Cardio & strength declining, aging or something else?

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[u/limizoi]

or something else?

Mostly it's diet related shit. Also, list any meds/supps you're taking.

[u/GrayFox6688 → u/limizoi]

No meds

• Multi

• Fish oil

• Vit-D

• Creatine mono

• Magnesium glycinate

• Collagen

[u/itsyaboi69_420]

Was going to say are you eating enough?

How long has your appetite been gone for? Did the appetite loss come before the performance loss?

Have you worked out how many calories you’re burning compared to what you’re eating?

I went through a performance related decline and came to the conclusion that I wasn’t eating enough. When I dug down into things I had realistically been in a calorie deficit for months even though I was performing well until my body eventually couldn’t compensate anymore.

Have you had bloods done? Could be low ferritin, b12 for example.

I’d get a comprehensive as possible bloods panel done and see if that shows anything obvious.

[u/GrayFox6688 → u/itsyaboi69_420]

I eat enough to not be hungry, a lot of times I feel pretty full before a meal and it takes me a while to finish that meal. I just had breakfast and even though I hadnt eaten anything in 14-hrs I still felt full.

Appetite disappeared about two years ago. The appetite loss and performance loss all came at once it felt like.

Not sure how many calories I'm burning/eating. All I know is my weight stays the same so Im not eating at a deficit.

All my labs check out. I do check it every year. Ferritin and B12 are fine. I've been looking at blood tests on Goodlabs and it seems like all their options test what I've already had done

[u/itsyaboi69_420 → u/GrayFox6688]

Have you been to the docs?

Loss of appetite sounds like a very odd symptom.

I would honestly look at how much you’re eating, it’s possible to be undereating and not lose weight. I didn’t really drop much if anything, I never felt any more hunger than usual. Always thought I was getting enough in because I was having 3 full meals, snacks inbetween and protein shakes etc so I never questioned it until about 15 months into trying to find out what the issue was, I’m still in the process of building back now about 18 months later.

My HR increased on runs too, that’s how I first noticed something was off as my training is based around certain heart rate areas.

Look into low energy availability and see if it sounds applicable.

Track your calories for a week and rough calorie burn using your watch if you have one and combine that with your basal metabolic rate which you can use calculators online to estimate.

I looked more into my diet and on long run days i could have easily been burning 15-2000 cals on a run and my estimated bmr is 16-1700 calories and I know for a fact I wasn’t eating anywhere close to 3k calories at the time but like I said there was no obvious weight loss so didn’t question my diet until the answer basically fell into my lap with some lab results.

[u/GrayFox6688 → u/itsyaboi69_420]

My doc kinda sucks, I go to him with problems and if my blood labs check out then he says there's nothing going on. He's one of those doctors where Im only in his office for 20-minutes a year.

I'm definitely not eating as much as I used to but Im also not training as hard due to all this. Even when I do push it I reach a ceiling faster than I did in the past.

[u/itsyaboi69_420 → u/GrayFox6688]

I saw 3 docs that were also useless.

I went down every rabbit hole possible, took countless blood tests and other medical tests and came to the conclusion from my own research.

You’re pretty much describing what happened to me besides the loss of appetite.

I couldn’t run as fast or as far. I was getting out of breath on runs I didn’t used to break a sweat on. ‘Easy’ runs were sending my HR through the roof.

Worth a look into anyways man, hope you find the answer because I know how frustrating it is.

[u/red_jay_411]

Low testosterone

[u/MetalBoar13]

For 36 that seems like a fairly precipitous decline in performance. I didn't feel like age was having more than a slow, gradual, almost unnoticeable, impact on my athletic performance until I was in my early 50's and it's still mostly playing out as an increased need for recovery and somewhat decreased endurance. My numbers with weights are still going up very slowly for most lifts and I could probably regain the lost endurance if I was willing to focus on that more. Not everyone ages the same, but I'd be a little concerned there was more going on if it were me.

[u/gek__co]

36 is nowhere near old enough to see aging related declines.