Fitter & Faster Podcast: How to Get the Most From Your Nutrition

Published January 21, 2022 12:38PM

Welcome to Triathlete’s training podcast, Fitter & Faster, where we cover one training topic in-depth each month—from the basics to your questions, plus all the gear you need.

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You can also listen to past Fitter & Faster episodes with Dr. Stacy Sims, Jay Dicharry, Dean Karnazes, Matt Dixon, cycling guru Matt Bottrill, sports psychologist Jeff Troesch, and plenty more.

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In this episode of Fitter & Faster, sports nutritionist Scott Tindal joins host Emma-Kate Lidbury to talk about a topic that’s often referred to as the fourth discipline of triathlon: nutrition. Tindal, who co-founded the performance nutrition company FuelIn, has helped professional and amateur athletes alike achieve their health and performance goals through better understanding the impact their diet can have on their wellbeing and their athleticism. In the show, we talk about the importance of eating for health and wellbeing—and using this as a platform for performance and longevity. As Tindal puts it, “health first, all else follows.”

We talk about some of the biggest mistakes Tindal sees triathletes making with their fueling, including the prevalence of RED-S (Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport) in the endurance sports world. Perhaps unsurprisingly for a fueling podcast, the topic of G.I. distress comes up (more than once) and there are some entertaining anecdotes shared. Tindal is a huge advocate of athletes practicing their race-day fueling strategies to help minimize this. He also talks about carb loading, sweat rate testing, and the importance of setting out baseline nutrition goals.

Note: For those not accustomed to using kilograms (Tindal is Australian and refers to the metric system throughout the show), a kilogram equates to 2.2 pounds.

And, of course, it wouldn’t be Fitter & Faster without our Gear Up section with resident gear guru and Triathlete executive editor Chris Foster. In this episode, we chat about some of our favorite fueling products—and how those differ for biking and running workouts, as well as how our fueling habits have changed over the years. We close out the show with an entertaining anecdote about biggest race-day fueling mistakes.