Why am I so tired?

[luc99pear]

I've been noticing that the day after my workouts I feel exhausted. I am tried all day at work and can fall asleep at any given moment.

I stay away from processed foods, eat lots of protein, veggies, and legumes. I drink lots of water. I take weekly Vitamin D supplements. I sleep about 6 hours a night.

Do I need more sleep? Or is it something else?

Anyone else feel drained the next day after their workouts?

-luc99pear

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Sleep is probably an issue, try for 7 or 8.

[FyreFlies]

Hi, hello..

I used to be exactly the same. Then my bf told me it's because I'm not eating enough (which was true - I was only eating 500-600 cals a day trying to speed up my weight loss - epic fail, I didn't move a pound).

The solution - eat more! Do you track how much you eat? I'm also on the Paleo diet, and noticed that although I eat all day, it's still not enough. On your weight lifting days especially, you should be eating some carbs before you go work out. A couple hours beforehand. My habit is to work out in the morning - so I used to be falling asleep directly after I work out. Even though I was eating post-workout - our bodies take some time for it to kick in.

Also.. six hours is nothing. Try to get at least 7-8 hours.

And are you really drained? Or just sleepy? There's a difference. When I wasn't eating enough - I would work out in the morning, eat, then I'd be nodding off at work. Then I'd go for a walk at lunch, and same thing - I'd be hit with the sleepy sheep. Try eating more.

[Valiance]

I do! I need more sleep after a good workout. When I did karate a lot as a kid, I remember I would sleep like a log the next day. This time around seems to be no different... after my workout yesterday I slept for 9.5 hours and I'm still dragging some this morning.

Some other things to check for:

1.) Are you going through something like sugar withdraws? Did you suddenly cut out a lot of sweets or sodas?

2.) Are you getting all of the vitamins and whatnot you need from your food? Sometimes when we start eating healthy we end up missing something in our diet.

3.) Are you drinking enough water? Exhaustion can be a symptom of dehydration.

4.) Are you really getting enough sleep? Remember sleep is cumulative. Even if you sleep for 10 hours the day after your workout, it won't do you much good if you only slept 5 hours the night before that, and only sleep 6 hours the night after. You need to get good sleep on a regular basis.

5.) Are you working out too hard? It's very possible to work out too hard, and this could be your body's way of telling you that you need to scale it back a notch.

So those are my suggestions. I'm sure other, far wiser, Nerdfitnessers will chip in.

[luc99pear]

Thanks everyone. Yes, I think I need to sleep more and make it a habit. Also, I may need to eat more on the days that I do heavy workout. It seems to counter intuitive, but i suppose its not. Something I need to convince myself of.

[Valiance]

I also included the other ones because, despite your saying you take a vitamin D supplement and drink lots of water, it might be helpful to take a truly critical look and ask yourself: It feels like I'm drinking a ton of water, but how much am I actually drinking? Or, I'm taking a vitamin D, but is that really a vitamin I need, or do I actually need some other vitamin?

But yeah, I'm gonna bet it's the sleep. Unless I've had a lot of sleep for a few days before hand, I literally cannot function on 6 hours of sleep. I can get up and drag around for about 4 hours before I have to stop and take a nap. I know my body needs a little more sleep than most of my friends do, and I know some people who (once they started a regular sleep schedule) were surprised how much their life improved when they moved from 5 or 6 hours of sleep a night to 8 or even 9.

Of course, on the flip side, I know people who say they literally cannot make their bodies sleep more than 7 hours a night. Like that's their max, and they don't feel tired the next day off of a constant routine of 7 hours a night (I would!).

[smazzon1]

Ideal sleep is 7.5-8 hours. No more, no less. Too much sleep can have you feeling just as groggy as too little sleep. And it definitely could be the amount of food too. If your workouts are getting more extreme, your body needs more calories to function.

[Warwolf]

I'm really happy you started this thread, luc99pear, I've been having the same issue. I've been trying to eat more (and more paleo) but it hasn't made too much of a difference. It's sounding like sleep habits are the biggest contributor (boo)