggestions on....

Belita38

Hello there!
Well I am a very active person, I love going to the gym, lifting, running and if I could I would spend much more time at the gym.
But for the past week I am not feeling well. I am always very tired, I sleep my usual 7 hours but it doesn´t seem to be enough.
I have headaches ou migraine almost everyday, I feel as if I were getting sick.
And with that I don´t have the energy I need to go to the gym and to do my work at home.
When I leave my job I usually go to the gym, then home, prepare dinner, do the laundry, prepare meals for the next day and do some other things as the house "requires".
But the past week I wasn´t able to do almost anything! :-(
My head hurts, sometimes my throat hurts, I don´t feel motivated, I am a little bit down with all of that.
And I just don´t know what to do or what is happening with me!
Any ideias/suggestions?
I just hate feeling that way and not be able to do everything I usually do! :sad:

Belita38

In severe cases of exhaustion, symptoms like migraine, backache and stomach (and sometimes even ulcer), sharp fall of hair and irritable bowel syndrome appear.

That´s me....

Hendrix7

Take a week off from training, see a doctor.

heybales

How long have you been going full steam like that while on a diet?

When was the last time you took an exercise break and only walked?

Even pros in many sports, not eating at deficit, find it very beneficial to take a break from exercise and truly let the body recovery.

More so when you add the stress of diet.

Might also look over the weekly schedule and confirm you are allowing enough time in general for rest, which is where the actual recovery and getting stronger from your workouts actually occurs.
You follow hard lifting days with easy cardio days, or more lifting or HIIT for long time which is just like lifting?
You do multiple days of all out cardio as hard as you can, and/or long stretches on those days for 60 min or longer?

If you don't give your body rest, it will usually force it out of you one way or another, eventually. You doing it purposely is usually a much better result than it forcing rest on you. Because by then the recovery could be lengthy.

Belita38

Answering your questions...
How long have you been going full steam like that while on a diet?

37 days

When was the last time you took an exercise break and only walked?

Usually one day a week. It will be tomorrow. The thing is that I do it not only to have some rest at the gym but mainly because I don´t have any time to go there. I have a stepson who stays almost only with me and I have to pay attention to him and I have lots of things to do at home. By the end of the day I feel more tired then when I go to the gym...

Even pros in many sports, not eating at deficit, find it very beneficial to take a break from exercise and truly let the body recovery.

More so when you add the stress of diet.

For me it is more the stress of my dauly routine. Sometimes it is really too much for me!

You follow hard lifting days with easy cardio days, or more lifting or HIIT for long time which is just like lifting?

Hard lifting with hard cardio days

You do multiple days of all out cardio as hard as you can, and/or long stretches on those days for 60 min or longer?
Cardio as hard as I can. It is my antidepressant!

Belita38

Trainning is my antidepressant, that´s why I am trying to insist. Yesterday I went to the gym, started to change clother and gave up... I was so tired, shaking, so weird that I had to go home and have some rest.
I didn´t prepare dinner and only didi some laundry. Even though it was very hard for me...
But I will take a week off and see what happens... Hopefully I will get better....

Sarauk2sf

Take a week off from training, see a doctor.

Agreed

And make sure you are eating enough.

Belita38

Take a week off from training, see a doctor.

Agreed

And make sure you are eating enough.

That´s what I have decided to do. And in the meanwhile I have talked to my doctor who advised me to get a medicine that I usually take on Spring and Autumm.
Everything is ok with me, no aneamia, no nothing, so it is just stress and too much worries!
I will try to have some rest, get my medicine starting tomorrow and let´s see how I feel next week!
I would love to feel better by the weekend and be able to go to the gym....

maruby95

So glad you talked to your doctor! I was coming in to say that your description/ symptoms was exactly how I felt when I was overtraining. Took 2 weeks off- back to normal. I think people can underestimate how bad overtraining (especially while eating in the deficit) can make you feel.

Hope you feel better quickly!

