The Everyday Athlete's Fueling Protocol: A 4-Week Plan to Stop Under-Eating

This guide is for active people who train regularly and suspect they aren't eating enough. You might feel tired, stall in training, or deal with symptoms like constant bathroom trips, disrupted periods, low mood or poor recovery. Maybe you've been told to eat only when hungry and stop when full, and that advice isn't working. Maybe you think you can't be under-fuelling because you aren't lean, or because you already eat a lot. Under-fuelling is about whether your energy intake covers what your body and training demand. It often doesn't look the way people expect. Inside, you'll learn how to recognise the less obvious signs of low energy availability and why hunger cues can be unreliable when you train a lot, eat a high-fibre or plant-based diet, or have a history of disordered eating. You'll get a practical way to estimate your needs, and a session-by-session fuelling routine covering pre-training, hydration and electrolytes, intra-training carbs and recovery. You'll also get strategies for eating when you have no appetite, including energy-dense foods, liquids and foods you enjoy. The four-week plan raises your intake in steps you can manage, and it includes a framework for dealing with the fear that comes with eating more. I'm Nina, an Accredited Sports Nutritionist. I've worked through this myself. Even with a nutrition education, a big appetite for planning and about 10 kilos gained over two years, I found I was still under-fuelling and had to increase my intake again, fear included. This guide gives you what I teach my clients and use myself, in plain steps. It is educational and doesn't replace individual medical care.