The Female Athlete Nutrition Complex
This week on Your Diet Sucks, we’re digging into one of the most misunderstood (and over-marketed) topics in sports and fitness: nutrition for female athletes.
You’ve probably heard the myths: women should eat for their “body type,” avoid carbs during their cycle, or that we’re just “small men” when it comes to fueling. But most of that advice isn’t based on solid science, it’s rooted in outdated research, stereotypes, and pseudoscience.
In this episode, Zoë and Kylee unpack why most sports science has ignored female athletes for decades, how hormonal fluctuations, birth control, and life stage transitions affect fueling, and what’s actually different about female physiology. We also bust the myth of somatotypes (ectomorph, mesomorph, endomorph), highlight evidence-backed nutrition strategies for training and recovery, and explain why grifters love to fill in the research gaps.
Whether you’re menstruating, on birth control, pregnant, postpartum, in perimenopause, or you coach or care about someone who is, this is your myth-busting guide to what women really need to fuel for performance and long-term health.
REFERENCES
Cowley, E. S., Olenick, A. A., McNulty, K. L., & Ross, E. Z. (2021).“Invisible sportswomen”: The sex data gap in sport and exercise science research. Women in Sport and Physical Activity Journal, 29(2), 146–151. https://doi.org/10.1123/wspaj.2020-0051
Elliott-Sale, K. J., Minahan, C. L., de Jonge, X. A. K. J., Ackerman, K. E., Sipilä, S., Constantini, N. W., Lebrun, C. M., Hackney, A. C., & Nindl, B. C. (2021).Methodological considerations for studies in sport and exercise science with women as participants: A working guide for standards of practice for research on women. Sports Medicine, 51(5), 843–861. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-021-01435-2
International Society of Sports Nutrition (Sims, S. T., Kerksick, C. M., Smith-Ryan, A. E., de Jonge, X. A. K. J., Hirsch, K. R., Arent, S. M., & Antonio, J.). (2023).International Society of Sports Nutrition Position Stand: Nutritional concerns of the female athlete. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 20(1), 15. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12970-023-00541-w
Mountjoy, M., Sundgot-Borgen, J., Burke, L., Ackerman, K. E., Blauwet, C., Constantini, N., Lebrun, C., Lundy, B., Melin, A., Meyer, N., Sherman, R., Tenforde, A., Torstveit, M. K., & Budgett, R. (2018).IOC consensus statement: Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S). British Journal of Sports Medicine, 52(11), 687–697. https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2018-099193
Sims, S. T. (2016).ROAR: How to match your food and fitness to your unique female physiology for optimum performance, great health, and a strong, lean body for life. Rodale Books.