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?

This was me until I started intermittant fasting. Even if you ate the same food but in a shorter eating window then Im sure your energy would increase. I run up stairs now instead of dragging myself up. I feel better now than I did in my 20s.

I have often struggled with (what felt like) random bouts of tiredness. Not perfect but found a big difference through:
• multivitamins and especially regular IRON supplement
• exercise (not to demotivate you, but you should do more moderate/intense exercise than it sounds like you’re doing at the moment. Choose something you like and do that! Will help with mood and sleep).
• accepting that I need a bit more sleep than some people to be well rested - I am comfortable if I regularly get 8.5 hours. Good sleep hygiene: go to bed and get up same-ish time each day

Yes I had read about this and tend to eat all my meals between 9am and 7pm. It didn’t affect my energy levels but I stopped getting bloated and my IBS calmed right down

How often do you feel excited and have things to look forward to? I find my mood dictates my energy levels rather than the other way round. (Appreciate this isn’t the same for everyone)

Have you been tested for coeliac disease before being diagnosed with IBS? Fatigue is one of the symptoms.

What’s your job? I am knackered when I’m at home all day working from home but if we go on day trips or holidays I’m full of life and walk for miles and jump out of bed.

I put it down to the stress of daily routine and sitting down at a desk all day. Basically the more I do physically the less tired I am.

I had similar. Late 30s, hectic job, kids. Knackered all the time. Had bloods - all good. Balanced diet.
The solution has been two things:

• cut out carbs and sugar and ideally alcohol. They drain energy when digesting.
• do 10-15 mins of exercise a day. I do sit ups and press-ups on reps.

I've done this since new years and honestly feel like a new man, it's amazing. Honestly try it.

I'm the same. I've felt fatigued since my 20s at least. Every few years I have enough of it and get blood tests done. Like you my ferritin is usually borderline but everything else is healthy. I've taken iron supplements for years but they don't do much and upset my digestion (even the ones that are supposed to easier on the stomach).

I do have heavy periods and suspect I have endo (although I have never been diagnosed) which can cause fatigue. I'm in peri now so maybe things will get better when my periods finally fuck off.

Self care activities factored into your routine things you love doing however indulgent and maybe even counselling to help your mental /emotional issues?
Also If you have something you’re excited about ie something you’re looking forward to this can boost your energy levels- can you start a hobby you love it book a hol etc?

Following

Mental health for me is a big one. If you're motivated in life you have energy. Counselling helped me to find my passion/focus on what I could change.

@10storeylovesong can you explain a few of those things for someone that's never heard of them before?

What job do you do and how is your workload?

Are you doing interesting things outside work or do you come home and slump on the sofa?

Was gonna say this!! I've not been diagnosed as Coeliacs but I did a hair test and said I had gluten and dairy sensitivity (so wouldn't be surprised if its coeliacs).

Since cutting both out, I've got more energy but also my periods have got a lot better, less heavy and I don't feel as drained!! It is daunting changing but I do feel a lot better and less bloating and fatigue!

I'm 43 and this was basically me since I was 15. Tired all the time and feeling drained.
I have cut out all sugar, gluten and alcohol, my energy levels are so high. I now don't have that afternoon slump. I get about 8 hours sleep but I wake up refreshed. At christmas I had a few sweets and wine, I felt like shit again. Sugar is the worst for me, I didn't have an awful diet but I did have biscuits or chocolate every day.
I also take 300mg of iron every day too.
Try cutting out Sugar for a month and see if it helps.

What’s a hair test?

This thread is making me feel I should have a real go at cutting out sugar… Is that refined sugar only or all sugars? Do you still eat fruit?

Try joining the 30 plants a week thread on here. It's been proven that poor gut health causes so many problems, not eating a wide enough variety of plants and eating food with gut microbe killing preservatives are the main cause - so easy to test out and to see if it helps you :)

Do you blend this or put it through a juicer that filters out the pulp?

Do you have enough vitamin D?

Sorry just seen where you said it was normal

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.

You can get ferrous fumerate OTC.
Iron bisglycinate has better bioavailability than ferrous fumerate and has less gastric side effects.

Walking every day outside in the fresh air is energising but I always have a nap of anything from twenty minutes to an hour in the afternoon and I'm fully recharged.

One of my old school teachers in the 70s instilled in us the power of taking a nap. She wore long floaty dresses and was strict but fair.

Whilst napping was seen as being for young children, if you were in her class in the afternoon and in the last year of junior school she would have a wind down of reading a passage from a book and then we all having a nap.

It’s down to the individual I guess, I don’t get much in the way of gastric side effects from ferrous fumarate whereas I do for pretty much every other iron supplement I have tried. The point about prescription versus OTC is prescription will give you a much higher dose, which will be more effective.

Normal range is now considered to be up to 300