Why always feel tired? What to do if you’re very tired

Author: Mikhail Ziborov - author of the site makefitness.pro.
2024-12-13

Fatigue is a modern bane of humanity. There are far more reasons for it than many think. When you consult a specialist, they are likely to help you only with one aspect of the problem. To solve the issue, a comprehensive approach is necessary.

In fact, this is how we are used to addressing our clients' problems. Take our Telegram channel, where anyone can ask concerning questions about nutrition, training, or sports supplements. The most interesting questions are featured in the feed.

Causes of Constant Fatigue

In reality, there are two main areas where a person experiences fatigue. They can be conditionally divided into physical and mental areas. I won't delve into some spiritual practices if that's what you were thinking. We're talking about the psyche, as the word "soul" (from Greek Ψυχή – psyché) refers specifically to the psyche. Psychology, in fact, is the science of the soul. If someone does not believe in the existence of the soul, I hope they will not deny that they have a psyche?

In summary, a person can become fatigued both physically and mentally (psychologically). These two areas further divide into subcategories that may conceal the cause of your fatigue.

The main error of the modern person is that they recognize the problem – fatigue – and try to solve it unilaterally. Have you ever considered that there may be multiple reasons for fatigue? It’s like having several holes in your gas tank but only covering one of them. It’s no wonder that the gasoline leaks.

Physical Fatigue

1. Lack of Vitamins and Minerals. This is the most obvious reason. Thousands of processes in the body rely on micronutrients. For instance, energy production. If you are deficient in some vitamin or mineral, it’s no surprise that you lack energy for the entire workday.

And if you have a sedentary job, do you think you don’t need much energy? Did you know that the brain is the most energy-consuming organ in the body? Next come the kidneys and the liver. All of this works even when you are lying down.

Fatigue often manifests strongly due to a deficiency of several nutrients at once. If you think that eating a varied diet covers all the body's needs for micronutrients, you are deeply mistaken. Due to the impoverishment of products, a varied diet hardly satisfies all nutritional gaps for vitamins and minerals.

Statistics show that most people are currently deficient in various vitamins and minerals. Overdose on vitamins, on the other hand, is very rare. Do you know anyone who took too many vitamins and ended up in the hospital because of it?

In general, here are the vitamin and mineral complexes (men's and women's) that can help address at least this aspect of the problem of constant fatigue.

2. Low Levels of Sex Hormones. It is sex hormones that are responsible for your activity and vigor. Hormones can decline, understandably, due to a lack of vitamins and micronutrients. But what if the vitamin issue is resolved? Then the problem might stem from excess weight: a significant amount of excess weight drastically decreases the concentration of sex hormones in the body (here is a detailed article on this topic).

And there doesn't necessarily have to be obesity. There may just be a lot of subcutaneous fat, which produces aromatase (an enzyme that converts testosterone into estrogen). Testosterone is the male sex hormone necessary for both men (to a greater extent) and women (to a lesser extent).

If you want to raise your testosterone level, lose the excess weight. Its concentration will increase naturally. And here are before and after photos of people who have lost weight.

Alright. What if there isn't that much subcutaneous fat? What else could be the reason for low levels of sex hormones? A high level of cortisol – the hormone responsible for our energy and… stress.

Many concerns and high tension throughout the day make the body produce elevated levels of cortisol. A high level of cortisol equals a lower level of sex hormones. Multiply this by daily stress, lack of proper vacation, rest, and chronic overwork. There you have it: consistently low levels of sex hormones.

If you want to increase the level of sex hormones, reduce stress (cortisol) by regulating your workday. You can't earn all the money in the world.

3. You're not sleeping properly. I’m not going to talk about the need for 8 hours of sleep. In fact, everyone needs their own individual amount. For me, for example, 9 hours are required for normal recovery. But right now, it’s not so much about the duration of sleep, but about the irregularity of your sleep schedule.

For instance, during weekdays, you go to bed early and wake up early (for work). But on weekends, you might stay up watching a series until 2 AM. After all, you don’t have to wake up early tomorrow! On both weekdays and weekends, you get your 8 hours of sleep. However, the issue is that mixing up your sleeping and waking times severely affects the body’s hormonal response.

One day you went to bed at 11 PM and woke up at 7 AM. Then, on the weekend, you went to bed at 2 AM and woke up at 10 AM. This disruption in your sleeping and waking times results in cortisol – the hormone of wakefulness and alertness – being produced at inappropriate times.

For example, before the weekend, you didn’t sleep until 2 AM, and your body "remembers" when you fell asleep and when you woke up (i.e., when your body should produce melatonin for sleep and when cortisol for waking). Then the weekdays arrive, and your schedule is completely different. The body has to readjust to the new sleep and wake times.

In short, such irregularity leads you to feel tired after the weekends. Simply because your body is still operating on a weekend schedule while you’ve already switched to a workday schedule.

4. You have terrible physical activity. And this is not just about the absence of workouts. This point also applies to those who do exercise. So keep reading.

