STRONGER. FASTER. FUELED. ISSUE #007 – THEY KNEW FUELING MATTERED. SO WHY WEREN’T THEY EATING ENOUGH?

A recent conversation sent me searching for a story about New Zealand’s elite female rowing team.

When the team first assessed its female athletes for low energy availability and RED-S risk, only one athlete landed in the green category. Only one was considered low risk.

These were not athletes who lacked discipline, motivation, or access to high-level support. They were some of the best rowers in New Zealand, training inside an elite performance system and preparing to compete on the largest stages in their sport. Still, almost the entire group showed some level of risk.

Low Energy Availability, or LEA, occurs when the body does not have enough energy available after exercise to adequately support its other physiological functions. When this becomes prolonged or severe, it can contribute to Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport, or RED-S. RED-S can affect menstrual function, bone health, immunity, recovery, mood, cardiovascular health, and athletic performance.

Athletes have always been told that nutrition is important.

You grow up hearing, “Eat your vegetables.” Then it becomes, “Get enough protein. Drink water. Have something after practice.” We know these things. Sports nutrition is not an entirely new concept.

But there is a major difference between knowing that food is generally important and understanding that insufficient fuel may be the exact reason you feel exhausted halfway through practice, struggle to recover, stop progressing in the weight room, or plateau despite working harder than ever.

Before 2018, low energy availability had come up occasionally within New Zealand rowing. Former athletes who went on to study nutrition had raised the topic. The information existed, but it had not yet become a regular conversation among the athletes, coaches, and support staff.

Learning that RED-S exists is general awareness. Recognizing its patterns in your own life is self-awareness. Understanding why change matters creates motivation. Acting on that knowledge creates experience. Once you feel the difference yourself, the information becomes something you truly believe.

That gap between information and action was also why I held the first Stronger. Faster. Fueled. event in March.

Research on RED-S and low energy availability already existed, although the information was not widespread. But information cannot protect an athlete if she never hears it, does not recognize herself in it, or does not understand how it connects to the goals she cares about.

After the event, participants showed greater understanding of RED-S, LEA, and the relationship between nutrition and performance. The percentage who were unsure about RED-S and LEA symptoms also fell from roughly 31% to 5%.

Those results mattered to me because they showed that athletes and the people around them are capable of changing their understanding. The problem is not always that people do not care. Sometimes, no one has created the right conversation yet.

That is what I am working to continue through S.F.F.

One of the most important parts of the New Zealand rowing story was not simply that the team gave its athletes more nutrition information.

They changed how they communicated it.

The program had previously focused on the consequences of failing to eat enough. The message was essentially that if athletes did not fuel properly, certain negative outcomes could follow.

The new approach focused on what athletes could gain.

One member of the nutrition team explained that their communication shifted from, “If you don’t fuel enough, this is the result,” to, “If you fuel according to the work you’re doing, this is the result you’ll get.”

The science had not changed. The framing had.

This was not about earning food through exercise or eating less on easier days. It was about helping athletes understand that nutrition supports the training, recovery, and adaptation they expect from their bodies.

The approach was described as highly effective for behavior change, and it makes sense. Warnings about future health can feel distant to an athlete focused on an immediate goal.

Telling an athlete that underfueling may eventually reduce her bone density might not feel urgent when she wants to make the team now. Telling her that losing her period is dangerous may not overcome the praise she receives for being disciplined, staying lean, or training through exhaustion.

It may not even feel like a serious problem yet. She might still be practicing, competing, and running personal bests before the effects of underfueling fully catch up with her. The fatigue, stalled adaptation, hormonal disruption, and injuries may come later.

Warnings about long-term health have to compete with immediate goals. And that’s a tough argument with athletes who want to run faster, make the team, earn a starting position, and prove that they are working hard enough.

This does not mean we should stop talking about the health consequences of RED-S. Losing a menstrual cycle is not normal. Recurrent bone injuries should not be dismissed as bad luck. Chronic fatigue should not be treated as proof that an athlete is committed.

But fear cannot be our only strategy.

Athletes also deserve to understand what sufficient fueling can make possible. It can support energy throughout practice, recovery between sessions, progress in the weight room, concentration, power, and the body’s response to training.

Health information tells athletes what underfueling can take away. But performance information helps them imagine what fueling could allow them to become.

Sometimes, that is the message that finally creates action.

