Tag: Performance Nutrition

Teenage athletes have unique energy demands due to their growth, development, and increased physical activity.

They place significant demands on their bodies. Consequently, it’s imperative they fuel their bodies adequately to support all the demands of growth, recovery, and performance.

Recognising the diverse demands placed on teenage athletes, our Sports Nutrition Coaching approach is comprehensive. Focussing on healthy habits for planning & preparation, ensuring energy availability, hydration, recovery, sleep, and stress management.

Meet Orla, a promising and determined 14year old multi-event athlete at Cheltenham & County Harriers whose journey epitomises the essence of client success.

With Orla feeling sluggish and struggling with her sleep, her parents harboured concerns about her energy levels and overall vitality, prompting contemplation about potential underlying issues.

At this point they turned to Aliénor for advice.

Orla’s Journey Empowered by Sports Nutrition Coaching

Despite her low energy and her parents concerns for her health, from the get go Orla’s aspirations were clear: she aimed to enhance her athletic prowess.

In addition to her club athletics, Orla is also involved in other sports activities in and out of school. She is very active, with 15-19hours of intense activity or competitive preparation each week, and this on top school work! Not to mention the demands of significant physical and mental growth that is part and parcel of being a teenager.

Unveiling the Sports Nutrition Coaching Approach: Nourishing Body and Mind

It’s important the teenage athlete is in control of their journey, not their parents or sporting coach.

At Aliénor we are athlete led. We don’t direct or prescribe. We secure buy-in through discussion and encourage athlete ownership of their journey with our guidance and support. Our goal is to empower the teenage athlete. Enabling them to learn about how different habits and fuelling strategies affect their energy levels, performance and recovery.

How we worked with Orla

To understand Orla’s energy imbalances, we encouraged Orla to delve deep into her lifestyle choices. We helped Orla examine her dietary habits and training regimen to document a baseline for Orla.

The family enjoyed a generally healthy diet. However, Orla wasn’t properly hydrating or consuming enough calories to fuel her demanding training regimen and active lifestyle. She was also topping up her energy needs with the hollow calories of sweets and ultra-processed foods.

The information Orla provided indicated she was running an energy deficit and she showed signs of Low Energy Availability. Confirming the concern that Orla’s parents had rightly flagged. We were able to illustrate to Orla how her lifestyle choices were impacting her performance and wellbeing.

Embarking on Sports Nutrition Coaching with Orla, we initially focused on improving habits to support her hydration and calorie intake.

The actions that Orla opted to take, with our guidance, were all discussed and agreed with her. Including what success looked like, how it was measured and how it tied back to her personal goals.

Actions are framed as experiments and opportunities to learn. Orla was encouraged to notice how she felt before during and after a period of taking specific actions. Enabling her to connect how she felt with the behaviour she was practicing.

Small changes in a structured and methodical manner helped Orla understand specifically what worked well for her, and what didn’t.

With an upcoming event we explored specific fuelling strategies to help her manage her energy availability and support improved performance.

Conscious that the most compelling evidence is that which we witness for ourselves. We knew that the tangible results would demonstrate to Orla the power of the work she was doing with us.

During the competition Orla achieved no less than five personal bests across the seven events!

Orla and her mother, attributed the success to the changes Orla had made as a result of Sports Nutrition Coaching.

In a subsequent competition Orla unfortunately struggled, but why? Well, her mother tells us that for a variety of reasons Orla had reverted to some old behaviours. Orla hadn’t taken her fuelling as seriously and as a result her performance suffered.

The contrast between the performance in the two events provided a powerful contrast. Understanding what she had done differently confirmed to Orla the power of the habits developed through nutrition coaching.

Orla’s personal bests stand as tangible markers of Orla’s progress. Each PB and Orla’s subsequent experience is emblematic of the competitive advantage Sports Nutrition Coaching brings.

Success isn’t solely measured by victories on the field or track; it’s about the profound changes experienced within.

For Orla, success began with the realisation that optimal performance extends beyond physical capabilities. When the actions she was taking were causing her to feel better in herself her engagement shifted gear.

Embracing Growth

Orla’s journey serves as a beacon of inspiration. Illuminating the transformative potential of personalised Sports Nutrition Coaching in unlocking peak performance and fostering lifelong wellbeing.

We are extremely proud to support Orla as she continues her journey in pursuit of her ambitions.

Fuelling for performance doesn’t just happen, in fact it’s a skill that sports people should focus on as much as the technical skills of their sport. Elite players and athletes, such as England national team captain Harry Kane, receive specialist coaching on fuelling for performance.

“Nutrition has become a significant part of sport, particularly football. Considering the number of games we play, recovery is crucial, and food plays a big role in that – ensuring we get the right nutrients at the right time.

It’s something that’s helped me over the last six or seven years to become the player I am now and we’re fortunate we receive this help at the club and international level.”

Harry Kane, striker for Bundesliga club Bayern Munich and captain of the England national team (read full interview on “Harry Kane on How eating Healthily Helped Transform His Career here)

Professional football players like Harry Kane, have the benefit of working with nutrition teams at club and international level to ensure they have the right nutritional balance to play at the peak of their game. Unfortunately this isn’t necessarily the case for young players seeking to emulate Harry Kane.

