When I went on diet, my energy increased and this allowed my liver to heal too, that was several years ago.
My apartment is on 4th floor, so I took stairs instead of elevator, been doing this for years.

Did you get a full check up by doctor yet and blood work, make sure to have that for bloodwork to check organs functions including typhoid is good otherwise get on pills for these.

Vitamin supplements helps too. Use 50+ year for your age.

Don't feed once a day. Feed yourself some to jump start energy in the morning. I eat some yogurt and a banana for my morning rital.

Cheers,

Dieting hasn't changed much. Doctors never changex anything. I am dieting, and it's encouraging to see my weight going down. I eat a quart.of yogurt 5 days a week. Hopefully when the weight is gone I'll feel better, lighter at least.

My father who was very slim in his youmger years said he was always tired. Maybe ot has to do with genetics, but I still think there must be a remedy.

Presently on the weekends I eat whatever I want. I had a pepperidge farms coconut cake for breakfast on saturday, the whole thing (yes it was gross). By sunday night I think I feel.the shittiest. Maybe diet has the most to do with it. My friend told me about tje martha stewart cleanse years ago. She claimed and he conferred energy levels go through the roof. It's not on the internet anymore though. Not that I've founfd.

Also don't neglect your mental health. There's always been a stigma around talking about mental issues, but we need to bring that to an end.

I suffered from general anxiety for most of my life, before starting to work with a therapist, and eventually starting on a course of anti-anxiety medication. These have improved my quality of life to a degree that I never would have guessed, before starting.

Losing weight also does help, but the ability to do that often hinges on your personal mindset and feelings of well-being.

- Alex

Check your thyroid

ajacocks wrote on 2023-07-18, 19:57:

Also don't neglect your mental health. There's always been a stigma around talking about mental issues, but we need to bring that to an end.

- Alex

I get that, but with me it's about a constant drowziness. Meds work for people, I'd never deny that (and they can also work against you, as the case is with bp meds, which I take, which contributes to my condition). But doctors in particular always seem.to want to lump you in the category of depression. The idiot I go to puts me down as having a depressed mood. I never ever said that, quite the contrary. If I was so depressed why do I have trouble shutting my mind down for sleep (and I don't mean worries and frettimg). This is why I have so little regard for doctors. You can't hope to alleviate a problem if you jump to wrong conclusions.

I also suffer from body aches. As I take steps to alleve them I feel a tad better (like fixing the chair that had me sitting in a sump hole). I've had cell phone neck for 5 miserable years. I have these horrible leather?couches in the house, and they used to encourage slouching, make that a veritable upright fetal posture. I take steps to correct the problem, it gets better, then I go back to old habits. It's hard to feel good when you wake up all achey'breaky. I fimd I do the most damage to my body during sleep. I possibly also suffer from sleep apneia. Always putting off having that diagnosed.

It's been a long time. But I had it checked in 2001. Supposedly it was fine.

This is just my advice. What you identify as fatigue could have several causes. As others have suggested, fasting full blood panel to see where you stand, not sure of your blood sugar baseline but at your weight you would be at risk of Type 2 Diabetes. So, thyroid function, blood sugar, Vit D (important!), etc all of that checked out if you haven't already. At your age and condition, yearly bloods would be appropriate. You need to lose weight and are already dieting, which is great. Start by eliminating bad habits first if you haven't already e.g sugar, white bread , iced coffee, stuff that's high in simple carbohydrates. Avoid yo-yo dieting, do it sustainably, long term. You will also need to increase your exercise levels, which again, you are aware of, take it slowly, 10 min walk today, 15 next week and so on. You'll have to make this a lifestyle for long term changes. I personally think all of that also feeds into mental well-being . It's easy to type these tings out and it's just a short summary, but I'm aware how difficult it actually gets in real life. Hang in there, be persistent even if you reach a level where you think you're not getting results- you are! Good luck!

