Fuelling the female athlete (carbohydrate & protein review): premature to conclude that women need sex-specific guidelines if energy needs are met
Individualise on symptoms
Key Findings
The research base behind sport-nutrition guidelines was largely built in men; there is no consensus on whether menstrual phase and its hormone changes allow those principles to be applied broadly to women.
The review summarises carbohydrate and protein requirements in female athletes across the menstrual cycle and compares them with male athletes.
Authors' conclusion: on current evidence it is premature to conclude that female athletes require sex-specific guidelines for CHO or protein, provided energy needs are met.
Research need: sport-specific protocols that rigorously control prior exercise, CHO/energy intake, contraceptive use and menstrual-cycle phase.
Overarching recommendation: use current recommendations as the basis for an individualised approach that accounts for training/competition goals and the athlete's personal menstrual-cycle symptoms.
Discussed in the full text, not in the abstract (full text; not checked against the abstract): a possible rise in amino-acid oxidation in the luteal phase and reduced anabolic sensitivity with the loss of oestrogen at menopause, which is why the base leans female athletes toward the upper end of the general protein range.
Practical Application
Narrative review (2021): it is premature to conclude that female athletes need sex-specific carbohydrate or protein guidelines when energy needs are met — apply the general recommendations and individualise around the athlete's own menstrual-cycle symptoms, contraceptive use and goals.
Not from this paper; the base's own practice: bias protein toward the top of that range in the luteal phase and peri/post-menopause, paired with resistance training and adequate energy availability — a precaution, not an evidenced female-specific number.
Screen for low energy availability — "provided energy needs are met" is the review's condition, and under-fuelling compounds protein needs (REF-345).
Limitations
Narrative; female per-meal/daily numbers are extrapolated, not RCT-established; menstrual-phase protein metabolism is emerging; the abstract's bottom line is "no sex-specific guideline yet", so any female-specific figure in the base is house practice.
How this entry was checked and changed
Why this level
regraded 2026-09-27 from C: narrative review without systematic method (rubric: C+)
Content correction 2026-09-27
Title and lead claimed the paper recommends "protein at the upper end of athlete ranges with luteal-phase & menopausal anabolic considerations" -> the abstract concludes it is premature to conclude women need sex-specific CHO/protein guidelines when energy needs are met, and recommends individualising on symptoms. Title, lead and findings rewritten; luteal/menopause reasoning labelled full text / house practice.
Cross-references to duplicate stubs repointed to their canonical entries (REF-526->REF-335); the stubs were emptied on 2026-09-27.