You’re Crash and Burn Tired

The pattern makes sense, even when it feels completely random.

Crash and Burn fatigue is the one that keeps you second-guessing yourself. Some days you’re almost okay. Other days you’re done by 2pm and you can’t seem to work out why. Your tiredness doesn’t appear to follow any logic, which makes it incredibly hard to plan around.

But it’s not random. The periods of low or no energy follow a pattern, driven by blood sugar, cortisol, and how your cells are accessing energy. Once you can see what’s happening, it stops feeling so out of your control.

Seeing the difference between ‘my body and energy are just unpredictable’ to ‘I can tell what’s happening and I can work with it’, makes it easier to take action before you completely crash again.

What you’ve probably already tried

And why the crashes keep coming back.

Eating more regularlyIdeally no skipping meals, keeping balanced snacks handy, and trying to eat before you get too tired. It can help sometimes, but not at other times, and this can depend on what you eat, as well as when you eat. This also works if your tiredness is due to how much you had to eat, and how balanced it was.

Pushing through the afternoon dipUsing caffeine and something sweet, combined with sheer willpower may get you through, but it also sets you up for a worse evening, bedtime, and hence a more tired morning. The quick fixes manage the tiredness, but unfortunately, worsen the tiredness pattern at the same time.

Cutting out sugarYou’ve probably had periods of time where you reduced sugar and felt a bit better, but then slid back into old habits. However, we can’t blame only sugar for your tiredness. Unhealthy blood sugar levels aren’t just about how much sugar you eat, but what else you’re eating, when you’re eating it, and how well your body is managing energy at a cellular level. Cut the sugar but miss those other factors, and your energy crashes will continue.

Three things worth trying today

Eat something with protein before 10am, even if you’re not hungry

The mid-morning slump often starts at breakfast, or due to the lack of one. Getting ahead of the blood sugar imbalance is much easier than trying to recover from it.

Swap one afternoon caffeine hit for water and something to eat

Give it a try today and see if your energy recovers, even if it’s just a bit. If it does, this will tell you if it was partly a fuel problem rather than a pure tiredness problem.

Note the time of your worst crash today, and what you’d eaten beforehand

You’ll probably start seeing a pattern within three days. Once you can see what’s happening before the tiredness hits, you can start taking action to reduce or avoid it.

Where to go from here

The up-and-down pattern can be stabilised.

Crash and Burn fatigue responds well to a specific approach, and blood sugar stabilisation is usually what makes the first noticeable difference. This doesn’t make you a diabetic (unless you’ve been diagnosed as one), but either way, it means once you understand what your body needs, you can start to choose what you eat with care, and not necessarily through a restrictive or complicated eating plan.

The FUEL Method starts exactly here. Food first, foundations first. It’s designed for women whose energy is unpredictable and whose brain doesn’t need another overwhelming protocol on top of everything else.

As a thank-you for taking the quiz, you can get the FUEL Method at a reduced price for the next 72 hours.

Get the FUEL Method, save £120

Discounted price available for a limited time.

Retake the quiz