Fueling the Female Athlete: Understanding Your Unique Nutritional Needs

TriDot Podcast Episode 336

Fueling the Female Athlete - Understanding Your Unique Nutritional Needs

Vanessa Ronksley: Welcome to the TriDot Podcast, everyone. Thank you so much for tuning in and spending some time with us today. As female endurance athletes, we know that training and racing takes a massive toll on our bodies. But here's something that might surprise you. Most sports nutrition research has actually been historically done on male athletes, and the recommendations we've been following may not actually be optimal for us. Our guest today is Taryn Richardson from Triathlon Nutrition Academy. Taryn is a sports dietitian who specializes in working with endurance athletes, and she is passionate about helping triathletes understand and optimize their unique nutritional needs. And I'm Vanessa, your average triathlete with elite level enthusiasm. As usual we will start things off with our warm-up question, move into the main set, and then wind things down with the Cool Down. I am pumped for our main set today, so let's get to it.

Announcer: This is the TriDot Podcast, the triathlon show that brings you world class coaching with every conversation. Let's get started with today's warm-up.

Vanessa Ronksley: Taryn, it is so nice to have you back on the show. Welcome. Welcome to the TriDot Podcast.

Taryn Richardson: Thank you so much for having me. I feel it's been far too long between podcast chats, but I'm really excited to talk about today's topic, and I feel it's going to be a big one.

Vanessa Ronksley: It's going to be massive, and I'm totally prepared. I've got all of the things that I need for a long chat with one of my favorite people. Yep, snacks, water, all good here. So we're going to start things off, as usual, with the warm-up questions. So this is the one I'm throwing at you for today. If you could have dinner with any female athlete, past or present, who would it be and what would you talk about?

Taryn Richardson: This is a hard one because I'd want a whole table full of female athletes. Is that okay or do I have to just pick one?

Vanessa Ronksley: Yes. You can say a whole table full.

Taryn Richardson: I'd really love to talk to Natalie Graybaugh. I'm not sure if that's how you say her last name, but the lady that just finished Kona in 2025 at 80. And she was like, “What do you mean? It's nothing, nothing huge. It was just an IRONMAN. It's all good.” And the other one that I would love to pick her brains is Catherine Switzer, who was the lady that first officially ran Boston marathon back in 1967 or something. She is still alive. I would love to know what it would be like to be tried to be pulled off the run course in Iran, and I don't know, she had to kind of be really conniving to get even on the start list, and put her initials in instead of her name, and just things like that. She was a pioneer for women in sport, and I'd love to be able to chat with her.

Vanessa Ronksley: That would be amazing. I don't even know her story, so I'm going to have to look that up because it sounds really fascinating and amazing. Good choices, Taryn. Love that you're inviting two amazing females to your table. For me, I would choose someone outside of the triathlon world, as well. I'm going to invite to my table the Canadian legend, Clara Hughes. She is one of a handful of athletes ever to win multiple medals at both the Summer and the Winter Olympic Games. And that's really cool. So she has a lot of insight to share in that. She was a speed skater, long-track speed skater, and a cyclist. And so just the wealth of knowledge that she has, not only on the sports that she competed in, but also just the mental aspect of training, racing, and competing. I would love to speak with her. But the thing that is so amazing, and I know that we would have great conversations, is that she is a huge advocate for mental health, in addition to her being very humble and down to earth. And I think that she would probably feel embarrassed that I was mentioning her on the podcast because she's just such a wonderful human being. And I think that the best part is that when she competed in the Winter Olympics, when they were in Vancouver, I was actually in Vancouver for one of the Winter Olympics events. And I was going for a run around the area, and some people at several points on my run they were like, go Clara. I was like, “Oh, everyone thinks I'm Clara, because we both have red hair.” So obviously that makes us related.

Taryn Richardson: Didn't have to sign any autographs or anything like that?

Vanessa Ronksley: I didn't, no. I'm sure if they got closer, they would realize that I was actually not Clara, but from far away maybe we could act as a double. I don't know. Anyways, we're going to throw this one out there in our social communities. And also if you are watching on YouTube or on Spotify, please feel free to comment who you would invite to share a meal with you. We're really curious to see who it would be, and we can't wait to see how many inspiring people come out of the woodworks for this one.

Announcer: Let’s go.

Vanessa Ronksley: Alright, Taryn, we are tackling a massive amount of information here today, so let's just dive right in. I think that the foundation of this whole conversation is understanding that female athletes are physiologically different from male athletes. What makes female athlete physiology unique, and why does this matter for our nutrition?

Taryn Richardson: Yeah, great starting question. It just sets the playing field for everything we're going to talk about from here. Obviously, one of the biggest factors that is different between male and female athletes is our hormones, mostly estrogen and progesterone, and they fluctuate across our menstrual cycle. Whereas men just have a relatively stable hormonal profile all the time. Bastards. They don't have the crazy ups and downs that we have as women. The hormone fluctuations can affect our substrate utilization during exercise, our thermoregulation, fluid balance, to an extent. And our ligaments -- man, as I'm getting older, I'm realizing that our ligaments are so important, and they're tender all the time. We've really got to look after them. Appetites and cravings, our mood, our insulin sensitivity. There are quite a number of things that do change across the cycle, and that can impact, to an extent, our nutrition and our fueling, but mostly how we feel, and how we respond to training. The other big difference between men and women is our muscle mass. Women definitely have less muscle mass than men. That's generally speaking. I've definitely seen some women with high levels of muscle mass compared to some men. But that's a general one, and that does impact our protein needs, our glycogen storage, our basal metabolic rate, how warm we are. Sometimes in cold situations, having more muscle mass can be beneficial there. So there's lots of differences because of muscle mass, but also the fiber type. Women have more Type 1 fibers, and that's our slow twitch muscle fibers, which is really good as an endurance athlete. It means that we can go for longer because our muscles, the proportion of our muscles, are made up more so of the Type 1, slow endurance fibers compared to a male. They've got more Type 2 fibers. That's our fast twitch, short, sharp, intense-type fibers. And everybody's going to be different. Females don't have this percentage of Type 1 versus Type 2 and males have this percentage. Everybody is different. But when we look at a cross section of a muscle, women tend to have more of those slow, steady, endurance-type fibers. Which ladies, that is great for us. It means that we should be able to be better than men at ultra endurance events. And in fact we are in the really crazy stuff, like the three-day running type events, women actually outperform men, which is pretty cool.

Vanessa Ronksley: So you're telling me that this is the thing that we need to do to separate ourselves, is we have to go and do these ridiculously long-- yeah, go long. Okay. I'm really, really curious. I'm just going to pause you right there for a second now. It's like we've seen this trend where females in sport, and especially – well, in all across high performance and in regular recreational sport -- women tend to hit their peak performance later on in their athletic careers. Does that have anything to do with the type of muscle fiber that we have?

Taryn Richardson: Potentially. But if you also look at women, our early years can often be spent chasing children, having babies, being pregnant, breastfeeding, and then raising small children. So our athletic goals, and our aspirations, tend to get put on the back burner in those early years. So it could just be that at that life cycle, in our late 40s, our 50s, our 60s, when maybe our endurance engine has been built, but we've also got the time for ourselves, and we've got time to go and do a six hour ride on the weekend, and not have to run kids around to soccer, and weekend sport, and things like that. So potentially, I don't know if we really know the answer to that, and it would be an individual thing anyway. For people that don't have kids, when do you peak? Do you peak earlier? And it would also be sport dependent. So I talk to triathletes all day, every day. I think our endurance engine does peak as we get older, but it's probably also lifestyle related.

