Low Energy Availability (LEA) In Sports

Video Transcript:

Let’s talk about a study with some pretty cool findings on female endurance athletes.

Imagine you're training hard, but you're not eating enough to fuel your body. That’s what we call Low Energy Availability, or LEA for short. In a recent study, female endurance athletes tried two different diets: one where they ate just enough to barely cover their energy needs (that’s LEA), and another where they ate enough to fully support their training and daily activities.

The results were pretty eye-opening. When the athletes didn’t eat enough—during that LEA phase—their stress hormone, cortisol, went up by 22%, and their power output dropped by almost 8%! Even after they started eating normally again, their power was still lower than before.

Plus, the study found that LEA made their bodies produce more of something called reactive oxygen species, which can cause muscle damage if there’s too much. Basically, not eating enough made it harder for them to perform and recover.

So, the takeaway? If you're pushing your body hard, make sure you're giving it the fuel it needs! If you’re an endurance athlete that means eating 50-60% of your total calories from carbs, and 20-25% from protein and fat each.