Fitness
Feeding your fitness – Harvard Health
Diligently training for a marathon, Barbara alternated hard runs lasting an hour or two with easier jogs meant to give her muscles a break. But the 40-something woman couldn’t figure out why those short bursts proved just as taxing as the longer treks, leaving her sore and wiped out.
The pieces came together when Barbara met with Mary Ellen Kelly, a registered dietitian at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital. To promote fat loss, Barbara confessed, she usually didn’t eat after her workouts. But the zero-refueling strategy meant she was sacrificing the strength and endurance she needed to train effectively.
“Those long runs took so much out of her that the shorter runs became incredibly hard, because she was functioning at such an energy and protein deficit,” Kelly recounts.
Barbara’s example highlights a dramatic distinction between the sexes: after exercise, our bodies require an entirely different approach to replace what’s been lost and promote muscle recovery and growth. Optimally, women should refuel within 30 to 45 minutes after a workout, while men have up to three hours to accomplish the same task. Continually ignoring this need can lead to symptoms of low energy availability, such as fatigue and soreness.
As Barbara learned, “it’s really hard for the body to optimize recovery if we’re chronically under-fueled,” Kelly says.
Hormonal drivers
For both women and men, exercise is the best kind of stress, increasing our heart rate and making muscles work harder. But it does require us to nourish ourselves properly to overcome that stress.
That’s where the similarities end, however. Why is a woman’s refueling window so much shorter? Hormonal variations between the sexes underlie this difference, says Dr. Beth Frates, director of lifestyle medicine and wellness in the Department of Surgery at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital.
Progesterone is a primary driver, exacerbating women’s post-exercise muscle breakdown. This outcome is magnified for women who are peri- or postmenopausal. If they allow their muscles to remain in a breakdown state without replenishing with protein — and if they consume protein only at the beginning and end of the day — they’re more likely to feel sluggish, sore, and unable to exercise at their peak.
“Women need to refuel with protein more quickly to oppose this breakdown,” Dr. Frates says.
During the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle — the week or so before a period arrives — women may also crave more carbohydrates and want to eat more.
“If you feel a little hungrier, it’s not in your head — your body actually needs that,” Kelly says. “Being mindful of your cycle, listening to your hunger cues, and eating that little extra could support your training.”
Protein-packing strategies
Aim to consume at least 70 grams of protein throughout the day so that you begin any workout well-fueled. “That means your muscles have been topped off and hydrated and they’re ready to tap into for exercise,” Kelly says.
After exercise, you’ll want ingest about 20 grams of protein within 45 minutes, and pair it with carbohydrates if you don’t plan to eat again within the next hour or two.
Protein-rich food choices include
- a cup of Greek yogurt
- 3 ounces of chicken, turkey, salmon, or steak
- a scoop of whey protein powder
- a ready-to-drink protein shake.
Even a big glass of chocolate milk can provide an adequate mix of the protein, carbohydrates, and electrolytes muscles should ideally receive after exercise, Kelly says.
If, like Barbara, you’re aiming for workout-driven fat loss, you can still meet your goal and refuel properly afterward. Just be strategic so you don’t sacrifice muscle strength in the process, Kelly says. How? Aim for a calorie deficit at other points in the day, not after your workout time. Kelly suggests monitoring portions and limiting alcoholic drinks.
“If someone is doing a light workout, such as a walk or 20 or 30 minutes on an elliptical machine, the principles of intentional refueling probably don’t need to be applied,” she says. “But if your workout is intense and your ultimate goal is weight loss, pay attention to your overall fueling patterns.”
Image: © Mike Kemp/Getty Images
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) – Finding time to work out as a mom with young kids can be a challenge in itself, especially when you’re new to an area and don’t know where to start. However, a new fitness option strolled into Sioux Falls today. iStroll offers moms the chance to work out and meet other moms all while their kids can play or even join alongside them.
iStroll is a national organization that has more than 35 locations in the country but this is the first time one opened in South Dakota. It’s a full body workout that incorporates dumbbells, body weight, and jogging strollers when the weather’s nice.
“I found iStroll in Oklahoma and fell in love,” said Kelsi Supek who started the affiliate in Sioux Falls. “We made friends. It became our entire social network. The kids loved it and then we moved to Arizona during COVID. And all the moms were stuck at home. They were inside with our kids and lonely, honestly. And we were like, why can’t we start an iStroll and be out at the parks with the kids every day? And it took off.”
When Supek moved to Sioux Falls, she was encouraged by her family to start an affiliate and own it herself.
“Gym daycares did not work out for my children,” said Supek. “I would get 10 minutes into a class and then I’d have that person trying to knock outside the yoga studio going, Can I have Kelsey and her kids screaming in daycare? And it just didn’t work for us. So at iStroll they could be with me or I could be breastfeeding the baby as I was teaching in class.”
Classes are planned to continue each Wednesday and Friday at We Rock the Spectrum and First Presbyterian Church. For a full schedule for January and February, you can look at their Facebook. The first class is also free and memberships are for the whole family.
“Letting the kids see you work out is, it’s similar to homeschooling where like, you know, how are they going to love working out if they don’t see you working out,” said Kelly Jardeleza, a stay-at-home mom of three kids. “Whereas at other gyms they put them in a room and they don’t get to watch you. And how are you going to inspire them if they’re not watching you do it?”
Copyright 2026 Dakota News Now. All rights reserved.
There’s no bad time to take a more active interest in your health, but the new year, for lots of us, feels like a fresh start. Maybe you’re planning to sign up for a 10k or finally have a go at bouldering, eat a bit better or learn to swing a kettlebell. Maybe you want to keep up with your grandkids — or just be a little bit more physically prepared for whatever life throws at you.
To help things along, Guardian Live invites you to a special event with public health expert Devi Sridhar, journalist and author Mariella Frostrup, and health and fitness columnist Joel Snape. They’ll be joining the Guardian’s Today in Focus presenter Annie Kelly to discuss simple, actionable ways to stay fit and healthy as you move through the second half of life: whether that means staying strong and mobile or stressing less and sleeping better.
To make the whole event as helpful as possible, we’d love to hear from you about what you find most challenging — or confusing — when it comes to health and exercise. What should you actually be eating, and how are you going to find the time to make it? What sort of exercise is best, and how often should you be doing it? Is Pilates worth the effort — and should we really all be drinking mugfuls of piping hot creatine?
Whether your question is about exercise, eating, or general wellness, post it below and we’ll put a selection to our panel on the night.
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Jan 6 (Reuters) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Tuesday that it will limit regulation of wearable devices and software designed to support healthy lifestyles, issuing new guidance to clarify its regulatory approach.
The guidance, along with comments from FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, adds to existing policy that classifies low-risk wellness tools, such as fitness apps and activity trackers that encourage exercise, as non-medical devices exempt from stringent regulation, provided they do not make claims related to disease diagnosis or treatment.
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“We have to promote these products and at the same time, just guard against major safety concerns,” Makary said in an interview with Fox Business about artificial intelligence software such as ChatGPT, adding that “if people are looking up a symptom on an AI-based tool, let’s have that conversation when they come in to see their doctor or do a virtual visit.”
“We want to let companies know, with very clear guidance, that if their device or software is simply providing information, they can do that without FDA regulation,” Makary told Fox Business.
“The only stipulation is if they make claims of something being medical grade … like blood pressure measurement. We don’t want people changing their medicines based on something that’s just a screening tool or an estimate of a physiologic parameter.”
The agency also sent out a broader warning to consumers about the risks posed by unauthorized devices.
Reporting by Puyaan Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Henderson and Sherry Jacob-Phillips
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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