RED-S
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Is It IBS or REDs? Why Underfueling Can Look Like a Gut Disorder in Athletes
Many endurance athletes are told they have Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), or they tell themselves that’s what it must be. They try cutting foods, adjusting fiber intake, timing meals, and avoiding anything that might upset their stomach before training. And yet… the...
High Cholesterol in Athletes: When “Heart-Healthy” Advice Misses the Full Picture
High cholesterol in athletes can feel confusing and even alarming, especially when you train consistently, prioritize performance, and consider your diet “heart-healthy.” Many endurance athletes are surprised to see elevated LDL or total cholesterol on routine labs,...
HRV for Athletes: When Heart Rate Variability and Recovery Scores Mislead
Wearable technology has changed sport culture, especially in the last 10 years. Athletes now track resting heart rate, sleep, recovery scores, and heart rate variability with the same intensity they track pace, mileage, and power. Many coaches use HRV trends to guide...
Is a Low Resting Heart Rate for Athletes a Sign of Fitness or REDs? | Rethinking the “Athlete’s Heart”
In endurance sport, a low resting heart rate for athletes is often worn as a badge of honor. Athletes compare numbers, coaches praise it, and wearables reward it. A lower athlete’s heart rate is assumed to signal superior fitness, efficiency, and years of successful...
When “Fit” Isn’t the Same as Healthy: The Hidden Cost of Chronic UnderFueling in Athletes
In sport culture, “fitness” is often treated as synonymous with health. Faster splits, lower resting heart rates, leaner bodies, and higher training volumes are seen as proof that the body is adapting well. But for many, these outward markers of underfueling in...
Performance Nutrition: Why Fueling Comes Before Training
When it comes to performance nutrition, many athletes are taught to think backward, believing they must “earn” their food through intense training. But this outdated mindset isn’t just unhelpful, it’s harmful. In this post, we’re flipping the script and breaking down...
Why Interdisciplinary Care For Athletes Requires REDS-Informed Providers
Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (REDS) is not a single-discipline issue. It is a complex, multisystem condition that impacts an athlete’s physical health, mental well-being, and performance longevity. Because of this, effective REDS care requires interdisciplinary...
Disordered Eating vs Eating Disorder: What’s the Difference?
Understanding the distinction between disordered eating vs eating disorder is essential for athletes, parents, coaches, and providers. While the terms are often used interchangeably, they describe different levels of severity, and both deserve attention, compassion,...
How REDS-Informed Providers Create Change Through Community
If there’s one thing that continues to elevate REDS awareness, it’s this: REDS-informed providers never work alone. The movement to improve REDS education, athlete care, and collaborative decision-making has always been fueled by community — conversations between...
The Table We Sit At: Building a REDS-Informed Athlete Care Team
When it comes to helping athletes perform their best, we often picture their individual effort and characteristics… grit, discipline, and drive. But when it comes to REDS (Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport), performance and recovery aren’t individual acts, they’re...
Why All Athlete Providers Need to Understand Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport
Anyone and everyone who works with athletes (physical therapists, coaches, athletic trainers, mental health specialists, parents, etc.) also works with Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (REDS), whether you realize it or not. Because of this, it is crucial that all...
Managing Stress in Athletes with an Athlete Readiness Checklist
Athletes know that training hard is only part of the performance equation. True success depends on managing both physical and mental stress and ensuring the body is ready to adapt and recover. Stress in athletes doesn’t just come from workouts. Life, work demands,...
High Cholesterol in Athletes: When Underfueling is the Real Problem
When most people think of high cholesterol, they picture someone who eats too much fast food and doesn’t exercise enough. But what if you’re an athlete, training hard, eating “clean” (maybe even restricting), and your labs still come back showing high cholesterol? The...
REDS Signs and Symptoms: How Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport Impacts the Entire Body
Awareness of REDS (Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport) has grown in recent years, but the conversation is still too often limited to the correlation between underfueling and irregular or absent menstrual cycles in female athletes. While missing a period can be an...
REDs in Athletes vs Eating Disorders in Athletes: Why the Difference Matters
When it comes to differentiating between REDS in athletes and eating disorders in athletes, I often hear this: “Do I really need to screen a REDS athlete for an eating disorder if the symptoms are the same?” The short answer: Yes. Absolutely. I stand firmly in my...
