Recommendations and Nutritional Considerations for Female Athletes: Health and Performance

Abstract

Optimal nutrition is an important aspect of an athlete’s preparation to achieve optimal health and performance. While general concepts about micro- and macronutrients and timing of food and fluids are addressed in sports science, rarely are the specific effects of women’s physiology on energy and fluid needs highly considered in research or clinical practice. Women differ from men not only in size, but in body composition and hormonal milieu, and also differ from one another. Their monthly hormonal cycles, with fluctuations in estrogen and progesterone, have varying effects on metabolism and fluid retention. Such cycles can change from month to month, can be suppressed with exogenous hormones, and may even be manipulated to capitalize on ideal timing for performance. But before such physiology can be manipulated, its relationship with nutrition and performance must be understood. This review will address general concepts regarding substrate metabolism in women versus men, common menstrual patterns of female athletes, nutrient and hydration needs during different phases of the menstrual cycle, and health and performance issues related to menstrual cycle disruption. We will discuss up-to-date recommendations for fueling female athletes, describe areas that require further exploration, and address methodological considerations to inform future work in this important area.

Nutritional Intake and Training Load of Professional Female Football Players during a Mid-Season Microcycle

“…Data from the present study suggest that the football players comply with macronutrient recommendations [ 21 ] except for CHO, which was slightly below the recommendations and was also lower on all days in the microcycle in comparison with MD, suggesting that CHO intake to meet physical demands of the training and recovery days has not been properly structured for this team. Considering that the physiological demands of football rely on both aerobic and anaerobic systems of energy production [ 16 , 17 ], proper CHO intake before competition to increase glycogen stores to meet the energy costs of training sessions and during competition should be part of a nutritional structuration, particularly for female football players [ 8 , 15 , 20 ]. Although there are current recommendations for adequate amounts of CHO consumption for female football players [ 20 ], several studies reported findings similar to ours [ 40 , 42 , 43 ].…”

“…Over the years, most of this information has been reported for male football players [ 2 , 4 , 5 , 6 ], and little is known of female football players. The physiological (e.g., hormonal milieu) and morphological (e.g., body composition) gender differences become more evident when responding to various training/competition requirements [ 7 , 8 ]. For example, in match play, females covered less distance but at higher intensity levels (maximum speed greater than 15 km.h −1 ) than male players [ 9 ], even though most of the match time was spent on low-intensity activities, such as standing, walking and jogging [ 10 , 11 ].…”

“…Nutritional approaches to ensuring adequate glycogen stores to meet the energy costs of training and/or competition are highly endorsed for improving performance, delaying the onset of fatigue, reducing injury risk and supporting physiological adaptation and recovery [ 15 , 18 , 19 ]. In fact, adequate carbohydrate (CHO) consumption has been recommended [ 15 ] (i.e., 5–7 g.kg.BW −1 for low- to moderate-intensity training sessions and 7–12 g.kg.BW −1 for high-intensity training sessions) for programming the training and recovery days during in-season weeks considering both individual needs and gender [ 8 , 15 , 20 , 21 ]. The currently available information focuses largely on male football players [ 18 , 19 ], but a recent systematic review included 20 studies with 462 female field-based team sports athletes and reported that energy and CHO intake per day were insufficient compared with recommendations [ 22 ].…”

Olympic Cycle Comparison of the Nutritional and Cardiovascular Health Status of an Elite-Level Female Swimmer: Case Study Report from Slovenia

“…Optimal nutrition is an essential aspect of an athlete’s training process to improve sports performance and to achieve and maintain optimal health [ 12 ]. Furthermore, nutrition is a key determinant of the effectiveness of recovery and adaptive responses to a training process; moreover, it has an important, if not crucial, role in health status [ 13 ].…”

“…Although optimal nutrition is the key prerequisite for sports performance, the nutrition knowledge of athletes and its impact on their dietary intake, as shown in several review and cross-sectional studies, may be lacking [ 7 , 14 , 15 ]. Furthermore, in a review article, researchers recognized that micronutrient deficiencies are common in female athletes, particularly for vitamin D, calcium, and iron [ 12 ]. However, dietary requirements for swimmers are dependent on swimming style (i.e., freestyle, breaststroke, backstroke, or butterfly), competitive distances (i.e., 50–800 m), training requirements, and competition phase/periodization methods [ 5 , 16 , 17 ].…”