Vanessa Ronksley: Yeah, okay, that's pretty cool. So let's relate some of the information that you just said back to some nutrition. So you talked about thermoregulation, and we talked about metabolism. And I'm just curious, in terms of all of the things that you just mentioned, what do female athletes need to know then about protein, fat, and carbohydrate needs throughout their training cycles, and their race development phase, and that kind of thing.

Taryn Richardson: I think if we take it one step back, the primary goal for athletes, whether it is male or female, is to make sure you are achieving your energy availability. So you have enough calories, you have enough energy, to support your training as well as your biological functions. And for women, we tend to not do a very good job of that. No offense, ladies, but we do.

Vanessa Ronksley: That's true.

Taryn Richardson: Yeah, I know it's generalist, but we tend to prioritize other people over our own nutrition, or conversely, we're always trying to lose weight, we're trying to decrease our fat mass. And so we're constantly putting ourselves into deficits or not eating properly after training. So our energy availability is skewed. And I think that is the key thing, when it comes to any athlete, is getting that right. There is some research around the different phases of the menstrual cycle, and substrate utilization, and substrate oxidation, and things like that. And we can get into a little bit of those weeds. But I do want to preface this conversation with something you mentioned right in the intro, is that there is not a lot of research in females. There are some very noisy voices in this space, but unfortunately, we don't have the literature to back up those claims yet. They are coming and that research is happening. But we might have slightly different nutrition needs in our luteal phase, which is the second phase of our menstrual cycle. So if I can just back up a second, we'll explain that. I think most women sort of understand how it works, but for any men listening, you might want to take some notes. We have two--

Vanessa Ronksley: I'm sure there's coaches out there who are wanting to coach their athletes, who are males or females. And so there are definitely going to be some male audience members, I think, and I hope, so that we can improve the performance and the knowledge about female athletes, and endurance, and triathlon.

Taryn Richardson: Yeah or if you have a partner that's a female and she does weird things at certain parts of the cycle, this might give you a little bit of insight into why.

Vanessa Ronksley: Exactly. Yeah, carry on.

Taryn Richardson: So we have two main phases. We have our follicular phase, which is the start, and then our luteal phase, which is the end. And sort of in the middle is ovulation. Now, a ‘textbook’ -- in inverted commas -- cycle is 28 days. Not everyone has a textbook cycle. I certainly don't have a textbook cycle. I don't know about you, Vanessa. Do you have a textbook cycle?

Vanessa Ronksley: No, absolutely not. No, I don't follow the rules.

Taryn Richardson: Neither do I. And in fact, I don't follow the rules when it comes to the things that potentially should be happening in that phase either. I'm the complete opposite. So we've got the two phases, our luteal and our follicular phase. The follicular phase is from day one of our bleeding, our period, and that's categorized by low progesterone and a rising estrogen level. And then our luteal phase is categorized by a higher progesterone level and sort of moderate estrogen. Now, there is some research starting to show, or we think this might be happening, but it is, let me just say, it's not clear. We can't say this is definitively happening, and you definitely can't say it's happening for every female, because we're all unique, special unicorns with our own special needs. But we might have a slightly reduced carbohydrate oxidation at our submaximal intensities in the luteal phase. We might have a slightly increased reliance on fat in that phase as a result, maybe. We might have reduced insulin sensitivity. And we have a potentially slightly higher metabolic rate here. Because our body temperature -- I don't know if anybody wears an Oura ring or anything that tracks their body temperature -- your body temperature will rise by about half a degree in that luteal phase. So we might have a slightly higher metabolic rate there, but only in the realms of about 2%. And if you work out on a 2000 calorie diet what 2% is, it's 40 calories. So it's not a lot of calories. So it doesn't mean that you can have a whole block of chocolate in that phase of your menstrual cycle. That's not going to end well.

Vanessa Ronksley: No, I don't think so.

Taryn Richardson: So you might see a lot of stuff on the Internet, and I'm probably going to rub people up a little bit the wrong way with this, but you might see some stuff on the Internet saying you have to have this much extra carbohydrate in this phase of your cycle. You need to really prioritize protein here. You need to do all this sort of stuff differently. But my philosophy is you are your own experiment. I say n = 1 all the time, because you are your own experiment. You might have a textbook cycle, and that's great, and you might fit into what some of the literature is starting to show, or you might, like me, do the complete opposite. And so there's not a lot of point, in my mind, talking about those nuances and specifics, when you need to understand what actually works for you and what your body does.

Vanessa Ronksley: Okay, so if someone is experiencing extreme symptoms associated with their period, the premenstrual symptoms or anything like that, is there a place to start? Where can someone start? Do they start adjusting their fluid levels or do they start adjusting-- what's the best recommendation? Because if you're saying that we're all so different -- which is absolutely 100% true. I think that's the only thing that we can agree on, as a whole, in terms of female research and nutrition, is that we're all different. So where can we start? And if one thing doesn't work, what would we go to next?

Taryn Richardson: I think if you're having really severe symptoms, you probably need to go see a physician or some sort of specialist that works with females. Rather than listening to a podcast for some generic advice, you're probably best to go and actually get some help. I think for women, there's some big rocks when it comes to nutrition. And it's energy availability is the first one, before you do anything else. And that goes for males, too. And then carbohydrate availability is the next big rock. And that to me, in my mind, doesn't necessarily flow with menstrual cycle phases, it flows with your training load phases. So you need to have that carbohydrate available to support the training, to get the most out of it. Otherwise your body's not going to work properly and performance becomes limited. When we don't have enough fuel on board to support training, we start to down-regulate our other body processes, like our menstrual cycle and our hormones, to make sure we can fuel training. It sort of doesn't make a lot of sense, but the body fuels training in preference to itself. So as women, we need to really prioritize on fueling training, having enough carbohydrate available to support those sessions, rather than worrying so much about, I'm in my luteal phase, I need extra carbohydrate here. It's really just trying to understand that periodization for your training load and having scalability in that. Because we tend to eat the same things every day, particularly as women. And if you're busy and you're trying to get the kids out the door and everyone to school so that you can get to work. Same happens again in the afternoon. Get kids home, get dinner, all that sort of stuff. We prioritize them. It's a just innate response, right? We look after the little humans in our lives before ourselves. But you are the bus driver, and if the bus crashes, the whole ship goes down. So you need to make sure that you are prioritizing your needs so that you can then look after other people. You have my permission, you have Vanessa's permission, to look after yourself first. And then other people will follow. You know when they say in the plane, put your own mask on first?

Vanessa Ronksley: Yes.

Taryn Richardson: Think about it that way with your nutrition, as well.

Vanessa Ronksley: Yeah, I love that. And I also love that you're saying there's such a value and an importance on carbohydrate, because I think this is something that women tend to shy away from. And there's this huge craze about protein this, protein that. Every package I pick up at the supermarket has protein, extra protein. And it's like, are you kidding me? We need other things aside from protein. And as athletes, that carbohydrate is so valuable and important. And I know for myself, this is something that I was seriously lacking, and it was holding me back and I didn't realize. What are your favorite sources for carbohydrates? If you knew that you were low on carbs today, what would you go for in the cupboard, or in the fridge, to kind of top yourself up?

