BITESIZE | 3 Hidden Causes of Low Energy (and What You Can Do About Them) | Dr Rangan Chatterjee #663

Many of us assume low energy is simply a consequence of being busy or not getting enough sleep. But there can be other factors contributing to how we feel that often go unnoticed. I’ve decided to try something a little bit different as a Bitesize episode this week. I wanted to record a solo episode about the topic of energy because one of the most common things I hear from patients is that they feel exhausted or overwhelmed even when they seem to be getting enough sleep. So, in this episode, I share a few often overlooked reasons that can leave us feeling low in energy, along with some simple strategies that could quickly begin to help. Please note: these symptoms can also occur in a range of conditions, including depression, sleep apnoea, thyroid disorders and anaemia. If your symptoms persist, or if you have any concerns, it’s important to seek advice from a qualified healthcare professional. For Thrive Tour tickets and info visit: https://drchatterjee.com/live/ Support the podcast and enjoy Ad-Free episodes. Try FREE for 7 days on Apple Podcasts ⁠⁠https://apple.co/feelbetterlivemore⁠⁠ For other podcast platforms go to ⁠⁠https://fblm.supercast.com. DISCLAIMER: The content in the podcast and on this webpage is not intended to constitute or be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your doctor or other qualified health care provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have heard on the podcast or on my website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Rangan Chatterjee?

  Before we get into this week's episode, I am really excited to share that I am bringing my Thrive Tour, Transform Your Health and Happiness, to Canada and Europe this September and November. It's a live, interactive, uplifting show that over 20,000 people came to last year across the UK and Australia. I'll be sharing powerful stories, life-changing insights, and simple tools that will inspire you to feel better, think clearer, and live with more intention and joy. To get your tickets right now and see all of the dates

• 0:38Rangan Chatterjee?

  and venues, go to drchatterjee.com/live. I really hope that you can join me. Welcome to Feel Better, Live More Bite Size, your weekly dose of positivity and optimism to get you ready for the weekend. I've decided to try something a little bit different as a Bite Size episode this week. I wanted to record a solo episode about the topic of energy, because one of the most common things I hear these days is that people feel exhausted and overwhelmed even when they seem to be getting enough sleep. So in this episode, I share a few often overlooked reasons that can leave us feeling low in

• 1:23Rangan Chatterjee?

  energy, along with some simple strategies that could quickly begin to help. It's really important for me to emphasise that there are many different reasons why people can feel exhausted. Persistent exhaustion probably means that you need to see or would benefit from seeing a healthcare professional, because of course, it could be very simple things like iron deficiency, or it could be things like sleep apnea, or thyroid issues, or depression, or anxiety, or even burnout. All of these things can also result in exhaustion and fatigue. Let's assume, though, that it's none of those things. Here are three things

• 2:06Rangan Chatterjee?

  that I commonly see that I often find people are not thinking about. So the first thing is what I call misalignment. If you are spending your life doing things that don't light you up on the inside, you may experience tiredness as a consequence. Sometimes it's unresolved stress, people pleasing, a lack of meaning, loneliness. All of those things can also result in tiredness. I think a lot of the time, we think about tiredness as only physical, but it can also be emotional. Just imagine that you're in your house, it's the evening and you're really, really tired.

• 2:50Rangan Chatterjee?

  You've really stressed, you've had a busy day. And let's say a close friend of yours, who you haven't seen in months or years, suddenly knocks on the front door, and you're still tired. I think a lot of us would go, yeah, we were feeling tired. But suddenly, when we see one of our best mates, our energy, the feeling we haven't seen is completely different. Our whole being has changed because someone who means a lot to us has just turned up. That just shows us how quickly energy can shift and how important alignment is. Now, I get it.

• 3:32Rangan Chatterjee?

