Q&A: Proper care and fueling for female athletes

Susan Weiner, MS, RDN, CDN, CDCES, FADCES, talks with ReBecca McConville, RD, LD, CSSD, CEDS, a sports nutrition and eating disorders specialist, about fueling for performance and practical self-care.

Weiner: You specialize in helping athletes optimize nutrition to meet their performance goals. What are your key messages for female athletes?

McConville: Female athletes are under many pressures when it comes to performance and nutrition. They are susceptible to societal influence and pressures to perform at a high caliber, as well as societal pressures to meet a thin ideal. They receive constant messaging around restricting intake, especially carbohydrates, without consideration of their energy expenditure. It is important to focus on a positive nutrition approach by discussing what they can add in to help with their performance, not what they need to avoid or cut out. A favorite saying from an unknown author that I love to share with my athletes is: “Athletes don’t diet and exercise, they fuel and train.”

Weiner: Does nutrition for performance differ by age?

McConville: Generally, each decade after 30 years of age comes with greater catabolism vs. anabolism. Protein provides the building blocks for muscle protein synthesis protecting the ratio of muscle loss vs, gain. Therefore, it is critical to ensure adequate protein from a variety of food sources.

Because the body is slower to recover as we age, it’s important to consume adequate phytonutrients and antioxidants to help the recovery process. Training plans may need to be adjusted based on recovery rates.

Hydration may also be impacted due to a decreased sensitivity to thirst that comes with aging.

Weiner: How might your guidance translate to women whose performance goals might be to get through a long workweek, manage kids’ busy schedules, keep the house clean and enjoy some leisure activities?

McConville: A colleague of mine, Chris Johnson, has a saying: “There is training load and there is life load — the brain does not know the difference.” Performance may be the ability to get everything completed on the to-do list.

Self-care should not be relegated to “when I get time.” It is an important part of health. Try not to neglect sleep, connection time and downtime from stress. First and foremost is to keep up with your fueling. Busy schedules may require more navigation, but you want to stay on course with your fueling strategies. Sometimes 30 minutes saved by using convenience to put a meal on the table makes a huge difference.

Here are some convenience tips to ensure consistency with fueling:

• order groceries online;
• use meal prep companies (remember this still takes 20 to 30 minutes of prep work);
• begin with a prepared protein such as a rotisserie chicken or pre-grilled meat from the deli;
• supplement frozen entrees with a side dish; and
• my personal go to, start dinner in the Crock-Pot in the morning so it is done by afternoon.

Unfortunately, the house and laundry don’t clean themselves, but learn to have a “this will do” approach during those hectic weeks. Then, when the time presents itself, you can spend as much time as you want on household chores.

Weiner: Losing or maintaining weight can be a particular concern for girls and women whether or not they are athletes. What’s the difference between a healthy weight and overdoing it?

McConville: A healthy weight is one’s genetically determined weight in which there are no signs of dysfunction secondary to under-fueling, such as digestion, hormone function, bloodwork, etc. Our society perpetuates the message that weight is linked to performance, and there is a lot of misinformation about the caloric needs of an athlete.

This leads to many athletes entering a state of low energy availability, referred to as relative energy deficiency in sport, or RED-S. I have come to use the analogy of money to teach this concept. If you do not have enough money (calories) coming in, then something is paying the bills — reduced energy for digestion, decreased sex drive, reduced bone restoration and many more.

Weiner: Women and teens often get less sleep than they’d like or need. Are caffeine, energy drinks or nutritional supplements a safe response to fatigue? Are there better options?

McConville: There is no replacement for necessary self-care such as sleep. However, I realize there are time periods that may lead to less-than-optimal sleep.

Caffeine does have its place as a performance enhancer when taken in appropriate doses (about 100-200 mg or about 1.5-3 mg/kg of body weight).

Energy drinks can be dangerous for a couple of reasons. They use stimulants, such as caffeine, but they also use synthetic stimulants that are not listed under caffeine. These have not been tested for safety and are a big contributor to the adverse cardiac events we see with energy drink consumption.

Another area of concern is that dosing of vitamins, especially niacin and other B vitamins, leads consumers to sometimes have double the recommended amount of particular vitamins or minerals. While some of these vitamins when in excess levels will be removed through urine, others can build up to dangerous levels, especially when consuming multiple products that have high dosing.

For more information:

ReBecca McConville, RD, LD, CSSD, CEDS, is a sports dietitian and eating disorders specialist. She can be reached at becca@beccamcconville.com; X (Twitter): @BeccaLeeRDCSSD; Instagram: @rebeccaeddietitian.

Susan Weiner, MS, RDN, CDN, CDCES, FADCES, is the owner of Susan Weiner Nutrition PLLC and the Healio | Women’s Health & OB/GYN Nourish to Flourish column editor. She can be reached at susan@susanweinernutrition.com; X (Twitter): @susangweiner.