Eat to Perform: Smarter Nutrition for Stronger, Faster Female Athletes
You train with purpose — early swims, long rides, tough runs — all while juggling work, family, and the full intensity of life. You’ve got structure. You’ve got grit. You’re showing up with intention.
But when it comes to nutrition? The path isn’t always so clear. Between conflicting advice and outdated narratives, it’s easy to feel lost in the noise — especially as a female athlete. And too often, that confusion leads to under-fueling, which quietly chips away at your health, recovery, and long-term performance.
It’s time for a different story.
Nutrition is so much more than just “getting through a session.” It’s one of your most powerful levers — for performance, resilience, and feeling good in your body, not just in sport, but in life. The right approach helps you maintain steady energy, build lean muscle, recover well, balance hormones, and keep your immune system strong.
In this blog, we’re diving into a refreshingly clear, science-backed conversation with registered dietitian and performance nutrition expert Megan Foley of Fuelin. Together, we’ll explore simple, actionable strategies tailored for female endurance athletes — so you can fuel with confidence, train with strength, and show up at your very best, season after season.
Let’s dive in:
Health First: The Foundation of Performance
You cannot out-train poor health.
Many female athletes chase performance gains without first prioritizing a solid foundation of wellness. Common issues like low iron, inadequate calories to support daily activity, or disrupted hormones can derail your ability to train consistently and perform at your best on race day.
Great performance is not possible without great health. Your best race day starts with consistent daily habits that support your well-being.
Start with basic bloodwork. Female athletes often benefit from monitoring their iron status, thyroid function, vitamin D, and blood lipids. Hidden deficiencies in these can quietly sabotage training energy, sleep quality, and recovery and even increase injury risk, but they can be easily corrected once identified.
Adopt a pragmatic mindset. Fad diets that eliminate entire food groups or dramatically alter caloric intake often undermine both general health and athletic performance. Instead of taking an axe to a whole section of the food pyramid, fuel through a pragmatic lens: eat a wide range of generally nutritious foods, and don’t obsess over any single ingredient or trend.
Then build consistency. Just like you can’t skip weeks of workouts and expect to crush it on race day, you can’t dabble in “good nutrition” and expect to perform at (or feel) your best. The power of great nutrition comes from consistency, just like the effects of your training. This means practicing non-negotiable habits:
Eating before and after every session
Regularly rehearsing race-day fueling strategies during training
Fueling well even on taper, recovery, and rest days
Preparing meals and snacks in advance to avoid under-fueling on busy days
Match Your Fuel to Your Training: Carbs Are Not The Enemy
Let’s bust a myth once and for all.
Carbs won’t make you slow. They won’t make you heavy. And they’re not the reason you feel bloated after a tough session.
In fact, for female endurance athletes, carbohydrates are essential. They’re your body’s preferred fuel for moderate to high-intensity training — the kind of sessions you’re showing up for, day after day. When your training ramps up, your carb intake needs to rise with it. Otherwise, you’re driving a high-performance engine on fumes.
One of the most common mistakes we see among women balancing performance goals with body composition is underfueling carbohydrates. The result? Training feels harder than it should, recovery lags, progress stalls, and you feel… flat. Not strong. Not fast. Just off.
The truth is that many women need more carbs than they realize to train and race at their best.
So what’s the move?
When your training load increases, your carbs should, too. While your protein and fat intake will generally remain stable across training blocks, carbs are the dial you turn up to match your effort, especially during high-intensity or long-duration sessions.
For most athletes, the smartest shift isn’t eating less — it’s fueling more strategically, especially on and before your key training days.
Bonus Tip: Train Your Gut
You wouldn’t skip a long ride or speed workout — so don’t skip race fueling practice. Your gut needs time to adapt to taking in carbs during training. We recommend at least an 8 week runway to dial this in before race day. And yes — that includes practicing your pre-race breakfast, too.
Protein Power: Why More is Better (Especially for Women)
If there’s one nutrient female endurance athletes tend to under-consume — especially during perimenopause and menopause — it’s protein.
Most general guidelines suggest 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight per day. But those numbers are designed for survival, not for performance. If you’re training consistently and want to recover well, build lean muscle, stay strong through hormonal shifts, and protect long-term health, you’ll need more.
Aim for 2–3 grams per kilogram of body weight per day — or at least 1 gram per pound. Yes, really.
Why it matters:
Protein isn’t just about muscles — it’s your ally in:
Preserving and building lean mass (especially important during hormonal transitions)
Supporting recovery and tissue repair
Managing hunger, energy, and blood sugar
Promoting bone density and long-term metabolic health
Here’s how to hit your daily target:
Distribute intake across the day: 30-40g per meal, plus two 15-20g snacks.
