Finishing five Ironman triathlons has taught Michelle Ginsburg a thing or two about eating for performance. “(Before the first race) I had no background in knowing how to eat for long-distance training, so I’d bonk,” says Ginsburg, 35. But through trial and error, she honed her nutrition strategy, being careful not to skimp on the calories it takes to power through all-day training sessions.
“You can’t be afraid to eat—before, during and after,” Ginsburg says.
You may not need to load up like Ginsburg, but whether you’re training for a triathlon or a 5k, a good nutrition strategy can make all the difference in your performance and overall well-being. But, unfortunately, many women get hung up on their weight and the desire to “look good,” leaving them inadequately fueled and even endangering their health.
Running on Empty
A recent study commissioned by Dove reports that only thrity-eight percent of American women are satisfied with their body weight and shape. And athletes may be some of the most critical about their bodies.
“Women athletes under-eat all the time,” says Molly Kimball, R.D., a sports nutritionist with Ochner’s Elmwood Fitness Center, a multi-sport training facility in New Orleans. “In fact, it actually surprises me when I don’t see it. No matter what the sport, (under-eating) is always going to be detrimental to your body.”
When female athletes don’t take in enough to meet their energy and nutrient needs, more than performance suffers. Health professionals have long encouraged high school and college coaches to talk to their team members about the dangers of the female athlete triad—disordered eating (under-eating and unhealthy eating), amenorrhea (lack of menstrual periods) and osteoporosis (literally “porous bones”). The triad usually strikes girls and young women, but older athletes are not immune.
It works like this: Disordered eating keeps the body from getting adequate nutrition, and low calorie intake can lead to hormonal changes that cause amenorrhea. And amenorrhea lowers the levels of estrogen, a hormone responsible for bone development, increasing the likelihood of bone fractures and breaks. In its Handbook to the Athlete Triad, the National College Athletic Association discourages coaches from setting weight requirements or having female athletes weigh-in, stressing that they focus on overall health and good nutrition instead of weight as a means to improving performance.
Although there are no official numbers, experts estimate the triad is prevalent among young female athletes because of the high rate of amenorrhea reported, and the number of young women who suffer from eating disorders (specific, life-threatening types of disordered eating). The National Eating Disorders Association reports that as many as ten million women fight a daily battle with anorexia or bulimia.
Sometimes an athlete with previous bouts of disordered eating will recover only to experience a relapse later in life. Kathleen Lawler, a thirty-seven-year-old attorney from New Orleans, was hospitalized for anorexia as a high school soccer player. She overcame the disorder and remained free of symptoms for fifteen years. But six months ago, Lawler slipped back into disordered eating. Now on a swim team, her coach pulled her aside and told her she needed to stop losing weight. “I didn’t have energy, my times were getting slower, yet it seemed out of my control.” Lawler is now in therapy and getting back on track.
Weight Watchers
While male athletes tend to be more concerned with their performance than their weight, “it’s different for women,” says Susan J. Hewlings, Ph.D., assistant professor of health sciences at Stetson University in DeLand, Florida. “Women are constantly trying to maintain a step-above anorexic ‘ideal’ and make their bodies look a way that doesn’t necessarily work with how they should function.”
Body-image obsession is worse with females because of the pervasiveness of sports body stereotypes (runners are thin, gymnasts are small, etc.), as well as the onslaught of media imagery of pencil-thin models and actresses. For many the number on the scale is often the main measure of whether they’re achieving this ideal.
But weight is a poor gauge of body condition, according to Ashley Koff, R.D., of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and founder of The HealthXChange. “Two women at the same height and weight may look dramatically different. You have to look at the end goal: to be healthy,” says Koff. The scale can’t tell the difference between fat and muscle, nor can it reveal anything about performance. “The scale is often a point of control with some women, but it shouldn’t be a measure of fitness,” adds Hewlings.
