Relative Energy Deficiency in sport has become more popular with an increase of focus on the female athlete.

Haven’t heard about it? Well, here’s the deal…. When someone has low energy, they become fatigued, tired, decrease of psychological functioning which may then also lead to an increase of injury rate! What can contribute to these factors are several. Therefore, a thorough assessment may be required to determine the root cause.  

RED-s is a state of impaired psychological functioning cause by chronic relative energy deficiency. That mean energy stores are low. This may be attributed to factors such as menstrual function, bone health, metabolic rate, immune function, eating habits/disorders, and  even how your body processes protein.

Low Energy Availability (LEA) is the remaining energy after your body have taken the energy required to support it’s basic needs. Think of it this way, we all need a base level of energy just to pump our blood, breathe, digest food, and even to think.

It is becoming more clear as to what these factors are. Everyone is different, so there is no one single root cause. A combination of factors may lead to LOA. Although males are able to suffer from RED-s, females are more likely. Factors include body image issues leading to poor nutritional intake, disordered eating, high training demand on top of disordered eating, high volume of training.

The point is, we have to be aware of this when we’re training. When we start to increase our training loads… we may need to look at what other factors may be going on.

We need to make sure you are getting the PROPER nutritional intake for your needs. Otherwise, a spiral of problems may arise.

At any rate, we’re still learning about it.

Want to get more in depth? Check out  THIS OPEN ACCESS ARTICLE