Taryn Richardson: I feel carbs are the easiest things to get in life. I feel women probably struggle with protein. So we can talk about that next, if you like.

Vanessa Ronksley: Okay.

Taryn Richardson: I love fruit. Like nature's lollies, I call them, particularly if you're somebody that likes sweet food. I could smash so much fruit in a day, but I try not to. I try and get my fruit and veggie balance right. And it's portable, it's easy to consume. It doesn't matter where you are. That one's a good one. And it's no prep, too. The other good one that I like is dairy. If you tolerate normal dairy, like a glass of milk, or a tub of yogurt, or something like that, throw some cheese on your lunch. And if you don't tolerate normal dairy, make sure you've got calcium-fortified varieties of dairy. So we're not drinking just almond milk. That's expensive water. We're actually looking for calcium-fortified alternatives to dairy if you do not consume it. Because I'd love to talk about calcium a bit more later on, but it is one of our key nutrients as women. And our requirements go up at about 50. And when we're doing a lot of exercise -- we don't do a lot of bone loading exercise as triathletes. Swimming is not bone loading, cycling is certainly not bone loading. We do running, but if you're not having enough calcium, then you run the risk of having porous bones as you get older. And that's something you need to be really mindful of. So we'll dive into that again later. We're going to be here for like three hours, Vanessa.

Vanessa Ronksley: Oh, that would be great for me. I'm not sure about how everyone else will feel about that, but I'm excited.

Taryn Richardson: The other option is all of your grains and cereals, and sometimes they take a bit more prep, but it could be some bread, it could be a, you call them granola bars, like a muesli bar. You can get little microwave pots of brown rice and quinoa mixed together that you just chuck in the microwave for 90 seconds. It doesn't have to be complicated. You just need to know your main sources of carbs, which are your fruits, your starchy veggies, your dairy, your legumes, like chickpeas and lentils, and all of your breads and cereals is where carbohydrate comes from. And then figure out what you like, and figure out what is the easiest way for you to get it in without too much organization and planning.

Vanessa Ronksley: Yes. I think my favorites are sweet potatoes or yams. I'm not sure. I'm always confused as to what the difference is between them. But I like the orange ones, whatever those are, I like the orange ones. And then I also really like to bake a batch of, gigantic batch of muffins. So if I'm going through the effort of getting all of the things out, I'm going to make two or three dozen muffins and then throw them in the freezer. And that is just the super quick grab. And you can put so much stuff in there, like flax seeds, and chia seeds, and rolled oats, and fruit, and they can be these power-packed little balls of deliciousness. So those are some of the ones that I really like to go to.

Taryn Richardson: We always have a batch of my savory muffins in the freezer. They all equal one veggie serve per muffin. And they've got things like spinach, they've got your sweet potatoes -- or yams, or whatever you want to call them, the orange ones -- and some semi dried tomatoes and feta in there. So I think that recipe is actually included in my free recipe section, if anybody wants to go and try it. Good savory option for our savory eaters, and I chuck it in the kids lunchbox, so I know that they're getting something good and healthy in the day, as well.

Vanessa Ronksley: I'm definitely heading over to your website immediately after this recording. Going to grab that and make it. So you did mention some protein requirements. What do you have to say about protein? I do know that this is an area that I definitely struggle with, is getting enough protein. So what do you, how do we know, all the things about protein?

Taryn Richardson: We did a whole episode on protein, actually, on the TriDot Podcast at the end of 2025, if you want to go and dive into that. But for women specifically, we probably don't get enough protein, to be honest. And it's something that I, generally speaking, try and get women to increase. And I think it's, again, because we don't necessarily look after our nutrition as well as we should. And as we get older, our muscle mass decreases. Estrogen is anabolic, and that helps us with our muscle when we're younger, but it declines as we get older through perimenopause and menopause. So we need to make sure we are meeting our protein needs every day, and not going into the red where we're starting to eat away at our muscles, particularly with long endurance training. So it's making sure -- like there's no magic thing with protein, other than making sure you get what you need in the day, somehow. And timing can be really important for women. So we've got maybe a little bit of protein before training, definitely making sure you've got some after training, and then splitting up the rest of your needs throughout the day, so that it's not like just sitting down to this huge gigantic steak for dinner and being like, “I can't even eat this, I'm too full.” So just sort of break it up into smaller amounts so you actually get it in. And I love to make my snacks have some protein, have some carbohydrate, have some nutrients in them, so that we're not just sucking back, you know, protein shakes and protein bars all the time to get our protein needs up. Super easy to get it from food. You just need to figure out how.

Vanessa Ronksley: I think that is definitely something that a lot of people struggle with, especially the time crunched athletes. You know you're hungry. My hunger cues have set in. I need something, I don't have something. What do I do? Where do you go to grab something? And I'm even talking about in my own house. I'm in the pantry, I'm in the freezer. Sometimes I grab a can of sardines, and I'm not a fan, but I'm like, there's a lot of protein in there, so I'm just going to pinch my nose and suck it back.

Taryn Richardson: Oh, no, don't do that. I'm all about food should taste good and we should enjoy the process, rather than it being a pinch nose, this is ticking a box type thing. So what can we do? We can boil some eggs and leave those in the fridge. They're a quick, easy snack. Cottage cheese on rice cakes, or rice crackers, is another really good one. High protein. And halloumi is another high protein, lean cheese, which is so delicious. What about things like smoked salmon, or little tins of salmon or tuna. And they're really good to have as a snack. They are a snack, ladies, one little tin of tuna. They are not a meal. You need at least two of those little tiny tins if you want to have that as a meal. Otherwise one is a snack. All of your meats. You've got all of your legumes as well, although they don't have a heap of protein in them because, remember, we had them in the carb list, too. But things like roasted chickpeas or edamame beans you could add as a snack. I think 150 grams of edamame is 20 grams of protein. That doesn't sound right, though. Maybe it's about 10. How's my dietitian brain?

Vanessa Ronksley: Yeah, it's all good. I actually had some edamame for lunch today, and I love the edamame and putting it in as something -- that is something that's easy to do, because you can get the frozen bags that they're already shelled, and you can just launch them into some boiling water or you can even, I think some of them you can put right into the microwave and just have them be thawed. So that is a really great alternative for anyone looking for a quick little snack. And you just put a little bit of salt on there. So delicious.

Taryn Richardson: Put a big can of chickpeas on a tray, bake it with some herbs and spices and a bit of salt, and then you've got your own roasted chickpeas as a snack, too. Or take them on salads.

Vanessa Ronksley: Yes. Or put them in the air fryer. I love the air fryer.

Taryn Richardson: Yes. I don't have one of those.

Vanessa Ronksley: Oh my goodness, you need to get one. I use it at least two times a day. It's so fabulous. Love it.

Taryn Richardson: I just got a Ninja Creami to make frozen yogurts and stuff like that. That's been really handy, because it's hot here in Australia.

Vanessa Ronksley: Right. You're in summer, so that makes sense. I've heard about those Ninja Creamis, but I haven't quite done any research on them yet. So I'll take it that it's a good thing from you.

Taryn Richardson: Add to cart.

Vanessa Ronksley: Exactly. Add to cart. So we've talked a little bit about carbohydrates, we've talked a little bit about protein. And then how does fat fit in here, for the female athlete?

