Abstract
Lowered energy availability (LEA) leading to the female athlete triad or Relative Energy Deficiency in sport are conditions that are becoming increasingly prevalent in athletes. The concept of low energy availability and the accompanied impaired physiological functioning will be discussed. Whilst the male athlete triad will be acknowledged, the increased research availability in women will dominate these talks. How LEA presents and how it is diagnosed will be discussed and the key focus will be the vital role that the dietician plays in diagnosis, management and education. Why this condition is important to athlete health and performance will be covered. How to guide an athlete to maintain an appropriate energy availability that leads to optimised health and performance will also be outlined.
Funding
This research received no external funding.
Institutional Review Board Statement
Not applicable.
Informed Consent Statement
Not applicable.
Data Availability Statement
Not applicable.
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. |
© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).