Nutrition for women?

Hi

I am wondering if anyone has specific advice re nutrition for women? I've read the stickies re optimal nutrition but I am interested to know if the general advice would vary for women as opposed to men. I think many people on this board are male but if anyone has any advice or knows of any good sources I'd be really grateful. I eat healthily but I am worried that I'm not getting the right nutrients for the activity I do and that I might be inadvertently doing myself harm through a lack of understanding. My situation is as below. I'm not sure I eat the right things at the right times or account for hormone or nutrient changes in my body brought on by training and wonder if anyone knows about this specifically with respect to females.

I am female, 32, was a gymnast aged 7-16, took a 10 year break and then took up aerial acrobatics to a fairly high level. I train 3-4 times per week in aerial and conditioning. I am 123 pounds/56 kg and 67.5 inches/170cms. I have high muscle mass/low body fat for this weight. I'm relatively strong - eg chin ups/skin the cat/straight leg lifts are no prob and I can straddle and pike lever to handstand, back down to straddle lever but not (yet) up to handstand from straddle lever. I wouldn't mind increasing my core strength and general endurance but I'm happy with my arm/leg muscles and am not looking to build muscle.

I'm interested in the relationship between nutrition, working out and hormones. Eg I'm aware that working out releases teststerone but I don't fully understand the biochemistry of this and how it relates to other hormones or how it's affected by food intake. I have a hormone imbalance with low oestrogen and relatively high testosterone for a female. I have very bad symptoms at the time of the month to the point I nearly faint every month. I wouldn't be surprised if this is, to an extent, related to my eating and exercise habits. A few years ago I was 7lbs lighter (you could see the veins on my lower abs) and the imbalance and symptoms were both worse.

I'm looking to establish if there is anything I should be doing in terms of eating and exercise habits that would allow me to keep my fitness and strength, maybe increase endurance but not lead to either weight/fat loss or muscle gain and not lead to more testosterone production. Like many female gymnasts I've followed quite a strict diet in the past and although I eat well now (loads of fruit/veg, lean chicken and fish, lots of grains, not many refined carbs) I'm not convinced that my food intake is optimal for a female of my age doing this level of activity. I am probably not getting enough fat although I do make an effort to have nuts and other unsaturated fats - but I need to remember to have them.

If anyone has any specific advice, in addition to what's laid out in the general threads re nutrition, I'd be very gratfeul. Eg if there are specific fruits/veggies/foods that I should be introducing or increasing and if there's anything pre/mid/post workout that I should make a point of eating.

Thank you in advance!

J

Jewels, do you know about the PaNu blog, Mark's Daily Apple, or Robb Wolf?

PaNu blog: http://www.archevore.com/

Mark's Daily Apple: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/

Robb Wolf: http://robbwolf.com/

Jewels said:

not looking to build muscle.

I was waiting for that one. Honestly, it's not an overnight process or we (chaps)would have all done it by now. Poliquin has written on it, and has a section of his site dedicated to women. It's even in pink :wink:

http://www.charlespoliquin.com/Articles ... uscle.aspx

http://www.charlespoliquin.com/ForWomen.aspx

And I'll second the Robb Wolf site, particularly the podcasts

Other than that, more iron than men to compensate for menstruation,and remember you are the same species so you can apply standard literature. I was really surprised the first time I saw a girl straddle planche, then it was pointed out to me that it was actually relatively common, hence we should all be able to do whatever we feel like doing with or without a penis :wink: .

I hope you don´t mean that in order to get the planche we must cut "lagging inert weight"!

Thank you for the sites! Oh yes I see the pink one I will have a good look. I'm just worried there's something I'm not getting that I should be and would help my specific situation. Yes I am paranoid about ending up with huge muscles but I guess it'd be happening by now with all the activity I've done over the years. Cheers,

J

Hi Jewels,

Given that you have known metabolic issues it may pay to discuss this with a sports/clinical nutritionist.

Further blood tests may be in order. Your situation seems to be a bit out of the ordinary so consulting a website (which I have not read and can't comment on) may not be appropriate. There may be some very specific issues you need to deal with before getting on any one of the cookie-cutter programs out there, especially those which are geared for guys.