Get checked out for sleep apnea also, I was a zombie from it for like 3 decades until it messed my heart up and THEN they took it serious. Though I had my doubts about my heart from long back too, but it would never act up in front of the docs. I've got this inconvenient "healthy as a horse, strong as an ox" look so as long as I can stand up and talk, docs don't think there's anything wrong. I've heard it 4 times now, once for the heart and 3 times for serious infections, and after they run tests, "I can't believe you walked in here..." Well I'm sorry Doc, I just suck at dying I guess.

Edit: Heh I was heading towards a point then forgot to put it in. So don't let the docs fob you off with "just get some fresh air and exercise" if you know you're feeling really shitty for some undetermined reason and the normal stuff isn't helping, just keep hammering at them, they seem to think just walking in their office cures you of all ills some of them.

A youtube search away for health & nutrition videos. pre-diabetic, type 2 diabetic, malnutrition, poor sleep are things you can change. reversing diabetes takes a few years but going low carb/keto/carnivore, dropping omega 6 seed oils, adding fasting slowly undoes the damage. Humans can go a long while with nutritional deficiencies but long enough things start to go wrong, there are around 90 essential nutrients. Add regular sun, half hour a day, and exercise. Here's a presentation about seed oils: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kGnfXXIKZM

ajacocks wrote on 2023-07-18, 19:57:

Also don't neglect your mental health

About that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUvkLS0P8DU

I keep saying I'm going to jog in place. But don't want to waste my energy early. And by nigjtime I have none. I do not like walking around here. I'll either get killed or get in a fight. These jersey people are a bunch of deviant bastards. Regardless I'll never understand how people get up at 4 in the morning and go for runs or go to a gym. I sometimes get the runs at 4am.

My preferred exercise would be some sort of weight or resistance training. Proble with that is my lady's femoral hernia. Comparatively cheap and painless to have taken care of. But I will not go under the knife while living here.

My diet (Moonday to Freya's day), 4 scrambled eggs and a quart of yogurt. 3 hamburgers/plant patties w/catsup and however many large gerkins I can consume. That's it, eggs, yogurt, burgers and pickles. No complaints. And i's working. Even with all the crap I glom on the weekends (dad always used glom that way). I'll make adjustments as I go. After I lose 30 or so I may plateau and have to switch to eggs, yougurt, burgers and pickles all week. We'll see.

Ok I'm totally lying. I really don't go for pickles that much. I'll have to transition to another vegetable. Maybe steamed broccoli.

The apneia test I have to make happen. I'm a stomach/side sleeper and flop around loads. Not sure what they'll be able to do to fix me. If I have it.

I've never tested pre-diabetic. My cholesterol is always a little high. My tr1iglycerides were high 6 months ago, probably lower by now. I will not, shall not ever abuse myself with sunlight ever again. I hate what it does to my already dry skin. People sunburning themselves is one of the grotesque evils of modern life. How can an activity that turms you into leather be considered good??

But 1I really need to take it upa few notches.

Despite the obvious thing of getting yourself checked out for health issues:

Don't be afraid of taking breaks and being "lazy". Sadly, we live in a society of "hustle-culture" where doing nothing and taking timeouts is frowned upon and that is not healthy.
I was overly ambitious in my life for a long time because I wanted to prove to myself that I'm not worthless.
I had low self-esteem in my early 20's and my employer back then took extreme advantage of it.

That resulted in me overworking myself extremely, to the point where it all came crashing down. Took me almost two years to get out of burnout.
Since that incident I am just not at "full" capacity anymore and I've accepted that I will never be at a 100% energy anymore.

I know that I need regular timeouts to not fall asleep at my desk again in the coming week and I've grown to accept that as a normality.

Sometimes I still fall back into old habits. I work as a coder now and it's easy to "just do an hour more" or learn new tools and frameworks on the weekend because they seem exciting. Whenever I do it, I regret it. Forcing myself to just be lazy, playing some computer games or binge-watching a TV series on the weekend gives me strength and mental capacity to perform at my 9-5 again after the weekend.

