Certain foods help boost your energy, more than others. These include:. Being properly hydrated alongside eating well is a healthy habit to get into when looking to boost your overall energy levels. As mentioned, certain foods can be problematic —both for digestion and energy. Foods such as Those High In Sugar Can Cause A Crash In Energy Levels , and incredibly heavy foods that take a long time to digest can make you feel fatigued.

Additionally, Food Sensitivities Can Contribute To Fatigue , and cause discomfort that may affect your mood. You can do an Elimination Diet to test for sensitivities, or visit an allergist.

Alcohol Is A Depressant And Affects Sleep Quality and overall energy levels. Alcohol may make you feel drowsy or irritable — both during and after consumption. Increased alcohol intake can also make you dehydrated, additionally contributing to unwanted side effects.

Drinking in moderation can help you avoid unwanted side effects of alcohol, including fatigue. The Centers for Disease Control Prevention CDC define Moderate Drinking As Two Or Fewer Drinks In A Day.

Additionally, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism NIAA defines Heavy Drinking As More Than 14 Drinks Per Week. Limiting your drinking can help you avoid the Negative Long-Term Effects Caused By Alcohol Use , as well as help improve your energy levels.

There are several benefits of exercise for general health and wellness, including weight management, Mood Regulation , and Mobility. Â However, regular physical activity can also increase energy levels over time, Especially When It Comes To Work-Related Fatigue. Any type of regular exercise creates more capillaries, the tiny blood vessels that ferry oxygen to your cells.

But aerobic exercise, by making you breathe the most deeply and increasing your heart rate the most, gets more oxygen circulating. Exercise also affects levels of various hormones and chemical messengers. When you work out, your body releases epinephrine and norepinephrine. In large amounts, these stress hormones cause the energy-draining fight-or-flight response, but in the modest amounts induced by exercise, they make you feel energized.

Finally, regular aerobic exercise almost guarantees that you will sleep more soundly—a prerequisite for feeling refreshed. Exercise is the only proven way to increase the amount of time you spend in deep sleep, the type that particularly restores your energy.

Exercise also increases the amount of time you spend in REM rapid eye movement sleep, the time during sleep when you dream most often and most vividly. More time in REM sleep also restores your sense of energy, though not as much as deep sleep.

How exercise improves both REM and deep sleep is unknown, although scientists suspect that it leads to the production of chemicals that affect alertness. In a poll conducted for the National Sleep Foundation, people who exercised vigorously on a regular basis reported sleeping better than more sedentary people, even though both groups got about seven hours of sleep on weekday nights.

Non-exercisers reported the least energy and the most sleepiness. Picture your energy level as a rechargeable battery. You can plug it in and charge it up with exercise, or let it sit idle and watch the energy drain away.

People who have a limb immobilized because of an injury or illness begin losing muscle cells within just six hours. With weaker muscles, everything you ask your muscles to do requires more effort, leaving less energy for other activities.

Sarcopenia, the gradual decrease in muscle tissue, starts earlier than you may realize—around age Lack of exercise also causes changes in your heart and lungs. They become less efficient at oxygenating your blood and pumping that blood along with nutrients to all parts of your body.

That in turn affects your energy level, most noticeably during periods of physical exertion. Compared with an active person, a sedentary person experiences more fatigue when carrying out a physically demanding task and has both a higher heart rate and lower oxygen consumption.

Inactivity also has psychological effects. The less active you are, the less active you want to be. No reviews have been left for this newsletter. Log in and leave a review of your own. When you wake up in the morning, are you refreshed and ready to go, or groggy and grumpy? No spam. We promise.

We have put together this handy list of tips to improve your gut health. When you eat carbohydrates , your blood sugar levels rise. This is a normal response, but it can be harmful long-term if blood sugar is rising too high or crashing too quickly after eating.

When your blood sugar dips too low or spikes too high, you will notice changes in energy levels, among other symptoms like hunger, irritability, and difficulty concentrating.

Unpublished research by ZOE scientists and their colleagues found that eating a lot of sugar at breakfast leads to lower energy levels later in the day. Sugary drinks and snacks may cause drastic swings in blood sugar and can lower energy levels as a result. Eating more complex carbohydrates , particularly from plant sources, can help control blood sugar levels.

This includes foods like whole grains, fruits, vegetables, seeds and nuts, and legumes. Ultra-processed foods are high in added sugar, salt, unhealthy fats, and chemical additives.

Ultra-processing also affects the food matrix and makes foods very easy to digest. This can lead to big blood sugar peaks followed by dips. Eat more whole foods to improve your energy levels and reserve those ultra-processed sugary foods for the occasional treat.

Drink water to feel better. Dehydration can cause feelings of tiredness and changes in mood. Caffeine increases feelings of alertness.

The benefits of coffee stretch beyond your energy levels. Your coffee consumption is also associated with greater microbiome diversity. Be sure to cut your caffeine intake in the afternoon, as it can negatively affect sleep for many. Coffee also comes with a host of other health benefits, which we have rounded up in this article.

Both how much and how well you sleep are important for good energy levels. Poor sleep can affect energy levels due to changes in appetite and cravings the next day. Unpublished research by ZOE scientists and their colleagues found that when people sleep longer and get better quality sleep, their energy levels are higher the next day.

Even if you are struggling to get enough rest, there are ways to improve the quality of your sleep. Research by ZOE scientists found that going to sleep earlier is better for your blood sugar control the next morning and helps avoid blood sugar spikes. Removing stress completely from your daily life is certainly not realistic.

However, addressing your stress levels with positive coping behaviors is paramount to long-term health. Stress can negatively impact gut health. The vagus nerve runs from the brain to the gastrointestinal tract and may play a role in connecting the gut microbiome to your stress response.

Exercise can boost energy and relieve fatigue. Getting minutes of moderate physical activity each week is recommended for long-term health. These minutes of activity can be divided throughout the week to be more manageable.

ZOE's PREDICT research program also found that people who exercise regularly have fewer blood sugar spikes. From our other research, we know that blood sugar peaks and dips are related to how energetic you feel, so exercising may give you more energy by reducing blood sugar peaks.

Exercise also positively impacts sleep which, in turn, boosts energy levels. Researchers have linked drinking alcohol to poor energy levels, especially the day following consumption.