Eliminating Energy Crashes During the Day

Nutrition
1

We all know that feeling… All of a sudden during the day you’re fighting your body to keep your eyes open. Drifting in and out of a catnap. Your eyes are so heavy and there’s nothing you can do about it.

I personally hate this feeing. I’ve been reading a lot into this lately and haven’t really been able to find really good, validated information about ways to mitigate this phenomenon. I’m not even sure what the root cause is… Blood sugar crash? Not enough sleep? No matter what the cause, I’ve been trying to figure out how to possibly manipulate the diet to avoid these periodic crashes.

Recently, I discovered that any sort of carbohydrates triggered a crash. My breakfast would be purely proteins and fats, and I would feel great all morning. No crashes. Whenever I would eat any sort of carbohydrates, whether it be a sweet potato, brown rice, or fruit, I’d notice a crash a short time later.

Now I don’t know if this is a placebo effect or if it’s legitimate, but I was curious if anyone has any input on this? Any thoughts/ideas? Could it be the blood sugar spike of the carbs followed by the subsequent crash? And this happens no matter how many hours of sleep I get on a given night. I’ve experimented with 6 hours. 8 hours.

Again, I’m just interested in how our diets could affect this. I’m possibly looking into carb backloading (eating all carbs pre and post workout) since I lift later at night anyway.

And I do follow IIFYM. I just hate that damn sleepy feeling I get during the day and am starting to think it may be the carbohydrates that trigger the response. Again, it all just might be placebo

2

[quote]szappa wrote:
We all know that feeling… All of a sudden during the day you’re fighting your body to keep your eyes open. Drifting in and out of a catnap. Your eyes are so heavy and there’s nothing you can do about it.

I personally hate this feeing. I’ve been reading a lot into this lately and haven’t really been able to find really good, validated information about ways to mitigate this phenomenon. I’m not even sure what the root cause is… Blood sugar crash? Not enough sleep? No matter what the cause, I’ve been trying to figure out how to possibly manipulate the diet to avoid these periodic crashes.

Recently, I discovered that any sort of carbohydrates triggered a crash. My breakfast would be purely proteins and fats, and I would feel great all morning. No crashes. Whenever I would eat any sort of carbohydrates, whether it be a sweet potato, brown rice, or fruit, I’d notice a crash a short time later.

Now I don’t know if this is a placebo effect or if it’s legitimate, but I was curious if anyone has any input on this? Any thoughts/ideas? Could it be the blood sugar spike of the carbs followed by the subsequent crash? And this happens no matter how many hours of sleep I get on a given night. I’ve experimented with 6 hours. 8 hours.

Again, I’m just interested in how our diets could affect this. I’m possibly looking into carb backloading (eating all carbs pre and post workout) since I lift later at night anyway.

And I do follow IIFYM. I just hate that damn sleepy feeling I get during the day and am starting to think it may be the carbohydrates that trigger the response. Again, it all just might be placebo[/quote]

Carbs can certainly do that depending on your body. Meals especially big ones also trigger the parasympathetic nervous system telling your body it’s rest and recovery time.

You can always ditch the carbs for a bit and see what happens.

3

There are very specific stimulant Pre-Work (PW) supplements and energy drinks that do this to me. For example, if I have a Rock Star or Monster Energy drink, I can almost set a clock and be extremely tired exactly 4 hours later. PW have the same effect - I am an AM lifter so I would crash hours later. I cut all PW’s out except for Plazma and problem solved (though I do have a cup of coffee). Do you consume caffeine or energy drinks? It could be the ‘come down’.

4

[quote]szappa wrote:
We all know that feeling… All of a sudden during the day you’re fighting your body to keep your eyes open. Drifting in and out of a catnap. Your eyes are so heavy and there’s nothing you can do about it.

