“One more hill,” I thought to myself. “Then you’re done.” 

My teammates began to pass me one by one, and as I inched closer to the top, a wave of dizziness hit me. Hill repeats were usually a workout I felt strong in, but in that moment I had never felt worse.

It wasn’t until this lightheadedness occurred several workouts in a row that I realized it was a serious concern. With the help of my dad, a sports dietician, I was able to quickly find the root of my problem: improper fueling. 

Even though I was able to find what was right for me, I was still curious about what I’d experienced and why no one else was talking about it. As I looked deeper into the topic, what I read surprised me: I wasn’t alone. Female athletes all across the country struggle to fuel themselves properly. 

A 2013 study published in the Applied Physiology, Nutrition and Metabolism journal found that over half of all female athletes have symptoms resulting from low energy availability. 

There isn’t a significant amount of research on the nutritional needs of female athletes, and many agree that they don’t have the access they need to educate themselves.

Anna DeBeer, 23, played volleyball at the University of Louisville (UofL) and is continuing her career at Indy Ignite, a professional team. The support she received at UofL was not the sole reason for her athletic success, but she does acknowledge the difference it made.

“I definitely have learned a lot more in college as to what my body needs in order to perform my best,” DeBeer said. 

While at UofL, she felt she received the nutrition support she needed from its sports dietitians and coaches. Prior to college, however, those resources weren’t freely available.

When she attended Assumption High School, DeBeer didn’t pay much attention to what she ate. Although her high school career was successful, her coaches tended to focus more on playing well and winning games than on fueling properly.

“I never really had someone sit down with me and talk through what I needed,” DeBeer said.

DeBeer never experienced intense negative impacts of improper fueling, but Reagan Gilmore, 18, did when she was in high school. 

Although Gilmore is currently a runner at the University of Florida, she began to struggle with energy deficiency during her time at Assumption. Since the school did not have a dietician on staff, she had to find one herself. Assumption is not alone — the lack of nutritional resources seems to be common in high schools across Louisville. 

Now, it may be even harder for high school athletes to connect with dietitians. As of January, a change in the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics requires any prospective dietitians to have a graduate degree before applying for the registration exam. Before, it was only necessary to hold a bachelor’s degree in nutrition.

Caroline Blincoe, a UofL sports dietitian, found that it was easier to become registered and receive internships when she was in college through an accelerated program. Getting a master’s degree is more time-consuming and financially straining, which may dissuade people from pursuing a career as a dietician.

“Now, there’s a whole other step of continuing education, as before, you didn’t necessarily have to go get your master’s,” Blincoe said. 

Athletes struggling with their nutritional needs may have a harder time finding dietitians since there is already a limited number of them at colleges. While UofL has a total of six dietitians, this is unique.

“From a collegiate standpoint, there’s already schools that don’t have access to a dietitian, and now you’re gonna limit the amount of dietitians there are available,” Blincoe said. 

This potential decrease in dietitians makes it less likely that athletes will know how to effectively fuel. Because of this, improper fueling could become more common.

Unfortunately, improper fueling can have negative impacts on female athletes.

Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S) occurs when athletes repeatedly don’t eat enough to meet their demands. Lack of sufficient energy results in fatigue, delayed recovery, decreased strength and an increased risk of injury. 

Gilmore experienced these symptoms firsthand. When she was a sophomore in high school, she passed out near the end of her state cross country meet. No one could figure out why she had fainted until her mom pushed her to visit a dietitian. After working with them, Gilmore realized the incident was because she hadn’t been eating enough throughout the season.

There are many branches of RED-S. One of these is the female athlete triad, which is made up of three parts: low energy availability, decreased bone density and amenorrhea, or the absence of menstrual cycles for at least three consecutive months. Amenorrhea leads to decreased bone denstity, which means there is a higher likelihood of athletes developing stress fractures or similar injuries, which causes them to sit out for potentially long periods of time.

While former duPont Manual High School and current University of Colorado Boulder runner Jessie Secor, 20, never had a stress fracture, she did have irregular periods due to insufficient fueling. She never realized how much energy she used, even when she was cross-training. This led to her under-eating and losing her period for several months. 

For many, this occurrence is nothing new. A survey of 118 female athletes in Louisville revealed that over one in four of them have dealt with symptoms of amenorrhea at some point.

Without sufficient resources and support, athletes don’t know what or how much they need to eat. This struggle is only perpetuated by unreliable information from social media. 

“Social media is definitely not a source I would recommend,” Secor said. “When you’re a student athlete, and you’re doing as much exercise as you are doing, you need to not be eating like people on social media.”

In fact, a 2024 study published by MyFitnessPal with Dublin City University found that almost 98% of the nutrition information on TikTok was inaccurate, leaving just about 2% to be reliable.  

Secor noticed how different the information was between what she saw on social media and what her coaches were telling her. 

“Our coaches are telling us that, no, we need to stay on top of what we’re eating. We need to be feeding ourselves. And I would say social media is probably telling the opposite to most people,” Secor said.

The idea that carbohydrates are harmful and lead to weight gain is prevalent on social media, but when it comes to exercise, carbohydrates are the primary source of fuel for muscles and necessary for higher level performance. 

Blincoe frequently emphasizes that carbs and calories are beneficial and will not lead to excessive weight gain. 

“The reality of it is, if you eat calories and you’re active, you’re not gonna gain an exorbitant amount of weight. You’re gonna be fueling for the activity that you’re doing,” Blincoe said.

Gilmore noted that changing her caloric intake significantly impacted how she felt. After this change, she had no lingering physical issues, which enabled her to run at the high level she does now. 

Because it’s difficult for female high school athletes to find reliable information on nutrition, Blincoe poses an interesting solution. 

“I think it would be beneficial to mandate nutrition education for athletic trainers,” Blincoe said. “If they have the basics of nutrition, they can better educate their student athletes on how much they should be eating and what they should be eating to optimize performance.”

While training does impact athletes’ overall capabilities, nutrition plays an equally significant role. 

“If you’re going into a sport, you obviously want to be great at it, and you obviously want to do the best you can,” Gilmore said. “Doing all the small stuff behind the scenes, especially nutrition, is what’s really going to distinguish the good people from the great people.”