The Quiet Cost of “Just Training Harder”

Hi Reader

Most women I work with are not trying to become elite athletes.

They are trying to feel strong, steady, and capable in their own bodies.

But there is a pattern I see again and again.

Training volume goes up.

Life stays full.

Food becomes something you “fit in” rather than something you plan for.

Sleep gets negotiated.

Stress becomes normal.

Then the body starts to change in ways that feel confusing.

Energy drops. Mood flattens. Performance stalls. Recovery slows. Injuries appear.

Cycles become irregular, or disappear, or are masked completely by hormonal contraception.

This is why I invited Dr Amal Hassan onto the podcast.​

We spoke about RED S, Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport, previously called the female athlete triad. And before you switch off because you are not an athlete, this matters more broadly than the name suggests.

RED S is not a label for professionals only. It is an energy equation that can happen in any active woman whose output has outpaced her input for long enough.

Dr Amal works with dancers at the Royal Ballet School and with women in professional rugby, but the mechanism is the same across contexts. Sometimes it comes from an eating disorder, yes, but more commonly it comes from something quieter, unintentional under fuelling.

You simply do not realise how much you need.

Or you have absorbed messages that carbs are the enemy, or that eating less is automatically healthier, or that your body should be able to do more on less.

The part I want you to really hold is this.

It is about hormones, blood flow, injury risk, and your ability to adapt to training.

Dr Amal spoke about suppressed oestrogen, thyroid disruption, lower limb blood flow changes, flatter mood, reduced willingness to take risk, and reduced strength profiles in energy deficient athletes. That is not a niche performance detail. That is your system being asked to run on reduced fuel and reduced hormonal support.

And the pill can complicate it further.

The combined pill can mask RED S by removing menstruation as a sensitive marker. It does not protect bone health in the way many people assume. If RED S is suspected, you need proper clinical investigation, and in some cases the discussion becomes whether coming off the pill is appropriate so a true hormonal picture can be assessed.

But the deeper takeaway is simpler.

If your training is increasing, your restoration must increase too.

Not as a reward.

As a requirement.

Planning your food. Planning your sleep. Building in deload weeks. Taking stress seriously as a physiological variable, not a personality trait. Treating recovery as part of the programme, not something you add when everything else is done.

If you recognise yourself in this, reply and tell me what has shifted for you recently: training load, stress load, or fuel. One sentence is enough.

Warmly,

Seema x

PS

If you would like to read my weekly reflections on movement, ADHD and strategies, you can follow my substack. Here is the link for you.​