Sports dietitian Kylee Van Horn, CEO of Fly Nutrition, specializes in helping athletes optimize their performance and manage eating disorders, including RED-S (relative energy deficiency in sport). She’s also an ultrarunner and running coach based in Colorado, looking to simplify nutrition for athletes and steer them away from fad diets. You can also hear her on the podcast “Your Diet Sucks” with Zoë Rom.
In this episode, Dirk and Kylee break down personalized nutrition plans, the role of micronutrient density, and the importance of understanding fuel requirements for different training sessions. Kylee shares helpful tips on fueling strategies for endurance and ultra-endurance athletes, addressing common fueling challenges, and the benefits of a team coaching approach to addressing nutrition and training goals. Plus, you’ll hear her thoughts on addressing a few situations as an athlete, like overcoming nausea and the difficulty in recognizing eating disorders.
Standout Quotes
The Challenges and Dangers of RED-S: “What happens is your body’s systems start kind of dimming the lights on the system, so they don’t function well or properly. And that can honestly look different in different athletes, which makes it difficult because, you know, some people might have all these GI issues, and then somebody else might have, like, heart palpitations or weird heart rate stuff, or, they might have thyroid issues, and it could look like another health condition is the thing.”
“You need this fuel to be able to adapt to the things that you’re doing if you want to get the most out of your training.”
The Importance of Fueling for Adaptation
Navigating Nausea During Races: “If you’re already nauseous in a race, I think one of the worst things you could do is not consume anything. Because that’s going to be tough [on you] because that can perpetuate an issue that’s already occurred.”
Nutrition and Athletes: “I try to make sure that we’re taking a pretty balanced approach that can be used long term. Not some extreme, really regimented diet that might not be sustainable in the long term.”
“You actually need to eat more than what your predicted energy needs are to get yourself out of a state of RED-S because the body is in this state where it does not feel safe.”
Key to Understanding RED-S