I personally hate this feeing. I’ve been reading a lot into this lately and haven’t really been able to find really good, validated information about ways to mitigate this phenomenon. I’m not even sure what the root cause is… Blood sugar crash? Not enough sleep? No matter what the cause, I’ve been trying to figure out how to possibly manipulate the diet to avoid these periodic crashes.

Recently, I discovered that any sort of carbohydrates triggered a crash. My breakfast would be purely proteins and fats, and I would feel great all morning. No crashes. Whenever I would eat any sort of carbohydrates, whether it be a sweet potato, brown rice, or fruit, I’d notice a crash a short time later.

Now I don’t know if this is a placebo effect or if it’s legitimate, but I was curious if anyone has any input on this? Any thoughts/ideas? Could it be the blood sugar spike of the carbs followed by the subsequent crash? And this happens no matter how many hours of sleep I get on a given night. I’ve experimented with 6 hours. 8 hours.

Again, I’m just interested in how our diets could affect this. I’m possibly looking into carb backloading (eating all carbs pre and post workout) since I lift later at night anyway.

And I do follow IIFYM. I just hate that damn sleepy feeling I get during the day and am starting to think it may be the carbohydrates that trigger the response. Again, it all just might be placebo[/quote]

Carbs do this to me. Since going high fat/moderate protein I have felt great.

One thing that is weird is that if I eat carbs at night I do not get a crash or tired feeling at all. However, I then tend to overeat them so, I just avoid them.

5

[quote]szappa wrote:
We all know that feeling… All of a sudden during the day you’re fighting your body to keep your eyes open. Drifting in and out of a catnap. Your eyes are so heavy and there’s nothing you can do about it.

I personally hate this feeing. I’ve been reading a lot into this lately and haven’t really been able to find really good, validated information about ways to mitigate this phenomenon. I’m not even sure what the root cause is… Blood sugar crash? Not enough sleep? No matter what the cause, I’ve been trying to figure out how to possibly manipulate the diet to avoid these periodic crashes.

Recently, I discovered that any sort of carbohydrates triggered a crash. My breakfast would be purely proteins and fats, and I would feel great all morning. No crashes. Whenever I would eat any sort of carbohydrates, whether it be a sweet potato, brown rice, or fruit, I’d notice a crash a short time later.

Now I don’t know if this is a placebo effect or if it’s legitimate, but I was curious if anyone has any input on this? Any thoughts/ideas? Could it be the blood sugar spike of the carbs followed by the subsequent crash? And this happens no matter how many hours of sleep I get on a given night. I’ve experimented with 6 hours. 8 hours.

Again, I’m just interested in how our diets could affect this. I’m possibly looking into carb backloading (eating all carbs pre and post workout) since I lift later at night anyway.

And I do follow IIFYM. I just hate that damn sleepy feeling I get during the day and am starting to think it may be the carbohydrates that trigger the response. Again, it all just might be placebo[/quote]

Carbs do this to me. Since going high fat/moderate protein I have felt great.

One thing that is weird is that if I eat carbs at night I do not get a crash or tired feeling at all. However, I then tend to overeat them so, I just avoid them.

6

[quote]xXSeraphimXx wrote:

[quote]szappa wrote:
We all know that feeling… All of a sudden during the day you’re fighting your body to keep your eyes open. Drifting in and out of a catnap. Your eyes are so heavy and there’s nothing you can do about it.

I personally hate this feeing. I’ve been reading a lot into this lately and haven’t really been able to find really good, validated information about ways to mitigate this phenomenon. I’m not even sure what the root cause is… Blood sugar crash? Not enough sleep? No matter what the cause, I’ve been trying to figure out how to possibly manipulate the diet to avoid these periodic crashes.

Recently, I discovered that any sort of carbohydrates triggered a crash. My breakfast would be purely proteins and fats, and I would feel great all morning. No crashes. Whenever I would eat any sort of carbohydrates, whether it be a sweet potato, brown rice, or fruit, I’d notice a crash a short time later.

