The Energy Tank

If you fuel according to the work you’re doing, this is the result you’ll get.

Fitness, sports, exercise, what comes to mind? If I had to guess, probably a slim, lean physique that gives an edge in competition, builds confidence, and enhances your career, health, and relationships. If that’s the goal, you’ll need to increase your physical activity via working out. To keep up with this increased activity, the body will increase its nutritional and energy demands. That means consuming more macro and micronutrients to make gains, adapt to exercise, and prevent injury and illness. Makes sense, yet proper fuel and nutrition is one of the biggest stumbling blocks for many recreational and professional athletes. 

It may be a surprise to learn that many elite female athletes at the top of their game lack adequate fuel for performing at a high level. These women commonly experience irregular menstrual cycles that negatively impact their training and performance. A recent study that examined the energy and nutrition of female soccer players found that 88% of these athletes were not meeting their daily nutritional needs. These are some of the best athletes on the planet, why aren’t they meeting the nutritional needs that their body’s require to perform at a high level? (1)

Society’s fixation to “look” a certain way is an issue.

Part of the problem is based on society’s fixation on what women should look like: leaner is better. If I didn’t have those five pounds, that guy would have been into me. If I didn’t have those five pounds, I’d feel better in my own skin. If I didn’t have those five pounds, I would have made the team. There’s nothing wrong with desiring a leaner figure, but the way we get there can undermine our efforts. The societal pressure to “look” a certain way, rather than focus on “are you eating enough” can promote chronic dieting and eating disorder behaviors that come with drastic negative consequences. (2)

Dieting is one of the easiest pitfalls to fall into if not done correctly. On paper it makes sense; eating less carbs will cut down on calories so you don’t get bigger and lose weight. But when combined with regular exercise, restricting the number of calories you consume actually puts the body in a potentially harmful energy deficit. You should actually be eating more.

If you eat more, you can train more and work harder. If you train more and work harder, you grow faster and stronger, and stay at the same weight!

It sounds almost counterintuitive, which is why so many people operate in the belief that less is more. Either they continue to eat the same amount as they did before they started working out, or they eat less while working out because they’re afraid of getting too big. Sometimes people just can’t keep up with other factors at play in their lives. Family/work obligations getting in the way, not enough time, lack of room in the budget, exhaustion from balancing an already full plate. Who’s got time to cook? (3)

The issue of under-eating to maintain a specific physique isn’t just limited to weekend warriors or yogi’s. This problem affects athletes at all levels; even some of the best female athletes in the world.

After under performing in the 2016 Tokyo Olympics, Rowing New Zealand conducted a health study in 2018 with their female rowers. Because of the prevailing belief that “lean is fast” and “ideal race weight”, they found that many of their athletes were under-fueled. (4)

In an interview with Outside magazine in 2020, elite rock climber Beth Rodden explained the consequences of under-eating as she believed a slim figure would give her an edge in competitions. “Losing weight worked for my short-term performance goals but was extremely harmful in the long run… Tendons, ligaments, bones - they all started to collapse after 15 years of deprivation. My climbing cascaded from elite to elementary in a matter of months.” (5)

Multiple studies across over forty different sports found that 50 percent of female athletes struggled with energy deficiency in their sport. A culture of weight reduction to achieve a slim physique, “what a woman should look like,” to gain a performance benefit has been cutting women off at the knees, at both the professional and recreational levels. 

Your body needs fuel.

Humans need to consume a certain amount of food each day to meet the body’s daily energy demands. These daily tasks include breathing, eating and digesting food, pumping blood, going for a walk, watching netflix, taking a nap. Adding an increase to physical activity via working out further increases the body’s daily energy demands. Without the proper fuel and nutrition, the body won’t adapt, recover, or perform during exercise.

For women, there’s the extra consideration of maintaining a healthy menstrual cycle which regulates estrogen and progesterone levels. The primary function of these hormones are supporting a woman’s sexual development and pregnancy. But these hormones have secondary roles that directly impact her body’s adaptation, recovery, and performance to exercise: improve brain function, support the pelvic floor, maintain bone density, support the immune system, and improve blood pressure. If her period has been ghosting her, her body likely is stressed from not eating enough. These necessary secondary functions have shut down to support primary functions and other essential bodily functions. 

Are you eating enough?

Think of a calorie deficit like a bank account, with calories acting like dollars. To make money, you deposit more money than you withdraw. The more money you deposit, the more you meet or exceed your financial demands, leaving room to create a healthy nest egg for future endeavors. You wouldn’t overdraft your bank account with massive withdrawals and not deposit the appropriate amount of money to keep the account even, that would send you into debt. 

Excluding fitness and exercise, men burn on average 2,900 calories a day and women burn an average 2,200 calories a day to stay healthy. Now add a 60 minute workout. In a high-intensity interval training workout, participants can burn an average of 600-800 more calories, substantially increasing the body’s caloric demand. The boys now require an average 3,700 calories and the ladies an average 3,000 calories. 

