Latest / Eat More Carbs | A Period Recovery Podcast / 161. Is Fasted Training Messing Up Your Hormones?

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161. Is Fasted Training Messing Up Your Hormones? · Eat More Carbs | A Period Recovery Podcast

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Hey girlies, just a quick reminder before we dive into
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today's episode. The information shared on this
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podcast is intended to be general sports nutrition advice
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and education. Related to period recovery for
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female athletes. This is not specific to anyone
0:11
individual and it may or may not apply to your situation.
0:14
If you are looking for personalized guidance, be sure
0:16
to. Apply to our period.
0:17
Recovery Nutrition Coaching Program Our four month period
0:20
recovery program is designed to help you sustainably.
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Get your period back and keep it you can.
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Apply now to get started in our program and we'll leave the
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link. For the program below, this is
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the Eat More Carbs podcast. Hello and welcome back.
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This is the More Carbs podcast. We are a team of dietitians and
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we talk every Thursday about sports nutrition for the
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girlies. My name is Jenna and I host this
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podcast. And my name is Riley.
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You'll also see me on this podcast.
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I am the owner and founder of Steady State Performance
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Nutrition. We specialize in helping female
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athletes recover from low energy availability and together along
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with Lily Reimer, we are team Steady state.
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Before we get into today's episode and talking a little bit
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about training and period recovery, we are going to do our
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high and low. So sharing just a little bit
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about our week, the good and the parts we wish have gone a little
1:04
bit differently. Riley, as always, can you kick
1:06
us off? My high for this week is right
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now I'm at Disney World. Yay.
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So hopefully I'm not sunburned. Charlie has not had a meltdown.
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We're putting good vibes out there, but right now I'm at
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Disney World. I am so excited for you.
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We are recording this high and low a little bit early so that
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way you can be enjoying Disney and Florida with your family.
1:24
Do you guys do the food in the park?
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Like I've seen so many like Instagram videos recently of
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people like highlighting the different places that they eat
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within Disney World and Disneyland.
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Is that something that you guys did when you lived in
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California? And are you planning on doing
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that at Disney World? We really like to do breakfast
1:40
in the park. Like we bring a bunch of snacks
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with us. But the way that we have always
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done Disney and the way that we're planning to do it is we
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get in early. So we try to get in at like 8:00
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at like 830 as soon as the park opens.
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And then we'll do stuff for like 2 1/2, three hours, and then
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we'll have like a brunch. We just feel like the food, like
2:00
in the park, are always best at breakfast.
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So that's something that we started doing when we were at
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Disneyland, and then we're going to do that at World, too.
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Do you guys do sit down or do you do like grab it and go and
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keep kind of walking around the park and doing stuff?
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We're such a Disney like nerds. I think it depends.
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Something that we're doing with Charlie though that is new that
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we've never done before. And we're doing I think 2
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breakfasts with this and I think 1 dinner.
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We're doing character dining, which we've never done before
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because that was in our MO when we, we went to the park, like we
2:30
went to the park, we were trying to like get through as many
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things as we could and like it's just different now.
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So we'll give everybody time to kind of like chill out, sit
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down, not be as stimulated. We will do I think we're eating
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breakfast was Winnie the Pooh, yay.
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She's really into princesses. So I think we have a Princess
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dining one and then we have a Mickey Mouse one.
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And then the way that we're doing the parks is we're going
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for the whole week, but we're only doing 3 days actually in
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the park. So we have an Airbnb.
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Their Airbnb has a little pool, but the way that the Airbnb
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works is you also get access to like the community pool, which
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is a lazy river. It's like a mini water park type
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thing. One of our off days like we're
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going to the one of the hotels and doing like character dining.
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So fun can I come this? Sounds like such a good time.
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Come on. So I guess that's a kind of like
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a very long answer to your question about food in the park.
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But we will bring a lot of snacks and probably eat like one
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or two meals from the park. Riley with snacks is like the
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most Riley coated thing of all time for anybody who doesn't
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spend time with Riley. I always got my snacks.
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I'm so curious about what food you have.
