Nutrition is essential throughout the cycle to maintain an energy balance, ensure adequate recovery from training and prevent any nutrient deficiencies. Importantly, there needs to be enough nutrition for the menstrual cycle to work properly.
When we say nutrition, we mean getting the right balance of carbohydrates, proteins, fats, and micronutrients to compensate for the increased demands placed on a female who is exercising or training regularly.
There are times during the menstrual cycle where an athlete may find that they need to pay more attention to nutrition.
The key nutritional considerations to consider as a female athlete:
- Energy balance. The menstrual cycle is a good marker of whether you are getting enough energy through your diet to support your training. Changes to menstrual cycle symptoms, increased length of a menstrual cycle or stopping of a menstrual cycle can all indicate that the body doesn’t have enough energy to compensate for training/exercise.
- Timing of carbohydrates around training is essential for consistent training throughout the cycle and maintenance of a regular menstrual cycle.
- Protein intake for adequate recovery is important to ensure you can continue to train when you need to.
- Anti-inflammatory foods may help in reducing some menstrual cycle symptoms whilst also supporting your recovery from training sessions.
Energy balance
Getting enough energy is important for an ongoing menstrual cycle. Remember the benefits of having a menstrual cycle include bone and muscle strength, very important for training and performance!
Keep a track of your menstrual cycle using an app or your training diary to monitor for any changes to your cycle length. Consider whether you are getting adequate nutrition in around your training: the information on REDS will give you further details on what you can do if you notice changes.
Timing of carbohydrates
Your body may struggle to access stored carbohydrates for training during the luteal phase of your cycle. Therefore, making sure you have had sufficient carbohydrates before training could help you feel better during this phase. You may also want to consider adding some carbohydrates in to training sessions where you notice you are struggling with sustaining energy (longer or high intensity sessions require more carbohydrates to be readily available).
Key fuelling timepoints:
- Include starchy carbohydrates with all three meals (even if you aren’t training on that day)
- Aim for a carbohydrate containing meal 3-4 hours before a training session e.g. pasta, rice, couscous, potatoes (if you are training in the morning, you can make sure you have a carbohydrate snack before bed)
- Include a carbohydrate snack 1-2 hours before training e.g. banana, flapjack, cereal bar, toast, cereal.
- Include carbohydrate within long (>75mins) or high intensity sessions e.g. fruit juice in your water bottle, banana, fruit smoothie, cereal bar, energy gel or carbohydrate drink.
- Include some carbohydrate within 30 minutes of finishing any training – this can be best if combined with some protein e.g. chocolate milk or yogurt & granola.
You may need to consider liquid nutrition if you struggle with digestive symptoms during your cycle. Examples would be smoothies, fruit juices, milky drinks, milkshakes.
Recovery
The luteal phase (second half of your cycle) means levels of progesterone increase. Progesterone can cause protein to be broken down which may slow down recovery and reduce training adaptations.
To counteract this, you can aim for 20g of protein every 3-4 hours (simply speaking: include protein with every meal and snack).
If you find you are not feeling recovered upon waking, you can also try having a milky drink or other protein snack before bed. This can help prevent overnight muscle breakdown.
10g protein options
- 1 small yogurt pot
- Nutty cereal bar
- 2 Babybel
- Quorn mince x 2 tbsp
- Hummus x 1 tbsp
- ½ pint of milk
- Handful of mixed nuts
- Peanut butter x 2 tbsp
- Cottage cheese x 1 tbsp
20g protein options
- Small chicken breast
- Fish fillet
- 1 tin of fish
- Soya mince x 2 tbsp
- Quron x 4 tbsp
- Beef mince x 2 tbsp
- 3 eggs
- Meat slices x 3
- ½ tin of beans on 2 toast
- Prawns x 3 tbsp.
Reducing inflammation
Fruit & Vegetables: as many portions as possible to increase antioxidant intake and counteract inflammation. Here are some tips on how to get your 5 a day.
If you already achieve the publicly recommended 5 portions a day, then aim for 7-10 portions a day which is recommended for athletes.
Oily fish: Aim for 3-4 portions a week to meet your omega-3 requirements as these have been found to reduce inflammation e.g. mackerel, sardines, tuna, salmon. If you don’t eat fish, you can aim to include chia seeds, flaxseeds, and walnuts to increase your omega 3 intake. Here are the best sources of omega-3.
Wholegrains: Wholegrain foods (choosing the brown or wholegrain carbohydrate option e.g. Brown rice, wholegrain bread) have also been associated with reduced inflammation. They also contain dietary fibre which will support with bloating and bowel symptoms.
Supplements
Curcumin (found in turmeric) acts as an anti-inflammatory, higher doses have been found to help with menstrual cycle symptoms. It can be taken as a supplement (100mg/day)* and may help relieve symptoms. Here are some recipes you can try to use more turmeric in your cooking.
Vitamin D, the sunshine vitamin, is linked with immune health, injury prevention and has recently been found to be low in those with increased menstrual symptoms. General recommendations are 10ug per day for everyone from October to March*.
Omega 3 has been found to act as an anti-inflammatory. Found in mackerel, sardines, tuna, salmon, chia seeds, flaxseeds and walnuts. Recommendations: 3-4 portions of oily fish per week or a 1000mg omega 3 supplement per day*
*Remember to check for batch tested supplement options if you are a competitive athlete.
