Man I'm tired ...

[weightaminute]

I've been doing 3 days weight training ... roughly an hour mixed with 2-3 days of interval training (elliptical for 20 mins) for about 10 months. It's somewhat of a modified Body For Life style workout. The issue is ... I'm getting freaking tired from working out. I thought it was overtraining (still think it might be) but I took a week off. I felt like I needed to workout today ... so I just went and did 4 sets of dumbbell lunges followed 20 minutes of cardio. I was tired as hell but forced myself to do it. A week ago, I was doing upper body and just felt so drained I stopped and came home after 3 sets of bench and rows supersets. I've never felt so tired that I had to stop before. That's what led to me taking a week off. Anyway ... this drain I feel makes working out such a grind.

I'm 6'5", 222lbs (dropped from 237lbs or so), 39 years old.

My diet isn't perfect ... but pretty clean considering I hate to cook. I usually eat ...

breakfast ... 2 weight control instant oatmeal (210 cals)
snack ... protein bar (210 cals, 19g protein)
lunch ... subway ... 6 inch double meat club on honey oat bread. sometimes an apple (500-600 cals, 40g protein)
snack ... slim fast low carb (180 cals, 20g protein)
dinner ... healthy choice cafe steamer (250-310 cals, No Preservatives 20-23g protein)
snack ... dry roasted peanuts (3 servings, 500-600 cals, 21g protein)

Late snack (sometimes) ... i'll have a bowl of cereal ... special k or mini wheats with some splenda OR maybe a low carb protein shake OR dry roasted peanuts OR popcorn. (200-400 cals)

I have been cheating by eating a lot of dry roated peanuts lately. I recently ready a study saying that people that added 500 cals (without cutting any other cals) of peanuts to their diet had no increase in body weight. The fat cals in peanuts apparently are not absorbed like other foods. Anyway the thinking was that if I'm going to cheat, this was the best thing to eat. And I been getting tired for quite some time before the peanut binging. So I don't think it's the peanuts.

Finally I'll add ... even when I am having good workouts ... I don't love working out like some people do. I just have been disciplined enough to make myself do it. I wish that I did love it. The extra fatigue/tiredness makes it really suck!

Any thoughts? Any suggestions?

 

[Azinine]

Take 2 weeks off? I don't know what a Body for Life style workout consists of but if it's intense, maybe you just need a bit more rest.

 

[... J Rock ...]

I've been doing 3 days weight training ... roughly an hour mixed with 2-3 days of interval training (elliptical for 20 mins) for about 10 months. It's somewhat of a modified Body For Life style workout. The issue is ... I'm getting freaking tired from working out. I thought it was overtraining (still think it might be) but I took a week off. I felt like I needed to workout today ... so I just went and did 4 sets of dumbbell lunges followed 20 minutes of cardio. I was tired as hell but forced myself to do it. A week ago, I was doing upper body and just felt so drained I stopped and came home after 3 sets of bench and rows supersets. I've never felt so tired that I had to stop before. That's what led to me taking a week off. Anyway ... this drain I feel makes working out such a grind.

I'm 6'5", 222lbs (dropped from 237lbs or so), 39 years old.

My diet isn't perfect ... but pretty clean considering I hate to cook. I usually eat ...

breakfast ... 2 weight control instant oatmeal (210 cals)
snack ... protein bar (210 cals, 19g protein)
lunch ... subway ... 6 inch double meat club on honey oat bread. sometimes an apple (500-600 cals, 40g protein)
snack ... slim fast low carb (180 cals, 20g protein)
dinner ... healthy choice cafe steamer (250-310 cals, No Preservatives 20-23g protein)
snack ... dry roasted peanuts (3 servings, 500-600 cals, 21g protein)

Late snack (sometimes) ... i'll have a bowl of cereal ... special k or mini wheats with some splenda OR maybe a low carb protein shake OR dry roasted peanuts OR popcorn. (200-400 cals)

I have been cheating by eating a lot of dry roated peanuts lately. I recently ready a study saying that people that added 500 cals (without cutting any other cals) of peanuts to their diet had no increase in body weight. The fat cals in peanuts apparently are not absorbed like other foods. Anyway the thinking was that if I'm going to cheat, this was the best thing to eat. And I been getting tired for quite some time before the peanut binging. So I don't think it's the peanuts.