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So like definitely be ready to share on next week's high and
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low about what food was good because I'm super curious.
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All of it looks good. All of it looks good and we have
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a lot of like favorites. So obviously Disneyland is not
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set up like Disney World, like they're different.
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So we have some favorites that are from like Elise, Magic
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Kingdom and like the Star Wars Land and stuff like that, which
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you're really excited about. We'll try some stuff and I'll
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report back. Yeah.
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I want to know is there anything you're looking for forward to
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from a fueling perspective? I really like the food in Star
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Wars Land. I know this is like a it's
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called Galaxy's Edge, but it's Star Wars Land.
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They have like a coffee. They do like a cold brew, like a
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Nitro cold brew and they put like Cocoa puffs on top with
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this like sweet cream, whipped cream type thing.
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I'm really excited about. They also in Star Wars Land,
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they do something called like a ronto wrap.
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I like the breakfast ones or they could have a vegan one that
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I really like. So I'm excited about those
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things and always, it's always fun to eat something that's like
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in the shape of Mickey Mouse. The shape of something can
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change the way it tastes. I'm like, how can I get Mickey
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Mouse on a stick? And like ice cream form, like
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doughnut form something. Waffle form.
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I'll take it. Yeah, I'm not like a Turkey leg
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person though. That is like you guys go on with
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your bad selves. I'm not into Turkey legs.
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Popcorn is also a big thing. You got popcorn bucket.
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I'm not into that either. Do you have a low?
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Yeah, and I feel like it's just going to bring it down so bad.
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It's just like a complete 180. I didn't expect my high to be so
4:54
long, but something that's just really driving me bananas.
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I know this is not a driving me as episode but I'm really tired
5:02
of people selling period recovery programs based on how.
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They look oh OK same but tell me more.
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No, I just, I'm really like, I'm really annoyed with a lot of
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people who are like posting body shots of like, look at me, I
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have my period. Then people feel bad about
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themselves because they're in period recovery and they're
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going through body changes or they don't look like somebody
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who's like talking about their period recovery program.
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And obviously there's so many different approaches to period
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recovery and there's so many different resources out there.
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But I just, I think it's setting up a poor expectation to almost
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like use your body as a marketing tool and even not
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related to period recovery. But obviously we're just in that
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the AJ recovery space. I agree.
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It kind of sets a very unrealistic expectation for
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people about what they think period recovery is going to look
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like. And period recovery is going to
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look so different for every single individual that's going
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through it to include physical changes they might experience
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using one's own physique as a selling point of this is what
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period recovery looks like. Can be really, really
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challenging to help other people who are going through period
6:05
recovery navigate because they're like, well, I see all
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these other girls that have their period and I don't look
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like that and I don't have my period still.
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And that's a such a tough conversation and such a tough
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lens to have to navigate it from.
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Yeah, if people. Want to be proud about their
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body. Like I want that.
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Like I want people to be proud about what they look like.
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And also people can take photos of their body.
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I just think it gets really messy when you're doing it in a
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certain way, in a certain lens. I agree that that's my low and I
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know it's very different than me or into Disney World, but
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there's so many barriers in this process.
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And I feel like a lot of the marketing around changes and
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programs and things like that, and I apologize if we're doing
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that, we're not trying to, but I just, I feel like a lot of that
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stuff makes it harder. Yeah, it's a hard enough journey
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as it is. We don't need to make it more
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difficult for people. How's your week?
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My High and My low both have to deal with the fact that Phoenix
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in Arizona in general has been unseasonably warm.
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So that means a couple different things for my low.
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One of the things that happened was it got so warm like on the
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outskirts of town that a lot of like the crops died off because
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it was just too hot for them, which meant that the supposedly,
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I don't know if this is the reason why, but that's what I
7:15
what I heard on the local, local channels.
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And they said that because the crop died off, that pushed all
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of the grasshoppers into Phoenix proper.
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So we have what feels like hundreds of grasshoppers all
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over the place. And like, thankfully, they're
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not. Like, I know that on the East
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Coast and in warmer climates or more humid climates, like
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grasshoppers can get pretty big. But like, thankfully here,
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they're like, fairly small and they don't bother us.
