Female Athlete Nutrition Cheat Sheet

Training and Racing Nutrition

Daily nutritional recommendations in training

Male and female athletes should be eating a baseline calorie intake of 45-60 calories per kilogram of fat-free mass per day (1). For personalised meal plans, reach out to Ash here.

Fuelling before training and racing

30min - 1 hour before cardiovascular-type training females should have around 30g of carbohydrates with 15g of protein. This should be around 200 calories.

Example: (220 Cal 16g Pro. 5g Fat. 29g carbohydrates)

+ 1/2 cup oats

+ 1/2 scoop of Switch Nutrition - WPI Switch

Fuelling during training and racing

30g of carbohydrates per hour for events lasting 1-2 hours
60-120g of carbohydrates per hour for events over 2 hours
Replace 125-150% of this fluid that you’ve lost during the session over the 4-6 hours after you stop exercising (2).
Read more about hydration here.

Female friendly gels

Huma Gel
Veloforte energy gels
Naak - Ultra Energy Puree
Muir energy - energy gel
Rawvelo energy gels
UnTapped - Energy Gel

Female friends chews and bars

Skratch Labs - Sport Energy Chews
Bonk Breaker - Energy Chews
Probar - Bolt Energy Chews
Em's Power Cookies - Protein Cookie
Hammer Nutrition - Energy Bars

Female friendly hydration

Hyro - Electrolyte Hydration Mix - Mixed Bag
Koda Nutrition - Electrolyte Powder Mixed Pack
Tailwind Nutrition - Rapid Hydration Bag
Skratch Labs - Sport Hydration Drink Mix Bag
Pure Hydration - Electrolyte Hydration

Race and Pre Race Nutrition

Have a main meal 2-3 hours before the race starts. This could look like; A bagel with cottage cheese and maple syrup, oats and yoghurt, banana and peanut butter or Radix Nutrition - Low FODMAP Breakfast - Banana.

20 minutes before the race starts, take on your pre-race carbohydrates. This is usually a gel, chews or a bar. It takes 20 minutes for a food to be absorbed into the bloodstream and therefore if timed right you should get a boost in blood glucose levels right at the start time.

Two consecutive studies have shown that men may be able to increase their muscle glycogen concentration by 23-41% while women may not be able to increase their storage at all, best case a potential increase of 17% (3,4). This means that women should not go crazy on carbohydrate loading leading into a race.

Recovery and Tips

For females we want to have around 60-100g of carbohydrates, 15-20g of fat and 30-40g of protein as close to finishing training or racing. This will help replace glycogen and fat stores in your muscles, increase protein synthesis, reduce cortisol levels and regulate hormone synthesis which prevents long term catabolic state and menstrual disturbances (5,6,7).

Our meal needs to be high in the amino acid leucine and ideally within 30 minutes post exercise.

Example: (590 Cal. 42g Pro. 16g Fat. 69g carbohydrates)

+ 1 cup of oats with water or milk

+ 1 sachet Radix Nutrition - Whey Protein DIAAS Complex™ 1.61

+ 1.5 Tbsp of 100% nut butter

+ 1/2 cup of berries

Read more about post exercise nutrition here.

Ash Miller
Dietitian and Nutritionist (Masters)
Bachelor of Physical and Health Education
Instagram: @ashthomo_nutrition

^References^:

^{Morehen JC, Rosimus C, Cavanagh BP, Hambly C, Speakman JR, Elliott-Sale KJ, Hannon MP, Morton JP. Energy Expenditure of Female International Standard Soccer Players: A Doubly Labeled Water Investigation. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2022 May 1;54(5):769-779. doi: 10.1249/MSS.0000000000002850. Epub 2021 Dec 30. PMID: 34974499.} ^{Maughan RJ, Shirreffs SM. Recovery from prolonged exercise: restoration of water and electrolyte balance. J Sports Sci. 1997 Jun;15(3):297-303. doi: 10.1080/026404197367308. PMID: 9232555.} ^{Tarnopolsky MA, Zawada C, Richmond LB, Carter S, Shearer J, Graham T, Phillips SM. Gender differences in carbohydrate loading are related to energy intake. J Appl Physiol (1985). 2001 Jul;91(1):225-30. doi: 10.1152/jappl.2001.91.1.225. PMID: 11408434.} ^{Tarnopolsky MA, Atkinson SA, Phillips SM, MacDougall JD. Carbohydrate loading and metabolism during exercise in men and women. J Appl Physiol (1985). 1995 Apr;78(4):1360-8. doi: 10.1152/jappl.1995.78.4.1360. PMID: 7615443. 10.1249/MSS.0000000000002850. Epub 2021 Dec 30. PMID: 34974499.} ^{Michaela C. Devries, Mazen J. Hamadeh, Stuart M. Phillips, and Mark A. Tarnopolsky. Menstrual cycle phase and sex influence muscle glycogen utilization and glucose turnover during moderate- intensity endurance exercise. 291, R1120-1128 (2006).} ^{Roy, B. et al. “The influence of post-exercise macronutrient intake on energy balance and protein metabolism in active females participating in endurance training.” International journal of sport nutrition and exercise metabolism 12 2 (2002): 172-88 .} ^{Jäger, R., Kerksick, C.M., Campbell, B.I. et al. International Society of Sports Nutrition Position Stand: protein and exercise. J Int Soc Sports Nutr 14, 20 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12970-017-0177-8}

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