FT Questions....

[Stewilliams]

I think you're asking this question under the premise that the there's a clear and substantial separation between those two contributors to poor recovery.

Chances are, you could start eating in a substantial surplus and feel better and perhaps pull out of this feeling of exhaustion (but it would take some time). In other words, I would imagine that if you had been eating in a substantial surplus during this blast, that you'd not be as wiped out right now...

While it's the nervous system that's taxed immediately by the training bout, this will manifest in the autonomic nervous system (ANS), the endocrine system and the immune system, with the ANS playing a role in sleep, digestion, etc and control of energy homeostasis. So, eating at a deficit means some perturbation of the endocrine system (think everything from leptin and ghrelin to thyroid output to perhaps even a lowering of testosterone), as well as a shift in the ANS towards sympathetic drive liberate fatty acid stores. On the other hand, taxing training that stresses the CNS, also stresses the ANS and it's actually been hypothesized that there are sympathetic and parasympathetic versions of the overtraining syndrome (OTS), and it seems from the little data that are out there that OTS manifests differently when brought on by endurance training vs. resistance training...

So, for you, it could just be that your propensity to slip towards and overreached state is highly increased by eating at / near a deficit (perhaps more so than for other folks). This probably is a function of your overall activity level, total caloric intake, of course, the extent of the deficit and how lean you are...

So, you could test this by eating up for a couple days (and sleeping as much as possible) and seeing how you feel. It's also OK to skip a day of training during FT. (For some, this throws off the weekly training pattern, so it's not favored.) There are some data suggesting that toggling your dietary intake in this way (eating up for a few days every few weeks) actually improves fat loss outcome (e.g., preservation of fat-free mass), so I'd not be afraid to do so (even if just for the "sake of science").

-S

Thank you Scott, I genuinely had them as separate factors in my head so thank you for setting me straight!

I've solved the problem through accidental means. I went to a party that a long term friend of mine was hosting who I hadn't seen in nearly a couple of years. I just planned on showing my face for a couple of hours before heading home. In the end I ended up getting very drunk for the first time in a long time and eating a lot of food. Today despite my hangover I feel energetic and look incredibly tight and full (win-win). Diet back to normal today and looking forward to beating the logbook again this week .