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But it's still like, just gross to see them everywhere.
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And like, they don't have a very long lifespan.
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So part of my yard work is now not only like cleaning up leaves
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and no seasonal petals and things like that, but it's also
7:51
cleaning up all these grasshoppers and it's just
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gross. You and the nature in Phoenix,
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just you're not mesh. Am I not supposed to live here?
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Is this a sign? No, you have to live there so I
8:03
can come visit you. Yes, to live through you
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vicariously. Because I don't.
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I'm not allowed to live on the West Coast.
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I wish I could change that. Yeah, it's been, it's been
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interesting, to say the least. Of the other thing that the heat
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does here in Arizona, and this kind of plays into my high, is
8:18
that the ground gets so warm that our pipes for our water
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heat up. So like, you don't really have
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the option for cold water in your house in Phoenix during the
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summer or the warmer months. And I am someone who loves to
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wake up and I like want to wash my face with cold water.
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Like I don't want a warm situation when I am getting
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ready in the morning. Like I want cold water.
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I know that's maybe odd, but like, I feel like it wakes me
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up. I feel like if I'm to take like
8:44
a warm Stevie shower, like that makes me sleepier.
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So I like cold water And in the summertime, that's in the warmer
8:52
months, it's just in general harder to come by.
8:55
So I invested in an ice roller and let me tell you, that has
8:59
like changed my mornings. And I'm just sitting there just
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ice rolling my neck and my face. And it is giving the same
9:07
sensation of like washing my face with cold water even though
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I don't have cold water. And that's my high is that I
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finally got an ice roller. So little things in life.
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Look at you. So handy, so resourceful.
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I love it. Also those cheapy Amazon face
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rollers, like they still work. You don't need an expensive one.
9:20
Cheap ones still work. Just FYI for anyone who is
9:23
curious. Go out and get yourself one if
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you live somewhere hot. I could not do that like that
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just gave me like putting an ice roller on my face when I woke up
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in the morning. Nah.
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It's like, I look forward to it. Crazy.
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Oh, man. Yeah, OK, maybe a little bit.
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Nolan looks like everyone. He's like, aren't you getting
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cold? And I'm like, yeah, but it feels
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great. So anyway, that's how I start my
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days. Everybody was curious of a
9:43
glimpse into my life. We are going to talk talk about
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other things other than the weather in Phoenix and Riley's
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food extravaganza that hopefully she's about to go on and then
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share on next week and share just a little bit more about her
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time in Disney. And today we're talking a lot
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about like training female athletes and getting your period
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back. On today's episode, Riley and I
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will be talking about female athletes and their training,
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specifically female athletes and fasted training versus training
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that maybe we have implemented some type of fueling prior to
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training and how that maybe impacts low energy availability,
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how that it might impact your HA and period great recovery
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journey. Before we get into some of those
10:18
like questions that we get around facet training and
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training and fueling for training, we are going to define
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some of like the common terms that we use on this podcast
10:25
because we use a lot of them. So Riley, would you first start
10:29
out by defining the term L EA since we use that?
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Quite a bit. L EA stands for low energy
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availability, or that's what we're going to refer to as low
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energy availability. And the most simple way to think
10:40
about this is there's a mismatch of energy available for the
10:44
body. So the amount of energy that's
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coming in and available for bodily processes is going to be
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less than what the body needs to actually function.
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So an easy way to think about it is energy in does not match
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energy out or energy demanded. When we look at female athletes
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specifically, this can result in something called hypothalamic
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amenorrhea or HA&HA is a term that we're also going to
11:08
commonly use on this podcast. And this is basically just
11:12
defining how a female athlete will lose their reproductive
11:16
function temporarily because of low energy availability.
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I've been talking with a lot of clients recently when we're
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thinking about energy availability and having HA, and
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something that has really helped a lot of the people that I work
11:28
with is looking at the reproductive system.