Prioritize lean options like turkey, eggs, Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, and tempeh
Add protein powder to smoothies, yogurt, oatmeal, or other snacks
Start with a protein-rich breakfast – this meal is where many female athletes fall short
Physical adaptations, recovery, and overall health are maximized when you spread protein consumption across the day in multiple meals. Build your meals around a protein source to ensure you’re making room on your plate for this key macronutrient.
Pro tip: Don’t stress about “too much protein at once.” New research shows your body can use large doses (even ~100g) effectively for muscle building, recovery, and energy.
Smart Body Composition Changes: Just Say NO to Crash Diets & Race-Season Weight Loss
Chasing an arbitrary “race weight” can sabotage short-term and long-term progress. Shifting body composition is especially risky for female endurance athletes during race season or heavy training blocks.
Rapid weight loss often means muscle loss. Up to 50% of the weight lost through crash dieting can come from lean tissue – precisely what you need for power and performance.
Instead of slashing calories to unsustainable levels, take a periodized and sustainable approach:
Schedule body composition shifts outside of race season or any heavy training blocks (caloric deficits are not compatible with building peak performance)
Aim for a modest deficit of 300–500 calories/day max
Add nutrient-dense foods rather than restricting (veggies, broth-based soups, whole grains, lean protein)
Maintain high protein to protect muscle mass
Cycle in “maintenance” weeks to prevent metabolic slowdown
Think of body composition changes like training blocks—they require intentional timing, and taking too aggressive an approach can lead to illness, injury, and underperformance.
Remember: once race season begins, performance – not losing weight or changing body composition – should be the focus.
Female Athlete Hormones: Menstrual Cycle, Menopause, and What Actually Matters
The conversation around female athletes and hormones is finally growing – but it’s also loaded with misinformation, gaps in critical research, and oversimplifications.
Menstrual Cycle
Your menstrual cycle is more than a reproductive signpost – a powerful indicator of overall health.
Losing your period is not a badge of fitness; it’s a warning sign that your body lacks the resources to support essential functions.
It also doesn’t need to drastically impact your nutrition plan. While small shifts in fuel utilization occur across the menstrual cycle (slightly better carb utilization in the follicular phase, slightly higher fat use in the luteal phase), there’s no current scientific evidence suggesting that you need to make major nutrition changes based solely on cycle phase.
Instead, stick to a proven and pragmatic approach:
Fuel consistently before, during, and after training sessions based on training duration and intensity
Track your cycle as a marker of health
Adjust if you notice personal trends
Menopause and Perimenopause
Postmenopausal and perimenopausal female athletes face unique physiological changes – most notably, the risk of sarcopenia (muscle loss) due to changes in estrogen levels.
This makes protein intake even more critical for female athletes, especially as they age. Women in menopause often need more protein to trigger muscle rebuilding.
How can you maintain performance health during menopause?
Aim for at least 20–40g of protein post-workout
Maintain regular resistance/strength training (at least two sessions per week)
Monitor protein and hydration intake. Hunger and thirst signals also decrease with age, especially with menopause. This means you can’t always rely on the signs you had before.
If needed, address bone health with diet changes and/or basic supplements that can counteract the effects of hormonal shifts: get adequate calcium and vitamin D
This is also where creatine shines. 3-5g/day of creatine monohydrate for all female athletes – but especially for postmenopausal women – helps to maintain muscle (recent research also suggests it can support cognition).
Quick Wins for Female Endurance Athletes: Implement These Habits This Week
Track your protein intake for one day. Are you getting 2–3g/kg or 1g/lb of body weight?
Adjust carbs based on training load. Adjust up for your next long ride or brick.
Practice your race fueling strategy in your next long workout – starting with your race-day breakfast.
Book a blood panel. Know your status before issues arise in training.
Hydrate intentionally: Start the day with a liter of water and electrolytes, and aim for at least 3L/day total.
Ready to Put This Into Action?
If you’re tired of second-guessing your training and nutrition — it’s time for a smarter, more strategic approach.
At Purple Patch, we specialize in helping time-starved athletes thrive. Our proven coaching framework integrates seamlessly with Fuelin’s personalized daily nutrition plans, giving you clarity, structure, and results — without the guesswork.
You’ll train with purpose, fuel with precision, and race with confidence. Through our close collaboration with the Fuelin team, you’ll have simple, science-backed strategies that align with your goals — from everyday sessions to peak race performance.
Ready to stop winging it and start performing at your best? Come train with us. We’ve got you.
We’d love to help you take the guesswork out of your nutrition and training — and start feeling strong, resilient, and race-ready. Reach out to info@purplepatchfitness.com and let’s build a plan that works for you.