Feeling Tired All the Time? Start With These Energy Checkpoints

Posted by Tommy Halligan on June 22, 2025

Something we got asked during our bi-weekly check-ins:

“Feeling really low on energy at the moment. Tired and lethargic all the time… and my nutrition ain’t great.”

And while it’s tempting to reach for supplements or Google something drastic, we do the opposite, we bring it back to the basics.

Why This Matters

High daily activity + lower quality food or sleep = a body that’s constantly drained. At The Lab, we call these core foundations the “big rocks.”

Before you assume you’re broken or that something’s wrong with your motivation, start here.

The Big Rocks Checklist

We help our members check these before jumping to complicated fixes:

Eating enough quality food
Staying consistently hydrated
Balancing training, movement, and recovery
Managing stress (work, relationships, finances, it all counts)

These influence everything else: your sleep, your output, your results, and your energy.

🥗 Self-Check: Nutrition

Ask yourself:

Have I eaten 3+ solid meals today?
Are they built with:

✅ Protein (eggs, lean meats, yoghurt)
✅ Fibre-rich carbs (oats, potatoes, veg)
✅ Healthy fats (olive oil, avocado, nuts, oily fish)?

Energy starts with food quality, not just calories.

Low energy availability (LEA) is common among active people who unintentionally eat too little to support their output. Over time, this can lead to RED-S (Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport), which affects mood, recovery, hormone function, and energy levels (Mountjoy et al., 2014).

💧 Self-Check: Hydration

Are you drinking 1-2L of water per day?
A rough guide: ~30-40ml per kg of bodyweight
Are you sweating a lot? You’re also losing sodium, try adding salt to meals or using an electrolyte mix

🏃♀️ Self-Check: Movement & Stress

Too little movement? You’ll feel sluggish
Too much with no rest? You’ll feel run down
High mental stress? Even “perfect” training and nutrition won’t offset chronic tension

If you’re doing an April step challenge or training hard, stress + output could be draining your tank faster than you think.

😴 Let’s Talk Sleep

Are you waking/sleeping at the same time most days?
Are you on your phone until the second you close your eyes?
Are you drinking caffeine late in the day?

Caffeine can linger in your system for 5-6 hours, even if you don’t feel it.

Poor sleep: studies show even one night of <6 hours can reduce reaction time, perceived effort, and performance by up to 30% (Fullagar et al., 2015).

🧠 Real World Application: Quick Wins

📵 Screens off 30-60 mins before bed
💡 Dim the lights and wind down (read, stretch, journal)
🛏 Same bedtime for 3-4 nights in a row

Small changes = better recovery = more energy

Want more support with this? Check out our SGPT Kickstart - where we help you build routines and habits that fuel energy, not drain it.

🔎 It Could Be Deeper

Once you’ve handled the big rocks, there may still be more to explore:

🧪 Magnesium or sleep-supportive supplements
🧬 Vitamin/mineral deficiencies
⚖️ Training volume mismatched to recovery ability

🩺 It Could Be Even Deeper…

Sometimes tiredness has nothing to do with training or nutrition... especially for women, where hormones, sleep, and recovery can have a big impact.

Hormones
Chronic illness
Low iron or inflammation
Mental health

If the basics are covered and you still feel flat, check in with a professional. You deserve to feel good.

Final Reminder:

There’s never one magic fix. But when people at The Lab feel off, we help them start here:

Nutrition
Hydration
Sleep
Stress
Recovery

And then we work outward, layer by layer.

We don’t guess. We check. And we help you do the same.

Ready to Check In With Yourself?

Whether you’re part of our 1-to-1 coaching or SGPT programme, we’ll help you troubleshoot fatigue from the ground up, with real-world fixes that actually work.

Small changes lead to big shifts. Let’s find yours.

Click here to join

References:

Fullagar, H. H. K., et al. (2015). Sleep and athletic performance: the effects of sleep loss on exercise performance, and physiological and cognitive responses to exercise.
Mountjoy, M., et al. (2014). The IOC consensus statement: Beyond the Female Athlete Triad-Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S).