Optimum Energy AvailabilityYesterday I explored Low Energy Availability, LEA, a condition that impacts about 47% of female athletes in their 20s & 30s. It is an emerging concern amongst peri- and post-menopausal women (active women over 40) as there is increasing trend amongst our active aging population to not eat enough. Low energy availability can be particularly insidious among perimenopausal women because the signs, which include menstrual cycle disruption, brain fog, muscle loss, decreased bone density, increased risk of injuries, and/or not responding to training as you used to can be confused with some of the issues that can arise during the menopause transition. Men are not exempt! As I explored yesterday, active men can slip into LEA when their optimal energy falls below 25 kcal/kg of lean mass. For us active women, our threshold is higher at 30 kcal/kg of lean mass. Yesterday I shared how to calculate your ideal calories to prevent LEA. Today we'll explore how to tell if your current nutrition program can support your training load and prevent LEA. Remember we need to know our lean mass (also called fat free mass or FFM) in kilograms (kg.) Today we'll also use our wearable tech such as Whoop, Garmin, FitBit, Oura or Apple watch to determine our active calories. Here's a visual of where we're headed. To determine if your current nutrition program supports your training program you first need to track your food. You can use the Macros tracker in BTWB or other apps like My Fitness Pal, Carbon and others. Once you have tracked your food for about 7 days you'll have enough data to get a solid average of the calories you eat. Second, we need to calculate how many calories we burn during our training session. Your wearable tech will give you a pretty good estimate. None of our fitness trackers are 100% accurate, and that's ok. We're looking for trends. Go back through a typical week and add up all the calories you burn during exercise and divide by 7. Now we're going to use the calories you eat, the calories you burn and your fat free mass to see if you're in LEA. Remember, one day of LEA is fine, but CHRONIC LEA is what we want to avoid. Our bodies are resilient and can bounce back. But, I'd rather not see you go there in the first place. Here is our equation. Let's do the math! As an example I'll use my data from January when I thought I needed to be on dietary cut but was feeling SO DAMN TIRED and I just didn't want to train. (This is a HUGE red flag! Fatigue and lack of motivation to exercise are classic LEA symptoms). My daily caloric intake averaged 1745 kcals. My average daily exercise energy expenditure (using my Whoop and getting an average for the same week) was 300 kcals on training days. My fat free mass is 61 kg. Using our Optimal Energy Availability equation my daily average was 23.6. No wonder I was SO DAMN TIRED! Doing the math can be very helpful. However, I also want you to be very aware of how you FEEL. Your feelings are always true and can be signals that something is not quite right. My feelings of fatigue and lack of training motivation were the impetus for me to enroll in the Active Menopause continuing education course I just completed. Sometimes even the Coach needs a Coach:) We are athletes, we need to eat to support our training, and I'm here to help you. Diet culture is a million dollar business and not all recommendations are applicable to our active aging population. As I learned in my CE course: Women have been indoctrinated with the 1,200-calorie-a-day diet. It’s just part of the ocean of diet culture we all swim in. Countless articles, books, and diet platforms, including Noom, Weight Watchers, and even the NIH promote 1,200 to 1,500-calorie diets for women. That sets the stage for chronic LEA for active women. If you would like help determining your Macros, optimal energy, and anything else related to eating to support your training, please book a check-in with me.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Special EventsRecord your WOD on Beyond the Whiteboard.
Do you need CrossFit or yoga gear? Click on the links below to buy through our GORUCK, Reebok, Rogue or Affiliate share sale programs. These are affiliate links and our gym will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on these links.
Check out our Flickr page!
Categories
All
Archives
April 2024
|