The New Zealand rowing program also began moving away from the idea of an ideal race weight, even within a sport that has weight classifications.

One member of the performance staff explained that ideal race weights had once been used as a shortcut for judging whether an athlete seemed healthy and prepared to perform. That approach contributed to the belief that leaner was always better.

But weight alone could not show whether an athlete was recovering well, maintaining normal physiological function, progressing in training, or arriving at practice with enough energy to perform.

The original belief sounds logical, especially in sports where athletes move their own body mass. Less weight should require less energy to move, so becoming lighter should make you faster.

I understand that logic because I believed it too.

Rowing may make the relationship between weight and performance especially visible, but the same belief exists throughout running.

As a young runner, I assumed being lighter would help me move more quickly. I saw lean runners around me competing at a high level, and their bodies appeared to confirm what I already thought.

Eventually, being lean stopped being one possible characteristic of an athlete and became the goal.

But body weight alone cannot tell us whether an athlete is recovering, menstruating regularly, maintaining energy through practice, progressing in the gym, or responding well to training. At some point, athletes began chasing the number instead of the performance that number was supposed to predict. However, a lighter athlete is not automatically a faster athlete. Sometimes, she is simply a less-fueled version of the athlete she could have been.

We need to reach her with a different message. The highest-performing version of her may not be the lightest one. It may be the one who eats enough to support what she is asking her body to do.

My experience with underfueling did not only show up through RED-S and the loss of my menstrual cycle. It also showed up during practice, where I felt fatigued and my performance plateaued. I could keep forcing myself through training, but the effort I was putting in was no longer producing the progress I expected.

I have a vivid memory of one lift when I could barely bench press the weight I normally used. My arms were shaking, I felt dizzy, and even a movement that had once felt manageable suddenly felt impossible.

Low energy availability does not always look like an athlete collapsing or becoming unable to participate. That is part of what makes it difficult to spot.

Sometimes, it looks like a committed athlete completing every session while quietly losing the ability to benefit from those sessions. We can easily write off low energy as a normal part of athletic life when it may indicate something more serious.

When progress stalls, an athlete may assume the answer is more work. I understand that instinct. She trains harder, adds conditioning, removes another food, or tries to become even more disciplined.

But if insufficient fuel is part of the problem, adding more work only increases the gap.

Learning about RED-S helped me understand what underfueling could take away from my health. Learning about the connection between nutrition and performance helped me understand what adequate fueling could give back.

That was when the information became personal and it is also what can make an athlete believe it is finally time for a change.

Within the New Zealand program, one of the largest challenges was changing the athletes’ existing perceptions. They had to stop seeing additional fuel as something that could threaten performance and begin seeing it as something that could support performance.

The shift became easier when coaches reinforced the message, particularly during demanding periods of training. Athletes were no longer receiving nutrition advice from one person while hearing pressure to remain light from another. The environment began communicating consistently.

Once the rowers understood the reasoning and experienced the results, they became more engaged. One rower said she and her training partner experienced a huge shift in performance after eating more and becoming more aware of the energy they were putting into their bodies. Another said she was going “faster than I’ve ever gone because I’m eating properly.” Fueling was not the only part of their performance program, but it became a part they could no longer afford to overlook.

The change was no longer something they were making because a nutritionist had given them a rule. They felt the difference themselves, and that experience created belief.

As I began fueling more effectively, the way I viewed my body also started to change.

I began rooting my identity in becoming as strong as possible. I became excited about making gains in the weight room. I wanted to feel powerful. I wanted my body to produce force, recover, and sprint.

My body became less of an object evaluated against a standard of femininity, or even against what a runner was expected to look like, and more of a tool. It could lift, accelerate, generate power, and carry me toward the athlete I wanted to become. The mirror began losing some of its authority when the track, the weight room, and the way I felt started giving me better measurements.

The rowers described a similar shift. 

One athlete explained that strength has often been treated as masculine in sport, but the team began seeing the pursuit of strength as something positive for women. She became proud of the progress she could see in the gym.

Another described feeling more confident in her body because it was doing what she wanted it to do.

That is the kind of confidence I want more female athletes to experience.

It is not confidence that depends on believing every part of your appearance is perfect. It is confidence rooted in capability. It develops when you experience your body becoming more powerful, resilient, and able to perform the work you ask of it.

That shift was important in my story, but it was not the end of the cycle.

