working out causes my body to shut down

squats_and_lipsticks
squats_and_lipsticks Posts: 14 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hey everyone!

I could use some insight from the outside on what‘s going on with my body. It seems that working out causes my system to shut down.

Ok, it sounds weird but let me explain by giving you some brief details on my fitness / weight loss journey:
- Started my journey with 298lbs January 2018 - I‘ve lost somewhat around 130lbs by eating in a caloric deficite & at home workouts
- Mid 2019 I‘ve noticed that my weight isn‘t moving anywhere no matter how hard I tried or whatever I did
- Started to go to the gym in the 2019 fall every other day (I worked out almost every day at home but figured I couldn’t drive to the gym every day).
- March 2020 happened and I stopped going to the gym or working out but kept my calories intake is if I‘m still working out and magically started losing weight.
- Couple of month ago I noticed that my weight is steadily climbing up again, which I observed for a couple of weeks and decided to start working out LIGHTLY (2-3x / week, around 25-30 minutes each workout) and at home (for obvious reasons).
- Instead of losing weight I‘m now constipated again, and I keep gaining weight, because my body is now in stress again.

Now some more details:
- One could say I was somewhat excessive with my workouts and my moving goals set to my apple watch. Also my calories intake was very strict (I ate 1600 no matter how hard I worked out). So my body was in a constant stress causing me a lot of problems: my body temprature dropped from the usual 99f to somewhere around 95; I was constantly constipated. CONSTANTLY! Overall I was feeling well, although I got light headed sometimes and lost my balance a couple of times and/or had some circulatory troubles.

- Somewhere in the winter / spring 2019 I got my bloodwork done and turned out my prolactin (the hormon rising when your body is in stress) was SKYHIGH. Like insanely high, so I got a medication for it which helped me get it down. But my mind still didn‘t made the conclusion that it‘s my excessive working out that causing me that stress, so I blamed the medication for still being constipated and not losing weight.

- Fall 2019 came, I decided to spice up my workout game a bit. I was a machine: 1.5hrs elliptical and 45 mins of strenght training in one session, sometimes a bodypump and cycling class - so all in all I burned around 800-900 calories there. I started eating more though, somewhere around 1800 calories (at that point I was somewhat around 182lbs). Did I lose any weight? Nope. I just kept working out more and harder.

- Then March 2020 happened and I stopped going to the gym or working out (because at home workouts weren‘t fun anymore), also I thought it would be a good thing to finally give myself a little break. But I kept eating my 1800 calories a day. And then MAGIC happened: my weight went down without doing anything, I was down to 170lbs.

- So I figured my body was in such a stress and couldn‘t take it anymore. So I gave it a well-deserved rest and kept eating, I stopped being that strict, I induldged myself with regular refeeds and cheat-days (2500 calories sometimes) and just enjoyed my life and the summer. While maintaining and even losing (!) some weight.

- Somewhere in November / December 2020 I noticed I do not maintain my weight anymore but start to gaining back. 1lbs up, 1lbs down, 2 up, 1 down and so on. I wasn‘t stressing about it that much - my body done so much work for me, I‘m giving it what it needs. 3,4,5,6,7 lbs up I‘m like: ok, maybe I should start LIGHTLY working out again (light weights, resistance loops, just to get that calorie intake in balance again). So I begin to workout in January, all in all I had 9 workouts in January (not scheduled, with no workout plan, just a bit of movement) and 3 workouts in February.
I keep gaining weight. My first thought: ok, my body is adjusting to having it‘s muscles being „needed“ again, it‘s ok. I‘m talking 300 calories in total while workout, so really nothing crazy or excessive. And since I learnt to listen to my body, I also heard it saying: GIMME FOOD! FOOD IN MA BELLY RIGHT NOW. So I give food to my body. But then one day I get constipated, and again, and again. And now I‘m panicking. Because I now understand that my body gets in a total state of stress even at that lightest physical exertion and 1 year pausing obviously wasn‘t enough to recover. Bummer.

But I keep gaining weight I‘m currently at 176lbs and it just keeps climbing up. And while I could adjust my calories to a little less - I don‘t want to, cause I don’t want my stomach to get even more stressed out by getting less food and give me even more constipations. But I also still would like to at least maintaing my weight (ideally I would like to keep losing though) and sure thing I‘m gonna take a break for a month or so from working out.

