Does Caffeine make you tired?

[TremblingBluStar]

I've been trying to figure out why I tend to feel so darn tired in the late afternoon and early evening. I don't know if it's because I tend to nap an hour in the afternoon, or if it's from having too much caffeine in my diet.

For your info, I drink two large diet sodas (one of the big 32oz cups) during lunch. Afterwards, I feel tired enough to sleep an hour or so. Then later on the afternoon, I tend to be way too tired to work out. It's confusing, because I'm not out of shape. I can easily run 2-3 miles. I simply run out of energy during weight training.

I don't think it's from over training. I never feel super-sore. Just an overall lack of energy after doing about half of my workout.

I also had a doctor tell me I'm borderline for high blood pressure. Caffeine is the only thing diet-wise I can think of that would cause this. I don't eat fatty foods, and have cut way down on my sodium intake.

Anybody have an informed opinion on this? Or experiences similar?

 

[JonathonWally]

That's a lot of soda. I say cut them totally out for a week and see if that does anything for you.

 

[archeryguy1701]

It may be the soda, and when you feel tired is when you're experiencing the crash.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Sometimes it does that to me. Two days ago, at work I had a big cup of coffee. I felt lazy the whole day. Yesterday, I had no coffee at all, and I felt zippy and alive. It's the exact opposite of what I should have felt. The first day must have been the crash (but I don't always crash after I have coffee).

Interestingly, pop *never* makes me crash, and I drink only regular Pepsi.

 

[JonathonWally]

I think it also has to do with the heavy syrup from the soda sticking to your insides. But, I'm not a pro on the matter as a rarely drink any kind of soda and don't drink much coffee myself. I'm a tea drinker.

 

[anais]

Caffeine gives you an energy boost by utilizing glycogen from the liver. The body then works to replace the liver glycogen, and you feel tired until it's back. Eat something sugary like an apple after the caffeine intake to speed up the process.

Exercising taps into the liver glycogen as well if it goes on long enough to deplete the immediate reserve of glycogen running around in your body. There's a 30 minute window afterwards where the body converts all the sugar it can get back to liver glycogen.

 

[Lukara]

I second that.
Plus: the diet sodas contain lots of atrificial sweeteners which your body can not digest. Due to the sweet taste you nevertheless automatically excrete insulin. This way your blood sugars drop considerably and that adds to the exhaustion. It'd be better to substitute the sodas with water or a herbal or fruit tea. Using sugar as a sweetener for your tea (and coffee) would in fact be the healthier alternative. Artificial sweeteners are known to be rather unhealthy and can even trigger diabetes, kidney damage, extreme diarrhoea and cancer.

 

[JonathonWally]

I second that.
Plus: the diet sodas contain lots of atrificial sweeteners which your body can not digest. Due to the sweet taste you nevertheless automatically excrete insulin. This way your blood sugars drop considerably and that adds to the exhaustion. It'd be better to substitute the sodas with water or a herbal or fruit tea. Using sugar as a sweetener for your tea (and coffee) would in fact be the healthier alternative. Artificial sweeteners are known to be rather unhealthy and can even trigger diabetes, kidney damage, extreme diarrhoea and cancer.

Yes, as someone with hypoglycemia I definately agree. Artificial sweeteners aren't good.