And that's fine. The world doesn't stop spinning if you decide to take a break.
Additionally, getting a fitness app (Yazio), not eating pizza anymore and actually cooking for myself made me a lot less tired.

Honestly it really does sound like hypothyroidism to me so I'd recommend getting that checked out. That would also have an effect on your metabolism. Don't use it as an excuse to stay fat (just means you have to work a little harder until you get supplements), but I'd get into a good endocrinologist if I were you.

In the meantime:

Getting into a good exercise routine in addition to dieting will help with general fatigue. Make sure everything else is in place too: 8+ hours of sleep a night, good diet (enough protein for your activity level, less PUFAs etc).

Mental discipline also feeds back into how you feel physically. If you build the mental discipline required to get things done ("your brain is a muscle" is 100% true), you will feel better about yourself which will make you less depressed, etc. etc.

Edit: to test hypothyroidism hypothesis you can do one or more of the following:
-Eat 1 brazil nut a day
-Eliminate or greatly reduce iodine from diet
If either of these changes how you feel, thyroid is the suspect.

chris2021 wrote on 2023-07-11, 02:28:

I expect losing 1.5 - 2 lbs. a week. I need to lose about 80, which clearly will take the better part of a year. I used to find that sunsisting on mainly raw vegetables seemed to make somewhat of a difference.

I noticed this part and it's not sustainable for anyone who wants to do more than just sit all day. That's usually one of the basic mistakes people who want to lose weight too quickly make. They cut their intake below normal to speed things up, lose a ton of water weight that makes them believe they're losing fat, get huge cravings because their diet is missing key elements, get depressed when the weight loss slows to a crawl and lose all energy to do simple everyday tasks.
Losing 2 lbs a week is a lot and your current BMR must be like 3000 calories a day doing no exercises at all. You need fat, protein and even some carbohydrates too to maintain muscle mass so you need to adjust that BMR to your current caloric intake and activity levels. I suggest starting with calorie counting to see how much your current REAL intake is. That is what you'll need to cut but not by 90% but by 10-30% at most. You need to watch the minimum protein/fat/vitamin intake too and never go below OR over what's needed for you. You don't need to cut every food type you love in your life, just eat less and cut junk drinks. Junk drinks do more harm than junk food IMO because it's easier to substitute food with junk drinks when you'll start feeling really hungry during your dieting. Also cut back on the booze.
Regular exercise is not mandatory but getting active will help getting your energy level up and burn a few more calories too. Don't expect too much though, exercise plays little part in losing weight.
I also changed my sleeping habits, no overnight gaming until 2 AM so now I'm snoring by 11 PM and get up at 6 AM. I have way more energy when I'm doing the 7 hours sleep routine instead of sleeping longer like 9-10 hours. Whatever works for you. I get up early to get the boring shit done so I don't have to do it during the day. Little detail, only measure your weight like once a week. Not that important but it can demotivate you. Measure your waistline instead because that's where your weight loss really counts. You need to get your height to waist ratio between 0.45-0.52, meaning for a 6'0" guy his ideal waist size is around 37". These are just rough estimates.
Visiting a therapist is also not a bad idea if you are treating food as a coping mechanism for depression. Some people eat big, satisfying meals for that sweet-sweet dopamine release so their brain adjusts for that and you'll get into a bad habit of eating too much. It's just my opinion but people who binge watch series during their regular meals get them into a bad habit of wanting something to eat every time they watch TV. Instant weight gain. Sit down to the dinner table during your meal and keep that TV off. Don't eat in the bed, not on the couch, do it at the dinner table away from the TV (or smartphones, tablets, whatever).

