Maintaining Healthy Energy Availability in Sport and Life

Hey Just Tri babes!

When a female athlete is struggling with performance efforts one of the first things to address is their nutrition. Since 2013, there have been close to 45 research studies done examining the impact of deficiencies in total calories, protein, and micronutrients on female athlete performance. The results found that not only are females more likely to be deficit in one or more of these key nutrients but anywhere between 30-70% of women are chronically energy deficient (i.e. underfed).

Women aren't eating enough, of the right, food to support their basic needs and their active lifestyles.

Whether it has to do with being afraid to eat, constantly trying to lose weight, or unknowingly under fueling themselves because they don't understand how much energy their body needs, the nutritional narrative and education must change! In order to adapt to training, get stronger, produce power, and develop skills needed to perform and grow within your sport, you need to EAT.

Time for School

What do you think of when you read the word "energy"? Generally, athletes and their coaches focus on mechanical energy which is involved in movement and position. The two major types of mechanical energy are potential energy (the energy of a position) and kinetic energy (the energy of motion).

If you're looking at it from a black and white perspective THEN the definition of energy is the ability for an object (i.e. YOU) to do work. Work is done when a task produces a change in energy.

Work is a product of force and distance (W=Fd). Like running, jumping, swimming, doing laundry, mowing the lawn, walking your dog, etc.

Power is how much work is done over a period of time (P=W/t). The intensity in which the work is done (i.e. how quickly the work is being completed).

Work and Power only depend on the object's starting and end points... BUT unlike the equations in your Physics 101 class, humans are not linear systems. The human body is an incredibly complex, self-regulating, and dynamically steering living organism. A lot of external factors influence our activities (capacity to produce work and power), ability to recover, and overall performance. And if you haven't already realized, the female body is even more complicated due to our fluctuating hormones and their impact on our internal systems!

This is why focusing on food and how it serves your complicated system is so important. It goes well beyond just fueling... real food includes a variety of micronutrients, water, and more.

Fast Female Facts

1. Female athletes are more susceptible to micronutrient (i.e. iron, calcium, vitamin D, and magnesium) deficiencies than their male counterparts.

Iron is essential to produce oxygen-carrying hemoglobin. *Ask your health care provider about supplementing during your period week.

Calcium and vitamin D are essential for bone and muscle health (and tons of other things).

Magnesium helps with muscle function, blood pressure, bone health, and maintaining blood glucose.

2. About 56.3% of female athletes are at risk of underfeeding and/or nutrient deficiency which leads to low energy availability (LEA) and Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S) [1]. If you've read the Just Tri "RED-S, White and Blue" blog post then you know LEA increases your risk for low bone density, stress fractures, mood disorders, and decreased performance and recovery.

3. An average (130-pound) female's resting metabolic need is between ~1300-1500 calories per day. This amount is only when you're having a rest day... you'll need more on your training days.

Eating a well-rounded diet, full of vegetables, fruits, and high quality proteins is the best way to support your body.

MODERATE TRAINING DAY REFERENCE GUIDE

Workout: 45-60min HIIT or heavy weight session or 60-90min of cardio

A 130-pound (59 kg) female athlete will need:

• Carbohydrate: 3-4 grams per kg of body weight
• Protein: 2-2.3 grams per kg of body weight
• Fat: 1.2 grams per kg of body weight

So this 130-pound female athlete will need to eat about 2100-2400 calories for this training day.

Moreover, coaches and athletes often overlook underfeeding and are quick to contribute poor performance to "overtraining".

These symptoms might signal low energy availability (LEA) around training:

Reduced training response. A performance plateau or decrease this is the first sign of LEA. If you can’t hit your intensities, have less strength and power, experience higher heart rates, or aren't recovering as well, it might not be a fitness thing but a LEA thing.

Irregular periods. This is another reason to track your periods. All healthy, elite female athletes have regular periods. Irregularities in your menstrual cycle (i.e. bleeding is lighter and shorter, you've skipped a period or two) is a sign that you're not fueling enough to support proper endocrine function.

Bone health decline. Stress fractures are another warning sign.

Immunity decreases. You start getting sick more frequently and are prone to infection.

Reductions is coordination. The feeling of increased fatigue impairs coordination, reaction time, and cognition.

Chronic moodiness. After a while, your hunger cues decrease so you might not even feel hungry but you or your friends/family have noticed you become perpetually "hangry", irritable, anxious, or depressed.

Combat these symptoms before they arise, by making sure you're eating enough! All good athletes know that in order to succeed, they need to create the right conditions for success, so fueling their mental and physical performances will allow them to become a better athlete. Proper fueling is the number one way to enjoy immediate performance gains!

Thank you for reading this week's blog!

If you're interested in understanding your unique needs and different strategies to support your performance, let's work together! Email me at [email protected].

Have a great week, get some movement in, and as always, Just Tri!!

Yours in Sport,

Lindsay

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References:

1. Jagim AR, Fields J, Magee MK, Kerksick CM, Jones MT. Contributing Factors to Low Energy Availability in Female Athletes: A Narrative Review of Energy Availability, Training Demands, Nutrition Barriers, Body Image, and Disordered Eating. Nutrients. 2022 Feb 25;14(5):986.