Feel Sleepy During the Day

I started a kickboxing workout about 7 weeks ago. At the same time, I quit drinking carbonated drinks, smoking, and eating fatty foods. Basically, I changed my life and eating habits completely. I adjusted well. I wasn't experiencing mood swings and after a couple of weeks, I did feel better. My problem is that even after 6-7 hours of sleep, I still feel sleepy during certain times of the day. I just recently started taking multivitamins that contain extra iron. I'm hoping this will solve the problem. Has anyone experienced this or do you have a solution besides multivitamins? Thanks for your help!

Wow! Good work on the big change. I am all for 'just doing it', to many people talk a good plan and then pu$$y out or go half hearted. Congrats on having the guts to grab your life by the scruff of the neck

With your enthusiasm, be sure that you dont starve yourself in the process. Fatty foods are very energy rich, and so dropping them and increasing your activity level may have left you 'running on empty'. No matter if you are trying to lose fat or not as part of your plan, increase your portions of carbohydrates (rice, potatoes, pasta, cereals) and see if your energy levels increase with it.

That may be the problem. This is the first time I have actually tried watching what I eat. So I'm still learning on what to eat and what not to eat. Turning 30 I decided I needed a change. I'm just glad I found kickboxing. Without that, I wouldn't have the motivation to do all of this. Thanks for your help and support!

Holy crap! Nice job, Helen. Nothing half-assed about what you're doing. You may also want to try experimenting with getting a bit more sleep (7-8 hours), since your activity level is (I assume) much higher than what it used to be.

Good luck.

A lot higher.....I used to be a pro couch potato. I just joined a school that I know will work my a$$ off, so maybe the earlier bedtime won't be hard to do. Starting classes next week. Wish me luck and thanks again for the support!!!

Way to go Helen. If I could suggest, try eating 5-6 meals a day if you are not already. These are not big meals, just what you require to operate during the day but split up into these smaller increments so that you have energy throughout the day. This way your body will only have the energy you give it to burn instead of storing the excess food (i.e. fat). Plus smaller meals do not require as much blood to be diverted from the brain and other parts of your body to digest your food. The more food you eat the more blood is diverted and why you may feel tired. Think of Christmas or Thanksgiving.

I run into this same problem from time to time especially in the later afternoon. When I eat like this I found that I had energy to keep going where as when I was tired I would eat my lunch and then have nothing until supper. Also make sure you get up from what you are doing and move around and get your body working. Staying in one spot too long can drain you, this I know as I work at a desk.

Make sure you don't take on too much at one time and set small goals for yourself; SMART Goals.

S = Specific
M = Measurable
A = Attainable
R = Realistic
T = Timely

By reaching these you will get a sense of accomplishment working towards a larger goal. Reward yourself so that it feels good; you decide the reward. Good for you again and take care.

Congrats Helen! Im doing the same thing my self! Drastically changing my diet and trying to not be so much of a bum. Though instead of kick boxing im going to the gym and taking Iaido, I plan on another form as well when money permits me to.

I was actually about to ask the same question when I stumbled on this thread. Good advice you guys!

I already do the 5-6 meals a day thing. Thanks for suggesting that! Do you mind me asking what your typical meals are? Maybe thats where I am lacking. I usually bring to work two bottles of tea sweetened with Splenda, bag of pretzels, sandwich or leftover dinner, piece of fruit, and a 100-calorie pack sweet treat. For dinner, I usually splurge just a little and eat something that is somewhat bad, but not real bad (no fried stuff). I know this is probably no where near what I person training to fight should eat, but it is helping me lose weight (need to lose 12 more lbs, already lost 10). Maybe if I know the proper things to eat for a person with my activity level, I won't be tired. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. It has already been suggested that I increase my rice, potato, pasta, and cereal intake. I am definitely going to do that! Any other suggestions or changes that I need to make? Thanks again for everyone's help!

Congrats to you too, Dave! I wish you the best of luck. It's a long and hard road to where we both want to be, but once we get there, it's very rewarding!

I'm off track right now and working to get back on track, was lazy, but this is typical of what I usually ate:

Wake up in morning around 6:50 AM

Breakfast (at home); 7:30 AM: 1 bowl of cereal, glass of orange juice, glass of milk

Morning Break; 10:00 AM: 1 cereal bar, 1 apple

Lunch; 12:00 PM: 1 sandwich (meat, lettuce, tomato, etc), 1 apple or orange, 1 juice box

Afternoon Break; 2:30 PM: 1 sandwich (meat, lettuce, tomato, etc), 1 apple

Supper; 5:30 PM: Meat (chicken, steak or porkchops), vegetable, potatoes or pasta, glass of milk

Weight lift or doing martial arts training

Night Snack; approx. 9:00 PM: Protein shake or a shake I would make myself consisting of ice, orange juice, milk, banana, strawberries and yogurt

Go to bed around 12:00-2:00 AM


This was typical of what I would eat. Not perfect but worked for me. I could get away with a good sized supper due to my weight lifting or martial arts training. I would never over eat for the most part. I also should point out that throughout the day at work I carry around a 1.5 Litre insulated water bottle that I drink 1-2 a day of. And I have to come clean, I like to snack so many times when coming home after work and/or after working out/MA training, I would cheat and eat something sweet, preferably chocolate. If I did not exercise as much I'm sure I would be overweight.