If you have a baseline requirement of 2,200 calories a day, and you add a 60 minute pilates class on top of that, you've increased your body’s caloric demand to 3,000 calories. To meet this caloric increase, you need to eat more to deposit more calories into your body. But if you choose to continue to eat the normal 2,200 calories a day, you're 800 calories short of your body’s energy demands. Let's throw a diet in there as well because it’s “the trend,” and you choose to eat 500 less calories per day. Now you're 1,100 calories in the hole, giving your body only 1,900 calories, well short of the required 3,000 calories. 

That might not seem like a big deal, but it will compromise your health. If your body requires 3,000 calories a day to stay healthy while working out, over the course of one month your body will need to burn an average of 90,000 calories. If you deprive yourself those 1,100 calories a day, your body will only burn 57,000 calories in a month, meeting only 63% of your body’s energy needs. Would you accept a 40% loss of income every month? What would that do to your bank account in a month? A year? Five years? 

Your body isn’t like your checking account.

You can’t fix this issue by simply pouring in more money. When the body feels stressed from the lack of fuel, it switches to conservation mode by diverting nutrients and calories from nonessential functions to support essential functions. For female athletes, the pituitary glands and hypothalamus discontinue hormone production, creating menstrual dysfunction. The adrenal glands produce more cortisol, increasing stress levels. the body begins storing more fat, burning fewer calories, and increasing hunger. Your body knows there’s a problem and it’s telling you it can’t sustain this kind of activity with this level of energy deficiency. (6) 

This imbalance can also produce menstrual dysfunction and impaired bone health in women, both which impact long term health while reducing short term gains (7). Even eating a normal or reduced diet that meets just your daily energy needs while increasing exercise isn’t enough either. Luteinizing hormones, an important hormone for ovarian function, are suppressed, further increasing the risk of injury and illness during exercise. However, those ladies that increase calorie intake for exercise prevent hormonal disruption and perform better (8).

The Female Athlete Triad

To better educate women and their coaches about the need for proper fuel and nutrition, the International Olympic Committee redefined their safety standards to ensure the safety of female athletes. Commonly known as ‘The Female Athlete Triad’, the committee updated this medical condition in 2014 to identify three symptoms that most negatively impact the health of female athletes, leaving them prone to debilitating injury from undereating and overtraining : Energy Deficiency, Menstrual Dysfunction, and Impaired Bone Health. (7)

Each one of these symptoms are a result of under-fueling, forcing the body to divert resources from nonessential functions. Female athletes begin to experience declines in coordination, reaction time, endurance, muscle strength, and poorly respond to training and working out. “Women can be left feeling drained, and tired all the time and stuck in a cycle of stale training and performance, which can lead to overtraining and burnout.”

Along with experiencing an increase in depression, mood swings, impaired judgment, there is an increased risk of injury such as bone stress injuries and fractures. Impaired bone health from a lack of energy availability increases a woman's risk by 4.5 times more likely to develop early onset osteopenia (lower bone mineral density than normal) and osteoporosis (a bone disease that weakens bone strength and increases the risk of fractures). 

When female athletes are under fuel, hormone levels are thrown off balance. Without the regular stream of estrogen produced from a healthy diet, it increases the risk of weaker bone tissue, low bone mineral density, and can alter bone shape and structure. (9)

Don’t skip out on a snack

It’s important to eat regularly throughout the day and not skimp out on snacking either. Recreational and professional female athletes that spend too much time in an energy deficit unknowingly suppress their estrogen levels and metabolic rate, even if they meet the daily total nutritional needs. This lack of fuel results in higher cholesterol levels and triglycerides. The blood has a harder time dilating, leading to high blood pressure and increased potential of coronary heart disease. If under-fueled, athletes' blood work can be postmenopausal. (10) 

Choosing to skip an apple and a couple scoops of peanut butter will add up. It may be only a few hundred calories, but over the course of a year, it would be like choosing not to eat for a month.  

Keep your body feeling “topped off.”

There’s too much emphasis in our culture on optimizing performance and dieting to feel happier, healthier. But without the basic principles of nutrition and energy, too many female athletes, recreational and professional, have lost sight of the importance of eating enough. Anytime you operate without sufficient energy to meet physical demands, your body cannot function at its best. Instead, stress levels increase and muscles become inflamed as tissue breaks down and is damaged. 

The desire to look and feel healthy in the mirror, feel confident in our body, sleep better, hike the rim of the Grand Canyon, tackle that 10K, train for that bikini show, or just build a healthy wellness base for the future are wonderful things. But the number one priority to meet these goals is to avoid long periods of time where your energy levels dip. If you keep yourself “topped off” with a solid base of calories, eating, snaking, and fueling yourself properly, your body will adapt better to training. (11)

You’ll perform better in the gym, recover better the day after. Those trail runs will become easier. That spin class will become an insatiable passion. Morning yoga will flow more gracefully and you’ll feel more beautiful, strong, and confident.