  Sometimes we have to do things in our life that aren't aligned with who we want to be or who we actually are. I totally understand that. Some people are in a job that they don't enjoy, that the consequence is that they feel tired a lot of the time. You see, a lot of people don't realise that burnout, yes, it's on the rise, but burnout is not just a consequence of you having too many things to do at work and an unsympathetic boss. Those, of course, can be very good reasons for burnout. But I've also seen a lot of cases of burnout where people, they're in a job that doesn't light them up, that sometimes...

• 4:11Rangan Chatterjee?

  Ask them to act completely differently from the person who they know themselves to be. So there are many reasons why we might feel tired, but this misalignment is a very common cause. And again, it's a cause that people often don't think about. So if you think this might be you, I want you to try and ask yourself a few questions, like what in life gives me energy? Who in my life gives me energy? What consistently drains my energy? Who in my life consistently drains my energy? Where are you abandoning your own needs? Where are you not able to say no? Now, of course, I don't know the answer to those

• 4:56Rangan Chatterjee?

  questions for you. So ask yourself those questions, maybe in a morning journaling practice, or once a week on a Sunday, if that's a day off for you. And the more you ask yourself those questions, the more you're likely to start identifying, oh, this is what's going on here. I'm not saying no here. I keep putting other people's needs ahead of mine. Once you've asked yourselves those questions and identified what's going on, then you can take small steps to change it. The second thing I want to talk about is sleep. But I'm not just talking about the quantity of your sleep. I'm also talking about the quality of your sleep. And this is really important. The amount of patients

• 5:36Rangan Chatterjee?

  I've seen over the years who came in knackered, saying, Dr. Chaschi, I regularly sleep seven or seven and a half hours of sleep every night, but I still wake up tired. Bearing in mind the caveats that I mentioned before, when there could be other things going on, when it comes to sleep, I've often found that people aren't thinking about the quality of their sleep. Okay, they're just looking at how long they slept for. But you can sleep for seven hours and have really good quality rest or sleep, or you can also sleep for seven hours and have it very superficial and light. So there are two things here that I found can really help people when the quality of their sleep is not as good as they might want. So the first thing is, what are you doing in that one hour before

• 6:21Rangan Chatterjee?

  bed? It's really, really important. You essentially want to send your body signals that the work day is over. The time for doing things is over. Now it's relaxing time. You want softer, enjoyable, relaxing inputs. Our hunter gather ancestors, they do their hunting and their work in the day. They go out for the hunt, dig the tubers, do what is required around the camp and the tribe in the day. Nighttime was about lighting the campfire, sitting around, telling stories, you know, sharing stories, connecting with the people around them.

• 7:03Rangan Chatterjee?

  So what are you doing in that one hour before bed? Are you watching the stressful news? Are you busy doing work emails? Okay, you have to understand that if you are, you may still be falling asleep, but it is not restful sleep because your stress hormones may be staying elevated. Okay, so think about music, yoga. If you are going to watch television, watch something relaxing. Yes, I would say if you can avoid screens for an hour or so before bed, I think it's helpful. Having said that, if you are on your screen or using your phone, think about what you're consuming. Could it be a relaxing podcast, some relaxing music?

• 7:47Rangan Chatterjee?

  You know, an audiobook where the narrator's voice is a voice that you find relaxing. Okay, it's basically about those inputs that you give your brain in the one hour before bed. They could have a profound impact on the quality of your sleep. Okay, so that's the first thing I want you to think about when it comes to sleep quality. The second thing is movement. Have you moved your body enough in the day? And the truth is, these days, many of us haven't. Now, look, I could make the case to you that physical activity is really good for your body, your brain, your creativity. Yes, all those things are true, but specifically when it comes to exhaustion, our bodies are designed to move.

• 8:32Rangan Chatterjee?