Now I don’t know if this is a placebo effect or if it’s legitimate, but I was curious if anyone has any input on this? Any thoughts/ideas? Could it be the blood sugar spike of the carbs followed by the subsequent crash? And this happens no matter how many hours of sleep I get on a given night. I’ve experimented with 6 hours. 8 hours.

Again, I’m just interested in how our diets could affect this. I’m possibly looking into carb backloading (eating all carbs pre and post workout) since I lift later at night anyway.

And I do follow IIFYM. I just hate that damn sleepy feeling I get during the day and am starting to think it may be the carbohydrates that trigger the response. Again, it all just might be placebo[/quote]

Carbs do this to me. Since going high fat/moderate protein I have felt great.

One thing that is weird is that if I eat carbs at night I do not get a crash or tired feeling at all. However, I then tend to overeat them so, I just avoid them.[/quote]

This is what helped me out. I typically don’t eat any carbs until dinner and I don’t experience a crash at that time. Carbs for breakfast or lunch definitely make me drowsy.

Any ideas on what causes this? Insulin sensitivity issues? Genetics? All of the above?

7

[quote]Ripsaw3689 wrote:

[quote]xXSeraphimXx wrote:

[quote]szappa wrote:
We all know that feeling… All of a sudden during the day you’re fighting your body to keep your eyes open. Drifting in and out of a catnap. Your eyes are so heavy and there’s nothing you can do about it.

I personally hate this feeing. I’ve been reading a lot into this lately and haven’t really been able to find really good, validated information about ways to mitigate this phenomenon. I’m not even sure what the root cause is… Blood sugar crash? Not enough sleep? No matter what the cause, I’ve been trying to figure out how to possibly manipulate the diet to avoid these periodic crashes.

Recently, I discovered that any sort of carbohydrates triggered a crash. My breakfast would be purely proteins and fats, and I would feel great all morning. No crashes. Whenever I would eat any sort of carbohydrates, whether it be a sweet potato, brown rice, or fruit, I’d notice a crash a short time later.

Now I don’t know if this is a placebo effect or if it’s legitimate, but I was curious if anyone has any input on this? Any thoughts/ideas? Could it be the blood sugar spike of the carbs followed by the subsequent crash? And this happens no matter how many hours of sleep I get on a given night. I’ve experimented with 6 hours. 8 hours.

Again, I’m just interested in how our diets could affect this. I’m possibly looking into carb backloading (eating all carbs pre and post workout) since I lift later at night anyway.

And I do follow IIFYM. I just hate that damn sleepy feeling I get during the day and am starting to think it may be the carbohydrates that trigger the response. Again, it all just might be placebo[/quote]

Carbs do this to me. Since going high fat/moderate protein I have felt great.

One thing that is weird is that if I eat carbs at night I do not get a crash or tired feeling at all. However, I then tend to overeat them so, I just avoid them.[/quote]

This is what helped me out. I typically don’t eat any carbs until dinner and I don’t experience a crash at that time. Carbs for breakfast or lunch definitely make me drowsy.

Any ideas on what causes this? Insulin sensitivity issues? Genetics? All of the above? [/quote]

Exactly why I made this thread… I’m curious as to what causes this phenomenon… and what we can do to mitigate its effects

8

Take a look at the fat consumed with the mid-day meal. Years ago when I ate potato, bread, or rice I would crash 1-1/2 to 2 hrs later. When I switched to pasta slathered in flaxseed oil it improved. The leaner I was, the more I noticed it…I always suspected it was blood-sugar related.

9

This is the reason I CBL, carbs in the morning or afternoon make me sleepy, idk why, they just do. Shifting them all to the evening/night has been one of the best decisions I’ve made, not just in regards to lifting but daily productivity as well. I’m assuming some people just get faster blood sugar spikes, and as a result bigger drops, from carbs. I still am able to eat a ton of carbs and not get very fat, so I don’t think I can’t ‘handle’ carbs, I just do better having them later in the day for whatever reason

10

you found out what makes you feel great so, er… keep doing it