Running out of steam in gym

[amy1985]

I was wondering if anyone else experienced this and knew how to deal with it. I arrive at the gym about an hour after a full meal (if it's any longer I have a snack or something to get my blood sugar levels up), long enough so I don't feel sick. Which is all well and good, but sometimes (increasingly often) I find that 2/3 of the way through my workout I begin to feel ill (low blood sugar/ hypoglycaemia symptoms, that sort of thing). I'm stupid, so I usually try to get through, then I have a horrible journey home (on public transport, fortunately) where I immediately eat something (depending on how horrible I feel, the meal that's due by then, or a much quicker piece of fruit).

I've posted about this on my diary, but thought I'd throw the question out to a wider audience. How do people cope with this sort of thing? (My workout has been quite long- getting up to 2 hours sometimes- although as of tomorrow I have a harder but shorter one) I have three thoughts as to why this is happening to me. One is I'm not eating enough- I'm calorie counting, and my aim is 500 calories under maintenance (but usually I only eat about 75% of that- my aim is to eat until I'm satisfied and choose lower calorie foods for doing that), and my maintenance is (was- until today) based on light exercise, when perhaps I'm doing moderate exercise (I've recalculated my calorie allowance and increased it by about 150 calories on this basis). The third was suggested in my diary- that I don't have enough glycogen in my system, but I have no idea how to remedy that without completely blowing the calories.

Any suggestions (as to why it's happening, or what I can do about it?)

 

[Melancholy]

I have experienced this a few times. I am a runner, and including warm-up, my workouts tend to go around 1.5 hours average, some longer, some shorter.

There has been a few times where I eat things that are high in sugar earlier in the day, and on my runs, I start to feel like I am going to pass out (this hypo-glycemic-like symptom you talk about)... I end up going straight home, and eating something high in sugar content and boom, dizzyness goes away.

Since it has only happened a couple of times, I can't pinpoint what exactly is causing it, but I am almost certain that it's diet related for me. Perhaps start logging what you eat before the gym, and then note whether the problem is intense one day, or mild, then compare the diet to the feelings that you experienced. Maybe there is some correlation.

 

[amy1985]

Thanks for that I have a reasonably consistent diet in the times I go to the gym, so it should be easy to pinpoint. Documenting that (I already document my food) is a really good idea. (I've already figured out that having coffee within a couple of hours of going to the gym is a bad idea, the caffeine crash is horrendous) It tends to be a bit of an all-or-nothing thing- I always get it at some stage when I go, but it's usually after the workout on my way home, and that's bearable because I'm not doing anything terribly active and I don't have to wait too long (half an hour at most) before I can eat. Trying to work out while this is going on isn't at all pleasant.

 

[Melancholy]

Nice, should be easy to pinpoint! (if it's dietary)... I have a few follow-up questions that might narrow it down:

What do you typically eat for the meal before your gym-time?

What do you eat for a snack if it's one hour before?

What do you typically eat throughout the day to hit your calorie goal (you say you are cutting out foods but staying satisfied, what type of diet are you following?)

 

[amy1985]

What I eat before depends on what time I go (that's very erratic, I basically go when I feel like it). For breakfast I have porridge (oatmeal) with a bit of milk, sometimes with berries, sometimes with a bit of honey, sometimes both. If I go mid-morning, I'll usually have a piece of fruit (lately it's been an orange) before I go (an hour to 45 minutes before I start working out, I'd guess). For lunch I have two slices of rye bread with cottage cheese and some sort of spice, usually with tomato and/ or red onion. I think- although I'm not sure- that when I've had the dizziness it's either been after the orange (which may be because I'm leaving the eating too long, sometimes I get home way after I'd like to have eaten lunch) or after lunch.

As to what I eat, I'm basically just trying to stay healthy and low calorie- so the things I've already mentioned, fruit and vegetables, Greek yoghurt (sometimes with honey and berries in it), low calorie lean meat recipes (tonight I'm having chilli con carne, I've had roasted orange chicken thighs, Morrocan chicken, and vegan lentil patties). My basic aims are at least 5 (80g) servings of fruit and veg a day, 100g of meat, keep it mostly home made and fresh, and try to choose lower calorie options. (I'm not really sure how else to go about it) I'm eating very little "junk", although when I've been good for a set period of time (it hasn't happened yet- maybe two weeks?) I plan to give myself a controlled amount of something like chocolate or ice cream to stop myself going into crazy cravy binge mode (and because I can't see myself completely giving up chocolate. Sorry, not going to happen) I've cut a lot of grain (particularly things like rice and pasta, and normal bread) from my life (although I do have porridge, rye bread, and couscous with some meals), as I find that to be quite high calorie.