"The body always protects survival first." - Dr Nicky Keay
Training hard without fuelling properly doesn’t just limit performance - it can undermine recovery entirely.
Recovery is often framed around sleep, ice baths or massage.
But one of the most overlooked factors in athlete recovery is energy availability - the balance between calories consumed and calories burned during training.
When athletes train hard but fail to replace enough energy, the body begins to prioritise survival over performance.
As sports endocrinologist Dr Nicky Keay has warned: "The body always protects survival first."
This condition is known as Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S).
WHY IT MATTERS
Low energy availability can affect:
• bone health
• immune function
• hormonal balance
• recovery speedIn female athletes, it can also disrupt menstrual cycles - an important indicator of physiological health.
RECOVERY STARTS WITH FUEL
Recovery begins long before the massage table or ice bath.
When athletes match energy intake to training load, the body can repair tissue, restore glycogen and adapt to stress.
Without adequate fuel, the recovery process never truly begins.
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