An imbalance in sex hormones (which causes your constant fatigue) can result from a lack of physical activity. Understand that even small amounts of physical exercise are a natural way to balance your sex hormones and reduce fatigue.

Strength training is particularly beneficial. Due to it, when the body recovers at night, the natural synthesis of sex hormones increases. This is how our body operates (I won't go into details).

So instead of taking various testosterone boosters without working out, it would be better to start moving a little bit. At least for 15 minutes a day. Thankfully, we have such training programs available.

And no matter how good and effective testosterone boosters are, they won't be able to increase your sex hormone levels if you don't start training (by the way, here’s a genuinely effective booster). Physical activity is the primary and fundamental way to enhance your energy levels (through sex hormones and mitochondria). On the other hand, testosterone boosters are a secondary method.

Now, for those who do train. That is, for those who train excessively or do not adequately recover after workouts. You could simply be:

- Overworking in your workouts (excessively high loads);

- Training too frequently (excessive stress due to loads and chronic nervous system tension);

- Not recovering enough, paying insufficient attention to sleep patterns, and not just sleep itself (see point 3).

Long-term stay in such a state (reminiscent of overtraining) results in you being unable to "gather your ducks," meaning you feel chronically tired. Rest should be sufficient to fully satisfy the body's needs after training.

A similar situation occurs with people who feel physically fatigued at work. Are you overworking (and spending a long time in this mode)? Then don't be surprised that you lack energy: your body is tired and needs rest (or at least a reduction in stress).

The most unpleasant aspect of all this is that a person may not notice physical overwork or believe that living in such a mode is normal.

Typically, people stop at physical fatigue, ceasing to delve into the underlying issues. It's good if a person recognizes the problem and addresses several points from the list above. For example, they may monitor their vitamin and mineral imbalances and somewhat normalize their work (training) and rest routines. However, few people work on their psyche. Yet, it is because of this that you may feel just as worn out as when experiencing physical fatigue.

Mental (Emotional or Moral) Fatigue

We're talking about the fact that a person can become mentally fatigued. Everything may be perfectly fine with the body, yet something still feels off. The same faces at work, the same activities at work, monotony, doing the same things in everyday life. No new emotions, no vivid impressions. It’s not like when you were 17 or 18 years old. All of this leads to psychological fatigue.

And such a state results in you becoming more irritable (or, conversely, overly sentimental), struggling to cope with psychological stress, and deriving less pleasure from things that once brought you joy.

What should you do if you are psychologically fatigued?

Firstly, allow yourself to relax, even if just for a short while. Watch a movie you’ve wanted to see for a long time, play a video game that you wanted to try but couldn’t due to your busy schedule. Go to a place you’ve always wanted to visit. Grill some shashliks, go fishing: you know best what can bring you moral and even physical relaxation and satisfaction.

Even such a small step can help reduce your mental load.

Secondly, don’t worry about what you might not get done; someone will be working while you are taking a break. Ask yourself: will it be better if you continue to grind away in an emotionally suppressed state? Will it make you feel better to get the planned work done but remain just as unhappy? Or is it better to rest and approach your responsibilities feeling more refreshed and energized?

Thirdly, change your environment. I don’t know: go to a café on the other side of town where you haven’t been; attend a football match (or another sport you enjoy); take a short trip to another city for the evening or a day; visit a place you either haven’t been to or haven’t visited often. Such a change of location positively influences psychological release: new places (even if they don’t evoke strong emotions) replace the dull routine. Just a little, but it gets easier.

Fourthly, practice gratitude. Thank your parents for everything they have given you. Thank God for what you have, rather than being in a much worse situation. Thank your partner for being such a wonderful person (you know their strong points better than anyone).

Let me explain why it is essential to thank anyone. The fact is that during gratitude, the brain (even if we are not aware of it) gradually produces pleasure hormones (dopamine, oxytocin, etc.): by saying "thank you" to someone, you indicate that not everything is as bad as it may seem.

You expressed gratitude - and your hormones started to synthesize gradually.

The second positive aspect of gratitude is that we begin to appreciate what we have. We tend to take our possessions for granted, thinking that they should be that way. It’s obligatory! But in reality, it’s not. At some point, you might not have acquired what you have now. For example, consider a small item – your smartphone. Just imagine your life had turned out such that you could only afford a basic mobile phone. And how wonderful is it that you have a smartphone instead? A quality one from a reputable brand.

The same can be done with more significant items, like a car. What if you didn’t have a car and had to rely on public transport or walk to work? It could have easily happened: war in the country, a deep economic crisis, an ecological disaster, and much more. But you have a car. And this is a reason to thank yourself for your hard work and God.

I could go on about thanking parents. If your mother hadn’t received enough vitamin B9 during her pregnancy, you could have had health and growth issues. I hope you’re healthy and not just one meter tall? Then that’s a reason to thank your parents and alleviate some psychological fatigue.