Belita38

Well I will do some exams since I have been having some little blood losses and pains in belly and in the past I have had a serious health problem... And I was ignoring these symptoms and completely forgot them!
Today with another blood loss it all suddenly made sense and I have talked to my doctor who prescribed me some exams. The usual thing for me since I have 2 tumors, already had 4 which almost led me to death.
Maybe it is nothing, maybe it is...
It cannot be overtraining since I train 5 to 6 times a week for an hour and a half. I have my rest day and I don´t spend too much time exercising. At least from my point of view! When I was younger I usually spent 3 hours at the gym and YES sometimes I had overtraining symptons which I didn´t know it existed!
And my diet is not that restrictive or low calories... I am eating in a health way and enough...
I will have some rest this week, do my exams and hopefully it will be overtraining. I honestly hope so!

Belita38

So glad you talked to your doctor! I was coming in to say that your description/ symptoms was exactly how I felt when I was overtraining. Took 2 weeks off- back to normal. I think people can underestimate how bad overtraining (especially while eating in the deficit) can make you feel.

Hope you feel better quickly!

Well I hope it is overtraining! Honestly!
But tell me, how many times do you go to the gym and for how long?
Because I don´t think I can be overtraining... But maybe with all the things that make part of my life, working at the gym is now too much effort, I don´t know....
What did you do for those two weeks off? I want to go for a walk with my dog but I always feel too tired to do that!
I believe I could sleep since the end of a work day until the beginning of the other... :embarassed:

heybales

It cannot be overtraining since I train 5 to 6 times a week for an hour and a half. I have my rest day and I don´t spend too much time exercising. At least from my point of view!

Sure you can be overtraining.

That just means you are piling more of a load on your system than it can take.

Doesn't have to be only an exercise load, but diet stress, daily stress, nutrient deficiencies, lack of sleep for level of activity, ect.

All those things can cause a body that might otherwise NOT be stressed too much, to become stressed too much and progress stops and many times goes backwards.

I'd suggest start getting your resting HR every morning and tracking it. Especially when you give yourself enough rest as hopefully a baseline.

Then when it starts to move higher you know you are doing it again, before other worse symptoms start occurring.

That's usually more immediate than lifting observations, but even there, if you stop maintaining weight you were doing before, indicates wrong direction.

Belita38

[/quote]

I'd suggest start getting your resting HR every morning and tracking it. Especially when you give yourself enough rest as hopefully a baseline.

Then when it starts to move higher you know you are doing it again, before other worse symptoms start occurring.

That's usually more immediate than lifting observations, but even there, if you stop maintaining weight you were doing before, indicates wrong direction.
[/quote]

Sorry, but was HR stands for? Heart rate? Do you mean I should track my heart rate every morning?

Belita38

Sure you can be overtraining.

That just means you are piling more of a load on your system than it can take.

Doesn't have to be only an exercise load, but diet stress, daily stress, nutrient deficiencies, lack of sleep for level of activity, ect.

All those things can cause a body that might otherwise NOT be stressed too much, to become stressed too much and progress stops and many times goes backwards.

I'd suggest start getting your resting HR every morning and tracking it. Especially when you give yourself enough rest as hopefully a baseline.

Then when it starts to move higher you know you are doing it again, before other worse symptoms start occurring.

That's usually more immediate than lifting observations, but even there, if you stop maintaining weight you were doing before, indicates wrong direction.

Sorry, but was HR stands for? Heart rate? Do you mean I should track my heart rate every morning?

heybales

Sorry, but was HR stands for? Heart rate? Do you mean I should track my heart rate every morning?

Correct. And RHR, Resting HR. Before you start moving around, have watch right there and actually count for 60 seconds being calm. If alarm wakes you up like me, might have to have a few more restful minutes to calm back down too.

But that is an excellent indicator of the body being too stressed.

Problem is you need a baseline to see movement. You could get 60 right now and think that's great. But what if it was 50? Or could be 45?