Finally I'll add ... even when I am having good workouts ... I don't love working out like some people do. I just have been disciplined enough to make myself do it. I wish that I did love it. The extra fatigue/tiredness makes it really suck!

Any thoughts? Any suggestions?

I would suggest getting involved in a sport. If your not in love with working out that would take care of the cardio at least. I do Mauh Thai & Greco Roman wrestling I don't even notice 2 hours goes by in class. Getting involved
in something you love doing never seems like a work out. Hope this helps.

 

[fortunatesun]

I don't know what your specific workout looks like, but when you have the same exercise selection for a long period of time you don't get just muscular adaptation but also neural adaptation . Overtraining can occur mentally as well.

It can help to change things up- exercise selection, rep ranges, even a different program if you want to achieve a new short term goal before returning to your plan. This gives you something new to do and provides the stimulus of mental challenge instead of constantly breaking yourself down through the some old routine.

Same could be said of your diet. While it may be adequate, variety is the spice of life. It's one of the things we often do to ourselves: follow the programming that's no longer working for us because we think we're doing the right thing. There's always alternatives that can work just as well, even if it's just for the short term. A little creative thinking can put the drive back in your situation.

Also, I agree with the above 2 posts.

 

[badhabit08]

I've been doing 3 days weight training ... roughly an hour mixed with 2-3 days of interval training (elliptical for 20 mins) for about 10 months. It's somewhat of a modified Body For Life style workout. The issue is ... I'm getting freaking tired from working out. I thought it was overtraining (still think it might be) but I took a week off. I felt like I needed to workout today ... so I just went and did 4 sets of dumbbell lunges followed 20 minutes of cardio. I was tired as hell but forced myself to do it. A week ago, I was doing upper body and just felt so drained I stopped and came home after 3 sets of bench and rows supersets. I've never felt so tired that I had to stop before. That's what led to me taking a week off. Anyway ... this drain I feel makes working out such a grind.

I'm 6'5", 222lbs (dropped from 237lbs or so), 39 years old.

My diet isn't perfect ... but pretty clean considering I hate to cook. I usually eat ...

breakfast ... 2 weight control instant oatmeal (210 cals)
snack ... protein bar (210 cals, 19g protein)
lunch ... subway ... 6 inch double meat club on honey oat bread. sometimes an apple (500-600 cals, 40g protein)
snack ... slim fast low carb (180 cals, 20g protein)
dinner ... healthy choice cafe steamer (250-310 cals, No Preservatives 20-23g protein)
snack ... dry roasted peanuts (3 servings, 500-600 cals, 21g protein)

Late snack (sometimes) ... i'll have a bowl of cereal ... special k or mini wheats with some splenda OR maybe a low carb protein shake OR dry roasted peanuts OR popcorn. (200-400 cals)

I have been cheating by eating a lot of dry roated peanuts lately. I recently ready a study saying that people that added 500 cals (without cutting any other cals) of peanuts to their diet had no increase in body weight. The fat cals in peanuts apparently are not absorbed like other foods. Anyway the thinking was that if I'm going to cheat, this was the best thing to eat. And I been getting tired for quite some time before the peanut binging. So I don't think it's the peanuts.

Finally I'll add ... even when I am having good workouts ... I don't love working out like some people do. I just have been disciplined enough to make myself do it. I wish that I did love it. The extra fatigue/tiredness makes it really suck!

Any thoughts? Any suggestions?

youre not overtraining really to hard, ur just undereating for your weight, im 18 and the same thing happened to me during basketball season. I had big sunken in eyes, and they were really dark cuz i was dieting too hard for how much i worked out. 5 days basketball plus 4 lifting days at like 2000 cals max, most of the time less. i love to lift, and i felt like hell at the gym until i upped my cals to like 3000. i suggest u up ur cals by about another 500, or w/e it takes until u feel better. i did lose about 30 pounds by the end, but had to quit basketball cuz i could hardly run at practice.