Fueling properly is proven to give elite female athletes an edge on the competition. 

In 2019, the coaches of Rowing New Zealand emphasized the benefits of eating well and how proper nutrition gave their female rowers an edge. The results speak for themselves as the team dominated the competition by taking home medals in four of seven women’s events in 2020 Tokyo Olympics. (4)

A study looked at elite female swimmers training regimen and diet. Those athletes that did not eat enough began to experience menstrual dysfunction and their performance declined by as much as 10%. But those athletes that fueled properly by eating enough maintained a healthy regular menstrual cycle and improved their performance in the water. Their velocity in the 400 meters increased by 8%, making them faster in competitions. (12)

The take away: Eat More!

There's a complex relationship between sport, food, and body image. A lack of fuel puts the body in an energy deficit that can negatively alter metabolism and induce conservation mode: conserving fat, increasing stress, and reducing bone mineral density. But if the body is fed, it can relax. When we educate women about their bodies and the benefits of proper nutrition, rather than to conform to what a female athlete should look like, she can train safely and feel good in her body. So let’s embrace the rallying cry of Rowing New Zealand: “Eat More!”

If you fuel according to the work you’re doing, this is the result you’ll get!

Disclaimer

I am not a doctor or certified medical physician. None of the information presented is to be used as medical advice meant to treat, cure, diagnose any disease, illnesses, or ailments. I do not take credit for any research that is presented. The information is purely educational and based on studies completed by professionals and elite female athletes.

If you have questions or concerns, or are experiencing symptoms during exercise, consult with your doctor first.

Sources

1. Samantha L. Moss et al., “Assessment of Energy Availability and Associated Risk Factors in Professional Female Soccer Players,” European Journal of Sports Science 21, no.6 (2021): 861-70, https://doi.org/10.1080/17461391.2020.1788647 

2. Peiling Kong and Lynne Harris, “The Sporting Body: Body Image and Eating Disorder Symptomatology Among Female Athletes from Leanness Focused and Nonleanness Focused Sports,” The Journal of Psychology Interdisciplinary and Applied 149, no. 2 (2015): 141-60, https://doi.org/10.1080/00223980.2013.846291 

3. Joseph E. Donnelly et al., “Does Increased Exercise or Physical Activity Alter Ad-Libitum Daily Energy Intake or Macronutrient Composition in Healthy Adults? A Systemic Review,” PLOS ONE 9, no. 1 (January 15, 2014): e83498, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0083498.

4. Interview with Jackie Kiddle; Suzanne McFadden, “How Our Female Rowers Ate More and Triumphed,” Newsroom, August 17, 2021, https://www.newsroom.co.nz/lockerroom/how-our-female-rowers-ate-more-and-triumphed 

5. Beth Rodden, “Climbing’s Send-at-All-Costs Culture Almost Ruined Me,” Outside, May 2, 2020, https://www.outsideonline.com/health/training-performance/beth-rodden-climbing-body-image/.

6. Lauren M. McCall and Jathryn E. Ackerman, “Endocrine and Metabolic Repercussions of Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport,” Current Opinion in Endocrine and Metabolic Research 9 (December 2019): 56-65, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coemr.2019.07.005.

7. Elizabeth Joy et al., “2014 Female Athlete Triad Coalition Consensus Statement on Treatment and Return to Play of the Female Athlete Triad,” Current Sports Medicine Reports 13, no. 4 (July-August 2014): 219-32, https://doi.org/10.1249/JSR.0000000000000077.

8. Anne B. Loucks, “Exercise Training in the Normal Female: Effects of Low Energy Availability on Reproductive Function,” in Endocrinology of Physical Activity and Sport, ed. Naama Constantini and Anthony C. Hackney (New York: Humana Press, 2013), 187-99.

9. Ida A. Heikura et al., “Low Energy Availability Is Difficult to Assess but Outcomes Have Large Impact on Bone Injury Rates in Elite Distance Athletes,” International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism 28, no. 4 (2018): 403-11, https://doi.org/10.1123/ijsnem.2017-0313 

10. Paulina Wasserfurth et al., “Reasons for and Consequences of Low Energy Availability in Female and Male Athletes:Social Environment, Adaptations, and Prevention,” Sports Medicine - Open 6, 44 (September 10, 2020), https://doi.org/10.1186/s40798-020-00275-6 

11. T. P. Aird,R. W. Davies, and B. P. Carson,”Effects of Fasted vs. Fed-State Exercise on Performance and Post-Exercise Metabolism: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis,” Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports 28, no. 5 (2018): 1476-93, https://doi.org/10.1111/sms.13054 

12. Bryan Holtzman and Kathyrn E.Ackerman, “Recommendations and Nutritional Considerations for Female Athletes: Health and Performance,” Sports Medicine 51, no. 9 Suppk. (2021): 43-57, https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-021-01508-8