Lately I haven't been cycling or working out at all. I'm relatively young, 23 year old guy, working. I used to ride every other day for 34.33 miles after work and lift weights or swim on the days I didn't work out. For some reason, I decided to stop everything all together one day last month and haven't been working out or cycling at all for a month. After work I just feel extremely tired and take a nap. I haven't had the drive to work out or cycle either. Work environment is great and everything is fine, nothing has changed there.

Have any of you ever experienced this? Gone through a phase where you just don't do anything exercise related? I don't know why I'm tired all the time. Could I be deficient in some minerals or vitamins? Should I go to the doctor? Maybe I'm just being lazy. I used to be so excited to go out and cycle all the time, I want to get that back.

Thanks everyone.

It could be any number of reasons from physical to mental. For instance, is there stress at work, perhaps looming job cuts? Are you getting good sleep at night?

If you can rule out factors such as those, there might be an underlying physical reason. I know that when I was about your age, I was diagnosed with a thyroid disorder. That caused me to gain weight and get fatigued pretty quickly. But it would take a trip to the doctor and some lab work to diagnose something like that in your case.

Good luck with your situation.

There is a saying, “An object in motion likes to stay in motion and an object at rest likes to stay at rest.” If I am not feeling like working out, I go through the motions anyway and do an easy ride. To me, the most important thing is to maintain my schedule.

Ya, I'll probably go get some bloodwork done just to be safe. I'm guessing the culprit is lower energy levels from deciding not to workout. Not working out is probably why I feel like I have less energy.

+1 If you can go to the doctor conveniently, do it. Vitamin D deficiency, thyroid issues, iron deficiency, lots of stuff that is easily diagnosed and easily fixed. And if nothing's wrong, then you can start kicking yourself for being lazy.

1. Go to the Dr.

There are heaps of medical things it could be ... you'll either rule them out, or discover that you've got something you need medication or whatever to treat. One such possibility could be mono.

Or maybe you just needed a break. After you visit the Dr and he/she gives you the all-clear, try easing back into it again. Maybe go for a walk or a small 6 km ride around the block and see how you feel.

I'm also 23 and on most days I work and cycle atleast 30 miles per day. I have enough energy for that but not much else. I feel my social life is suffering because of this. I feel like I just need to go to sleep early everynight even on weekends.

Try adding a protein supplement to your diet too

Another +1 to seeing a doctor for some bloodwork. I had a friend that was feeling tired for a few months, and when she went to the doctor found out it was iron deficiency. After taking care of her iron intake it helped a lot with the feelings of tiredness.

OP, I would ask this; why did you work out at all to begin with? Just stopping all of your activities make me think you were doing them for the wrong reasons to begin with. You must find your motivation to do what you do. If you choose to do nothing then you will reap the consequences of that decision. You say you have low energy? Well duh! You were very active now you are not at all. What do you think will be the result? Find you motivation. When you get tired of being tired then you will do whatever motivates you, bike, run swim or whatever. You probably don't need a doctor, you need a mirror. What kind of person do you want to be? Overweight, lazy and low energy? If you choose to do nothing, then nothing is what you will get. As someone who has lost 30 pounds and re-amped myself physically, this is just my 2 cents...

Bad advice, very bad, bordering on stupid really. A change in behavior this profound needs more than a Dr. Phil pep talk. See your Doc, get some tests done.

See the doc and get a routine physical.....besides all the recent good news from mine I had some junk in the back of my throat; culture showed it was start of streph (sp?) so he gave me this oral antibiotic. When I went back a week later for my numbers and a follow up it was all gone....funny thing was I did not feel sick or anything at all.

i disagree. it could be something medical, but if it's not depression/stress would it really just onset so suddenly? get a thyroid and blood tests maybe. but from the original post it sounds like it could be just a change of habit. couple the fact that you now aren't getting the physical endorphins etc. with the fact that you are now in that hole that exercise used to fill up. so what do you do? get on your bike you lazy bum!

Feel free to disagree, but I'd challenge you to support that position with any sort of logical argument. For me, 28 years of experience as a health care professional plus simple risk management principles says otherwise. Potential harm in seeing the Doc - damned near zero. Potential harm in ignoring what could be a significant medical symptom - considerable. The OP doesn't say why he suddenly changed his behavior, but he does site fatigue that he hadn't experienced before as a factor. The list of potential medical causes for that is so long and includes enough possibly serious conditions that only a fool would ignore it. And 'sudden onset' does not rule out anything. If anything, it only makes the arguement for medical attention even more telling.

so if he doesn't say why he stopped cycling you're sending him to the doctor? you can't ask for more info?

i say go ride your bike and see how you feel. if you can't ride your bike, see the doc.

And you'd simply ignore the fact that he complains of unusual fatigue?

no, i didn't. see my above posts.

I've seen and read your posts, and you still fail give a rational argument for waiting until lack of desire progresses to lack of ability. If the fatigue factor is bothersome enough to post about, it's worth investigating. Otherwise it's just trolling. Speaking of....

please don't turn this forum into a place where people ignorant of all of the circumstantial information bicker because they think they have the world's best advice. I'm 23 as well, and a college student that drives an hour each way to school, sometimes the monotony of work or school gets to me and gets me in a lazy slump, especially when I have exams coming up. Generally my slump only lasts for 4 days to a week, I started living alone about 2 months ago and notice when I eat poorly these slumps occur more frequently. What I do to get out of them is make a large salad, not just lettuce, give it color for more vitamins. red and orange bell peppers, onions, cherry tomatoes, shredded carrots hot banana peppers, olives, croutons, some shredded cheese and a big chunk of nice warm grilled chicken with balsamic vignette, and squeeze a half a lemon on top for vitamin C. Toast up a nice piece of bread wth a little butter for your carbs and if you don't want to go for a ride later that day then go see a dr. from your post it sounds like you have one route that you do when you ride, don't do that. mix up your routes so you have something to look forward to, a change of scenery, if you're doing 30+ miles you should be able to find different routes. hope that helps

^^ Well said... and my apologies.

OP, every fall - usually in August, I stop training. I take a month off the bike and do very little physical exercise. After 11 months of steady training and racing, I need the time off. My body is just worn out. I find that during that month off, I become very lazy and tired and really seem to enjoy doing nothing. It takes a bit of effort to start working out again.

Given you description of how much you were working out, I would not be surprised if you are experiencing something similar. You could have reached a point where your body was completely fatigued and is now crashing.

All that said, if you haven't been to the doctor in awhile, it's not a bad idea to go. When I was your age, I never went to the doctor. Now, due largely to my wife's constant reminders, I get my annual check up - just wait til you have to get your first prostate exam, FUN!

With all due respect, if you read my post the first thing I asked the OP is "why". My "Dr. Phil pep talk" was about the natural effects of working out a lot and then stopping. That is common sense. The OP does not suggest that he felt sick and then stopped working out. He simply stopped and felt a drop off in energy. You don't need to follow my advice, but to call it bad, very bad and bordering on stupid sounds more like a knee jerk reaction that a well crafted reply to the OP or my post. And as in my previous post, this is just my opinion...

Ride= energy
No ride= no energy

I wonder if there is a correlation...

I doubt it's anything medical. However, if you're due for a physical, you might as well go see a doctor.

You probably just burned out. It sounds like you were doing a lot of physical exercise, without any rest, in a routine fashion, and probably without a specific goal or motivation.

Just get up off the couch and do a relaxed ride, maybe 4 days a week, and do a little swimming. If possible, try to set a goal, such as doing a century before the weather makes that implausible.

It also happened to me at 23 years old and it's still going on, it's called marriage!