Taryn Richardson: I think for males and females, my response to the fat question is trying to get your ratios of the right fats up, and the not so great fats down. So we all tend to eat enough fat. In fact, some of us probably eat a little too much fat. But we want to make sure we're getting the good omega-3s, and omega-6s, and our monounsaturated fats. They're the ones that are great for our heart, our joints, our brain, and we tend to not eat enough of those in a day. So increase things like extra virgin olive oil, avocado, all of your nuts and seeds, in preference to things like butter, and cream, and deep fried foods, and deep fried Mars bars, and all those sorts of not-so-great fats in our life.

Vanessa Ronksley: I think I've heard someone on a podcast a long while back saying that they always bring olive oil to the table, and they will always put it on top of vegetables. And just having that cold olive oil and putting it on a salad, it's a really great way to increase the healthy fats. And as you were saying, the ones that we are often deficient in, because there's a ratio between omega-3s and omega-6s, and we often consume way more omega-6s. But olive oil is one of those things that can bring it back into balance. Is that correct?

Taryn Richardson: Yeah, we tend to have a lot of the plant seed oils, like canola, because it's what's used in processed foods. So things like your granola bars, any sort of mixed food or grain. They've used canola oil, generally, in the production because it's way cheaper. But it doesn't have anywhere close to the health benefits of an extra virgin olive oil, and it's much higher in omega-6s. So, yes, try and increase, fatty fish is the other one, to get your omega-3. So at least three times a week, which a lot of us think we do, but maybe we have one salmon meal and we're like, “Yes, I'm doing great here.” But at least three times a week, particularly in females, particularly as we get older, really try and crank up the omega-3s. If you don't eat fish, like you're allergic or you just hate, it might be something that you look at supplementing in your diet so that you are getting it.

Vanessa Ronksley: Good call. I love hearing that. So we've talked about the macronutrients. Let's move over to the micronutrients. So things like vitamins and minerals. What are the key ones that female endurance athletes need to pay attention to?

Taryn Richardson: Yeah, lots. But I think the big ones are calcium, as I mentioned, vitamin D and iron. Iron is a big one for females, particularly menstruating women, because we have higher losses. Every month, we're losing iron. And then as an endurance athlete, we also use more and lose more iron as well. We actually bleed through our gut a little bit every time we exercise hard, which probably freaks a lot of people out. It's not bad. It's not a lot, but we lose iron that way. And then when running, when we strike our heel on the ground, it's called heel strike hemolysis. We actually break apart and burst our red blood cells and lose iron that way. So if you're a female and you're an endurance athlete, you're at high risk of low iron. And then if you're a vegetarian or vegan athlete, and you don't have a lot of those high available, red meat iron sources, then you're at even higher risk. So iron's a big one. And particularly through the pregnancy postpartum period, our iron levels go up. And a lot of women have just got this chronic low iron as a result of that and don't concentrate on getting it back up. So that iron's a big one, because we need it to transport oxygen around our body as an endurance athlete. That's a big, pretty key, one. And we're not going to perform well if our iron levels are low. So something you can check regularly, just with a blood test. Go and get your iron studies done, though I think you call it an iron panel in the US, because you want to check your ferritin, which is your storage form of iron. That's a key indicator about how much you've got on board, and you want that number to be over 100, which is quite difficult for female endurance athletes. And then work with somebody. Get a sports dietitian who can help you manage it. Check it every three months, and work your way up food-wise. And maybe you might need to supplement for a little while in there, just to really boost it up. And if you live at altitude, you definitely need it above 100 as well. Otherwise you're just not performing to the best of your ability.

Vanessa Ronksley: Okay. So I'm just thinking of, like, I'm living at high altitude. I don't consume a lot of red meat -- I don't consume any red meat. And here I am, like, it has to be over 100. I cannot remember the last time I had an iron level over 30. That was high for me. I was like “yes, I've got over 30.”

Taryn Richardson: Is ferritin?

Vanessa Ronksley: I believe so. Yeah.

Taryn Richardson: Pull out your bloods after this and have a look. I guess you need to get your ferritin up. If your ferritin's 30, I'd be supplementing with you.

Vanessa Ronksley: Yeah, for sure. Yeah. It is something that I've been told by a number of medical professionals before, and I try and try and try. I'm just curious. This thing that you said about gut bleeding, I'm very interested to hear about this. So, what is happening there? I'm just so--

Taryn Richardson: It’s just micro-damage. Don't stress, okay? We don't need any more things to stress about as women. Just a little bit of micro-bleeding. It's okay. It just means that we need to be really mindful and diligent with our iron, for that reason. It happens to men as well. They just don't have the regular monthly losses that we do as women. And if you've got really heavy periods, then you need to be checking your iron every few months and just making sure it's not always going down.

Vanessa Ronksley: Okay.

Taryn Richardson: Get it up and maintain it is the goal.

Vanessa Ronksley: Right.

Taryn Richardson: Don’t stress over micro-bleeding. We'll just gloss over that one. I feel like Vanessa is going to go down this big, crazy dark hole now.

Vanessa Ronksley: I was just about to say that. I'm going to go and research some micro-bleeding because I'm fascinated.

Taryn Richardson: Check your iron levels. Your point is to get those up.

Vanessa Ronksley: And then I'll go and look at why this is happening. I just need to know why. I'm just so interested in hearing about this micro-bleeding. I'm not stressed or worried about it, but it's like, huh, there's something I need to learn about. So thank you for sharing that because I'm going to look it up.

Taryn Richardson: I'm not sure that was a good thing, but thanks.

Vanessa Ronksley: I love it. I think it's great. So I think we've covered all of the major things that we need to consume. Pay attention to what we can do if we're short on things, which is often. As you said, it's really important to go and see a healthcare professional if there's anything that you're concerned about in terms of any symptoms that you're having, or if you're wondering about levels of things that you might have, in particular for iron. Now, I'm curious here about calcium. So you talked about calcium and this is something else that as I'm aging, and as a lot of triathletes who come to the sport later in life, after the age of 30, it seems like calcium is something that we really need to be aware of, as you said, in terms of our bone loss later on in life. Is there anything that could have happened previously in our life, where we could have damaged the amount of calcium that we had, and then how we can rectify that if there is something that we can actually do?

Taryn Richardson: So it's talking to females, like energy availability is one of the big rocks because if you don't have enough energy availability, you don't put tissue, like calcium, into your bones and you draw it away. So it's one of the systems that doesn't work when you don't have enough energy available. And that can be transient or it could be a long-term, chronic thing. But calcium is a big giant pool that's stored in our bones, and we need to maintain our serum level of calcium within a really tight range. Because calcium is actually involved in every single muscle contraction, as well. We think about it as bones and teeth, but it's also involved in every time the muscle thing synapses. If you don't have your calcium in a really tight range in your blood, then your heart stops pumping properly. So the body is really good at drawing more calcium from your bones if you're not eating enough from your diet. And if you are, it'll store some back in. So making sure you are meeting your calcium needs every day. It's like protein. Make sure you hit that number every day. And if you are not a dairy person, for whatever reason, make sure you're getting dairy alternatives that still meet your calcium needs every day. Otherwise your bones are going to end up brittle, and you may not find out till you do a bone mineral density scan when you're like 50-odd. And it is something you can check, go and get your bone mineral density checked. With triathletes, we like to do the wrist as well because it's not something that we generally load. So you might have good bone mineral density in your femur. Cyclists tend to have low mineral density in their lumbar spine, but triathletes, we add wrist to that as well and just make sure it's not low in all those types of certain places of your body.