This is where Aliénor steps in, working directly with individual players and partnering with clubs to provide support at a team level.

Meet Dan

Dan, is a 13year old footballer; like many kids his age, Dan dreams of becoming a professional footballer.

Dan is constantly on the move:

playing football with friends before school
playing football during school breaks
two hours of PE lessons a week
playing football with friends after school
1 hour of club training one evening a week
martial arts one evening a week
club match on Sunday
occasional mid week club match

It seems like there’s hardly a moment when he’s not out on the field with a ball or doing something sport orientated. His passion for the sport is truly remarkable.

Spotted for his defensive skills, Dan received an invitation to join a team near the top of their league, two leagues higher than the team he was currently playing for. This was fantastic recognition for all the hard work he had put into honing his footballing abilities.

Naturally, Dan seized the opportunity to play for the higher-placed team, but he also wanted to continue playing for his old team in the lower league. With his old team having matches on Sundays, while the new team had matches on Saturdays Dan knew he would be able to play for both.

However, he hadn’t reckoned on the extra demands he was placing on his body.

Already leading an active lifestyle, Dan is now training and playing competitive matches for two clubs on top of all his other activity!

In stepping up to a higher league, Dan soon realised he wasn’t as quick or as physical as the opposition. He felt his energy levels rapidly dwindle during matches, becoming more sluggish and expressing to his parents that he was tired and had no energy, with the inevitable mood swings that came with it.

His parents turned to Aliénor for advice.

Low Energy Availability

It was clear that Dan was struggling with Low Energy Availability. Dan’s struggle with having sufficient energy serves to highlight the critical importance of prioritising health and wellbeing alongside pursuing the technical skills of your sport.

It became evident that Dan was not consuming enough to fuel his demanding lifestyle. In addition Dan wasn’t hydrating properly which was impacting his physical and mental performance; and didn’t have a fuelling strategy to support the additional demands of his sport.

Teenage athletes have unique energy demands due to their growth, development, and increased physical activity. They place significant demands on their bodies. Consequently, it’s imperative they fuel their bodies adequately to support all the demands of growth, recovery, and performance.

The Challenge of Consistency Between Two Homes

As Dan has found, having parents who are separated or divorced means navigating the complex reality of having two homes. Balancing the consistency of support between the two households can pose a significant challenge.

The reality for Dan is that his nutrition differs between houses. To raise awareness in both households we worked with Dan and both his parents. With Dan’s agreement, we set up a WhatsApp group for the four of us. On the group we shared coaching notes and action commitments with both households so that Dan could receive consistent support from both parents.

Embracing the Challenge and Crafting a Plan

At Aliénor we are athlete led, and also work with the parents to ensure that the athlete has the essential support at home. We are aligned with the principles of the England Footballs “Greater Game Programme“, with particular focus on the pillars of Health & Wellbeing, Eating Well and Sleeping Well.

To develop positive habits it’s important the teen is in control of their journey, not their parents or a coach. We encourage all our clients to take ownership of their journey with our guidance to help inform their decision making. For young teens this may be the first time in their lives they’re being empowered in this way, supporting them to make this step is essential.

As an evidenced based practice we secure buy-in and enable decision making by exploring available evidence, education and open discussion. We don’t direct courses of action, the athlete has to want and own the action they are committing to.

Fuelling for Performance: Crafting the Plan

We illustrated to Dan (and his parents) how his lifestyle choices were impacting his performance and wellbeing. Particularly, the significant gap between what Dan was eating/drinking and the demands he was placing on his body.

As Dan developed his understanding of the challenge and the importance of nutrition we started crafting a plan. Over a matter of weeks, the plan would help Dan develop behaviours that made incremental changes to his lifestyle.

Planning is a collaborative process. Through discussion with Dan we agreed an outline plan of the areas he felt he wanted to focus on first. With our guidance he considered the various actions he could take. We encourage small incremental change rather than an all-or-nothing approach. This made it less intimidating for Dan to adopt and stick to.

Recognising Success

Success isn’t solely measured by victories on the pitch; it’s about the profound changes experienced within.

Before we started working with Dan, he would regularly skip breakfast and lunch. His priority being to meet his mates for a kick around. After school he’d spend large on sweets before going for another kick around before heading home for dinner.

It wasn’t long before Dan realised that the actions he was taking were causing him to feel less sluggish. He was starting to feel the benefit of fuelling for performance!

This coincided with Dan’s parents noticing an improvement in Dan’s attitude to food and nutrition in general.

Success on the Pitch

For Dan the real measure of success was having enough energy to go the full match and for his performance not to tail off due to fatigue.

It wasn’t long before Dan had the energy to play full matches on Saturday and Sunday without feeling completely drained and lethargic.

With a tournament coming up, the question was did Dan have enough energy to play multiple back to back matches. To support this we also helped Dan adopt a basic fuelling strategy.

