What happens when you aren't truly eating enough to fuel your ambitions and feel your best? Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport, or RED-s, is a serious condition that can impact any active person regardless of their training intensity. Not only could RED-s impact your performance in the gym, but it can also play a huge role in your physical and mental health and well-being outside of the gym. This is why I have brought the founder of Project RED-s, Pippa Woolven, to the show.

Key Takeaways

If You Want to Know More About RED-s, You Should:

1. Educate yourself on the symptoms and signs of RED-s and how to avoid it

2. Remember that RED-s can happen to anyone, no matter your level of training intensity

3. Work with an expert who will not just dismiss your symptoms but will help you heal

Overcoming Struggle with Pippa Woolven

Pippa is an English Schools (x2) and British Universities Champion (x4), a former GB athlete, and now a Positive Psychology Coach (MSc) and Athlete Mentor. Over a decade of competing in international athletics while studying in the UK and USA, Pippa experienced her fair share of highs and lows, including RED-S. Several years after overcoming the condition herself, Pippa established Project RED-S to provide the resources she needed at the start of her struggle.

Fueling for Performance

Underfueling, disordered eating, and over-fueling can have huge impacts on the body and can impact anybody. While education has been lacking in the past, we are finally starting to hear this important conversation being had more and more. Pippa believes working to find a balance for your unique body composition and goals will help any active person avoid RED-s and overcome this common issue. 

The answer isn't just in the training. You have to think about the amount that you are eating in order to fuel properly. Your training, but also your health and well-being outside of the gym, will be better for it.

Awareness, Prevention, and Support

Project RED-s, and Pippa’s, mission is simple. To make sure that everyone who is active knows about the term RED-s, its signs and symptoms, and how to avoid it. She wants to embed the education of RED-s into coaching practices worldwide and into the mass consumption audiences on social media so that everyone can avoid low energy availability. She works to connect people with trusted experts who not only know what they are talking about but are passionate about helping people hear without dismissing their symptoms.

Have you struggled with RED-s? Share your experiences with us in the comments on the episode page.

In This Episode

• Learn about Pippa’s personal story and what inspired her to create the RED-s project (5:22 )
• Understanding how the media has influenced the education of food, nutrition, and weight stigma (17:04 )
• How RED-s is affecting the ‘recreational sport’ crowd and why it is not only a problem for ’elite athletes’ (24:25 )
• ‘Athletic Aesthetic’ and the role it plays in low energy availability and RED-s (30:56 )
• Where to go if you are looking for fear of getting help with body image (39:40 )

Quotes

“Over-training and under-fueling is just the perfect storm for a condition like relative energy deficiency in sport, RED-s.” (10:09 )

“Topics like sports nutrition and sports psychology [used to be] almost reserved for the elite sports people, and now we see recreational sports people taking those kinds of things really, really seriously. For better or for worse.” (18:09 )

“Eat the right amounts of the right foods, lift some weights, and try to think more holistically about your health and wellbeing.” (21:42 )

“You do not have to be competing; you don't have to even be doing anything structured; you just have to be moving your body, expending energy, to therefore need to replenish that energy with your nutrition.” (26:24 )

“You might have the diagnosis and know exactly what's wrong and what you need to do, but that is a very different ballgame to actually doing it.” (41:22 )

“This has a huge impact on any active person's life. And we need to just stop thinking so much about performance, especially short-term performance. Because it really is impactful on not just your physical health but your mental health too, and it takes a long time to get over something like this, which is why prevention is so key.” (46:37 )

Featured on the Show

Apply for Strength Nutrition Unlocked Here

Project RED-s Website

Follow Project RED-s on Instagram

Full show notes

Follow Steph on Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube | Pinterest

I'd really love it if you would take 1 min and leave us a rating and review on iTunes!

Podcast production & marketing support by the team at Counterweight Creative

Rate and review on Apple Podcasts

Related Episodes

FYS 392: Understanding Total Daily Energy Expenditure 

FYS 391: What is Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-s)?

FYS 350: Are You Eating Enough? Low Energy Availability in Sport