You've undoubtedly done some intervals.

What allows you to push so hard on the hard part?
The fact you had a rest period in between hard efforts. How well would you be able to push that hard if you had no rest time? Not much longer, your performance would suffer and pace would drop as heart rate slowed down because you just can't keep pushing that hard. Your body can't do it no matter how strong your mind is.
Ever made the rest time shorter, same effect eventually happens, the hard efforts near the end aren't as hard judging by HR and pace, though it sure feels like you may be pushing just as hard.
And the reason you want the hard part to be really fast and high HR, is because that is actually what causes the overload that requires improvement. Not just a hard effort that is stressful only.

Exact same principle applies in general to your workout routine.
But from day to day usually. Hard enough effort maybe even takes more than 48 hrs to recover.

To really be able to push well on a hard day, you must have adequate rest on the easy day to be able to do that.
Day after day of pushing hard may feel like you are really doing some good - but not as good as you could be doing if you gave enough rest.

And you'll likely never notice that difference until you do it.

Another example because I've trained people doing it already.
Go out for a run with so much time available, say 45 min. Go out way to fast because they want to make it hard, and slowly but surely pace keeps dropping and they are dying at the end.
But it really feels like they accomplished something because they are so tired. Great high pace. At the start. Over all, not great because they slowed down so much continuously. But compared to previous runs, maybe even improving. Slowly. If at all.
But if they held to a reasonable pace the whole time, they actually would have been faster overall. And training in that manner would lead to faster improvement actually.

A week can turn into that same thing. By the end, you aren't doing as well as at the beginning at the same effort. You'll end feeling tired, thinking it was a great week, but it could have been better for actually making improvements.

Belita38

Sorry, but was HR stands for? Heart rate? Do you mean I should track my heart rate every morning?

Correct. And RHR, Resting HR. Before you start moving around, have watch right there and actually count for 60 seconds being calm. If alarm wakes you up like me, might have to have a few more restful minutes to calm back down too.

But that is an excellent indicator of the body being too stressed.

Problem is you need a baseline to see movement. You could get 60 right now and think that's great. But what if it was 50? Or could be 45?

You've undoubtedly done some intervals.

What allows you to push so hard on the hard part?
The fact you had a rest period in between hard efforts. How well would you be able to push that hard if you had no rest time? Not much longer, your performance would suffer and pace would drop as heart rate slowed down because you just can't keep pushing that hard. Your body can't do it no matter how strong your mind is.
Ever made the rest time shorter, same effect eventually happens, the hard efforts near the end aren't as hard judging by HR and pace, though it sure feels like you may be pushing just as hard.
And the reason you want the hard part to be really fast and high HR, is because that is actually what causes the overload that requires improvement. Not just a hard effort that is stressful only.

Exact same principle applies in general to your workout routine.
But from day to day usually. Hard enough effort maybe even takes more than 48 hrs to recover.

To really be able to push well on a hard day, you must have adequate rest on the easy day to be able to do that.
Day after day of pushing hard may feel like you are really doing some good - but not as good as you could be doing if you gave enough rest.

And you'll likely never notice that difference until you do it.

Another example because I've trained people doing it already.
Go out for a run with so much time available, say 45 min. Go out way to fast because they want to make it hard, and slowly but surely pace keeps dropping and they are dying at the end.
But it really feels like they accomplished something because they are so tired. Great high pace. At the start. Over all, not great because they slowed down so much continuously. But compared to previous runs, maybe even improving. Slowly. If at all.
But if they held to a reasonable pace the whole time, they actually would have been faster overall. And training in that manner would lead to faster improvement actually.

A week can turn into that same thing. By the end, you aren't doing as well as at the beginning at the same effort. You'll end feeling tired, thinking it was a great week, but it could have been better for actually making improvements.