But I keep wondering if this state of my body shutting down will be with me forever from now on? I actually really enjoyed being active again and the thought of „I can never workout ever again without going through gaining weight and constipations“ makes me sad. So my question: is there something I could do about it, maybe a supplement that tells my body that everything is ok and it doesn‘t need to stress that much? Or maybe strenght training isn‘t the right for the situation like this and I should switch
to something else?

Thanks for reading, all the best

Replies

  • squats_and_lipsticks
    squats_and_lipsticks Posts: 14 Member
    edited February 2021
    ninerbuff wrote: »
    So if I have a client with this I have to ask:
    What's your current eating plan?
    How's your sleep?
    What type of work do you do and how long a day?
    Do you stress out on your free time?
    What do you do to just relax?

    - My eating plan is as it always has been: eating everything as long as it’s within my calories budget but I make sure I eat my bodyweight equivalent in g in protein. It stresses me out to count my macros and I‘m not gonna do it since I don‘t see any benefits from eating all lean and clean at this point. (I know it absolutely has its time & place for when actively shaping and building your body but I‘m not there yet)
    - no stress factors from the outside - enough sleep every night (8-9hrs), waking up well rested - just living the social distancing / pandemic way of life with husband, cats & netflix

    The only thing that changed for me is re-introducing working out into my routine, and this is the only thing that causes my body to shut down like this because prior to this everything has been just as it should.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,363 Member
    Your body up and down regulates (see discussions about adaptive thermogenesis) based on energy balance. This is fairly common

    Linking exercise or AT to constipation is not something I'm aware off.

    Dietary reasons such as lower volume of food, or lack of sufficient fiber and fat could cause constipation. Long term issues should probably get checked by doctor. Use a weight trend app and look at your longer term trends not your daily weight

    The re-feed and diet break thread has a lot of info some of which you may find quite useful moving forward....
  • squats_and_lipsticks
    squats_and_lipsticks Posts: 14 Member
    edited February 2021
    PAV8888 wrote: »
    Your body up and down regulates (see discussions about adaptive thermogenesis) based on energy balance. This is fairly common

    Linking exercise or AT to constipation is not something I'm aware off.

    Dietary reasons such as lower volume of food, or lack of sufficient fiber and fat could cause constipation. Long term issues should probably get checked by doctor. Use a weight trend app and look at your longer term trends not your daily weight

    The re-feed and diet break thread has a lot of info some of which you may find quite useful moving forward....


    as I said, I‘m re-feeding regularly and it‘s also not about the food I‘m eating cause my food hadn‘t change in the past year. It‘s also not the exercising per se which causes digestion problems, it‘s probably the stress which gets my prolactin to rise and shutting down everything cause by exercise.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,363 Member
    edited February 2021
    Maybe you do need someone who can order blood tests etc.

    But you're not counting calories you're eating intuitively. Your body will ask for more calories during recovery. And given weight history intuitive eating has some risks....

    Constipation and exercise will both cause fast weight gains. Those would not be fat. Eating above caloric expenditure will cause fat gain. If you are stressed other water weight issues may also come into play.

    You have a complex situation. Counting calories if that is something you can do without excess stress can give you a good idea as to whether your weight change is induced by food intake or something else.

    Beyond that I can't help. Other than to say what I did above which is that you may have more than one issue going and that your AT reactions seem normal.

    Your exercise reaction (if that's what's causing the issue) is more unusual.
    Both the weight control registry and the institute of medicine suggest that previously obese people who successfully lose weight and maintain their weight loss on average deliberately exercise (even if that's "just" moderate walks) an hour or so a day... an average that is slightly higher than people who were never obese.

    Hopefully you will figure things out and manage to differentiate between fat and non-fat weight changes
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 49,051 Member
    squats_and_lipsticks wrote: »
    ninerbuff wrote: »
    So if I have a client with this I have to ask:
    What's your current eating plan?
    How's your sleep?
    What type of work do you do and how long a day?
    Do you stress out on your free time?
    What do you do to just relax?

    - My eating plan is as it always has been: eating everything as long as it’s within my calories budget but I make sure I eat my bodyweight equivalent in g in protein. It stresses me out to count my macros and I‘m not gonna do it since I don‘t see any benefits from eating all lean and clean at this point. (I know it absolutely has its time & place for when actively shaping and building your body but I‘m not there yet)
    - no stress factors from the outside - enough sleep every night (8-9hrs), waking up well rested - just living the social distancing / pandemic way of life with husband, cats & netflix

    The only thing that changed for me is re-introducing working out into my routine, and this is the only thing that causes my body to shut down like this because prior to this everything has been just as it should.
    So is your fiber intake good? How about stress factors inside? Does being quarantined depress you or give you anxiety?

