Working out when you are tired

Farburnfred
Farburnfred Posts: 333 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
My children are all poor sleepers, I have not had a full nights sleep in 9+ years. But this is not a pity ditty, mostly I deal but we have had a really bad week sleep wise and I haven't got much sleep. I am trying to do the 30 day shred amongst other things but today I am beyond shattered. The thing is part of me still wants to workout, it might help, another part reckons I am more likely to injure myself and overtire :(

Thoughts?

Replies

  • 00Melyanna00
    00Melyanna00 Posts: 221 Member
    Unless you want to workout to improve your muscle mass and definition, a good walk never hurts. It's nice and easy. OK, it's definitely not intense (nothing like swimming or running), but it keeps your body active even if you are very tired - and without risking injuries.
    This, however, won't help much if by "workout" you mean doing something to gain muscle mass or definition, I am afraid. If that is the case, I'll have to leave the answer to all those MFP users that are more expert than I am.
  • Farburnfred
    Farburnfred Posts: 333 Member
    Thanks - decided in the end that I needed soe exercise so walked my son to football, then back and did a low impact workout set from fitness blender, not sure the back liked it much but the stretches were nice
  • gxdragon
    gxdragon Posts: 23 Member
    When I'm tired (unless I'm exhausted), I go to the gym with the intention of doing a light work out. A lot of the time, once I get started I have more energy than I thought so I'll go harder. I'm also finding that since I started eating better, I don't need as much sleep and I'm not as tired all the time. That or I'm just sleeping better through the night and getting better rest than I was.
  • myfitnessnmhoy
    myfitnessnmhoy Posts: 2,105 Member
    Thanks - decided in the end that I needed soe exercise so walked my son to football, then back and did a low impact workout set from fitness blender, not sure the back liked it much but the stretches were nice


    First, good for you for doing something. It's always better than nothing.

    Second, I looked at your diary. May I be blunt? I'm a stranger, so I'm going to be blunt. Apologies if this comes across as too blunt.

    Looking at your diary, you're eating LESS THAN HALF the protein you need on a given day recently, and leaving calories "on the table" every single day.

    Dear goodness, no wonder you're tired. Your body is protein-starved. And exactly where do you think that protein is going to come from? Stored fat reserves? Uhhh, no. Protein deficits are made up by burning muscle. This is very bad juju long term, and will make you feel like warmed over crap short term.

    Your recent diary indicates vegetarianism, at a guess, but not veganism (I see cheese and eggs). No worries, but you need to be snorking down nuts, eggs, cheese, and other protein-dense foods. A whole lot more of them than you are now.

    I'm not a nutritionist, but I've done the "healthy food is lite food" stuff before. It no workie.

    Proteins.
  • Farburnfred
    Farburnfred Posts: 333 Member
    Thanks, protein is not tha bad! , I am vegetarian, but can't eat more cheese eggs and nuts without the added calories taking me way over my target!. It is set at 30 which is quite high I think..
  • Farburnfred
    Farburnfred Posts: 333 Member
    Actually.. I have just looked at my reports..doing the sums I should be eating about 51g of protein again (weight in kg x .8) apart from a very few days i eat much more than that! Averaging at least 60.. its set at 30% on my macros because I don't eat huge amounts of grainy carbs so I only average about 40 % carbs..
  • Krissyjean72
    Krissyjean72 Posts: 14
    I have to agree - despite what all the calculators and measurements say, you MUST have more protein in your diet - it doesn't balance out by what you eat carb wise or anything else. Protein is protein and if you don't have enough of it, your muscles will get tired and you will lose muscle mass - so you're trying to work out and gain muscle mass, but not giving your body what it needs on a nutritional level to do so!

    There are many beans, pulses and lentils that have high protein. I too was vegetarian, but found adding one portion of seafood to my diet helped immensely in so many areas. I don't like it, but the body does, so maybe look at that too. Cheese and eggs aren't good for you in large quantities, so try Googling high protein foods and see if there are any lower carb/fat varieties you can add into your diet. Honestly, if you bring your protein levels up, you'll notice a huge difference. Listen to your body - not the scientific calculators as each of us is different so you need to provide what your body needs, not what some guy in a lab at some point has worked out that you need - because he isn't living your lifestyle or eating your foods. Good luck :-)
  • Hendrix7
    Hendrix7 Posts: 1,903 Member
    I have had some of my best workouts ever when I was really tired and didn't want to go in, and some terrible workouts when I was fired up to go lift.

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