Feeling fatigued in the final 6 weeks before a triathlon - any nutritional or training advice?

[lukejacquedouglas]

@billard Are you eating enough? I was eating 2600-3200 kcal/day when running 45 miles per week for marathon training. I didn't lost a pound bc I wasn't in a deficit - those were my maintenance calories, and I needed every single one to be able to keep going.

 

[mauro]

@billard Could be low iron from all the training, have you had your iron checked? When I'm endurance training I need to take B12 and iron.

 

[billard]

@mauro Ahhhhh. Interesting because I've been getting random little bruises and thought this could be low iron related so that adds up!

 

[threecrosses]

@billard I mean, what's your overall training volume, what's your background, how's your diet overall?

 

[billard]

@threecrosses As well as my above comment -

Runs are both 20-30 minutes
Both swim sessions are around 40mins
Spin is 45 mins and the long cycle is about 70 minutes.

For my background - I'm a swimmer before all others, cycling is pretty good and running is my weakest due to exercise induced asthma and a nearly recovered knee injury.

Diet is good, I eat very balanced in that I'll have crisps with lunch or a dessert pot after dinner but also choose healthier options. Porridge for breakfast, soup or salad or sandwich for lunch and then a balanced dinner.

I try to eat carbs about an hour before a workout and protein with dinner afterwards.

 

[susanedgar37]

@billard I think the question is less about how "healthy" you're eating and more about how much you're eating. Brain fog could be just from too few calories in general, but it could also specifically be too little fat or carbs. How tall are you, what's your weight, and how many calories are you eating in a day? I would bet money you're under eating.

 

[billard]

@susanedgar37 I'm 5 foot 9, weigh about 145lbs.

A normal day of eating would be 1800 to 2000 calories -

Porridge or Weetabix for breakfast

Morning snack of fruit or some kind of bar

Sandwich or soup with bread, and a bag of crisps for lunch.

Afternoon snack of protein shake

Banana pre exercise

Dinner is a hello fresh so usually 700cals ish. So last night we had basa fish with couscous and salad.

I'll admit every time I've tracked macros I find it much easier to weigh towards lower fat and higher carbs. I'd usually get 50 or 60g of fat but struggle with much higher than that.

 

[chastity]

@billard Yikes, I am about your height and weight, do much less, less intense exercise and need a minimum of about 2,400 to maintain. I often eat two lunches a day, or sometimes two breakfasts or dinners. I just had a nice snack of wholewheat noodles with peanut butter and soy sauce.

 

[razel]

@billard Oh wow! I’m similar height, a bit heavier, I train about 4 x a week + generally active lifestyle, and my maintenance is around 2500.

I would say problem diagnosed - you’re significantly under-eating for your training load!

Add more food, loads of good tips elsewhere. There’s also a good TDEE calculator in the wiki. And, if you train with a sports watch have a look at how much you’re really burning through in a day.

 

[takkula]

@billard I'm 5'6" and also 10 stone 5lb, and I burn about 2,400-500 calories a day when I'm running a lot. If you eat more you should have more energy.

 

[billard]

@takkula So my Garmin reckons on a normal exercise day I'm burning about 2000-2200 and then on a big day it's about 2500. Do you eat at maintenance or above?

Any tips for bulking out your food - especially in heat I struggle with loss of appetite.

 

[jlmetcalf]

@billard I haven't used Garmin in particular, but in my experience, calorie estimators aren't super accurate and tend to underestimate if anything. My Whoop fitness tracker usually has me around 1800 calories burned per day (1500 if I don't work out and 2000 if I go more intense and/or longer than an hour) and I've been maintaining/slowly losing weight eating ~2100 calories.

 

[razel]

@billard Are you sure that’s your full-day calories and not just your exercise calories? Garmin makes it a little hard to tell the difference.

 

[billard]

@razel Yes so a run would usually burn 200-300 cals for me. Spin is around 600, my brick days are usually 700 active calories and then my burn without any activity is 1800 apparently. So on my big days I'm getting up to 2500 and I definitely eat more those days, but on a lower burn workout day it's estimating 2100 ish.

I think I've been hovering just below that with what I eat and adding in 500 cals ish a day and a deload week might be all I need to take me back up!

 

[razel]

@billard Yeah sounds like it - I’m 2500-3000 on a high intensity or long cardio day, which sounds similar to your training (I cycle and row). On a day where I train intensively and then coach as well (long slow cycles up and down the river) I can even push 3500

Best of luck, I’m loving all the advice in this thread. Learning so much from all the r/xxfitness crew!

 

[takkula]

@billard Your question has prompted me to find all my calorie burn data on my Garmin app, which is interesting.

For context I've been running 3-4 times a week for the last 3 months (did a half marathon in June) and I walk a lot. My average steps per day (including the running) was 14,500 over this period. This is probably equivalent to your 6x a week triathlon training.

I should also add that I have a bit more muscle than average as I used to weightlift a few years ago. I don't lift at the moment.

So my Garmin says I burned 2,339 calories a day in the last 3 months. According to my calorie tracking sheet, I ate 2,624 a day on average. I lost 2lb over 3 months, so 2,624 is actually a little below my maintenance. Garmin is underestimating by about 300 calories!

Now as I mentioned I do have a bit more muscle than usual so you might not burn that much. But I would trust your Garmin. It says you burn 2,000-2,500 a day and you are only eating 1,800-2,000 which seems low.

I don't have trouble with appetite myself. Here's some suggestions which could help:

• Add peanut butter and dried fruit to your porridge. I also love chopped up walnuts or pecans
• Use more oils when cooking
• Smoothies! E.g. banana + peanut butter + milk can easily be 300 calories
• Make flapjacks with lots of nuts and seeds

You might jump a few lbs when you increase your calories just from additional water retention + food weight. But your energy should increase and your workouts will be better.

Edit: can I also recommend Funky Nut Co, you won't struggle to increase your calories when you have so many flavours of peanut butter to try

 

[billard]

@takkula Cor 14,500 steps is impressive!!

Yes I definitely need to up the calories. I've been losing a tiny bit like 0.5lbs a week in the last month so I think if I add in 500-800 calories a day that might be what makes the difference!

 

[threecrosses]

@billard Good. That's all you need for fat. You do better to partition toward carbs and protein as an athlete, and 50-60g fat meets your needs! There's this weird high fat trend that bothers me lately--you don't need THAT much, and personally I get horrible stomach pain if I eat a lot of fat around training. (Granted, I have gastritis).

Your diet sounds really good, honestly, except for lacking frequent-enough feedings of protein foods to be absolutely optimal. The calories are low. 1800-2000 is almost certainly a deficit. So you may want to increase and see how you feel.

Another question I have is how's the weather? Extreme heat is suuuper ennervating and attention must be paid to electrolyte supplementation and adequate salt intake in particular (crisps might be helping you there!).

 

[billard]

@threecrosses Ah good that's a relief! I'm with you on the high fat, it just makes me feel rubbish so I listen to my body!

So perhaps I need another protein source in the mornings and up my calories generally.

I'm British so it changes every 30 seconds haha. But the last few weeks it's been overcast so it's not that. I do drink an electrolyte powder in my drinks when I work out and after, to replenish salts. But I guess drinking more water too will never hurt as I'm probably not 100% on that too.

 

[threecrosses]

@billard Yeah, try tweaking those things and see how you feel. And/or play with dropping intensity work entirely for a week and doing just steady-state work.