Being a high school runner is hard. Pressure to get good grades, be accepted by your peers and get into a good college are compounded by pressure to run fast and perform well. Being a female high school runner though, is even harder. Your bodies are changing in a way that may negatively impact your performance and you might start to look different than the women you see on TV or your Instagram feed. Your coach may start to wonder (out loud) why your times are plateauing or even getting slower. At the same time, you may start to feel the pervasive societal pressure telling you that you need to look a certain way. Let’s face it: running is a sport in which lean, fit physiques are idealized. To achieve that physique, many teenage athletes resort to limiting calories or avoiding certain food groups while continuing to train at a high level. The research overwhelming tells us that females in “leanness” sports like running or ballet dancing are at a significantly higher risk of developing a clinical eating disorder than their counterparts in non-leanness sports. Overall, one third of female athletes attending Division 1 schools report attitudes and symptoms that place them at risk for anorexia nervosa (NEDA, 2018).

But…skinny=fast…right? I need to do whatever I can to stay thin, don’t I? The skinnier I am, the faster I will be…right? Maybe at first. Maybe a little. But eventually, you WILL get injured. And after that, you’ll keep getting injured. If calories are being limited or food groups are being avoided in order to lose weight and achieve a certain aesthetic, you will lose in the long run. This chronic limiting of calories or specific food groups can lead to RED-S, relative energy deficiency in sport. RED-S is characterized by a state of chronic low energy availability and can have serious short and long-term health and performance effects. RED-S not only can result in bone density loss and amenorrhea, but also metabolic, cardiovascular and gastrointestinal malfunction. Research has shown that even a deficit as small as 300 calories per day is dangerous. In a practical example, this means that if at the end of the day, you have burned a total of 2200 calories but only consumed 1900 calories, you are setting yourself up for injury. In fact, a recent study conducted at the Canadian Sports Institute Pacific found that athletes suffering from RED-S are a shocking 4.5 times more likely to get a stress fracture than those with adequate nutrition. Can I tell you a secret? Your times are not going to improve if you are sidelined for 12 weeks with a bone injury.

Many elite runners have come forward in recent years to discuss their struggles with RED-S during their high school and college careers. So, if you don’t want to listen to me, take it from the indomitable Lauren Fleshman. Never heard of her? If you’re in high school, she was probably before your time. But suffice it to say that she is one of the greatest middle-distance runners of all time and her essay entitled “Dear Younger Me” still rings true. In my opinion, every high school athlete needs to read it. Actually, every woman should probably read it.

Click Here to read her letter.

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NEDA (2018). Eating Disorders and Athletes. Retrieved from: https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/eating-disorders-athletes

Keywords: body image, RED-S, fueling, stress fracture, nutrition, runner