    Working out is stress, however more physiological than psychological. Many find relief after exercise, especially a dopamine rush due to the achievement of finishing.

    What you may be experiencing is likely beyond my realm of knowledge unless the last few questions I asked might be answered with a "no" to fiber and a "yes" to the other two.


    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
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  • L1zardQueen
    L1zardQueen Posts: 8,753 Member
    I am always and forever constipated but I still have managed to lose weight. CICO
  • csplatt
    csplatt Posts: 1,208 Member
    How do you define constipation? When I count calories I don’t necessarily have a BM every day.

    At my current size, my maintenance calories on a sedentary day is under 1600. How are you calculating 1600 calories? If you eat a banana or peanut butter, for example, are you weighing it on a food scale?

    Finally — what you described as 2 lb up, 2 lb down, a pound up, a pound down sounds like normal weight fluctuations from one day to the next. What I weigh is a range, not a single number that never changes up or down a tad.

    I know that only addresses a few things.
  • csplatt
    csplatt Posts: 1,208 Member
    edited February 2021
    Also, as your weight has dropped, there’s less room for error in your calorie calculations to achieve weight loss. So it’s possible you were eating above 1600 for a time but it was still enough of a deficit to lose weight. Now that you are smaller, that potential error in counting matters more.
  • FitAgainBy55
    FitAgainBy55 Posts: 179 Member
    ninerbuff wrote: »
    When you stop working out, the demand for energy gets reduced and the body reduced how much glycogen your store. Glycogen requires a lot of water to store in your cells at a rate of 4 to 1. So for every gram of glycogen, you store 4 grams of water. Also stopping working out means less muscle repair, which again requires water since muscle is 80% water. That would explain the "magic" weight loss.

    I always tell people that are just starting to work out for the first time (or after a long layoff) to not weigh for the first 2 or 3 weeks.

    So, maybe your theory in terms of hormones are correct FOR YOU, but that would certainly be a very exceptional case -- in the overwhelming majority of cases it's just water weight differences and meaningless in terms of fat loss/gain.

  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,788 Member
    OP, I think the stress-water retention-misleading scale results idea is probable here. If you cut way back on fat during calorie restriction, that's asking for trouble in a person who might have an inclination toward constipation, on that front, too.

    Sure, excess exercise could increase stress . . . but guess what, so can excessive calorie restriction. If you keep eating the same, but add large amounts of exercise, you're increasing stress from both those sources at the same time. Undernutrition can be a stress (I get that you're ignoring nutrition to minimize stress, but you can be trading off one stress for another, if things are out of whack nutritionally as a result. Worry about your health (constipation, metabolism, etc.) is stress. The pandemic all by itself is a stressor for most of us. Cumulative stress (all sources) matters.

    Maybe I missed it, but I didn't see where you mentioned your hydration, which (along with fat, and some other nutritional issues) is pretty strongly related to constipation for many people. Exercise increases hydration requirements, generally.

    What options do you have for explicit stress management? Meditation (non religious)? Journaling? Prayer (if religious)? Warm aromatherapy bubble baths? Yoga? Coloring books? Soothing music? Therapy? Different things work for different people.
    PAV8888 wrote: »
    Your body up and down regulates (see discussions about adaptive thermogenesis) based on energy balance. This is fairly common

    Linking exercise or AT to constipation is not something I'm aware off.

    Dietary reasons such as lower volume of food, or lack of sufficient fiber and fat could cause constipation. Long term issues should probably get checked by doctor. Use a weight trend app and look at your longer term trends not your daily weight

    The re-feed and diet break thread has a lot of info some of which you may find quite useful moving forward....

    Bolded: Possible in someone with tendencies in that direction. (Don't ask why I believe this. 😬🙄)

    AT = System slowdown. Also maybe slowdown via undernutrition/inadequate fuel to allow max absorption? I'm speculating about mechanisms, but I think the effect is possible. (Consider untreated hypothyroidism as analogous: Slowdown, which includes constipation, hair loss, etc., in the symptom set. OP, I'm not suggesting you're hypothyroid, though that might be something to test - it doesn't explain your weight loss pattern, though.)

