Feeling Low Energy? This Might Be Why…

Low energy? Could it be…

Not enough sleep?

Not enough food or water?

Not enough fresh air?

Too much stress or screen time?

Something else?

Whenever the clocks change, it can throw our minds and bodies out of routine.

If you're feeling tired today, it might just be the unnatural change to your circadian rhythm.

But if you are typically low energy in workouts or throughout the day….

• You might need more rest.

• You might need more food or water.

• You might have chronic stress, mental health concerns or have an underlying medical condition -- none of which will be solved with exercising or restrictive diets.

Let's start with two of the main concerns I see among my clients.

Lack of Quality Sleep

Seems pretty intuitive, but you'd be surprised how many people overlook this one! Many of my clients who routinely feel low energy and exhausted simply aren’t sleeping enough or their sleep is poor.

Adults need 7-9 hours of sleep for optimal health. 70% of Americans miss that mark at least once a month.

If you feel tired or like you don't have any energy, you might ACTUALLY BE TIRED. Your body and brain need sleep to regenerate and if they don't get it, your body tries to conserve energy by making you feel tired during the day so you don't want to move or expend energy.

If you're like many people (myself included!) who just stay up too late scrolling or watching tv or ignoring their body's cues that it's time for bed, set a bedtime. Create a routine. Stop making excuses, and go to bed. 

For many people, odd work schedules that are out of your control (i.e., overnight hospital shifts, NOT just staying up late working on stuff because you don't have boundaries!) or health conditions limit how much or how well you can sleep. In these cases, it's best to work with a sleep professional to find solutions.

(More on sleep here.)


Not Consuming Adequate Calories

Food is fuel. It’s more than that, but it IS also the body's fuel. 

Calories, despite the associations many of us have with them, are simply units of energy. 

If you’re restricting the heck out of your calories, you’re not going to have enough energy.

When you feel tired and sluggish, you want to move less, which means you expend less energy and are less likely to work out.

Many popular diet programs that significantly restrict calories warn that fatigue may occur. This is because your body literally doesn’t have enough fuel/energy/calories for basic life functions. 

The basal metabolic rate, or BMR, is the amount of calories a person needs for their organs to continue function while they're lying completely still doing nothing. If you've ever used an online calorie calculator, you might have seen this number. It's the absolute bare minimum.

For people who track calories, intake should ALWAYS BE ABOVE this number, because the majority of us are not lying completely still in our beds. We're getting up, wrangling kids, going to work, using our brains, getting workouts in...that all takes energy, too. 

You wouldn't expect your car to run very far or very well once the gas light goes on, but if you're consistently restricting calories, that's exactly what you're asking your body to do, and that could be why you feel like you don't have enough energy to do anything. 


Lack of sleep and lack of adequate calorie intake are just two reasons you might feel low energy. 
For more on sleep, check out this blog post. 
Stay tuned next Monday for more on some of the other reasons you might feel like you're dragging and what you can do about it.