No energy, lethargy, body feels weak

[PersianD3mi]

Been working really hard these past 9 months. alot of cardio and weight training. Started at 196 lbs and now I am 162. I have put on muscle mass as well. Lately i have been feeling just very blah in the gym. no energy and no strenght. My diet isnt any diff. but this weakness started about a month ago. If this has happened to anyone what recommendation can you guys make?

Do i need to be on any particular supplements, more calories, or just need to take a break from the gym.

I am on a mission to get to 10% body fat or less and be fit. So i hate the idea of eating alot or taking a break.

I eat about 1500 in calories a day. 2000 if i slip.
work 11 hrs a day 6 days a week
work out 5-6 days a week. 30 min cardio in the morning before and 1 hr to 1hr30min weight training after work.
only supplwment i take right now is a thermogenic by oxyelite pro.
i get all my protein from the food i eat. Porbably 100 g of protein a day. I stay away from carbohydrates as much as I can. probably 75g a day on my bad days.

[browguy808]

Looks like your body needs a break....Its over worked and undernourished in my opinion.

[nevergain]

Looks like your body needs a break....Its over worked and undernourished in my opinion.

I would agree. Calories seem pretty low for someone doing that much.

[MasterBench]

I would agree. Calories seem pretty low for someone doing that much.

This. You need to to fix up your diet. Hit up the nutrition section.

[The Solution]

1500 calories for someone 162 is very low
Let alone someone lost 30 pounds and gained muscle mass and strength which is practically impossible in a caloric deficit.
Your also doing cardio daily, and dont state if you do refeeds or cheat meals to help boost t3, leptin or hormone levels.
Which could set you up for forms of metabolic damage.
Trying to go faster and lose weight quicker leads to metabolic shutdown from drastic changes in kcals, and also a lot more stalls and not as much progress

Your best bet is probably from long term dieting and dropping 30 pounds is why you feel like your losing energy and tired all the time its a common side effect.

The goal of cutting is keeping kcals as high as possible and also taking it slow (.75-1lb a week would be optimal) to help keep hormones, t3, and leptin levels in check while you diet. (refeeds or cheat meals)

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat...ss-part-1.html
http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat...ss-part-2.html

I highly suggest you read here regarding your diet:

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat...ts-part-1.html
http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat...ts-part-2.html


PLEASE WATCH THESE VIDEOS:

[PersianD3mi]

Looks like your body needs a break....Its over worked and undernourished in my opinion.

thank you. I will try to eat more calories.

[PersianD3mi]

I have been never this "skinny" in my life so im really paranoid to eat more but i know i should.

also i dont do alot of intense weight training with extremely heavy weights. I do resistance and high rep exercises.

[The Solution]

I have been never this "skinny" in my life so im really paranoid to eat more but i know i should.

also i dont do alot of intense weight training with extremely heavy weights. I do resistance and high rep exercises.

Training Heavy = Preserve muscle
Training in hypertrophy all the time negates recruiting muscle fibers (Type I)
Training heavy when you diet down will help retain strength hence why you are losing strength. Glycogen depletion higher reps is a huge myth for cutting. So there is one of your major flaws.

If you know you need to eat, then end the cut and eat. Period.


http://www.3dmusclejourney.com/artic...p-mistakes.php

"Keeping performance up in the gym throughout your whole prep will ensure that you step on stage with all your hard earned muscle. However, what performance is and what is optimal for preserving lean body mass while dieting is still very misunderstood by the average bodybuilder. The first mistake I will touch upon is turning weight training time into fat burning time. This is where the athlete actually makes an effort to chew through fat while in the weight room. Let’s get this straight, if there is one time you don’t want to be burning fat, it is while weight training. You should be tapping into fat stores during other times of the day and relying on what you ate while lifting. Adding sets, reps, and lowering rest times in an effort to eat up more calories is not a good idea. Not only is it going to sway you in the

WNBF Pro - Brad Loomis
wrong direction hormonally, but it will make your body adapt to accommodate this training and these kinds of adaptations are not conducive to preserving muscle. On the contrary, smaller, more efficient (aerobically) muscles are better suited for this kind of training. And trust me, while on a deficit your body won’t fight the idea of having smaller muscles. Lastly, increasing workload simply because you can’t lift as heavy, or lift as heavy as often, is a bogus methodology. The addition of volume that surpasses your offseason efforts is a recipe for disaster. In fact, most athletes would benefit from a shorter, abbreviated version of their offseason proven protocols. It is the loads that create the highest tension (usually lower rep compounds) that we can thank for the vast majority of our development, and abandoning them in favor of “intense” circuit-type training is senseless. You might not be able to hit your top end weights with as many sets, but one top end set where you reiterate the same amount of tension used in the offseason goes a long way in preserving your hard earned muscle. Keeping strength can be hard and it’s an ongoing battle, but it can be done. It is not strange to hear from top natural pros that they have matched, or even broken personal records in the gym during the last home stretch of their diets. Lowering work load for the sake of keeping intensity up is something I recommend in place of increasing volume and lowering weights. In most cases, I like my athletes to incorporate slight deloads just as they would in an offseason, especially if performance is suffering. Doing this while adhering to some form of periodization the whole way is ideal when dieting. So in a nutshell, things should not be too different from your offseason training, just keep in mind that you are under eating so recovery will be slower. "

[itzDodge]

Pretty straight forward you're overtrained and too focused on short term goals to see the big picture. Either cut back on training now and starting eating more or keep going and hold yourself back further. Athletes who eat less are fatter than their counter parts who eat plenty.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10731010

These data suggest that within-day energy deficits (measured by frequency and/or magnitude of deficit) are associated with higher body fat percentage in both anaerobic and aerobic elite athletes, possibly from an adaptive reduction in the REE. These data should discourage athletes from following restrained or delayed eating patterns to achieve a desired body composition.