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Bone remodeling and perhaps even exercise is very expensive in
11:34
terms of energy. If your body doesn't feel like
11:37
it has enough to pay for those expensive systems, it's going to
11:41
shut them down. On the reverse side, if your
11:43
body doesn't feel like it has enough energy or enough to pay
11:47
for those expensive systems to bring them back online, it's
11:50
going to keep them offline or it's not going to pay for them.
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So that's just like a very simple way of kind of looking at
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do you have enough of it to keep those expensive energy systems
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functioning and online? I really like how you termed
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that and especially with HA1 of the easiest ways to know that
12:07
your body is in an energy deficit is because of the loss
12:11
of a period. But with like the bone
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remodeling or some of the cardiovascular issues or even
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cognitive issues that happen with low energy availability,
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you don't always realize that those things are happening.
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And we can chat a little bit more about that in today's
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episode, but I really want to point that out just because you
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maybe feel sluggish during training or you don't have your
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period. Those aren't the only things
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that are going on within the body related to AJ.
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Yes, there can be a lot of things happening, but we are
12:40
only thinking about like do I or don't I have a period?
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Another term that we use quite frequently on this podcast is
12:46
Reds or relative energy deficiency in sport.
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Riley, would you mind defining that real quick?
12:50
Yeah, that is very. Similar to what we just talked
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about, where there's an overall energy deficit within the body,
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and this is basically a persistent energy debt that a
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lot of athletes experience because again, the energy in
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isn't enough for the energy that's needed for optimal
13:07
health. And also performance Reds
13:09
effects male and female athletes.
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At City State Performance Nutrition, we really focus on
13:15
like female athlete health because a lot of the work that
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we do is focused around period recovery, which is a side effect
13:23
of Reds. A lot of female athletes who do
13:26
have Reds will also have secondary hypothalamic
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amenorrhea as a result of that chronic energy deficit.
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We obviously don't see a loss of a period in male athletes, but
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Reds does affect male athletes as well.
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Before we get into some of the questions that we have about
13:41
fueling and training, I do kind of want to chat a little bit
13:44
about some of the things that you mentioned earlier about some
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of the other functions or body processes that can be shut down
13:50
or even turned down when you are in a state of low energy
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availability, like the cardiovascular system or like
13:57
digestion, for example. So what are we looking at?
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What's happening there? Because technically those
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systems are still working, but maybe they're not working at
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like Max capacity, Like how does that work?
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How does that relate to underfueling?
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Yeah, I would say besides the loss of a period, I feel like
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the one that I talked the most about with athletes is like that
14:16
down regulation of the GI tract that's going to result in poor
14:20
digestion. It's going to result in a lot of
14:22
bloating, malabsorption. It's going to result in, you
14:26
know, Constipation. And a lot of the times athletes
14:30
actually think that it's because they're eating too many
14:33
carbohydrates or that they're eating the wrong thing.
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And in actuality, it's because they're not eating enough.
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I do feel like this is a common trend with cardiovascular issues
14:43
as well. And at least traditional
14:45
society, we focus on trying to limit fats and carbohydrates and
14:48
calories when there's cardiovascular issues.
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And with athletes who are in a negative energy balance, the
14:55
elimination of these nutrients and not consuming enough energy
14:58
is actually causing the cardiovascular issues.
15:01
So I just feel like there's a lot of parallels there with both
15:03
of the systems that you mentioned, that cardiovascular
15:05
system and GI. Think it's interesting that
15:08
those systems can be on in some capacity, but when you're in a
15:12
state of low energy availability, your body will
15:14
attempt to utilize them with the lowest amount of energy
15:17
possible. So that's why we see the slowing
15:20
of the digestive tract. That's why we see potentially
15:22
like a decreased heart rate, because your body still needs
15:25
those things. They're essential, but it's
15:27
attempting to utilize those systems with the lowest amount
15:30
of energy possible to conserve it because you're in a state of
15:34
low energy availability. Yes.
15:35
And a lot of the work that we do within our period recovery
15:38
program is focus on optimization.
15:41
Just like you said, Jenna, there's a difference between
15:44
like functioning or surviving and thriving.
