Join Brooke & Melissa as they chat about Melissa's work as a researcher in the female endurance athlete space. Melissa discusses challenges in getting high quality research into the hands of athletes, current gaps in female athlete research and what research projects she's currently working on. 

Melissa Lodge, MS is a health sciences doctoral student, REDs researcher, elite runner, and a research collaborator at the Wu Tsai Female Athlete Program of Boston Children's Hospital. Her research focuses on female athlete physiology, particularly under conditions of low energy availability (LEA), such as Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (REDs), and its associated impact on health and performance across the lifespan. She has presented her work at several regional, national, and international conferences featuring work in female athletes on low energy availability outcomes. Melissa is interested in exploring intervention-based models, such as psychoeducation, to improve outcomes for female athletes and girls in sports in the future. Melissa runs an educational platform @FED_collaborative where she provides translational research on female athlete physiology, LEA/REDs, and eating disorders/disordered eating.

Brooke Czarnecki is the owner of Intentful Nutrition, LLC. Brooke’s mission at Intentful Nutrition is for all individuals to tune out diet culture, understand their unique definition of health and for all individuals to treat their body with dignity and respect. We help runners and athletes understand exactly how to fuel their body and help individuals in eating disorder recovery reconnect with their mind and body. Interested in a 1:1 consult with me? I offer a free first 15 minute consult and you can find more info at https://intentfulnutrition.com/