Malnutrition in Athletes: Why REDs Is a Spectrum You Shouldn’t Ignore
Although the diagnosis of Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (REDs) is relatively new (it was first coined by the International Olympic Committee in 2014), we are not new to understanding how to treat the symptoms that make up REDs. In fact, the medical field has...
The Menstrual Cycle and Athletic Performance: Insights from Pro Athletes
For far too long, conversations around the menstrual cycle and athletic performance have focused only on the challenges, such as fatigue, cramps, and inconvenience. But there’s another side to the story. The menstrual cycle can actually be a powerful indicator of...
Is Your Training Wrecking Your Gut? Understanding the Link Between IBS Symptoms and RED-S
Are your digestive issues flaring up with your training? Many athletes experience bloating, gas, cramping, or irregular bowel movements as their workout intensity increases, but few recognize what's really driving these symptoms. In this blog post, we’ll explore the...
You CAN Have RED-S Without Weight Loss: Key RED-S Symptoms Every Athlete Should Know
When it comes to RED-S symptoms in athletes, I often hear these two statements... “I’m still eating, so I can’t have RED-S.”“I haven’t lost weight, so I can’t have RED-S or be underfueling.” Many athletes think these are "unexplained" symptoms and are skeptical to...
4 Simple Ways to Meet Nutritional Needs For Athletes
When it comes to meeting nutritional needs for athletes, there’s a lot of information, trends, and products out there (which makes it extremely confusing). If you’ve scrolled through social media recently, you’ve probably seen headlines like: “Greens powder will...
How to Use Growth Charts to Estimate Ideal Body Weight for Athletes Recovering from REDs
Recovering from REDs (Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport) can bring up a lot of questions, especially around growth charts, ideal body weight, and weight restoration. While weight isn’t the only marker of recovery, it can play a key role in regaining lost function,...
5 Key Fueling Factors to Prevent Underfueling Symptoms and RED-S in Athletes
Gut health has been a hot topic in recent media - and for good reason! While diet culture often distorts the conversation, understanding how proper fueling supports gut health can be a game-changer, especially for athletes and active individuals. In my work with...
Your Energy Availability Bank Statement for Athletic Success
Many athletes unknowingly run on empty, putting themselves in an energy deficit. But the real secret to success as an athlete is saving up on this one thing… available energy! In this blog post, you’ll learn how to avoid RED-S by treating energy like a bank account...
From reds Awareness to REDsolution: Reflecting on 5 Years Since Finding Your Sweet Spot
It has been five years since I wrote my first book, Finding Your Sweet Spot: How to Avoid RED-S, to shed light on a complex condition in an understandable way. In 2014, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) expanded the female athlete triad to Relative Energy...
What Happened to you?
In July we hosted our Eating Disorder in Sport workshop, where we explored the intersection of trauma and athletes with eating disorders. Among our guest speakers Mary Cain whose bravery changed sport as she speaks to the first hand abuse and trauma she endured by her...
You don’t know what you don’t know
I am going to share a tale of two athletes that ended up on completely different spectrums of their hydration needs and approaches. Both of these female athletes were similar in age and both were endurance athletes. One lived in Florida and the other in the midwest,...
Is Resiliency the key to performance?
Sometimes you’ve just got to play hooky.. One workday, I was mentally spent, and I texted a friend “Hey, want to skip work for a bit and go get lunch?” Between the two of us, we had checked about all the “life stressors” boxes possible in a year or two. As she asked...
Race Weight: Are you playing the long game?
Our culture in sport has led to this elusive place called “race weight.” It is assumed that at “race weight,” an athlete will be of optimal fitness and health and perform their best. A change in body composition can occur due to being at the highest level/intensity of...
Why can’t you just eat? Why can’t you just stop eating? Do I have an eating disorder?
Eating Disorders: Let’s strive for fewer labels, better understanding https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXGotUfYt8Y National Eating Disorders Awareness Week is Feb. 22-28, 2021. According to the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA), the goal of National Eating...
Tried and True:The Dairy Dilemma
The Dairy Dilemma The worlds of sports and sports science are changing at a pace faster than Usain Bolt can run the 100-meter race. As a registered dietitian and board-certified sports specialist, my approach with my athletes is one of evidence base with a touch of...