15:48
And a lot of the time we have accepted the status quo of just
15:52
surviving. Like we're accepted that we're
15:53
going to be bloated or that we have GI issues during training
15:56
or that we have low energy during training or outside of
16:00
training, or we have an irregular cycle when there is
16:03
this optimization process that is available out there that will
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make you feel so much better. We just, we don't ever seem to
16:09
strive for that. I feel like a society, like
16:11
we've accepted that you're going to not feel great.
16:14
And I don't. I don't like that I felt like
16:15
that. I feel great when I'm training
16:17
and I want to make sure all of you feel great when you're
16:19
training too. So when it comes to training
16:22
specifically, why is fueling before we train so important?
16:25
I think it. Goes back to that optimization.
16:27
A lot of the time athletes think that they can do something, but
16:32
it's like, should you? And with our approach at steady
16:36
state performance nutrition, we're all about like quality
16:38
over quantity. And I'm a huge proponent that's
16:41
like, if you're going to do something, do something the
16:43
right way. If you're not going to fuel
16:45
properly and go to training, you're going to be at 25,
16:48
thirty, 50%. Like what's the point of even
16:51
doing that when you could maximize that outcome?
16:55
Love the idea or the thought of like you could be getting more
16:58
out of your training if you fueled properly beforehand.
17:02
So kind of going off of that, like what is the, I guess,
17:05
concern for doing fasted training beyond just the
17:09
performance or not getting the full benefit out of your
17:12
training? Like what's the concern there if
17:14
you weren't to fuel adequately for you train?
17:16
Well, when you don't have enough fuel coming in and available,
17:20
the body is going to do whatever it needs to do to make that fuel
17:23
become available, right? So that means continual down
17:26
regulation of body processes, right?
17:28
How can we try to preserve the energy and make the energy
17:31
that's coming in more available? I guess you can say if you're
17:35
functioning at 50% and the intake coming in is only
17:39
matching 40% of your needs, how can your body adapt to meet that
17:43
40%? So we're going to see a lot of
17:45
that down regulation. And again, that's not optimal,
17:48
that's not healthy. We're also going to see the body
17:50
start to break down itself to be able to try to get some energy
17:54
that that body needs before training or during training.
17:57
If we're thinking about someone who's already maybe existing in
18:00
a state of low energy availability and then they don't
18:02
fuel adequately before they start to train, is it possible
18:06
that that alone could be contributing to like the stress
18:09
effect of not having a period? I don't think it's just one
18:13
thing and you can tell me if you think differently, but
18:15
oftentimes, like if you're not feeling before training, you're
18:18
not having proper fueling habits outside of training because
18:22
fueling around training is one of the best things that you can
18:25
do for your performance and also for your nutrition.
18:28
And if you're not meeting those goals, just being real with you,
18:32
you're probably not meeting your goals outside and your other
18:34
meals as well. But that's just my professional
18:37
and personal opinion. What types of fuel should we be
18:40
using or maybe avoiding before? Training.
18:42
Oh, I'm so glad that you brought this up because I do feel like a
18:46
lot of people who are listening right now are like, OK, I want
18:50
to fuel before training. I know that it's going to help
18:53
me, but I have stomach upset. I think it's because a lot of
18:56
people first are under fueling, right?
18:59
So like they're just not eating enough throughout the day and
19:01
this can directly impact stomach issues during training and
19:06
they're also not eating the right things.
19:08
Do you agree with this since you work with lots of our runners?
19:11
Absolutely yes. So I do think that many people
19:15
are not choosing the right things before training and the
19:18
focus and that pre training, pre workout, pre competition meal
19:22
needs to be carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are going to
19:25
provide your body with that immediate energy or glucose
19:28
source for you, not only your brain, but for your muscles in
19:32
order to perform and make sure like Riley mentioned before, you
19:35
are able to perform without breaking down your own body
19:38
tissue in order to create energy for that training you're asking
19:41
your body to do. Just like we have things that we
19:43
want to focus on maybe in different fueling time frames,
19:46
there might be things that we would be want to avoid prior to
19:48
starting training. So is there any type of fuel
19:50
that you would recommend athletes avoid before they start
19:53
training 80 to avoid the need of that stomach upset that you
19:55
mentioned? First off, it really depends.
