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I'm Losing Weight But My Legs Feel Tired When Walking Up Steps

Mar 1, 2011 | By Eric Brown

If you're losing weight but feeling tired or weak when going up stairs, examine several areas. You might not be eating enough, losing muscle, or eating too much of the wrong foods. You can also be overtraining or not training in the proper manner. A well-rounded program allows you to lose body fat without a significant loss in strength. Consult your physician before beginning any diet or exercise program.

Weakness

To maintain strength you need to maintain muscle, which means resistance training. The best exercise to strengthen your legs for those stairs is the barbell squat. With a barbell on your shoulders, squat until your hips are lower than your knees and stand back up without rounding your back. Deadlifts are another exercise that strengthen the lower body but also work the lower and upper back. To deadlift, pull a barbell off the ground with your arms fully extended and stand up without rounding your back.

Diet

If you're getting weaker, you may be losing muscle -- which probably means you're not eating enough protein. Your body uses protein to build and maintain muscle, and an active person needs more protein than a sedentary person. If you have cut your calories by more than 500 a day, you're probably struggling to get enough energy to function and need to slightly increase your calories. Begin by increasing your calories by 100 per day, mostly from protein sources that come from animal products.

Hormones and Minerals

If you're not getting enough fat, your endocrine system doesn't produce hormones at an optimal level, says the Journal of Steroidal Biochemistry. You should get most of your fats from essential fatty acids sources such as oily fish, seeds and nuts, with the remainder coming from polyunsaturated and monosaturated fats such as olive oil. If you have significantly cut vegetables and minerals out of your diet, you may be suffering as a result. Minerals are used to transmit nerve impulses to your muscle tissue, and you may benefit from a multivitamin and mineral supplement.

Dehydration

Dehydration can cause weakness in many forms, given that your muscles are nearly 75 percent water. If you have limited many of the foods that are high in water such as fruits, you're not getting as much fluid as you are used to. If you have significantly cut carbohydrates, your body can't store as much water as it did before your dieting. You should consume at least 64 oz. water a day.

References

Article reviewed by Anton Alden Last updated on: Mar 1, 2011

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