Energy Availability
You now have an excellent understanding of your overall daily training diet, and your fuelling and hydration needs immediately before, during and after your training sessions.
It is important now to gain a good understanding of your changing needs across a week or across a training block to ensure you increase your intake during heavier days or intensive blocks and know how to adjust this on days off or low volume days/recovery weeks. This is called “Nutrition Periodisation”. Your requirements for protein do not change so much from a day to day basis, however, your carbohydrate needs will fluctuate as they are directly dependent on your activity levels and intensity of training.
It is common for athletes to get into a “daily pattern” of eating the same things, in the same quantities, but during intensive blocks, this will often mean you are not eating enough. Eating enough to support your bodies needs is crucial for both health and performanceIf you are regularly under eating for your training and performance needs, your body will prioritise and direct the available calories (energy) to your exercise needs and “conserve calories” by turning down some of your bodies’ other (very important) physiological processes.
This is a concept called “low energy availability”. If it continues over a long period – it can have some pretty big consequences for both health AND performance. For some, low energy availability unintended, in that an athlete may just be eating as they usually do, despite training and competition load increasing significantly (e.g. during the softball season). For others, it might be they are purposefully restricting intake to get a shift in body composition.
Possible changes in performance which may result from low energy availability;
- Poor immunity (ie getting sick more often than others around you)
- More frequent injuries, in particular, bone stress injuries
- GI disturbances e.g. bloating, pain, abnormal and or, irregular bowel motions
- Menstrual disturbance (e.g. irregular, light, or absent periods)
- Altered (lowered) libido
- Low mood
Seek support from your Sports Doctor/Physician and Accredited Sports Dietitian if you have any concerns with the above symptoms
As you can see, it is extremely important that your daily fuelling strategies (both carbohydrate and total energy) are aligned to your needs, in order to optimise your performance, health and well-being and physique goals. Ultimately, your response to training will be directly influenced by your nutrition strategies. Take a moment to review your training nutrition practices and whether any of you feel any of these ideas require exploring for you.