19:57
I know we talk about this all the time on the podcast, but it
19:59
really, really depends on. On timing, how much you've
20:03
trained your gut, cultural foods that you enjoy, you know, what
20:06
are you eating on a day-to-day basis?
20:08
Because one size doesn't fit all.
20:11
And yes, the focus should be on easy to digest nutrients like
20:15
carbohydrates. And we should be avoiding, you
20:18
know, high fiber foods, high fat foods, even high protein foods.
20:23
I feel like a lot of athletes are on these high protein diets
20:26
right now and that's not great for digestion.
20:28
But going back to that, you know, it depends on like timing,
20:31
right? Like if you eat lunch, the
20:33
composition of your lunch before an afternoon training session is
20:36
probably going to be different than how you fuel before a 6:00
20:39
AM session. So I think it goes back to it
20:41
really depends again. I would say the one thing that I
20:44
would say is universal that I would recommend avoiding before
20:47
a workout is only utilizing oxygen as your pre workout fuel.
20:52
We need some type of energy in order to make sure that like we
20:55
have energy to perform during training.
20:57
On the topic of fasted training or only utilizing oxygen pre
21:01
training, what is considered fasted training?
21:03
Like what do you consider fasted training?
21:05
What does that look like for an athlete?
21:07
When should we maybe consider having fuel beforehand?
21:09
If we have had a recent meal, what should we be looking out
21:12
for in order to like avoid that stress straight that fueling in
21:16
a negative energy balance or training fasted can create?
21:19
The most obvious one is, you know, training in the morning
21:22
right after you wake up without eating anything.
21:23
Like I think we can all agree that waking up for a 6:00 AM
21:27
workout, maybe having a sip of water, maybe having nothing and
21:31
going to training is a fasted exercise.
21:33
And I do think that especially online and things like that,
21:36
most people are referring to that when they talk about fasted
21:39
training. Would you agree?
21:41
I would say for the most part, yes.
21:42
That's what we all typically think of when we think of fasted
21:45
training. I think though, that if you go
21:48
into training maybe 4-4 and a half, five hours without eating
21:52
anything before that, I would also consider that fasted
21:56
training. I would too.
21:57
There are a couple of reasons why maybe we feel that way, but
21:59
can you explain a little bit more about like when you're
22:02
trying to overcome LEAHA, why that's so important to have that
22:06
fuel to avoid that faster training?
22:08
Yes. And I think the most simple way
22:11
to talk about it or think about it is you have to have energy
22:14
available. And oftentimes we think that
22:17
obviously, you know, carbs, proteins and fats, they all
22:20
provide energy for the body, but they all have different purposes
22:23
in the body and they have different functions, but the
22:26
body utilizes them for and you have to have carbohydrates
22:30
available around into training to perform high intensity work.
22:35
And our body is not just going to let the carbohydrates hang
22:37
out and sit around. If we eat them, it's going to
22:40
utilize them. If we don't have any athletic
22:44
activity that is going on and we don't utilize them right away,
22:47
they're going to get stored as glycogen.
22:48
They're going to get packaged just adipose tissue.
22:50
And then our body's not going to have enough time during training
22:54
to come to the adipose tissue. We're convert them back to
22:56
carbohydrates. Like that's just not how it
22:58
works. We have to have energy
23:00
available. And I think this new nutrient
23:02
timing piece is something that is forgotten with HA recovery.
23:06
Yes, nutrient timing can be so important when we're looking at
23:10
does your body have energy available when your body needs
23:14
energy to be available. I think a very interesting thing
23:17
or something that maybe I talk about quite frequently with the
23:20
runners that I work with, especially those who train first
23:22
thing in the morning or even those who maybe don't train
23:26
first thing in the morning, is that even if you don't feel like
23:29
you're super hungry, we might still need to fuel because we've
23:34
gone an extended period of time without having fuel.