By the end of the tournament Dan had enjoyed great games without his performance falling away. At the end of the tournament he noticed he was significantly fresher than the other lads around him. Sports Nutrition Coaching gave Dan the edge that maintained the team’s defence until the last whistle.

Embracing Growth

Dan has only recently started his journey but already he has taken ownership of his wellbeing. With new knowledge he is seeking to unlock his peak performance through personalised Sports Nutrition Coaching. We will continue to develop Dan’s knowledge enabling him to make better choices in fuelling for performance

We are extremely proud to support Dan as he pursues his dreams to become a professional footballer.

So what is Relative Energy Deficiency in Sports (aka RED-S)?

Let’s start with a universally agreed definition:

In simple terms the athlete is consistently burning more calories than they consume resulting in a lack of energy. This comes with some very serious consequences that are discussed later in the blog.

For clarity, in this blog we refer to athletes, this is in the broadest sense of any one competing in a sport, not just the narrow definition of track and field athletes.

Ok so what do we mean by Low Energy Availability? And whilst we’re at it what’s “problematic LEA“?

Energy availability (EA) is the difference between daily Energy Intake (calories consumed) and Exercise Energy Expenditure (calories burned during exercise).

Low Energy Availability (LEA) refers to any imbalance between the energy consumed through diet and the energy expended during exercise, resulting in an insufficient supply of energy to meet the body’s overall needs. This inadequacy compromises the body’s ability to sustain optimal health and performance.

I increased my expenditure but not intake … then you get faster because you’re training more and getting slightly lighter and your brain goes “surely you can eat even less, weigh less, and get even faster.”

“I’d got self-destruction down to a fine art”: a qualitative exploration of relative energy deficiency in sport (RED-S) in endurance athletes; Langbein RK, Martin  D, Allen-Collinson  J , et al 

Problematic LEA exposure to low energy availability causes significant and possibly long-lasting disruption to different body systems.

How can it be bad for my performance if I get faster and weigh less?

An athletes initial performance might improve. However, failure to recognise problematic LEA and RED-S will inevitably cause performance and health to deteriorate. Athletes can expect to experience decreases in power performance, availability, training response, recovery, cognitive performance/skill, motivation, muscle strength, endurance.

If athletes develop low energy availability (LEA), it can lead to a Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S) syndrome which has severe health consequences if not treated.

A lack of understanding about needing more nutrients when training more may lead to improved performance at first. But later, changes in body composition and short-term performance gains can lead to more focus on diet, exercise, and body image, to attain even better performance thus leading to restrictive eating practices.

OK, now we know what it means and that performance will suffer, what are the health risks for athletes?

The health concerns associated with longstanding LEA and RED-S include:

Fatigue
Rapid weight loss
Missed periods or delayed puberty (female athletes)
Low libido (male athletes)
Frequent illness
Hair loss
Impaired cognitive function (eg trouble focusing)
Issues with heart and blood health
Mental Health issues (eg irritability and depression)

Individually or combined these can all harm how well you feel, make it more likely for you to get hurt, and make it harder to perform well in sports.

Is this the same as the female athlete triad?

The female athlete triad is a subset of RED-S describing three interrelated conditions: disordered eating, irregular menstruation, and bone loss. It isn’t a condition of in its own right but a spectrum.

At the positive end of the spectrum, female athletes consume enough good quality calories to cover their energy needs. They have regular monthly periods, and their bone strength is as good as or better than inactive people because of their weight-bearing workouts.

One sign of not having enough energy is irregular periods in women. Basically an indication that their hormone production is affected.

At the very negative end of the spectrum, female athletes aren’t eating enough good quality calories to cover their energy needs. Because of this there can be a loss of menstrual cycle, low bone density, and osteoporosis. Athletes are at risk for fractures due to low bone density and osteoporosis.

A problem with any one aspect of the triad can be a cause for concern. If you’re a female athlete experiencing issues with any aspect of the triad seek help from your Doctor and the support of a health coach.

So, how do you prevent LEA and RED-S?

Education and awareness are fundamental to help athletes focus on maintaining a healthy energy balance. Moreover, it is crucial to work individually with athletes to support them in developing healthy eating habits. Such as consuming the right amount of nutrients, understanding when to eat, and how/when to choose appropriate supplements. In short, nutrition coaching.

The IOC identifies three athlete development stages:

*Body composition is manipulating the relative amount of fat and muscle.

The IOC consensus: body composition and dieting techniques are only for mature Elite / Professional athletes with a positive self image.

Supporting athletes to build the foundational nutrition skills and to adopt sensible fuelling strategies is essential. It is this area of coaching that Aliénor focuses on, particularly with youth athletes.

If you would like to learn more

Check out the scientific papers provided in the sources section below.

Sources

2023 International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) consensus statement on Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (REDs), Mountjoy, Ackerman, et al, 2023

“I’d got self-destruction down to a fine art”: a qualitative exploration of relative energy deficiency in sport (RED-S) in endurance athletes; Langbein RK, Martin  D, Allen-Collinson  J , et al, 2021

Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S): Scientific, Clinical, and Practical Implications for the Female Athlete, Cabre, et al, 2022