Exhaustion after exercising

Question

I [28 F] began exercising last year, for three months I would go for a walk and follow the Chloe Ting program. However, I saw no change in my weight, my mood was better though. I found myself constantly out of energy and in dire need to sleep after exercising. I did not want to use synthetic protein based powder so I had a lot of nuts with soymilk and eggs. Nonetheless, since then I find myself scared to exercise in the morning. My mental health needs it but I am physically tired. How can I rectify it?

Answer 1

A few things immediately spring to mind reading your question:

• Water
• Food
• Iron
• Sleep
• Amount of exercise

Water

Are you drinking enough? Dehydration (especially following exercise) can really make you feel tired. Best recommendation I've heard is to start off trying to drink 1 litre per 25kg of bodyweight (so at 93kg, I'll drink close to 3 litres of water a day, with a couple of cups of coffee thrown in).

Yes, this sounds like a lot, and if you haven't been drinking enough, suddenly jumping up to this much may mean you make regular trips to the toilet until your body gets used to it, but it will get used to it.

Now, I say "start off" with that amount because, personally, now my body has got used to it, I can feel if I haven't been drinking enough, so don't worry about measuring it anymore.

Food

Are you eating enough? There's a very common trend amongst both men and women who're trying to lose weight to badly under eat. I've got friends who've wanted to lose weight and so dropped down to something stupid like 600 calories a day.

Food gives you energy, if you don't eat enough, your body won't produce enough energy to do things like exercise. There are a lot of calorie calculators available online, I'd look at one of those as a starting point.

You don't have to go full on calorie counting (I don't), but spending a little time looking at the recommendations and figuring out how much food that is will help you realise if you're badly under eating.

Iron

Something I've seen in a lot of females is varying levels of anaemia. Obviously, this is something you'd have to go to a doctor to get checked, but can be linked to not eating enough, or not eating enough iron containing foods (I've seen it more in vegans and vegetarians). If you are deficient (again, see your doctor) there are iron supplements you can take, but I always think you're better off adjusting your diet.

Sleep

Are you sleeping enough? Estimations vary, but somewhere most people require around 7 - 8 hours a night. Quality of sleep also matters, there's a big difference between laying in bed tossing and turning for hours on end compared to a deep, restful sleep.

There are a myriad of articles around improving sleep if this is an issue.

Amount of exercise

Assuming all the above are in order, then it could just be the amount of exercise you're doing compared to what your body is used to.

Were I to go out for a 6 mile hike up and down hills, when I get back I would just want to sleep. Conversely, I can do a full day out climbing on the rock then go meet friends for dinner and have a late night without struggling. I'm more conditioned to a day of climbing than I am hiking up and down hills.

If you think this might be the case, then cut back on the exercise. Maybe just go for a walk each morning and reduce the Chloe Ting stuff to a couple of times a week, then slowly build back up to doing it every day.

Everyone has to start from somewhere. One of my closest friends weighed nearly 200kg when I met him and used to get out of breath walking up the stairs to our office. He now lives in the Scottish Highlands and takes his dog out on hour long hikes on a nearly daily basis. Don't immediately assume you have to spend hours every day training to get in shape, start slowly and build from there.