23:38
Even though you might feel like you've fueled recently, that
23:41
could still be interpreted as fasted training by the body.
23:45
Like Riley mentioned, why that's such an area that we want to
23:48
avoid. But like your body, if it
23:50
doesn't have the fuel, isn't going to feel good in that
23:54
performance. And I mean feel good from the
23:56
standpoint of how you feel, but also that's going to trigger a
23:58
stress response from the body and how it's responding or
24:01
reacting to a attempting to train in a low energy state.
24:03
I always challenge athletes not to think about the beginning of
24:08
a training period or training time, but the end.
24:11
But somebody who said, oh, I don't need to fuel again ate two
24:14
hours ago. Like, OK, that's great.
24:16
You ate two hours from the beginning of your workout, but
24:18
you trained for 90 to 120 minutes.
24:22
So at the end of your session, when it's most important, you
24:26
have not ate anything or fueled for four hours, and that's too
24:30
long. And I really challenge athletes
24:32
to think like that because, again, they're so focused.
24:35
I think on that beginning start time.
24:37
We're not thinking about the back end of the workout.
24:39
I am so glad you brought that up because I think that for so many
24:43
athletes, they're focused on how they feel at the beginning of
24:45
their training and then they're not really thinking about how
24:48
they feel at the end or they expect to feel fatigue at the
24:51
end. We obviously are going to
24:53
experience some level of fatigue as you go through your training
24:56
as we get more and more tired, but the goal is that that
24:58
fatigue isn't heightened by the lack of fuel that you have
25:02
because we haven't fueled properly before you start to
25:05
train. I think of this a lot when I
25:07
think about runners, especially those who are training for
25:09
marathons or training long distance and you might be
25:12
running for upwards of 2-3 hours at a time and you can start to
25:16
physically feel hunger during those runs and those sessions if
25:20
we haven't fueled adequately. So like a lot of times, like
25:23
that's something that we want to like take into consideration
25:26
from like how long ago was it that you fueled not only from
25:28
the standpoint of do we have adequate energy, but like are
25:32
you going to be physically uncomfortable?
25:33
Because now we're looking at like we're going on 5-6 hours
25:37
from the last time that you had a volume type of carbohydrate
25:40
before you started to train. Yes.
25:42
And we don't want that distracting feeling.
25:44
It just makes you not perform as well.
25:46
It's a distraction and we don't need any of that when you're
25:48
training or competing. So to kind of wrap this all up,
25:51
when we're thinking about like fasted training, fasted training
25:54
for HA recovery, why should female athletes avoid fasted
25:58
training? Or what would be your number one
26:00
reasons as to why female athletes it should be avoiding
26:03
faster training? Since we've kind of come to the
26:04
conclusion that we are not recommending that you ever do
26:08
any type of fasted training regardless of if you have a
26:10
period or not. Before we actually talk about
26:13
that, I have a question for you. Why do you think so many people
26:16
are training fasted? Like we just talked about all of
26:20
the benefits of not training fasted, but this is something
26:24
that we talk about all the time. So why do we people doing it?
26:27
I think that there's a number of reasons.
26:29
I think one of the biggest reasons that I see is especially
26:32
with runners, especially with like distance runners.
26:34
I'm thinking of a couple clients in particular who are going to
26:37
know that I'm talking about them when they hear me say this.
26:40
But they had such a limited amount of time in between when
26:43
they could get up and when they needed to start training and
26:45
they didn't feel like they could put anything in their stomach or
26:48
they always felt crappy when they put something in their
26:50
stomach before they started to run.
26:53
And I think that kind of ties back to what you mentioned
26:55
earlier from the standpoint of we don't have the right types of
26:58
fuel and we aren't practicing or making it a priority to have the
27:02
right types of fuel and then work up to the amount that we
27:04
need. Because if you haven't ever
27:06
fueled before you train and then all of a sudden we're fueling
27:09
with 60 plus grams of carbohydrate before you train,
27:12
that might not feel physically comfortable.
27:14
So we want to start smaller and work up to the amount that maybe
27:17
you need or maybe we would recommend for that training
27:20
session. And that can feel really
27:22
uncomfortable if we take that jump from like zero to 100.
