# Biggest impact: Low Calories or Low Sleep



## Viduus (Aug 7, 2018)

Which effects your lifts more in the gym? To low of calories or to little sleep?


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## Uncle manny (Aug 7, 2018)

Good question. I’m gunna say it depends on the person. I remember for the first 6 months of my sons life I struggled with sleep literally no more than 2-3 hours a night. My diet was horrible too a lot of work and taking care of my son so I never got to eat regularly and had a lot of fast food whenever I had the chance to eat. As tired as I was I don’t think I would have been able to hit the gym if it wasn’t for a lot of carbs pre work out with a lot of caffeine. I was just trying to make it to the gym and hit a work out my strength did go down quite a bit. When I started to get more sleep about 2 months ago a solid 5-6 hours and a quick nap during the day, is when my strength started to come back.


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## Viduus (Aug 7, 2018)

With all my dieting this year I’ve started to really feel and understand the endurance differences when I have low calorie days.

The other night I only had four hours of sleep. I woke up feeling fine and not dragging but when I hit the gym that night I had zero in me. I’m not sure if it was a one time thing but it amazed me how much more sleep seemed ton effect me then being depleted.


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## Iron1 (Aug 7, 2018)

For me, it's sleep hands down. I have sleep apnea so it's not the quantity of sleep that's the issue, it's the quality.


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## jennerrator (Aug 7, 2018)

The only thing that keeps me out of the gym or un-active.....MEDICAL BULLSHIT!!!


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## Elivo (Aug 7, 2018)

Its diet for me, i can go with little sleep and function fine even in the gym, but too little or no food prior to the gym and im feeling like im going to hit the floor 20 mins into the workout.  But i also cant eat a more than a very small meal before the gym or it makes me sick to my stomach.


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## PillarofBalance (Aug 7, 2018)

Sleep for sure for me.


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## Hurt (Aug 7, 2018)

100% sleep for me. If my CNS isn’t firing on all cylinders my lifts are shit. If I didn’t eat much, presumably I still have enough intramuscular glycogen from the day prior, and phosphocreatine from my preworkout.

I think people let the calorie thing mind fck them more than anything.


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## John Ziegler (Aug 7, 2018)

peasants simpletons & mongols everywhere 

So thankful that Im rich 

dont work 

have a personal chef 

Live alone & sleep like a baby every night ect.


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## stevenmd (Aug 7, 2018)

One poor night of sleep doesn't affect me but anything more than that, yeah, I'm toast.  Cutting carbs with this show prep has not really affected my strength but man oh man can I feel it in my endurance.


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## NbleSavage (Aug 7, 2018)

Sleep, hands down. Lack of makes me an ornery cuss but not in a way that I can channel into good lifts.


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## Gadawg (Aug 8, 2018)

Depends on the person. Calorie deficit is gonna reduce endurance for most everyone but plenty of people can function on very little sleep.


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## John Ziegler (Aug 8, 2018)

Where is this going if a winner prevailed ?

hopefully not an excuse to not go to the gym

or something to sniffle about while youre lifting


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## stonetag (Aug 8, 2018)

Iron1 said:


> For me, it's sleep hands down. I have sleep apnea so it's not the quantity of sleep that's the issue, it's the quality.



This to a tee, I used to sleep a lot more than I do now, but the quality was shit. CPAP machine changed my life, corny as that sounds, it's true.


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## dk8594 (Aug 8, 2018)

Sleep. I can my workouts are fine if I reduce calories, but if I add stimulants to my cut and they interrupt my sleep I am F-ed


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## Robdjents (Aug 8, 2018)

dk8594 said:


> Sleep. I can my workouts are fine if I reduce calories, but if I add stimulants to my cut and they interrupt my sleep I am F-ed




I couldnt imagine taking any stimulants in a deficit....id probably go stir crazy in a matter of minutes


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## andy (Aug 8, 2018)

sleep... low carbs if long term


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## gymrat827 (Aug 8, 2018)

sleep no questions asked.


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## dk8594 (Aug 8, 2018)

Robdjents said:


> I couldnt imagine taking any stimulants in a deficit....id probably go stir crazy in a matter of minutes



I can’t do it for long. Usually a week or two towards the end and only in the mornings.


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## Viduus (Aug 9, 2018)

Zeigler said:


> Where is this going if a winner prevailed ?
> 
> hopefully not an excuse to not go to the gym
> 
> or something to sniffle about while youre lifting



It was me realizing how much sleep impacted me.  

I’m on my second big round of “dieting” trying to lower my BF from 16% to under 12%. This time around I’ve been very self aware about my endurance drop when I eat fewer calories but I work through it because I understand it’s coming.  

The other night i only had 4 hours of sleep but woke up feeling rested. That night when I went to go do a back workout I didn’t have a thing in the tank. I’ve never struggled through a back workout before and it hit my like a ton of bricks how much the lack of sleep effected me. I also had a really bad sunburn so I think the two of those things just had my body all messed up. I was honestly amazed... you hear how important sleep is but it hit home how true it was.


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## Jin (Aug 9, 2018)

Low testosterone.


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## TypeRMan (Sep 17, 2018)

Too low calories effect it the most, since your body is not fueled enough to perform at its peek.  Yet, too little sleep will also dramatically affect your performance.


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## Viduus (Sep 17, 2018)

Since he brought this dead thread back to life... I’ll use the opportunity to say the sunburn is what really killed the workout. I’ve messed around with the lack of sleep since the and there was definitely an impact but nothing compared to the day I had a bad sunburn and no sleep. Makes sense in hindsight.


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## DevilDoc87 (Sep 17, 2018)

I’m used to being sleep deprived lol.. so for me, it’s not enough food or I’m dragging and feel weak.


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## Straight30weight (Sep 18, 2018)

I only sleep like 4 hours a night and I usually have the same energy levels all day. But if I don’t eat enough I have nothing in the gym


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