Question

Case Study: Shannon

Shannon is a 30-year-old woman preparing to run her first marathon. She regularly runs 30km per week, attends the gym three times per week doing a mix of cardio- and weight training sessions and also plays touch football once a week in a social work team. She is up early most mornings and when she does not run will either practice yoga at home or do a 30- to 40-minute power walk.

Shannon ran competitively throughout secondary school, eventually stopping after a series of stress fractures. At the time, she was particularly sensitive about her weight and body composition as she was serious about becoming an elite distance runner and her coach regularly made comment about achieving a low body fat content. He would also assess body composition every month during the season using a ‘pinch test’; a test Shannon particularly hated.

Shannon’s current diet:

BF: 2 Hi Bran (Sanitarium) breakfast biscuits with no-fat soy milk, sliced banana and 1 tbsp of processed bran. Glass of juice          

Lunch: Wholemeal lavash bread with hommus, 60 g of chopped chicken pieces, avocado and salad. Piece of fruit      

Dinner: Dahl with brown rice and large side salad   Handful of dried fruit, nut and seed mix.

Supper: Fresh fruit × 1–2 pieces. Warm mug of carob made on no-fat soy milk

With twelve weeks to go before the marathon, Shannon has joined a running group that effectively doubled her weekly training distance to around 85 km. She is married, works full-time as an environmental economist and has no children, although has been thinking about children in the not-too-distant future.

Shannon now reports losing 3 kg over the first six weeks of the running group attendance; however, she felt this was a great result as she had almost returned to her old running weight. However, she reports that she is feeling excessively fatigued, and found that although, initially she seemed to be running well within her new training group, she has begun to struggle to maintain pace during the long group runs. She has persisted with her weight and cardio-sessions, along with her morning walks but recently found that she started to miss sessions because she lacks energy.

1. What suggestions would you make about Shannon's exercise program?

2. What is the Female Athlete Triad and could this state be applied to Shannon?
3. What dietary changes would you recommend for Shannon and why?

What do you need to consider when assessing the nutrient needs of an athlete?

Answer 1

Nutrition for athletes has three purposes of assessment

1) maximize initial performance; 2) sustain maximal performance; and 3) rapid recovery.

For the female athlete, proper nutrition is also needed to maintain menstrual cycle and bone health. Gaining weight is often a concern, the athlete needs first to ensure she is eating more than this amount daily and then watch her weight. If she finds herself gaining a few pounds, she should not worry! This just demonstrates that she was not eating enough previously. The extra calories will actually help to improve her performance.

DIETARY CHANGES

Eat more than 20 calories per pound per day.

Eat more than 3g of carbohydrates per pound per day

Eat more than 0.7g of protein per pound per day.

Eat some good fats—between 20 and 30 percent of total calories.

Eat carbohydrates and protein before and after exercising.

Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables (not juices), but do not include their calories in your overall intake. They provide a wealth of micronutrients athletes need but are too low in calories to make a difference.

Female athlete triad is disordered eating, amenorrhea and osteoporosis. Being a highly competitive athlete and participating in a sport that requires you to train extra hard can lead to this traid. Shannon has this triad since she has the signs and symptoms of it like

• fatigue and decreased ability to concentrate,stress fractures (fractures that occur even if a person hasn't had a significant injury),other injuries.

Suggestions in her training

To maintain strength levels, during competitive seasons, use lifting sessions from the 80 – 90 % load with some weeks of training scheduled with a variant, one workout being at 90 % and one 60 % workout loads. These percentages are workable, valid ways of maintaining the strength levels of female athletes. She needs to have the training philosophy to squat, push, pull and hinge.Emphasis on building upper body strength is important, more multi – joint exercises included. These exercises should be introduced to the athlete early in their development period with weight training.