27:25
And I think that that deters a lot of people because they hear
27:27
the recommendation for how much we might need before a run or
27:30
before a training session. They try at once and then they
27:33
feel uncomfortable so they don't want to do it.
27:35
I also think that people have heard that maybe you enter like
27:39
a fat burning phase quicker when you train fasted or something
27:43
along those lines. And I think that might also
27:45
contribute to the reason why we are electively choosing to enter
27:49
training in a fasted state. What do you think?
27:51
No, I agree with you on both of those things.
27:53
I also think that a lot of athletes like underestimate how
27:58
active they are and like how hard they train.
28:01
So I do feel like I get so many questions about this all the
28:04
time asking like specifically about our period recovery
28:07
program. But I do think it applies here
28:09
as well where people are like, what do you define as an ass?
28:12
Like what is defined as an athlete?
28:13
Like, am I an athlete? You know, I train for this much
28:16
time every single week. Am I applicable for your
28:19
program? Or, you know, people just don't
28:22
think that they are as active as they actually are.
28:26
So they don't think that they need that, right?
28:28
So we're on here talking about if you're an athlete and you're
28:30
training like you need to fuel and people are like, that
28:33
doesn't apply to me. And so I think there's just that
28:35
misinformation piece where people are really
28:38
underestimating their athletic ability.
28:41
I think that's a good point. Yeah, I definitely could see
28:44
that people are not considering themselves an athlete, so they
28:47
think therefore that they don't need to, for sure.
28:50
Yeah, like I feel like I see this all the time with like some
28:52
of the runners I work with or some of like the retired
28:55
athletes I work with where people are like I only went for
28:58
a five mile run, which I'm like, well, OK.
29:01
Like, yeah, I know it wasn't 18 miles, but like 5 miles is still
29:04
a long distance, right? So I do think there's a lot of
29:07
that. People just don't give
29:08
themselves enough credit maybe for their athletic ability, I
29:11
guess you could say. Or they think that in order to
29:13
be considered an athlete, they need to be doing the same
29:15
training that they were doing when they were a collegiate
29:17
athlete and maybe now they are entering a different phase of
29:20
their life. So they're like, well, in
29:21
comparison to what I was doing then it's not high intensity
29:25
training. So therefore it doesn't apply to
29:27
me the same way that it would mean more and it does.
29:29
Also, I was thinking about this the other day and like all my
29:31
retirement like college athletes out there, I probably train more
29:35
time wise now than I did at least as a club athlete.
29:38
I'm not sure about college soccer, but I feel like my time
29:42
commitment for training is very very similar.
29:45
It's a lot of time and when you are spending a lot of time
29:47
moving your body, so we're going to require a significant amount
29:50
of fuel. Yes, and This is why you should
29:52
avoid faster training everybody. I forget the question that you
29:56
asked me to end this episode. We kind of went on a tangent
29:59
that was my fault, but just following up on that.
30:01
I think the question I originally asked was like, why
30:03
should female athletes avoid faster training?
30:05
I think that like the big thing that we've kind of emphasized
30:08
throughout this entire episode is that if you are training
30:11
fasted and you have a regular cycle, that's going to put you
30:15
at higher risk for hormonal disruption because you're then
30:18
training in a state of low energy availability.
30:20
And we want to signal to your body that you have adequate
30:23
amounts of fuel available when your body needs them.
30:26
So no matter if you are recovering from HA, you are
30:29
active in any form. We are never recommending or
30:32
encouraging that you do any type of fasted training.
30:35
If you do have additional questions for Riley and I about
30:37
training out fasted training, about fueling before your
30:40
training, please reach out to us.
30:41
You can find us online. You can find Riley at Riley
30:43
Beatty Nutrition and you can find me at Jenna dot Fisher dot
30:46
nutrition. Thank you so much for listening
30:48
to this episode of the Eat More Carbs podcast.
30:50
Please make sure you rate, subscribe and review.
30:53
And as always, remember to eat more carbs.