Most fatigue isn’t psychological.
It’s mechanical.
If you strip away the lifestyle noise, most people who feel “burnt out” aren’t lacking motivation.
They’re running an energy deficit at the cellular level.
As we age, the efficiency of mitochondrial Complex I drops significantly. That means fewer electrons make it through the electron transport chain cleanly. More leak. More reactive oxygen species. Less usable ATP.
The result?
You’re not out of energy — you’re producing less per unit input.
That’s why:
sleep doesn’t fully fix it
caffeine stops working
motivation feels forced
recovery drags
This is the ATP crisis.
Everything downstream depends on ATP:
cognition
mood
hormone synthesis
muscle function
insulin sensitivity
No ATP surplus → no resilience.
This is where people get misled. They chase stimulation instead of fixing production. They block fatigue signals instead of restoring output.
High-level takeaway:
Energy isn’t something you “feel.” It’s something cells produce.
When production drops, discipline can’t compensate forever.
PS: If coffee feels less effective every year, that’s not tolerance. That’s an engine issue.