I'm so tired

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  • SciFish
    SciFish Posts: 23 Member
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    Only just saw further replies, sorry.
    I thought I learned a bit last weekend and took it on board, but I had two more afternoon/evening episodes this week that scared me (I couldn't drive, and I also burned myself). In these states I can't even finish sentences, it's like being a zombie, and I can't think of words. So I went to my GP. I am two years overdue for an echocardiogram (family history) so that is something that is now booked, and we do need to rule out heart problems contributing to my current woes of course, as well as a congenital heart disease. I had four blood tests and all of them were normal. My GP thinks it is stress. That's hard for me to accept because it feels so physiological. But then I remembered that my PhD supervisor was diagnosed with stress/anxiety last year and had symptoms that caused him to worry about a brain tumour 8-O So I guess I don't need to have my hair fall out, periods stop, or lose weight rapidly in order to see the physical effects of stress. I do have a phenomenal workload, and that is something that I need for me, for other reasons. :neutral:

    For now I'm waiting to rule out my heart. GP isn't concerned about my calorie goals and physical output. And I must say it was fabulous to have MFP and Fitbit data to demonstrate my diet, activity, HR efforts, sleep etc! I have reduced my weight loss goal to 0.5kg p/w which has increased my target calorie intake so that I can continue to run (I'm enjoying it!) and be more gentle with myself while I face some realities and look for longer-term solutions.

    Thank you for all of your ideas.
  • caurinus
    caurinus Posts: 78 Member
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    30% of TDEE is about the lowest I'd go. I know people have been successful at more aggressive targets, but personally, that's about as aggressive a calorie target as I can maintain long term.
  • SciFish
    SciFish Posts: 23 Member
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    Yeah I think that's all I'm doing really. I was fine on lower, but need to be careful until I have a definite diagnosis and plan.
  • Orphia
    Orphia Posts: 7,097 Member
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    Yay for the normal blood test results! Good luck with the ECG! Thanks for the update.
  • rsleighty
    rsleighty Posts: 214 Member
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    I'm so glad you went to the Dr. Hooray for good blood tests! Hopefully the echo comes back OK too!!
  • SciFish
    SciFish Posts: 23 Member
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    Echo was normal, which means no congenital heart disease at this stage (yay!) but definitely stress/anxiety causing my foggy spells :( Having that suggested by my GP was enough to make me reassess what's going on in my life, and try to plan my days a bit better. It's been a couple of weeks since I had a bad spell, although I've had some borderline days, but I think recognition has been the most important thing so that I can now tread carefully.

    So diet and exercise are all fine, still slightly too little sleep generally, and heart/blood are good. I just need organisational changes to make my life less stressful.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,996 Member
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    depome wrote: »
    I've been logging my diet really well in the last fortnight, and running 3x per week since mid-Feb. I'm a terrible novice runner and am motivated mostly by acquiring some stamina. However I hope it will fast track my weight loss too. I do intervals for about 4km, and around 35 mins including warm up/cool down. I do 30 mins fairly brisk walking 2 other mornings per week.

    I am ridiculously busy and over-committed, but this is normal. So I can't explain my fatigue with anything other than my running or diet. I am generally quite sedentary, struggling to get 10,000 steps in a day even. But i manage it when I do my short runs, which are interval training and usually use 250-350 kcal according to my Fitbit Charge HR. MFP has me on 1200 kcal/day target due to sedentary lifestyle otherwise and me wanting to lose weight faster. I always consume more than that as my exercise adds calories to my allowance.

    In the last fortnight my calorie deficit has ranged from 400 to 1400 in a day and I'm wondering if there is a guideline about what is too much. This again is based on my Fitbit Charge HR tracking activity and heart rate. I'm not quite getting enough sleep generally, about 7h45m lately, but I am energised and happy after my morning exercise, and then hit a wall at 3pm. I am exhausted :-(

    I don't think there's anything wrong with my calorie intake or exercise, but suspect there's a guideline about what is too much calorie deficit. Most of my days are -600 which seems perfectly reasonable to me, however.

    I'm not sure how to fix this. My running is still terrible, but I'm determined to be able to run without stopping!!! (Rubbish lung capacity, no asthma).

    You're hitting a wall at 3 PM? Please change your Diary Sharing settings to Public: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings


  • rsleighty
    rsleighty Posts: 214 Member
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    I'm so glad you got checked out!!! At least your health is one less anxiety.
  • SciFish
    SciFish Posts: 23 Member
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    I don't need to kshama, I know the cause of my physical symptoms now and consequently haven't had any major incidents for about three weeks.

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