Vanessa Ronksley: That is fascinating. I've never heard that before. I know here in Canada, it's very, very difficult to get a bone density scan. You have to, if you're under the age of 50, it's a fight with your doctor for them to send you. It's so frustrating.

Taryn Richardson: I’m really not enjoying the medical system at the moment. It feels like everything is so responsive to a problem. But for the people like us who want to be healthy, want to have longevity, why can't we be more proactive with our health and do stuff in our 30s and 40s to set ourselves up for our 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s? I feel like I'm banging my head against the table a lot with things like that, but you just got to advocate for yourself. If you have osteoporosis in your family, just make it up. Tell them -- probably shouldn't say this on a podcast, but just tell them that you've got it in your family. Get your bone mineral density checked or find a sports physician. I think that is really key. Somebody that actually understands the type of exercise that we do, and they will do things like that. If you can find somebody that works with triathletes, that's a bonus. Because the wrist thing is something that we did-- I was a sports dietitian for Triathlon Australia for many years, and the wrist was one of the areas that we looked at all the time. And really commonly, we'd see that their bone mineral density was fine in the femur, fine in the lumbar spine, but you do their wrist and it's really low. So then we started doing wrist loading and looking at calcium and all those sorts of things. So we just got to be more global and holistic and proactive with our health, I think.

Vanessa Ronksley: So for our sport, fueling for our training and for our racing is extremely individual, as you've always alluded to on our podcast. Which is something that I deeply respect about you, is that you don't just go off and spout what the plan for someone to go through on this day of their menstrual cycle, on that day, because, as you said, we're so different, and we need to be. We need to honor that, and recognize that what works for one person, or a small group of people, is not necessarily going to work for everyone else. And I know that this is one of the reasons that you founded the highly successful Triathlon Nutrition Academy. And this is a program where you give people the education and the tools to manage their nutrition for training and racing, depending on who they are as athletes. So we're going to move straight into recovery, because I think this is a little bit easier to hand over to the masses with some general and more practical tips, as opposed to what needs to happen during training and during racing. So what are your biggest tips for enhancing recovery, for both training and racing, for female athletes?

Taryn Richardson: When it comes to recovery, there's two main things. Making sure you hit your own unique targets for our macros, but also the timing of those. And I'm just going to throw women under the bus again. For me, my mornings are a total fight. I get home from my training session, and there's an hour to do, not very many things, but it tends to take the entire time. And then right at the end, you're still like, “Oh my god, we're running late.” So prioritize your recovery nutrition and get it in as soon as you can, before you start putting shoes and socks on or getting other people breakfast. Whatever you need to do to get yourself organized, so that you get your recovery in straight away after training. Now, that could mean getting really practical and making it the night before. I do a smoothie for my recovery nutrition, because if I don't do that, I don't get to sit down and make something. So I kind of drink that as I'm doing all the things, and everyone's running around like a headless chicken. But I know that it hits my specific targets. And I put exactly what's in there that needs to be in there, because I've calculated it for myself. So the components that you need for recovery, that you need to understand what your unique needs are, is carbohydrate. And I can't be like everyone needs 50 grams of carbs, because everyone needs their own unique amount of carbohydrate to refuel, fill up your glycogen fuel tank, and top yourself back up so that you can train again later. You need some protein to recover and repair, and 20 to 40 grams, most people are within that target. But it also depends on what your daily protein needs are. So your recovery window is a key time where your body's just super receptive to nutrients and building blocks. So get what you need to get in there, and then break out your rest of your daily protein needs across the rest of your day. You also need to rehydrate with some fluid. Now you don't need to suck back fancy rehydration formulas here. There is more electrolytes in food than there is in electrolyte powders. There's more sodium in two slices of bread than there is in a bottle of Gatorade. So as long as you're drinking water and eating food, you're doing the best job of your recovery there. And you don't need to add sodium tablets to it. People talk about chocolate milk being perfect recovery, but that's only for some people. It'll hit some people's macro targets, but not everyone's. And then the final thing, because I'm a dietitian and we have these huge micronutrient needs as endurance athletes, is you need to focus on getting some micronutrients into your recovery, as well. So whether that's some calcium to meet your needs for the day, some color on your plate for all of your vitamins and minerals, because they are the precursors for so many recovery pathways and other pathways in our bodies. And if we're just constantly focused on carbs and protein, carbs and protein, then we miss out on those beautiful colors and nutrients, and all the food chemicals that you get from having real food there. And I think the app-based style of eating -- I know a lot of triathletes love to count calories. There's a big focus on those main macros, but they don't track your micros. And we need to be really mindful of those, when we have high needs compared to the general population.

Vanessa Ronksley: Now, for those of us that might not do a very good job of making sure that we are fueling ourselves appropriately, and as females, we tend to under fuel. It is very, very common. I don't know that I've ever spoken to an athlete who has not fueled appropriately at some point in their lifetime. And there's this little thing called RED-S that has become a little bit more popular in the last little while. So can you just explain to us what RED-S is, and what we need to look out for, and can this apply to our listeners?

Taryn Richardson: REDS, or RED-S, stands for Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport. It is a syndrome. It is multifactorial, and it occurs in athletes with chronic low energy availability. It's not just women. Men do struggle with this syndrome, as well. But it's where the body doesn't have enough energy left over to run its general physiological processes, and some of those basic functions. So when we have that energy shortage, its really silly, but the body will fuel that training first. You don't perform particularly well in that training session, but then the rest of your body just goes into survival mode. And it'll start to reduce, or completely diminish, your reproductive function, because you don't have enough energy to survive, let alone to support something else. Your thyroid function can go haywire; your bone turnover gets interrupted and we start borrowing from our bone. Your immune system and your immune function goes all over the place, and your resting metabolic rate reduces as well, which is one of the key indicators that we test for when we're looking to see if somebody is in relative energy deficiency. But it's really hard to measure that. So overall, the body just stops working properly, which is definitely not what we want when we are swimming, cycling, and running in a week. It doesn't make any sense. So if you're in that state, you need to get out of it and get out of it as fast as you can, because you are doing long-term damage to your body. And it's really hard to know whether we are there. Men is slightly different, because men don't have that regular monthly cycle that can be a really clear indicator that something is going wrong. But your testosterone levels do go down as a male, and things like your libido will reduce as an indicator that things are not working properly. Mood changes is another one. I don't know, everyone's kind of moody a little bit sometimes when you're triathlete and you're tired all the time. So it's hard to pick that one up, as well. But they'd be some of the key warning signs. But it is a continuum, too, of energy availability. We have lots of energy available all the way down to we really don't. And there's lots of things going wrong here. And you can fit sort of anywhere on that continuum. And it's not a stationary thing either. You can move up and down all the time, depending on how you're going. So I said right at the beginning, focusing on enough energy on a daily basis is one of the key things you need to do as a triathlete, when we do a lot of training hours in a week. And not having that stationary across your training program. If you suddenly step up to full distance racing, you need to change your energy availability again. Rather than eating the same things all the time and just getting into this rhythm, you do need to be very reactive to your training program on that day, and fuel for the work required on that day, not two weeks later when you're suddenly like, “Oh man, I'm really tired, I'm starving all the time. Maybe I need to eat more.” It needs to happen in that moment. Otherwise we are sort of setting ourselves up for some long-term damage that is not so pretty.