After the rowers became aware of low energy availability, the message became relevant to their performance. That understanding changed their behavior. Their experiences reinforced the information, and the results changed how they viewed fueling and their bodies.

Eventually, they wanted the next generation to receive the information sooner.

One member of the support staff emphasized that young coaches need to understand that a 15-year-old girl losing her period is not okay, and that the athlete should be encouraged to tell an adult she trusts.

That is the point when education becomes more than self-improvement. It becomes a responsibility. I recognize that progression because I have lived it.

I began with the perception that lighter meant faster. Then I experienced the health and performance consequences of underfueling. I learned that nutrition could help me move beyond fatigue and performance plateaus, rather than simply preventing a future health problem.

I acted on that knowledge and felt the difference in my body. I began viewing strength differently. Eventually, the information stopped belonging only to me.

It became something I felt responsible for sharing.

That is why Stronger. Faster. Fueled. exists.

The New Zealand rowing program already had experts, scientific information, and elite athletes. Meaningful change accelerated when the information became openly discussed, connected to performance, communicated positively, and supported by the surrounding environment.

The rowers did not change simply because someone finally told them that food was important. They changed because the information became relevant to their goals. Coaches supported the message. The athletes acted on it and experienced the results for themselves. Their experience is a powerful example of why the way we communicate fueling information matters.

The same cycle happened in my own life. I first learned what underfueling could take away. Then I learned what sufficient fueling could help me gain. I acted on that knowledge, felt the difference, and eventually wanted to pass it forward.

That is the cycle S.F.F. exists to accelerate.

Awareness creates understanding. Understanding creates action. Action creates experience. Experience creates belief. Belief creates athletes who change the environment for the girls coming after them.

We should not have to wait until another athlete loses her period, fractures a bone, or stops improving before beginning the conversation. We can give her the information earlier. We can communicate it better. We can show her not only what underfueling may cost, but what proper fueling could make possible.

Then, one day, she can become the person who starts the conversation for someone else.

This is an easy meal for after training, dinner with friends, or meal prep during a busy week. It provides carbohydrates, protein, fats, and plenty of flavor, because athlete fuel should also be food you are excited to eat.

Pasta provides carbohydrates to restore energy and replenish glycogen after training. Chicken and Greek yogurt provide protein to support muscle repair. Pesto and olive oil add fats, flavor, and additional energy.

Add bread, fruit, more pasta, or another side based on your hunger and needs. A meal does not have to be perfectly measured to support performance.

Think about one health or performance message you have heard repeatedly but never fully acted on. What prevented it from feeling relevant? Now connect it to an outcome you genuinely care about.

Instead of only telling an athlete, “You need to eat more,” ask how her energy has felt during practice and explain how fueling may support the performance and recovery she wants. Emphasize the performance benefits she can feel and observe, rather than relying only on consequences that may seem abstract.

Instead of relying only on the warning that she could lose her period, explain that menstrual changes are an important health signal and help her identify a trusted adult or qualified professional.

The goal is not to scare or shame athletes into changing. It is to help them recognize themselves in the information, understand why it matters, and feel supported enough to act.

This knowledge changed my performance. Now the goal is to make sure it reaches the next athlete sooner.

Darling, S. R. (2026). Shifting the narrative on Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport and Low Energy Availability: The effect of an informational event on understanding optimal energy balance, nutrition, and training for female athletes. Unpublished thesis.

McFadden, S. (2021, August 17). Tokyo Olympics: How our female rowers ate more and triumphed. Stuff.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/olympics/300384422/tokyo-olympics-how-our-female-rowers-ate-more-and-triumphed

Mountjoy, M., Ackerman, K. E., Bailey, D. M., Burke, L. M., Constantini, N., Hackney, A. C., Heikura, I. A., Melin, A., Pensgaard, A. M., Stellingwerff, T., Sundgot-Borgen, J. K., Torstveit, M. K., Jacobsen, A. U., Verhagen, E., Budgett, R., Engebretsen, L., & Erdener, U. (2023). 2023 International Olympic Committee’s consensus statement on Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 57(17), 1073–1097.
https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2023-106994

Scheffer, J. H., Dunshea-Mooij, C., Armstrong, S., MacManus, C., & Kilding, A. E. (2023). Prevalence of low energy availability in 25 New Zealand elite female rowers: A cross-sectional study. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, 26(12), 640–645.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsams.2023.09.016