I don't know a lot about women's nutrition, but obviously when women get below a certain body fat % hormonal problems can ensue. That's just a fact. There may not be anything that can be done to mitigate this except to add some bodyfat, as unpleasant as the thought of that may be. Certainly you can try things like herbal supplements and soya products.

Perhaps some of these are mentioned in the websites referred to.

Are you taking a multi-vitamin and fish oil? Those are two no-brainers for you.

Perhaps searching google books will provide more specific information.

Hope it goes well. Please follow up post how it goes. Sorry I can't be more specific.

FIN

"Like many female gymnasts I've followed quite a strict diet in the past and although I eat well now (loads of fruit/veg, lean chicken and fish, lots of grains, not many refined carbs) I'm not convinced that my food intake is optimal for a female of my age doing this level of activity. I am probably not getting enough fat although I do make an effort to have nuts and other unsaturated fats - but I need to remember to have them."

Most of the advice you read may be written by men, answering men's questions, but BASE nutrition is likely the same for everyone. Based off of what you wrote you are currently eating, I would slowly make the following changes and monitor your performance to decide what works.

-Loads of vegetables aren't necessarily a good or bad thing, so eat them when you want too, but don't eat more vegetables INSTEAD of more animal matter.

-Loads of fruits may be a bad thing, so depending on what you classify as loads, I would put the upper limit at maybe two cups of fruit a day (berries would be best).

-Lean chicken is one of the old bodybuilding staples, but seems to be falling out of favor with those studying nutrition. Substituting in fattier cuts of chicken and red meat would be a wise choice, at the very least on a trial basis.

-Keep up the fish intake, preferably from salmon, and you will have no need for fish oil supplementation. A pound of fatty fish a week is a good goal, a little more may be better.

-The grains are something that would probably be good to cut out, or cut back on significantly. Substituting in potatoes (preferably sweet potatoes and yams) and white rice products (plain rice, rice noodles, rice crackers etc..) to fill in the void from cutting back on grains would be a wise choice. Again, do this on a trial basis, see how things go performance wise.

-Eating nuts is likely not the best way to get in fats, it may even be detrimental. A handful a day is probably fine, but fats should come from fatty meats and fats for cooking and flavoring meals(coconut oil and butter come to mind). Also, coconut milk and cream are great sources of fat, and when mixed with berries in a blender make an amazingly tasty meal.

-As far as portions go, the optimal diet is probably comprised mostly of calories from fat, with protein and carbohydrates making up the remainder in a ratio that optimizes your performance (it's probably different for everyone).

This is just advice based off of what I have read from blogs, articles, and books. If the people who I go to for nutrition end up being wrong, than my advice is wrong, but I strongly believe their conclusions are correct.

BlLL said:

"

This is just advice based off of what I have read from blogs, articles, and books. If the people who I go to for nutrition end up being wrong, than my advice is wrong, but I strongly believe their conclusions are correct.

"I have a hormone imbalance with low oestrogen and relatively high testosterone for a female. I have very bad symptoms at the time of the month to the point I nearly faint every month. I wouldn't be surprised if this is, to an extent, related to my eating and exercise habits."

You can always try playing with your diet and see. However it would be prudent to have a complete medical workup, see if there

are any underlying conditions or defiencies, if this has not been done yet. If you're fine you have nothing to lose.

The "most calories from fat" approach is not mainstream nutrition, but may be a good approach for the short term in your situation.

You will know in a month or two.

In terms of exercise, Coach Sommer is recommending 3 low-intensity cardio sessions per week 20-30 minutes, 60-70% of your max.

That will gradually help with your endurance. You can probably go up to 45 minutes if it's really low intensity.

There was a long thread on that a month ago -- some people like the HIIT -- however this is for your aerobic conditioning

and recovery. This will probably be good for you as it's less extreme and tends to calm your system.

Hi

Thanks for taking the time to give me your advice/insight.

Yes I've seen a nutritionist but she wasn't a sports nutritionist - for some reason I didn't think of that and it would be a good idea. She did know how active I am but might not have the specific knowledge to relate it all to the fairly intense training I do as well. I wouldn't take advice just from websites but they are always useful for ideas and info.