Vanessa Ronksley: No, it is not pretty. I have suffered from RED-S for a long while, and I didn't know. When I finally figured it out, with the help of dietitian and healthcare and a lot of medical appointments, it was a shock to me for some reason. But then at the same time I'm like, no, this isn't a shock. It's been almost my entire life that I've been deficient in energy. And I think that this allows us to be able to talk about it, and to see that there are some professional athletes that are coming forward and saying, yes, I have an energy deficiency. It just allows for this conversation to happen, and for people to realize that we need to be proactive about these sorts of things. Because as you get older, and we start to see the repercussions of this low energy availability throughout the lifespan, it's not fun. It's not a fun thing. So you had mentioned in terms of males, the symptoms and warning signs with the low libido and the testosterone levels. What could a female athlete be watching for themselves? But also in their training partners? Like, in terms of the moodiness and all that. Is there anything else that they might be able to recognize in our training partner? Because we love to support each other, and we can see changes when they happen to our friends and our family, as well. So what else could we look for?

Taryn Richardson: So women is definitely menstrual cycle irregularities, but if you are on a contraceptive, or you have a Mirena, or something like that, then you won't have that sign. So some other things to look out for might be frequent illness. If you keep getting all the little colds and flus constantly, and you're like, man, I'm sick again. That is a big one. Also, little niggly soft tissue injuries is another one. The body's just not working properly. So you keep getting these annoying little soft tissue things that send you backwards, but they're nothing major. They're not like a big, loud warning sign, yet. Further along that continuum of energy availability is stress fractures, like proper injuries, where the bone is not working, it's not getting what it needs. And that's a really, like, you're pretty far down the end of that continuum if that's happening. And we really want to avoid those, because once you've had one, I can't remember what the percentage is, but you're really likely to get another one. And that's the kind of injury that does set us back for years in this sport. So soft tissue and then bone injuries. If you feel constantly cold, that could be another indication that your energy availability is low. Now, you're sitting in -36 degrees Celsius or something right now. So not that, but when it's not particularly cold out, or the house is warm and you are still feeling cold, that could be an indication. Sleep is another big one. And for women, that could be hormone disturbances, and perimenopause, and menopause, and all that sort of stuff. But for both males and females, disrupted sleep. Thinning hair and brittle nails is another one, another key indication. And for me, as a dietitian, I always have little ‘do-do-do-do’s going off on the side when people start to talk about behavioral things when it comes to food, like worrying about increasing their intake, or counting everything, weighing everything, skipping carbs or delaying recovery, trying to diet through really peak training blocks, and obsessively tracking, I think, is another kind of behavioral thing that I'm really aware of, because it can be a good tool in our toolbox, but I think if we're obsessed with it and weighing everything on a daily basis, to me that's a bit of a red flag.

Vanessa Ronksley: So the warning signs, these are extremely important to recognize. I think we can probably make a shift here and talk about different life stages, now. And as these life stages happen throughout a female's life, there are so many life stages that a female will go through. And as we go through these life stages, our nutritional needs are going to change. And so what should female athletes know about fueling during, let's say the pregnancy, postpartum, and breastfeeding stage of life?

Taryn Richardson: Yeah, these could be standalone topics in their own. And I'm going to talk just generally, because if you are pregnant or breastfeeding or in that postpartum window, and you need some help, then you're probably best to seek a professional to help you, specifically. Because we are unique, and it's understanding of what is happening in your body. When you're pregnant and postpartum and breastfeeding, it does dramatically shift a female's physiology. Your energy and your protein needs increase. Iron becomes incredibly critical during pregnancy, and even afterwards. Try and build that back up again. And I think our priority with nutrition definitely shifts, as well. It's all about maternal health and baby health. It's no longer around triathlon performance. Fairly safe, that's probably the priority. I would assume, unless you're an Olympic level athlete, that we've got to balance the two. But I'm not sure we're talking to many of those right now.

Vanessa Ronksley: No, I think we're safe.

Taryn Richardson: I think the biggest risk for triathletes, we have our high-performance mindset and then we go into pregnancy, is the risk of under fueling through those stages. When you go from doing a lot of exercise and you become pregnant, you're probably more stationary, or less active. And so you worry that your nutrition requirements have suddenly gone down, and maybe they have a little bit, but it's really about eating to your needs in each trimester. Your energy requirements do increase as you go through, and your energy requirements are actually the highest postpartum when you are breastfeeding, because so much goes into producing milk if you are breastfeeding. So a big risk in the triathlete women population is under-fueling through that, and under-nourishing, as well. Particularly if you are a busy-type person. We just shovel in whatever's one-handed and easy to grab. And you eat when you're hungry, and sometimes you don't have great hunger cues. So we need to focus on really nourishing our bodies through those phases of life, and getting all of the right nutrients because your body will give it to the baby, whether it's during pregnancy or in breast milk. And there's lots of key things like your iron, your iodine, your folate, your vitamin D and calcium. A lot of those nutrients go to the baby, and you need to focus on getting more, through those sort of stages of life, to make sure your body is not a complete mess at the end of it and your hormones are working properly afterwards, as well. So we've taken the focus of dieting and restricting and under-fueling, and I like to talk about nourishing your body is a great way, getting as many nutrients in as you can, making sure you get enough protein to support you and the baby's development. Particularly for women who want to return to training loads quickly, I think it's really important to get a professional to work with to help you manage, that rather than just going like, “I'm going to do an IRONMAN six months postpartum, and that's my goal.” Let's calm down for a second. IRONMAN's never going away. You can do one soon. But is six months postpartum a good idea? Look, I'm going to go out on a limb and say, probably not. When your body is so depleted that we need to focus on getting it working really well first, getting your protein in, getting enough energy, all those sorts of things, and then enjoy being a mom, and the joy that that brings amongst the chaos, and get your body ready to do that before you dive into it really quickly.

Vanessa Ronksley: Yeah, I'm just thinking the actual thought of doing an IRONMAN six months postpartum, and I'm like, nope. I don't think I was even -- was I even sleeping more than 45 minutes at a time postpartum? I don't think so. So how on earth could you have-- I don't know. There's some pretty amazing women out there. But you like said, it will be there. You're not in a rush. It's not going anywhere. So allow yourself the time to adjust to this new life that you have and to learn how to nourish yourself and your baby. Because as you said, that baby will take those nutrients, even when they are outside of your body, if you're still breastfeeding. That is so valuable and important. I'm curious about this ‘hunger cues’. If a hunger cue disappears, if someone just doesn't even know that they're hungry anymore, what is going on there?

Taryn Richardson: You're probably really bloody tired is what's going on there. You're probably really sleep-deprived. Your appetite is not a good indication of what you need, particularly postpartum. You can either be ravenous, because your body's producing milk and that doesn't necessarily equate with what you need. Or in the flip side, just have no appetite because you're so tired, and you have no idea what day it is or if you've got your pants on the right way. Those kinds of things. As well as a triathlete, we cannot rely on our appetite to guide us, I think. It's never a good representation of our training load on that day. It's more representation of how you ate a few days ago, or last week, or a couple of weeks ago. It's kind of delayed. So it depends. But appetite is probably not one of the biggest guides that I use. I really try and educate people on what they need, and then we work on, practically, how do we make that work with your lifestyle.

