Fueling and Fitness for Women: Physiology, Metabolism & the Data Gap w/ Dr. Alyssa Olenick (Part 1)

It is no secret that there are sex differences in fitness and nutrition. However, it might not be what you have been led to believe. Nutrition, training concepts, and fueling your workouts are key aspects to training whether you are a man or a woman. By empowering yourself with evidence-based science, you can take an informed approach to your fitness and strength training.

Key Takeaways

If You Are Interested in the Data Behind Womens Physiology, You Should:

Work to understand what goes on in the research world
Be careful of how things are marketed to you
Listen to Part 2 of my conversation with Dr. Alyssa

Facing the Facts with Dr. Alyssa Olenick

Dr. Alyssa Olenick, or Dr. Lyss, is currently a Postdoctoral research student studying metabolism and menopause. She has a Ph.D. in Exercise Physiology, where she researched metabolism and exercise science in females. Dr. Alyssa is on a mission to redefine evidence-based fitness. She is passionate about science-based nutrition and fitness and how the two integrate so that she can help people become their healthiest selves while chasing their boldest fitness goals.

Finding Faith in the Data

While it is true that we need better data when it comes to female health in general, Dr. Alyssa says it's not all bad news. She encourages others not to be so critical of science and research until they really understand what it takes behind the scenes. The barriers faced are in part, the reason that we have this gap, but there is some solid data out there that can help you better understand your body and what it needs to succeed. By looking at the research with a lens of what we know, and where we need more information, you can translate that information into practical and usable tools that work for you.

Don’t Believe Everything You Are Sold

Unfortunately, what tends to happen is a ‘pinkifying’ effect from coaches, influencers, brands, and companies who are trying to put a pretty pink bow on anything deemed ‘for women only’. If you can avoid these marketing schemes and focus solely on what the research is telling us, you will see the results you have been looking for.

You don't need to engage with these cyclic and hormonal protocols, you just need to adopt proper training and fueling instead.

Have you ever been told to do something differently because you are a woman? Share your thoughts with me in the comments on the episode page.

In This Episode

Discover Dr. Alyssa’s origin story and why she fell in love with studying exercise physiology (5:04)
Learn about the Invisible Sports Woman Study and how it has changed our approach to female fitness and physiology (11:34)
Understanding the degree of misinterpretation of science in the quest to understand ourselves (20:19)
Where sex differences play a factor in terms of nutrition and the menstrual cycle (29:25)
Why fasted training may not be as beneficial as we are sold (40:04)

Quotes

“Good education and good training can make all the difference in people's health and life, and so that's kind of just been my philosophy the whole way through.” (10:15)

“You have always had permission to listen to your body. You have always had permission to just intensity based on perception. You have always had permission to take a rest day if you feel like hot, flaming raccoon trash can garbage. And you have always had permission to fuel yourself appropriately to support your training.” (26:28)

“There is a difference between sex differences and menstrual cycle differences. Those are two completely different things that we are talking about here.” (29:52)

“You don't need radically different things. We see this with cycle training and pregnancy and menopause. It's repackaged pinkifyed versions of training that are literally the same thing you probably have boy college football players doing, but in a nice pretty, pink, ‘this is safe for you and good for you’ package.” (36:20)

“Whether you think you are an athlete or not, you want your session to give you the things that you want out of it.” (45:04)