If you have loads of energy… how??

[FuckOffTom]

If you feel like you always have enough energy to get through your day, most days… how do you achieve it?

I am late 30s. Sleep pretty well most nights, healthy weight, drink a lot of water, take my vitamins (recent blood test shows everything normal although ferritin is borderline at just over 30 ug/L) eat relatively well etc so why I do feel so tired all the time? This isn’t a new thing, either. I can’t really remember a time when I had an abundance of energy as an adult. I could nearly always afternoon nap, even after a solid 8 hours a night of good quality sleep and some days feel down right fatigued so where am I going wrong?

That doesn’t sound normal. I have enough energy every day and I’m 42 with 2 kids under 2 and get by with around 5 hours sleep a night currently. There are days when I’m more tired than others but I can always squeeze in a gym session somewhere (unless the kids have literally kept me up all night).

I’d like to know this too. I’ve been knackered all my life. I think hormones have a lot to answer for. I’ve always felt ace just after my period and then it’s a gradual decline till I’m crawling through the day.

A GP once told me ferritin needs to be over 50 to start to feel well. See if you can take a supplement for a while to get it up.

But I can't talk as I'm permanently knackered despite sleeping more than 8hrs average...

Given that normal range ferritin is anything up to 150 I'd start taking some iron with a glass of OJ each morning (I tolerate it pretty well though).

What exercise do you do?

Wow @Softycatchymonkeys - I think you must be unusual though (and lucky!)

Im 49 and perimenopausal. I get around. 6/7 hours of sleep but probably need more. I struggle to get going in the mornings and always feel so tired first thing. Tends to improve throughout the day. Have a relatively good diet, healthy weight but I do exercise at least 5 times a week. It’s the only thing that seems to give me more energy. I’ve just started taking vitamins as on HRT but symptoms worse lately.
I was reading about the benefits of cutting out sugar recently and how it can help but I’ve not been brave enough yet to try it!

Ask your doctor for iron tablets if you’re right at the bottom of the normal range and struggling with tiredness, the range is huge and in my experience it’s possible to be symptomatic if you’re right on the borderline. Explain to your doctor what you’ve said here.

How’s your diet? Do you eat enough protein and a wide range of vegetables? See if you can optimise that.

Might be worth getting your thyroid and B12 levels checked if you haven’t already, and possibly ask if you could be tested for h.pylori - it’s a relatively common stomach bacterial infection and can cause fatigue.

How’s your mood? Are you reasonably happy in your life? Do you find you have more energy for things that you actually want to do?

What's the quality of your sleep like? In theory, I get 8 hours a night but it's generally light and I wake up a lot so I don't ever really feel refreshed

This is good advice but I’d ask your doctor if you can have some prescription ferrous fumarate which will be much higher and make more of a difference than over the counter iron supplements which are very low.

A bit random but worth a mention - do you have a deviated septum or any issues breathing through your nose? This can really disrupt the quality of sleep you are getting even if you feel you have slept all night

following

Yeah this is a good point also, quality not just quantity of sleep matters. Make sure you wind down properly before you go to bed, maybe a bit of soothing music or a meditation track so that you get deep sleep. Going to bed and getting up at the same time every day is also supposed to help (I don’t often manage this but when I have it’s made a difference).

Have a tidy bedroom - a bedroom with a lot of clutter and mess in it can affect sleep quality.

What’s your daily calorie and protein intake?

This is what makes me think I need to get my iron sorted out! I will book in to see the GP and see if I can get prescription iron as others have suggested

You need more nighttime sleep?

It might be psychological but I've been making fresh veg juice every morning (celery, spinach, cucumber and a lemon) and it works like an energy drink. Within 30 minutes I'm zooming. Once I'm moving, I tend to keep moving as well. If I sit, it's game over and the tiredness kicks in. Fresh air every single day as well.

You can buy 200mg iron tablets OTC.

I swear by morning hot water and lemon then a protein shake- oat milk, protein powder, spinach, banana all blended up. It tastes amazing and makes me feel so good. You can add yoghurt, peanut butter or whatever you want or sometimes I swap the spinach for courgette or another green veg. Try it for a week.

My diet isn’t perfect but I have been making more of an effort recently - more home cooked foods, some red meat for iron, veggies and fruit etc

Thyroid, B12 and Vit D all normal. The stomach thing sounds interesting, sometimes I feel really fatigued just before a bowel movement (sorry, TMI!) don’t know if that’s connected

My mood is pretty some days but I think because I’m tired! So the tiredness causes me to feel fed up. I did have a pretty stressful last 6 months so that could be partly to blame.

Exercise wise - I do a few long distance walks each week, a ten minute yoga session most days and have recently started to get out for half an hour each day for a proper brisk walk to get heart rate and breathing up. But thats only recent

How’s your mental & emotional health? Do you have purpose in your life? The effects of these upon your energy levels are massively underestimated. Physically seems you are doing everything ok.

I’ve never counted calories so I’m not sure. I try and get protein in with every meal though.

For those asking, I think my quality of sleep is pretty good. I hardly ever wake up in the night

Mental and emotional health haven’t been great but the exercise has been helping with that. I notice my mood is much better when I don’t feel tired! So it’s hard to know which is cause and which is effect

I have v good energy and run on little sleep, which I put down to diet. My energy levels went up significantly after going vegan many years ago (and I was already vegetarian, so that was surprising). I eat healthily, whatever I want, during the day and then usually have one big main meal in the evening.

Loved reading other posters here about the morning juice and homemade protein shake, I might incorporate these!

If I were you, in addition to making sure your iron levels are good, I'd eliminate all added sugar from your diet, and eat raw food as much as possible. I get absolutely knackered on sugar - honey is OK though, or coconut sugar. Also cut out all reheated food - it's debilitating

Same , late 40's and permanently exhausted