Extreme tiredness

junii

Hi,

Its a while since ive posted so heres the stats again.
Im 22. 12.1 stone about 6'2".

The last time I was posting here I was 11.5 stone. Ive been eating serious now for the last few weeks. I also cyce every second day for about half an hour and I push myself fairly hard every few days.

Im eating very well at the moment, about 3300-3500 calories every day. I was hoping that as soon as I started to get fit and put on abit of weight I would start the gym. I have not been eating as much fruit and veg as I should but from today now I am going to start eating the right amounts. I also am taking natures plus multivitamins and cod liver oil daily.

The thing is I have less energy than ever and I am always tired. Yawning, stretching et cetera. I sleep nine hours every night and im still tired. Even if I slept more I know it wouldn't help. It must be all this food im eating thats making my body really tired. If not, what else could it be as its affecting my quality of life.

Thanks.

quozl

junii wrote:

Im eating very well at the moment, about 3300-3500 calories every day. I was hoping that as soon as I started to get fit and put on abit of weight I would start the gym. I have not been eating as much fruit and veg as I should but from today now I am going to start eating the right amounts. I also am taking natures plus multivitamins and cod liver oil daily.

You're not really going to get that fit doing 30 minutes of cycling every 2nd day. You said you wanted to try being a cyclist. Google for a decent beginners training program (I don't know one to recommend) and build it into your lifestyle.

Also if you're eating 3500 calories of junk and not getting your proper nutrition then that could explain the tiredness. I'll leave it to the BB'ers to help you with that. You've probably just gained fat but not muscle which will leave you feeling a bit lethargic too.

Basically 3 x 30 minutes cycling a week is the barest of starts. Get yourself a training plan and set yourself a target goal. Something challenging but attainable. If you enjoy cycling you can reap ridiculous fitness benefits from it. You need to sort your nutrition too though.

Don't get discouraged.

t-ha

You're eating over maintenance and you haven't been working out. You can't build muscle unless you workout - otherwise 'eating fairly serious' just turns you into a lard-butt.

Carbohydrate portion sizes might be out of whack too - if you eat too much your blood-sugar can crash causing a lack of energy. How much is 'too much' depends on the carb source and what it's eaten with - i.e. you can eat more grams of carbs from oats in one go than from sugar, as the blood-sugar increase is much slower/steadier with oats. You have to work out how you respond to different foods yourself, but in general stick to high fibre, wholegrain carbohydrate sources where possible.

If your activity level is what it seems to me, I'd say around 2,500kcals* is more appropriate and you shouldn't need the multi-vits, just get enough fruit & veg into you. If you decide you want to start working out hard then it's a different story.

*that's just a rough base, everyone is different.

iregk

As a cyclist myself Junii your not going to get a lot out of 30mins every second day. that said its a start and it is better than nothing. If you want to gain fitness and tone your legs you need to be doing a hill course. Do it for a min of 1hour. Also you may want to try and mix up your cycling style. For example one that I do is an up down method. When going up a hill get out of the saddle and give it about 75% for 30secs. Sit down but dont drop the pace then in 30's get up again. Repeat this until your close to the top where you will give 100% all the way home.

There are a lot of others as well but if you want more pm me and I can give you more details.

junii

All the advice given to me before was acknowledged but I decided I wanted just to gain some fat as a test to prove to myself that I could gain weight so I just loaded up calories and didn't really concentrate on ratios et cetera. Now I proved to myself that I can gain weight and I realised after reading this that it is my diet balance (ratios) thats causing me problems. Also, Ive been eating some foods that weren't great just to boost my calories.

I thought I could gain a reasonable level of fitness by cycling every second day but obviously not. That tip is great iregk but at the moment im using a mountain bike. I was waiting around to get a decent second hand entry level road racer. After reading your tip, I have decided to just go out and get a new one and do this properly.

I will try that when I get it towards the end of the week and look forward to getting more tips off you in the future.

Thanks everyone.

g'em

junii wrote:

All the advice given to me before was acknowledged but I decided I wanted just to gain some fat as a test to prove to myself that I could gain weight so I just loaded up calories and didn't really concentrate on ratios et cetera.

gaining fat and gaining muscle are two entirely different things- although both are gaining 'weight' one is essentially healthy, the other isn't.

I could sit down with a few gallons of ice cream and gain 'weight' no problem, but it'll be mostly fat. Obviouslly I don't want this (why would anyone!??!) . It's a lot more challenging (and beneficial and healthy) to gain lean muscle. That's why ratios are so important. Gaining lean muscle mass takes time and patience and a little bit of planning. Crash weight gain of fat will not do your metabolism or your organs any favours.

justsomebloke

I don't see why you have to wait until you have a road bike to do this, your mountain bike should be suitable for your needs. yes your overall speed is probably going to be down but your work rate sholdn't be effected to much by using a diffferent type of type, so unless you need to be specifaically training on a road bike I would just get out and start cycling.

Also with your diet you have now proved to yourslef that you can put on weight, so start eating properly otherwise you will just become a fat **** and it will effect your ability to do anything decently