    Exercise potentially increases hydration needs, hydration adequacy relates to constipation.

    OK, why I believe this: I tend toward IBS-C, kind of borderline, not severe. When things go wrong (overstress, underhydration, other things), constipation can be an early consequence. Pretty sure undereating/undernutrition could be enough to trigger, especially if additive to psychological stress, but I'm speculating a little: I avoid undereating, undernutrition, and am not typically a high-stress personality (any more).
  • squats_and_lipsticks
    squats_and_lipsticks Posts: 14 Member
    edited February 2021
    I drink approx. a gallon of water every day as per usual, starting every day with a 16 floz of water before touching anything else and keeping it up through the day, so I‘m very well hydrated.

    Maybe there is a general misunderstanding with my calories intake, so let‘s talk numbers for clarification. But I surely don‘t need advice on how measuring out my PB ;)
    I started eating 1800 calories a day end 2019 while going to the gym and burning around 900 active calories there + my BMR of around 1800 + my usual daily activities of around 400 calories. (no advice of how big the deficite was, I know, I was really desperate there). The numbers are rounded up for better math, also I only can rely on what TDEE calculators and my apple watch tells me, no need an advice on that either!

    So we had: 1800 in vs 3100 out on workout days.
    I stopped going to the gym in March 2020 and my calories obviously dropped to around 2200 each day. But I kept und keep eating 1800. BUT I LOST WEIGHT and I didn‘t lose it over night nor within 4 weeks, so it‘s not that glycose level or water that left my body. I continuously lost weight with eating 1800 calories till July/August! Going from 187lbs in January down to 170 in August.

    From there I just maintained the weight, although meanwhile I started to eat more on some days; some 2200, some 2500 - still kept track of my calories; but just LIVED without being that strict. Which was good, my stomach was good, all was great, I just enjoyed my life. I learnt how to balance, I learnt to listen to my body and not depriving it of food just because it‘s not in my caloric budget.

    Somewhere end November 2020 I noticed my weight steadily climbing up (I do track my weight with the trend / prognose app, so no need advice on that either). I enjoyed the holidays and re-introduced as I said light but regular workout mid January 2021. So while nothing changed on my food (I‘m still in a deficite, even it‘s a mild one), and the only thing that is new is the exercise - I just can‘t help but wonder if my body still remember the exhaustion from burning 3000+ calories and not getting enough to eat. Because everything normalized after stopping working out and now it‘s back again??

    Ann, thank you SO MUCH for your detailed reply, really appreciate you taking your time for this!
    You might have a point with the IBS thing, I actually did have that thought but brushed it off, because this only occurs when exercise is involved. Which just leads me to think that it‘s because of prolactin is rising again. But in general fiber doesn‘t do me any good - I‘m more of a probiotics food gal instead of prebiotics.

    My theroid is perfectly fine, borderline hypothyroid BUT still in the healthy range! It was only the prolactin that kept acting up.

    And no, pandemic isn‘t a stress for me - I actually enjoy this slowed down life, so it‘s not a stress factor for me, mentally I‘m in a real good place actually.

    My next steps gonna be: stopping the workouts again (bummer, makes me sad, but I need my stomach gets back on track, this is far more important to me), getting stricter with my calories again, which I‘m gonna re-calculate (even though I did it mid January while getting back on the workout track but still)

  • Psychgrrl
    Psychgrrl Posts: 3,177 Member
    If I'm reading your numbers correctly, you've been in an extreme deficit for a long time. 1800 in and 3100 out on days with exercise, so that means a negative net of calories. If that's the case, you might be seeing the results of depriving your body of needed nutrients for an extended period of time. It sounds like you might benefit from a diet break and eating at maintenance for a few weeks. Here's the thread where there is lots of great articles and information: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10604863/of-refeeds-and-diet-breaks#latest

    Maybe walk/hike at a casual pace, and do some gentle yoga (if you do yoga). I don't think you need to stop exercising cold turkey unless exercise is an all-or-nothing thing for you.

    Though I'm not clear if you're weighing all your food on a food scale or eating intuitively. If you're eating intuitively, you could be eating more than you think, no matter how skilled you are at eye-balling portions.

    Just take care of yourself. You've done an amazing job getting this far, be sure and give your body what it needs to keep going.

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