Well I have realized that my HR has lowered in my last gym days. The effort was pretty much the same but I have noticed that the HR was lower. It was weird but I didn´t know the meaning.
Today I have measured my RHR and it was ok, actually it was a little bit high which is normal in me.
Yesterday, by the end of the end it was much more slower and I was feeling very tired.
I have noticed that when I am really tired my RHR is lower as wel as my body temperature.
As far as training is concerned I don´t do that crazy thing of starting too fast and then have to slow down. I try to keep a steady pace and I increase the speed or inclination as I feel my body can stand it. It is always regular or increasing progressively.

When my RHR is higher that means that I am better, retrieve this state?

heybales

Well I have realized that my HR has lowered in my last gym days. The effort was pretty much the same but I have noticed that the HR was lower. It was weird but I didn´t know the meaning.
Today I have measured my RHR and it was ok, actually it was a little bit high which is normal in me.
Yesterday, by the end of the end it was much more slower and I was feeling very tired.
I have noticed that when I am really tired my RHR is lower as wel as my body temperature.
As far as training is concerned I don´t do that crazy thing of starting too fast and then have to slow down. I try to keep a steady pace and I increase the speed or inclination as I feel my body can stand it. It is always regular or increasing progressively.

When my RHR is higher that means that I am better, retrieve this state?

Higher RHR compared to previous measurements is worse, not better. Means your system is stressed. Or sick.

Notice it really doesn't make sense to say the RHR was a little bit high which is normal for you?
Higher compared to what? Because if that's normal, how could that be high then?

You were commenting you haven't had a break, and you were going to take one and let everything calm down, so my comment regarding the whole RHR thing is to get a base line during your easy week, because it may indeed lower if it had been higher because of stress.
With that you'll have something useful to compare to. Again, you are commenting with symptoms of already being there, so RHR now is not meaningful number except to compare.

My comment about the training method for a run was an example, not if you do that.
But you can make a week's worth of exercise be exactly the same thing, and end up with the same effect. Meaning the week's training was not as good as it could have been, despite it feeling like you gave your all.

Now, if HR doing a run or whatever has lowered from before doing the exact same pace and incline and temperature, ect, then indeed body is finding it easier to do that run. That's great, that's the way it should be until you reach a bottom level with no further improvement. Just means you can now go faster with slightly higher HR.

Gal on FL has been in 160's for even the shortest of runs, and had been running for years. Took some advice and did different training and now can do much longer runs and HR only up to 140, with better pace. Not as sick as much, body feels better, ect.

Belita38

Thank you for the explanation!
Well my RHR is usually high, so do doctors say, for my age since I have nervous tachycardia.
But the past few days, incluing today after getting up, it was higher than usual. That also happens when I don´t go to the gym but work a lot, meaning that stress is taking the best of me.
I have been trying to stay calmer and have some rest.
I did my exams, I am taking medicines because theses symptons are similar to a problem I had a few years ago.
Maybe it is overtraining along with something else. That "something else" is the difficul thing to cope with...
Next week I will know the results and have my doctor´s opinion.
In the meanwhile I will measure my RHR in the morning and also my HR in the end of the day. Let´s see the results!

heybales

Thank you for the explanation!
Well my RHR is usually high, so do doctors say, for my age since I have nervous tachycardia.
But the past few days, incluing today after getting up, it was higher than usual. That also happens when I don´t go to the gym but work a lot, meaning that stress is taking the best of me.
I have been trying to stay calmer and have some rest.
I did my exams, I am taking medicines because theses symptons are similar to a problem I had a few years ago.
Maybe it is overtraining along with something else. That "something else" is the difficul thing to cope with...
Next week I will know the results and have my doctor´s opinion.
In the meanwhile I will measure my RHR in the morning and also my HR in the end of the day. Let´s see the results!

Very easily could be something else too.

Other friend on here during school has RHR of 90-100, with nothing but walking as cardio.

Drops to 60 when school is over. I'm sure sleep or good sleep is part of it, if anxiety is causing bad sleeping.