TLDR: Calculate (or have a pro do it for you) your current intake and BMR, cut it by 10-30%, start doing light training to get more active, count calories in the beginning to get used to a healthier but sustainable diet without starving yourself. No junk drinks. Quality sleep.
Source: I lost 50 lbs in a year. It's tough as shit but you'll pull through. Get professional help if you need it, getting the mental component right is just as important as the physical part.

OP: Your low energy level is due to being inactive and fat. That's all. You are doing everything you can to avoid what you need to do, which is make major lifestyle changes. There is no substitute for eating right and exercising regularly. If you are 50 and fat and want to live with any kind of QoL for another 20+ years, you need to stop looking at little tweaks and fad stuff on Amazon, and start seriously changing your life. If you do not change now, it is gonna get worse.

A 50 year old man shouldn't get winded from cleaning up after his cat. You need to exercise regularly, especially if you work at a desk all day. Start walking every day, at the absolute least, and work up to jogging 2-3 times a week minimum.

Exercise is gonna be part of the thing whatever. If outdoors hates you for whatever reason (For me it's pollen allergies and other environmental factors) then secret weapon pocket battleship for indoor exercise is one of these...

Look low in the thrift stores and you can find one for $5. They need very little space to either use or store, and you can put it where the AC blows at your face and you can see a screen playing a show.

People make presuppositions about dieting. Now losing 50lbs. is considerable, it's not like you have no knowledge of the subject. But 7 years ago I lost 66lbs. in 5 1/2 months doing something similar to this. 3.25 lbs. per week is not my goal. But I think I also have some knowledge of the subject. I never followed any particular diet. I just invent my
own.

Is this a hard diet? No not really. It may not be dead easy. But I happen to love eggs, yogurt, even hamburgers/plant slabs on a plate w/catsup. No not loving the pickles, but don't exactly hate them. I find at some point around midweek I feel famished and grab a chicken wrap say. But now, Woden's day, 3 hours after breakfast nearly and I don't feel any hunger. I just popped a Polar seltzer. I stay off the sweet drinks, except on the weekend.

This is a type of diet that anyone could do imo. Except for total morons that can't resist pasta, or candy. Or whatever. I haven't concentrated on a specifically balanced diet. I can always make adjustments, add fruits and veggies.

For me and a lot of people it's more about satisfaction then anything else. It's natural for your appetite to diminish somewhat. But I cannot lose weight by denying myself. Certain foods of course. But I need to feel full somewhat.

This is only my 3rd week. I've felt some fatigue all my life, especially so in the past 6 months.

Exercise can cause significant weigjt loss. If I weren't dieting, eating the worst junk possible, I have brought myself down to 285. In less then 4 months. Walking 2 hours a day 4 days a week. I DO NOT diet *and* exercise. It's a sure fire way to burn out.

BitWrangler wrote on 2023-07-18, 21:54:

Get checked out for sleep apnea also, I was a zombie from it for like 3 decades until it messed my heart up and THEN they took it serious. Though I had my doubts about my heart from long back too, but it would never act up in front of the docs. I've got this inconvenient "healthy as a horse, strong as an ox" look so as long as I can stand up and talk, docs don't think there's anything wrong. I've heard it 4 times now, once for the heart and 3 times for serious infections, and after they run tests, "I can't believe you walked in here..." Well I'm sorry Doc, I just suck at dying I guess.

Edit: Heh I was heading towards a point then forgot to put it in. So don't let the docs fob you off with "just get some fresh air and exercise" if you know you're feeling really shitty for some undetermined reason and the normal stuff isn't helping, just keep hammering at them, they seem to think just walking in their office cures you of all ills some of them.

So the typical remedy is a cpap machine. Is that what you use? Did it turn your life around? Much more enerfy and drive?

I think weight has a lot to do with my issue. And probably muscle depletion. I can't "work out", the lady hernia will complain. But maybe some light resistance activity. I have 1 of those big rubber bands somewhere.

I found the best way to deal with fatigue is physical exercise, for which I unfortunately don't have much time. But I tried to walk or ride my bicycle whenever I can.