Vanessa Ronksley: That is another excellent tip for anyone, not just people who are postpartum, because I think you're right. If your hunger cue has disappeared, there's definitely something else going on there. And if you were to listen to that, then you're going to get yourself into trouble. Especially if you are growing another human, or if you are in the throngs of training, and you're tired, and you just don't even recognize that you haven't eaten for four hours. That's probably not a good thing, especially when you're getting rid of, you're expending so much energy in all aspects of your life. So that's all really fabulous information about the life stage that brings so much joy to so many people.

Taryn Richardson: So much sleep deprivation.

Vanessa Ronksley: So much sleep deprivation. And yes, I was thinking to myself, when you said, ‘is it one of those days where I've put my pants on backwards.’ I'm like, “Am I still postpartum? Am I still?”

Taryn Richardson: You'll always be postpartum.

Vanessa Ronksley: Yeah, right? I guess so. It doesn't matter. It was a decade ago that I had my 2nd baby. But let's move over and shift into another really important phase of a woman's life, and that is perimenopause and menopause. There is so much going on here. I don't even know how people tell which way is up or down or sideways, because of the intense changes that are happening. And they're different every single day. So there's a lot of change. Now, what can we do on the nutritional level, and how does our needs shift during perimenopause and menopause? And I understand that this could be an entire episode in itself. So let's just cover the basics, and what we can do for people to help them.

Taryn Richardson: Yeah, there is lots to unpack. We could do an entire episode. So perimenopause is the years before menopause, and it could be anywhere from 35 onwards. Some people are as young as that, where our hormones start behaving differently. It's been described as the rollercoaster show. I'm sure anyone in the perimenopause years will be like, “yep, it totally is”. And everyone's going to be different here. But our estrogen does weird things. Our progesterone does weird things. And it can change on a daily basis. So if you're on hormone replacement therapy, you might have it perfectly humming and you're like, “I finally feel good again, and I can think straight.” And then boom, your hormones change again, and you've got to readjust. So there's a couple of things happening in those years, and it generally coincides with women in a really busy time of life. Whether your career's taking off, you've got kids running around, or your kids are sort of hitting high school and they're getting older and they're busy. So it is a very busy time in our lives. But generally we see an increase in body fat percentage as we get older. And particularly centrally, it's called the ‘meno pot’, 44% increase in that body fat that sits around our middle, which is actually science-based. A lot of women complain about it, but it's actually science-based. We also potentially have increased fat oxidation during moderate intensity exercise, compared to when we're younger. So we're using more fat and less carbohydrate. But I would like to highlight that that is highly individual, and not everyone's going to experience that, and don't change anything based on that. We have probably reduced metabolic flexibility. So people complain about, “I just can't eat the same way that I could five years ago. I feel I look at a sandwich or not even anything bad, and I put on 10 kilos.” Or what's that in pounds, five pounds or something? Lots. We also have decreasing muscle mass as we get older, which is one of the key things that we need to work on as women, making sure we get enough protein. But also you need to get in the gym, ladies. Go and lift some heavy stuff, throw it around, get strong. None of this body weight squat business, none of that body pump stuff, like really low weight, high rep. You need to be doing really heavy lifting. Get somebody that understands women and triathletes to do a strength program for you so that you can fight this age-related muscle decline. Because our muscles are what drives our metabolism, it drives our resting metabolic rate. And if that's just going down and down and down as we get older, means our calorie needs go down and down and down, and we just eat less and less and less and less. And it's this big vicious circle of not eating enough calories, muscle going down, and we need to fight that as best as possible. And then sometimes through this period of time, it can happen during pregnancy and postpartum and breastfeeding, is our cholesterol markers do weird things, but that can happen through the perimenopause years, as well. So there's a really nice paper, from 2022, from Lacy Gould. I can link it if you want to dive into it, but some of those actual things that happen in perimenopause. It's really hard to study women athletes in perimenopause, because our hormones are so widely different and variable on a daily basis. So I think you need to get some good health professionals in your corner, figure out what is happening for you, and do the best that you can to manage that, so that it is not so much a roller coaster show, that we're just hanging on for dear life of this thing and waiting for it to be over. Let's be a bit more proactive about what can we actually do to help us at this stage. Protein's going to be a big one. Your carbohydrate needs might shift. And we've talked about a lot of this, getting enough nutrients in your diet, lots of fiber, lots of color, and working with somebody to try and understand what your unique needs are.

Vanessa Ronksley: Yeah. I think this next section is probably really valuable and can very much tie into the perimenopause and the menopause, because there is a huge elephant that's always sitting in the room when it comes to nutrition information, and more so the misinformation that is flying around on social media. It's just insane what some people will post without having the appropriate knowledge or background, and then other people will take that to heart. It just makes me very sad that these myths become what people believe. And it's because they saw it on TikTok, or Instagram, or whatever. So what are some of the biggest myths, or mistakes, that you see female triathletes making when it comes to nutrition?

Taryn Richardson: So many, so many. And we need to not look to influencers and social media for our nutrition advice. We really need to start digging a bit deeper and looking for experts that have legitimate qualifications in nutrition to be providing advice. Because everyone has a pedestal to talk about things. Have a look at the byline of blogs that you're reading. So many of them are not written by qualified people. And particularly with AI and ChatGPT now, people are spurting out all this information that seems right, or looks right on the surface, but then it's written by somebody that is -- I don't even know who they are. So if you're looking at information on the Internet, or you're listening to podcasts, or you're watching YouTube, check out the person providing that information. Have they got qualifications? Are they a qualified sports dietitian? Are they a qualified female physician? Are they a physio? Are they an exercise physiologist? Actually look at somebody's qualifications, because so much information out there is written by, frustratingly, people that are not actually qualified to do that. And I saw something recently -- I think, is it China, or Japan, maybe? They have changed their laws so that if you're giving advice online about a topic, you cannot do it unless you are actually qualified in that space. I was like, “Yes!” Must have been Japan, because they're kind of forerunners with things like that. We need that shift.

Vanessa Ronksley: That’s amazing. I agree.

Taryn Richardson: Some of the biggest things -- I think women are very carb-phob-- Hang on. I think women are very carb-phobic. That is probably one of our big rocks, is we are so often trying to strive to drop some body fat, if we want to fit into the pants that we fit into before babies, or when we were 18. And sometimes it's just never going to happen. So we cut carbs, and we think that that's going to help us get there. And so we just become so carb-phobic. And particularly with triathlon, we need carbs, my friend. Carbs are the best way to fuel your performance. And they are the same amount of calories per gram as protein. So if you're sucking back a crapload of protein at four calories per gram, carbohydrate is also four calories per gram. So it's just about getting that balance right in the day. And it is everywhere. What's with the meat carnivore diet at the moment? I'm getting so much stuff on social media where people only eat meat and it's nutrient deficient, your body can’t absorb it --

Vanessa Ronksley: Don't get me started.