  When you move, you actually process stress and emotions. And if you've been stuck at a computer all day, sat in a car, stuck in an office, sat down for your lunch, driven home in the evening, sat on your sofa. You have to understand that your body, your biology has expected movements. And yes, you may still fall asleep, but because you've not processed the stress that was built up in the day or the emotions through movement, you may find that the quality of your sleep wasn't what you wanted it to be. So have a think, could this be applying to you? Perhaps a thirty minute walk at lunch if you're able to.

• 9:14Rangan Chatterjee?

  Even a ten minute walk after your evening meal if you can, just to wind down and process the meal and your emotions can be really, really helpful. Now, the third thing I find people are not thinking about enough is what foods are they consuming? Now, I'm specifically talking about foods that are going to balance your blood sugar. So here's the thing, of course, many of us now know that generally for our short term health and long term health, it's better to minimize or reduce ultra-processed foods. Because ultra-processed foods tend to lead to blood sugar spikes and therefore blood sugar crashes.

• 9:55Rangan Chatterjee?

  And when your blood sugar crashes, you can feel tired and low energy. And you do that persistently day after day, you can get caught in a vicious cycle where you're eating more ultra-processed food snacks because you had an energy drop, you're consuming more caffeine to get you through. And that all means that you're not going to even sleep well the following night and you're just stuck in a vicious cycle. So yes, try and reduce your intake of ultra-processed foods, no question. But even if you've done that and you're eating mostly whole foods, I've also seen something that causes a problem, too many carbohydrates. Now, I'm not here to bash carbohydrates, okay?

• 10:37Rangan Chatterjee?

  I think the diet we all thrive on depends on the state of our health and what our goals are. The reality is that in the modern world, many of us are insulin resistant. Okay, maybe as kids we were insulin sensitive, so we could have a big carb load. And we can handle it. Our blood sugar still stays relatively stable because the insulin shuttles the glucose out of our bloodstream and it allows it to stay stable. But unfortunately, because of the lives many of us now lead, the wrong food choices, not moving enough, too much stress, not sleeping enough, we become insulin resistant.

• 11:18Rangan Chatterjee?

  And insulin resistance is actually at the heart of many conditions we struggle with these days because it leads to metabolic dysfunction, which can lead to things like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, strokes, Alzheimer's. That's all in the long term. And those things are really important. But in the short term, if you're low in energy, you may not realise that sometimes even whole food carbohydrates can lead to big blood sugar spikes. I personally am a fan of something called a CGM, the continuous glucose monitor. I don't think people need to wear them all the time. I think some people who get health anxiety may need to be careful with stuff like this.

• 11:58Rangan Chatterjee?

  But for me personally, it's helped me understand which foods are spiking my blood sugar and which foods are keeping it more stable. And for me, I found that sweet potato wedges in the evening, certainly the volume I used to consume was giving me a big high and therefore about two hours later, I was getting a big crash, which would make me feel tired and hungry again. The point I'm trying to make here is if you're feeling exhausted, it might be to do with blood sugar roller coasters. And the kinds of things you can do to try and keep your blood sugar more stable is

• 12:38Rangan Chatterjee?

  to try and prioritise protein at each meal, try and prioritise healthy fats like avocados and nuts, things like that, but also just pay attention. You know, if you don't have one of these CGMs, just pay attention. What happens two hours after your lunch? What happens two hours after your dinner? Could this be a blood sugar issue? So those are three things that I have commonly Seen that I often find people are not thinking about. Perhaps some of them are relevant for you. Give them a go. And of course, I want to reiterate what I said earlier on, which is that there are many different causes for exhaustion.

• 13:20Rangan Chatterjee?

  It is impossible for me to know the ins and outs of your life and tell you exactly what's causing it for you. But if it has been going on for a prolonged period of time, it's probably worth going to see a healthcare professional and checking if there's something that needs addressing.

• 13:36Rangan Chatterjee?

  I hope you enjoyed that Bite Size solo episode. I hope you have a wonderful weekend and I'll be back next week with my long form conversation on Wednesday and the latest episode of Bite Size next Friday.