With the explosion of interest in the science of women’s physiology, there’s been a lot to learn lately about how women need to eat in order to sustain themselves as athletes.
One of the things I’ve paid more attention to lately as a masters athlete is being more consistent about getting my nutrition right in that crucial 30-45 minutes window women have after training to signal growth and repair post training.
Here’s what happens — when I don’t eat within that window, the next day I don’t feel elastic or springy in my training session, instead I feel dull and heavy. And when I don’t eat enough throughout the day and especially at dinner, I wake up hungry around 3-4 am, my poor body struggling to repair without enough fuel, and while I eventually fall back asleep, I wake up feeling depleted. When I don’t eat quickly after training or don’t eat enough, I also notice that my mood suffers — I feel more anxious and irritable.
It’s a common fallacy that eating less and exercising more will make you lose weight. There is plenty of research that shows any initial success you may see doesn’t last, and your body will respond by storing fat. Under fueling is a stressful situation for our bodies that leads to problems with the thyroid, hormones, bone density and emotional well being. Not to mention you won’t get the gains from the training session just completed.
Even though I have known better for more than a decade, I recently found myself skimping on meals with the mental notion that this would make me leaner. It didn’t work. Not at all. I was lifting 3 days a week, but I wasn’t getting stronger. I was waking up tired. I wasn’t able to up my training volume regularly. Progress was way too slow. I know it doesn’t work, but it’s hard to break free from the mentality of limiting food that was instilled in me as a woman from a young age. You know what I’m talking about.
So I’ve gone back to the basics and become more methodical and consistent. Eat before and after training. Sleep more (a separate topic, but also important!). Eat lots of veggies for goodness sake, carbohydrates are a source of fuel! Eat them before and after training. And protein I need a lot more protein than I did 5 or 10 years ago. Let’s talk more about that in Part 2.