s4/e02 What is Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S) and Why You Should Care! with Melissa Lodge, MS, PhD(c)
The Running Explained Podcast
Running Explained
4.6 • 534 Ratings
🗓️ 19 January 2024
⏱️ 82 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
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Summary
Relative energy deficiency in sport (RED-S) describes a syndrome of poor health and declining athletic performance that happens when athletes do not get enough fuel through food to support the energy demands of their daily lives and training. RED-S can and does affect athletes of any gender and ability level. Melissa Lodge, PhD(c) is an elite runner and researcher studying RED-S in endurance athletes, and she joins the show to talk about RED-S and her work!
- What is RED-S?
- The history of RED-S & evolution of understanding
- How RED-S happens
- The effect of teammates/friends/training partners
- The "culture" of endurance running as a risk factor for RED-S
- How much is intentional vs unintentional underfueling?
- Within-day deficits as a contributing risk factor
- Low Carbohydrate Availability as a contributing risk factor
- How many professional athletes have retired from RED-S?
- And more!
Melissa (Mel) Lodge, MS is a health sciences doctoral student, elite runner, and REDs researcher at URI. Her research focuses on the influence of low energy availability (LEA) and Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (REDs) on markers of health and performance, specifically in female athletes across the lifespan. Melissa is interested in exploring intervention-based models, such as education, to improve outcomes for female athletes and girls in sport in the future. Melissa runs an educational platform @FED_collaborative where she provides translational research on female athlete physiology, LEA, REDs, and eating disorders/disordered eating. She continues to run competitively in track & field and road racing and competed in the 2023 USATF Indoor Championship (1500m)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Running Explain podcast. I'm your host, Elizabeth. I'm a marathoner, coach, and answer seeker. |
| 0:07.3 | When I first started running at the age of 29, I had so many questions and what felt like nowhere to turn to for answers. |
| 0:14.1 | And now I'm here to answer all your running questions about anything that you might want to know. |
| 0:18.6 | If you're a new runner or you've been doing this for a long time, |
| 0:20.9 | there's always something more to learn about running. So let's get started. My guest this week is |
| 0:25.7 | Melissa Lodge. Melissa is a doctoral candidate studying relative energy deficiency in sport in |
| 0:31.2 | endurance athletes, specifically female endurance athletes. She is also an elite runner and the founder |
| 0:36.5 | of the Fed Collaborative Instagram account, |
| 0:38.5 | which I find an amazing wealth of knowledge on Reds. What is Reds or relative energy |
| 0:45.9 | deficiency in sport? Well, that's what our episode's about today. But to give you an idea, |
| 0:50.8 | Reds describes a syndrome of poor health and declining athletic performance that happens when |
| 0:55.0 | athletes, like you and me, high runners, do not get enough fuel through food to support the |
| 1:00.8 | energy demands of their daily lives and training. Reds can and does affect athletes of any gender |
| 1:06.9 | and ability level. So if you think that Reds is something that only elite struggle with, |
| 1:12.7 | that you can't have energy deficiency unless you're running 80 miles a week or more, think again, |
| 1:18.0 | because Reds is something that a lot of athletes will unfortunately be affected with, whether |
| 1:23.6 | you're running in college or for fun at any age. And Melissa is here today to talk to us |
| 1:29.3 | about Reds, the latest research, and the culture that is changing, but maybe not fast enough |
| 1:36.2 | when it comes to addressing Reds in endurance athletes. Melissa, welcome to the show. I'm excited to |
| 1:41.5 | have you here. Thanks for having me. So I'm super excited |
| 1:46.4 | to talk to you today and I've been wanting to talk to you for a while and now I finally get the |
| 1:50.3 | chance. But let's introduce our listeners to you. Tell us who you are. How did you become a runner? |
... |
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