Thank you for telling me this. I can see where your diet definitely helps you with the amount of meat, carbs, veggies, breads, and fruits. This is the sort of combination I am looking for. I think my main problem is that I just need to plan my weekly meals better. It may sound boring to know what I am going to eat for the whole week, but I am realizing that taste doesn't matter as much to me. What matters to me is getting the fuel my body needs to perform to the max. Now get back to your diet, mister! Just kidding!

Thankfully Helen my wife makes my lunch everyday that includes my morning and afternoon meals, so it is easy to stay on track. She gives me a lot of fruit plus the cereal bar because it is easy and simple for her to throw into my lunch bag ... and I like it though eating like this gets a little repetitious and boring so having left overs sometimes is fine, though that doesn't happen too often.

For me after my surgery on my knee in December, I had cut back all of this to allow for me not being as active as I did not want to gain any excessive weight. I wasn't able to do all of this for months with MA for 5 months and so my activity levels were not so high and I wasn't as hungry. I started weight lifting light a few months after the surgery but not to the degree I was so still didn't need the extra food. Then I started to really get into my weight lifting but still wasn't that hungry so only increased my eating slightly. However in the last while I've become very lazy which is not something I'm liking. Knowing that once I came home that I had to weight lift or going to MA training was sapping my energy and I was hating coming home. I've got things I'm implementing to make this better and to get back on track and diet is one of them. After 10 years of weight lifting and 5 years of MA training, having a lazy period isn't too bad as long as you recognize this and fix it, which I'm doing.

For my activity levels I'm eating enough right now to maintain myself but to grow bigger, stronger and faster; I need to start increasing things again to obtain this ... and that is in my SMART Goals.

Kudos to your wife! I have to get my stuff together myself! I understand that it's really hard to get back into things especially after having surgery. You sound like you have a good plan in the works and you know what you are doing for yourself! That's all that is important! Good luck and I wish you the very best!

Good for you Helen! That's a fantastic change you've made for yourself.

Just a thought, but perhaps with the extra exercise, your body is telling you that it needs more rest to recover. Perhaps you need a little more sleep that your getting.

Am I correct in thinking eating potatoes and pasta is better after exercise? I read somewhere (stand to be corrected) that they can make you tired.

There was a post a while back about the best after workout foods by askmen.com. The #1 best post workout food believe or not was 2 cups of 1% chocolate milk. It did not have anything on there about potatoes or pasta. Here is the link:
http://www.askmen.com/sports/fitness_top_ten/34_fitness_list.html

That's what I do. I'm female =) anyway I eat 5-6 meals a day and 99% of it is "pro health" type of foods...and I am always sleepy even with doing martial arts and various other workouts afterwords....I'm not phsyically tired, just SLEEPY tired. I don't know what it is.

I attribute it to using too much brain power. You are mentally tired as compared to physically tired. I get like this as well.

Helen, you mention lifestyle changes that focus on food and exercise...but are you sure 6-7 hrs of sleep is enough? Also...do you have a sedentary job?

I sit at a desk all day long (accountant). Very boring, except during tax season. The sleepiness is getting better. I think my body just needed time to adjust to the extra activity and less food. Thanks for your help!

Sounds familiar. Try setting a clock to beep every hour...and get up and do something physical for a few minutes. Walk the stairs, go to the mailroom, stretch in your office, lift 5 lbs weights/upper body strengthening...but get up and move.

Yes, getting up and moving around is a good thing. I sit at a desk and unless my mind is going 100 miles/hour then I will get tired. When I do get tired I get up and move around that helps.

Just got back to my desk as I hit a tired spell that I for sure could have just closed my eyes at my desk and fallen asleep. I have a break in about an hour at 2:30 which will help more. Got a glass of water as well.

The most common cause of daytime drowsiness (especially in Americans) is dehydration. You should try to keep a water bottle with you throughout the day and continue to drink a little bit at a time thoughout the entire day. Soft drinks are a large contributor to dehydration in Americans (since they tend to drink them alot and treat it as a water replacement.) So it's a good thing that you have cut down your intake of soft drink.

At first this will cause excess urination. This is not because you are drinking too much water, but rather because you are used to drinking too little water. You should adjust to the additional water intake over time and stop producing so much urine, as well as feeling better about yourself in general.

If your urine is generally a strong yellow colour it is a sign that you are not drinking enough water. You will find when you up your water intake that your urine has a more watery colour, do not be concerned with this.

Just on the issue of soft drink, I advise you against replacing regular soft drink with diet softdrink, as it has been documented to cause mood swings, headaches, etc. Personally I believe that regular soft drinks are better for you, despite the excess of sugar.

Sorry if any of this has been said already, I didn't have time to read past the first page as I'm trying to write an essay.

I think there is a lot of truth to what you say about dehydration being the reason for me feeling sleepy. I am drinking more water now, in fact I just sip on water all day long, after my morning coffee. I only drink a diet soft drink with lunch and it's caffeine free, so no caffeine crash to worry about. Thanks for the info .