7 reasons you have no energy

Of course we won’t have the same energy levels as we had in our early 20ies. And we just have to accept that. Plus some have more energy than others , we can’t always compare ourselves to our high energy friend. I’ll give my 7 reasons why you have no energy and what you can do to improve it. 

Why we feel we have little energy It’s often lifestyle choices that we need to manage. And in theory they are super easy but in real life they can be harder to change. It’s that frustrating scenario where knowing what to do is not always enough to make us do it. My tip here is to choose one of the 7 reasons that feels most relevant and start work on that. 

7 Reasons you have no energy

Too much stress

Stress can come from so many things, it’s rarely just one thing that is causing you the type of stress that is affecting your health and low energy levels. But at the top of the list it’s most likely a job and family commitments. I understand that managing a job and family situation is easier said than done. However you are more likely to perform better at both if you can make adjustments. 

Not getting enough sleep

I have talked about sleep a few times before and here I go again. Sleep should NOT be underestimated. You might have heard or said it yourself, I only need 6 hours of sleep, I’m fine. We can survive on 6 hours of sleep but we are not showing up and performing well because of it but despite it. Just imagine if you did get enough sleep? We do the main bit of recovery from our daily life when we sleep and if that is not up to scratch everything is impacted. 

Not enough recovery

Just to clarify that I’ll refer to recovery from exercise here. Exercising without taking rest days, exercising the same muscle group too often or back to back, too intense etc will result in more stress on the body. This means that the muscles don’t have time to build back up and get stronger. You are also  at a higher risk of getting an injury. All in all not what you are after when exercising. 

Not eating a balanced diet

It’s too common to cut out carbs and fats this can lead to a lack of energy. We need the glycogen that is stored in our muscles for energy. Of course we can choose better forms of carbohydrates like lentils beans, whole grains etc rather than refined sugars and white flour based products. Same with fats we can choose better sources like oily fish, nuts and olive oil. But we should not cut out food groups, this can lead to a deficiency in vitamins and minerals that is important for our energy levels. 

Lack of Iron

This often ties in to not having a balanced diet or a diet that meets the need of iron a person might have. Females of course need to watch this more than men. Really active people also need to make sure they get enough iron since their demand is higher. 

Lack of Vitamin D

Often people get deficient in vitamin D during the winter months due to lack of sunlight or daylight exposure. Our bodies don’t produce enough vitamin D to compensate for this and this can lead to a lack of energy. Of course you can take supplements but in my opinion you get more out of being outside more. Of course it requires a bit more energy and more time for you then relying on a supplement. Overall the habit of going out gives you vitamin D, daily movement, getting the mental health boost from being outside and moving. 

Hormonal imbalance

A hormonal imbalance can be caused from all the reasons mentioned already but can also be caused by other things. It’s always good to do what you can to keep your hormones in balance. When they are not it throws us off and sometimes in more ways than causing lack of energy. 

Summarise

You might notice that many of the 7 reasons why you have no energy  are connected and can be a cause to one another. Or the combination of a few can be the cause. This list is not extensive but it’s the most common reasons and they can be improved right now by you if you wanted to. Can you imagine how you would feel if you could improve  just on the reason that is most relevant to you?