Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (REDs) with Renee McGregor

In this episode we speak with Renee McGregor -sports dietitian and author of the book, ‘Fuel for Thought: A Practical Guide to Fueling for Your Adventures’.

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Renee McGregor is a leading sports dietitian, specialising in Eating Disorders, REDs, The Female Athlete, Athlete Health and Performance. She’s worked with athletes across the globe, including supporting Olympic (London, 2012), Paralympic (Rio, 2016) and Commonwealth (Queensland, 2018) teams.

We want to give listeners a head’s up that we will be talking about eating disorders and REDs during this episode.

What is REDs (Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport)
The basis of REDs is low energy availability, or insufficient energy in the body to allow for the work that the individual wants to do. Low energy availability comes with a cost to our sport but also is costly to all the biological processes in our body, including the brain, heart, lungs, hormonal, and digestive systems. When low energy availability is combined with under recovery (training and general life stresses can all contribute to this) it throws the body into REDs. Some people can have unintentional or accidental REDs where the person doesn’t understand how much energy is required to maintain their biological functions and the training load. On the other hand, intentional REDs is a conscious decision to restrict intake or overtrain and usually involves some aspects of disordered eating and/or exercise dependency.