I am not taking fish oil but I eat a good amount of salmon, prawns and tuna - but I've never measured the quantities and will look into this.

Bill - if you read this again - why do you say white rice might be good? I'd been led to believe that cutting out any type of refined white carb or bleached grain is favourable. The nutritionist advised I should avoid wheat and white rice and eat more oats and grains but of course you don't know that and you're only giving your advice and refering to your knowledge. I'm just interested in your opinion on that as it might be it applies to me.

FIN - yes I've been checked out medically and have had bloods and other tests done - but as I am not an easy case to diagnose any underlying issue is yet unspecified. I've looked into natural options too and I strongly feel that nutrition and training have something to do with what is going on. I did find that the issues were worse when my body weight was lower. My body fat is not incrdedibly low but it's definitely under the recommended for a female and I don't restrict or go hungry. But it might just be that my body is sensitive to my intake of something or lacking in something, or has a deficiency due to all the athletic training.

Also, why can it be dangerous to take a lot of 'fat' calories from nuts? I do only really have a handful a day so I doubt this is the case for me but I'd be interested to know.

If anything makes a difference in a month or 2 I will be amazed, only because of the length of time I've been trying different things. But looking into optimal nutrition and health, in any case, is always essential. The idea of eating more fat to add body fat is not filling me with joy but health is obviously most important.

I will look at the advice you've given me in more detail and do some more research/ask for expertise specific to my situation. And thanks yes I will follow up if there's any change.

J

Just as a side note, something that hasn't been discussed yet, there is likely a very strong link between the brain and nutritional success. I have heard a few people talk about this aspect, I think one of them had a client that cured their IBS (or something similar) with pizza and beer, simply because nothing else worked and they believed pizza and beer would. I think it was a podcast hosted by Chris Kesser with Keith Harris. This may not apply to you, but if you think something won't work before you try it, your brain may start working to convince your body. Just something to think about, who knows what the link really is, or if it exists.

On to you questions, I believe white rice may be good because I've started eating it again, and so have several other people who originally wrote it off. People may shy away from it because, outside of supplying carbohydrates, I understand it has little nutritional significance. So it may be wholly innocuous, but because it lacks nutrients it gets a bad rap. I would try making a little and mixing it in with meals. Increased carbs may allow you to put on some more weight and provide needed energy. With nuts, it is my understanding that the ration of n3 to n6 fats is skewed towards n6, which aren't that great for you. And since it's fairly easy to polish off a can of nuts without knowing it, it's usually best to consciously keep them to a minimum.

I've found that sometimes just trying to forget about diet for a little while results in me feeling fantastic. I forget that I should eat every set amount of hours, or that I have to eat vegetables with my meat, and I end up feeling great. Because diet is so easy to control (unlike weather, traffic, or the economy) I think we have a tendency towards obsession with it. I know I have at least had this problem in the past; counting grams of protein, measuring amounts of carbs, timing meals, wasting my time. Again, this may not apply to you, I'm just putting it out there. Maybe someone else will read it and forget about food for a day.

Hi Bill

Personally I like brown rice so prob will stick to that anyway. But yes you hear people advising not to eat certain things - rice, potatoes etc, which can all be part of a balanced diet. I was told not to have white carbs but that's for specific reasons and I prefer brown ones and other things like oatcakes anyway.

No I don't overthink it really. I was only talking about measuring something because of the point made that I should be getting enough fish oil or taking cod liver oil, which I see as important. I eat when I'm hungry, which tends to be quite often anyway and I'm used to small, regular meals and try and balance them and get the nutrients I should. What I'm trying to ascertain at the moment is if my diet is lacking in something that would help my general health and training and my specific issues, as I feel I might not be looking after this as well as I could. My feeling is there's a link to nutrition for me, partly because my symptoms worsen when I weigh less. If I'm going to be building strength I don't want that to mean I put strain on my body in another way that might be harmful to hormones/enzymes/general health. What I have happening seems quite complex and the training probably makes it more so and I'm trying to take a responsible approach instead of just training to the maximum, which is what I've done before.

I believe in the power of positive thinking but I love how pizza and beer cured IBS! Maybe I'll tell myself that everything will improve if I have chocolate and wine every day :-)