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  • Q&A with Australian Health Practitioners

    Where has my energy gone?

    Related Topics
    Fitness and Sports Medicine Nutrition
    I'm female and 40.
    I recently decided to improve my health through diet and exercise. I have lost 9kg in 10 weeks and am currently 59kg and around 170cm tall.
    I am eating a varied diet of mostly unprocessed food and exercising for 2-3 hours a day.
    Recently I have had to reduce the duration and intensity of my exercise as I just have no energy and am feeling very weak.
    Do I need to take a break from exercise for a few days and then cut back to maybe 1-1&1/2 hours a day, or do I perhaps need more protein in my diet to fuel the muscles?
    Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
    • 2 answers
    • Nicholas Karam
    • ferylberyl
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    Thanks

    Nicholas Karam

    Exercise Physiologist

    Specialist treatment for injury rehabilitation, management of diabetes, weight management, corporate health View Profile

    Well done on your recent decision - that's great! Purely based on BMI (which is not my preference) your classed as ‘Healthy’.

    If you are feeling that tired a 2-3 day break will be good to see what affect this has (to see if you feel any different after the break).

    Obviously in our profession we strongly encourage exercise. However, there is a chance that you may be over exercising at this point. This depends on duration/frequency/intensity/type etc. The training you have described above seems to be quite high. I would suggest that even if you reduced your level of training that you should be able to maintain your current weight assuming your nutritional intake remains well balanced. So see how you feel with a reduced intensity as you have mentioned above? Either way a dip in the level of your training will allow your body greater recovery and also provide a new stimulus.

    From the sounds of it your diet seems OK. Ensure you ar having some low-medium GI foods for a steady release of energy. Somewhat hard like this but ensure your pre-during and post workout intake is sufficient.

    If you are still struggling after a 2-3 day break and a week or so of training at a lighter level (freq/intensity/duration) there would be no harm in consulting your GP and having a blood test just to get a more in depth look into things at that level.

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  • ferylberyl

    HealthShare Member

    Thanks for your response Dr Karam.
    As it happens I decided to see the GP just for a bit of a ‘Not getting any younger / Haven’t been to the doc for a long time' check up last week. He requested blood tests to check my cholesterol / blood sugar levels, and kidney, liver and thyroid function. The results have shown a couple of areas he wants to discuss with me, so now it is just a matter of waiting until late next week when I can get back in to see him.
    I have had no choice but to ease up on the exercise. My get up and go has well and truly got up and gone. So much so I have been wondering if I'm perhaps coming down with some slow moving bug.
    Time will tell.

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