Do you feel like you have been resting pretty much most of the time, because you have been either sitting idle, lying on your bed, or watching movies on the couch, yet you still feel tired? If you do, why is that so?
Well, perhaps it’s because what you’ve been doing hasn’t been resting at all. It’s just you have been sedentary, and sedentary behavior causes loss of energy and ensuing fatigue.
Experts recommend getting at least 150 minutes of exercise each week. Studies have shown that those who meet this requirement have lower levels of fatigue than those who are sedentary.
Why You Feel You Have No Energy
Let’s find out how sedentary behaviors lead to fatigue and low energy.
Inactivity Makes You Prone to Weight Gain
When you don’t move around or engage in physical activities, you burn fewer calories than you consume. It leads to weight gain or worse, obesity.
When your body is overweight, you carry more weight so your body has to work harder to do tasks, even as simple as cleaning the house or climbing stairs. This is why you get tired easily.
It’s difficult to move around when you feel heavy, so it’s all the more reason why you don’t want to exercise. However, exercise can reduce fatigue and make you feel more energetic.
Inactivity Leads to Poor Sleep Quality
Sedentary behaviors make your body produce more cortisol, your stress hormone, and reduce serotonin and melatonin output which are essential for regulating your sleep. Cortisol puts your body in alert mode, which doesn’t help you get enough sleep.
You know that sleep is important so your body can rest and repair. If you don’t get quality sleep, you feel more tired the next day instead of refreshed and energized.
Inactivity Makes Your Muscles Weak
Sedentary behaviors make you move less, so you don’t use your muscles, and if you don’t use your muscles, they become weak and you become frail. With less muscle and the feeling of weakness, the lightest activities require more effort and you feel exhausted.
You need to make sure that you use your muscles to keep them strong and healthy, which will make your whole body feel strong and vibrant.
Inactivity Leads to Poor Nutrition
Sedentary behaviors can lead to overeating and poor nutrition, and if you lack physical activity, your cortisol (stress hormone) levels increase. Stressed people tend to overeat and crave foods that are high in sugar to boost their mood and energy quickly. The instant sugar rush soon fades and they will quickly feel drained and tired again.
Eventually, you’ll gain more weight which will cause increased fatigue when you try to do your everyday tasks. You need to move around more often to keep your cortisol levels balanced and prevent unhealthy food cravings.
Sedentary Behaviors Affect Emotional Health
Physical exercise can improve your mood because it triggers the release of feel-good hormones. When you’re inactive, the opposite happens. You feel stressed, anxious, depressed, and irritable. You feel more exhausted, not only physically but emotionally. Most people who are depressed suffer from fatigue.
Engaging in physical activities boosts your energy and prevents fatigue, which consequently improves your emotional health.
What You Need To Do
Sedentary behaviors affect your physical and emotional health, leading to fatigue. You feel weak, stressed, depressed, sleepy, hungry, irritated, all because of a lack of physical activity. This rollercoaster ride of having no energy can be reversed once you start exercising.
If you’ve been sedentary for a lengthy period of time, it’s not too late to start getting active. Stop the sedentary cycle. Start small and make exercise a regular part of your routine. Begin standing up more. Then walk more, even just inside your living room. The more you move, the more your health will improve, and the more you will feel like exercising.