Taryn Richardson: And I'm like, “What? What happened? How did we get here?” I don't even understand. But it's never going to end. There's always going to be something; there's always the latest trend. It was intermittent fasting a few years back, and we went from paleo to then vegan was cool, and I honestly just can't keep up. So put your blinkers on, don't listen to any of that rubbish, and work on how much you need to eat, for you as an individual. As a triathlete, you need carbs. You need a certain amount of carbs on each day, depending on your training. But you cannot be afraid of carbohydrate. You just need to know how to get the right amount for you and get nutrient rich versions, too, so that we're doing more than just having our macros. We're not ticking the carb, protein, fat box. You also need to work on nutrient rich sources of carbohydrates, particularly as you get older. If your muscle goes down, your metabolic rate goes down, your training intensity goes down, potentially, or your volume goes down -- your carbohydrate needs vary across the lifespan, and you need to adjust to that rather than just do the same old thing and hope for the same result. It's not going to happen. We're going to have to be a bit more robust and change our strategies and be cool with that. It's exciting. Change is good, but learn how to do that across your week, your months, your years, and yeah, be flexible in that approach. Carbs do not make you fat, also, can I say that? It can be the line from this episode.

Vanessa Ronksley: Oh yeah, please. I love it.

Taryn Richardson: Too many calories on a daily basis is what makes you fat. It is not the carbohydrate. And they've done a lot of good research in that it's not the carbs that make you fat, it is all the other things that go on. So put some carbs on your plate, it's okay, they're safe. You're not going to die, you're not going to put on 10 pounds. Just get that balance right for your training day, and that's where everything will start humming. So carbs, carb-phobia is a big one with women. Under-fueling and the obsession with healthy eating, I think, is another big one with women. Sorry to throw you under the bus again, ladies, but whether it's calorie counting or tracking or, I don't know, any of that clean eating kind of stuff, for the people that like to wash their food, make sure it's clean. Any sort of food rules is a bit of a red flag for me around REDS. And so if you are starting to skip cycles, menstrual cycles, or they're becoming irregular, you are feeling cold, you're getting sick all the time, you're getting those niggles, your sleep is poor, any of those sorts of things -- go and actually start to dig into your nutrition, and figure out if you are getting enough, because that probably tells me that you're not, if those sorts of things are happening. So they're probably two big ones, I think, with women.

Vanessa Ronksley: Now, for someone who's listening to the episode, who might be feeling overwhelmed, we have talked about a lot of different things here. We've talked in different directions, and we've covered a lot of things. I think it's mostly my fault because I threw all these questions right at you. So someone is feeling overwhelmed. They're not sure where to start optimizing their nutrition. What is your advice? What is the first step that they should take? And then a few other steps afterwards?

Taryn Richardson: When female athletes are overwhelmed, I think it's not usually from a lack of information. It's probably too much conflicting information, and it is hard to weed through what's going to work for you versus what is not. And you get overwhelmed with all the things and all the shiny objects that get thrown at you. And it's really difficult to know where to start. So we've got to focus on the big rocks first. In triathlon, and for women, big rocks are definitely energy availability, across all male and female. Making sure that you have enough energy available to support not only your body's physiological functions, but also the training that you're throwing at it. Because if it's not, if there's a mismatch -- and as much as three days of mismatch is enough to throw out your cycle for that month. So it has to be like, you need to be on point -- on fleek, whatever you want to call it. Get it right on the daily, because that can go haywire, quite quickly, which is a little bit scary, to be honest. So energy availability is a big one. And ask yourself, do you think you're eating enough for your training load? Do not look at the scales to answer that question. Look at things like your energy levels, your fatigue, your recovery. Do you need coffee to function on the daily basis? Are you at that point where you're having multiple coffees every day just to survive this life? Are your cycles irregular? That's a big one. And recurrent niggles and injuries and things as well. So are you getting enough today? Can you answer that question for me based on everything we've talked about? I think that is the big rock. And then your macros will fall into place when you know what you need on a daily basis. But the first thing is energy availability. The second thing I think if you're overwhelmed, is to not try and do everything at once. Just pick one thing to work on and work on doing that well. And once you've got that right, then ‘habit stack’, I call it, layer things in. So if you've got one thing, just do it, do it well without thinking about all the other things that you're meant to be doing. In six months, nine months, 12 months time, you won't know yourself if you do that systematically, one after the other. The other thing I think women need is a bit of a plan, a bit of a framework, some structure, so that it is not a reactive thing. We need to be more proactive. And that can mean making sure you do eat consistently across the day, making sure you've got your food timed around your training properly, making sure you've got some carbohydrate at every meal, ladies. It's okay, you're not going to get fat. It's all good. You need it. Maybe you need the right amount, not way too much or not enough. The other thing is protein. Can you get what you need on a daily basis and do that regularly, and then working through your nutrients after that. So we kind of layer them up. You know that jar analogy where you try and put, put big rocks, little rocks, and sand in? The only way to get that stuff to fit is to start with the big rocks first. There's no point doing little sprinkles of sand and taking all these supplements and performance enhancing things that you see on the Internet. Just blinkers on and ignore those for a while until you can do the big rocks. Because when I work with athletes in the Triathlon Nutrition Academy, the first thing we cover is recovery. And most female athletes are so far off what I was meant to be having. And we work on getting them to where they need to be, and within a week -- not even joking, within a week -- they're like, “Taryn, I feel amazing.” I'm like, it's not that difficult, but we just don't do it for some reason. So it's just about understanding what you need and figuring out how to do that in the easiest way possible with everything that you have going on.

[Transition Sound Effect]

Vanessa Ronksley: Welcome to the Cool Down everybody. We are, these days, taking an audience question. We've got through all the tough stuff, Taryn. There's no more hard questions coming out your way. This is just one more question from an audience member. If you have a question that you would like to submit to us, you can do so in any way. Send us a dm, you can check out our website, you can even leave a voicemail. You can send us any kind of information. Write a post, on any of our social platforms, that has a question and we may just choose to feature it on air. So the question is, it's coming from Liz, and she writes, “I have done a couple of IRONMANs and gearing up for a third. I have practiced my fueling strategy leading up to each race, and everything goes fine in training and racing, until I have about 12 kilometers left in the marathon. What are the possible reasons for experiencing GI issues this late in the race, and what are some tips to practice when my long training session is just over seven hours and I'm expecting to be on the race course for about 12?

Taryn Richardson: That is not an easy question. Come on. Liz, there is a lot of things that I would love to unpack to understand what's going on there. But as we exercise, the longer we exercise for, the more our gut shuts down. So it's really common in the back end of an IRONMAN, in the marathon, for things to go a little bit pear-shaped with our GI system, and that is because we've been exercising for so long, but also because the blood is not around our gut to help with that digestive process. Because the digesting and resting nervous system is different to the fight or flight, runaway from a line, nervous system. And in triathlon we're trying to get them both to work together, and it doesn't really like doing that. So a couple of things to try, without knowing more details, is to give it a good nudge in training. You will never really be able to elicit the same stress response in a IRONMAN distance event that you can in training. So you might need to push it further, with your gut training, in training. And then the other thing that's really practical that you could do is decrease the complications of your nutrition the further you go in your race. And what I mean by that is that you don't eat anything really hard to digest and break down, and solid, and chew when you were running. Just keep it super easy to digest for your gut. That's probably the biggest thing. But I'd also want to know what you're doing on the bike, because your bike sets up your run. I also want to know your medical history. Do you have any GI stuff? And I have so many other questions to help you properly with that, but that's two things you could try. Sorry.

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