Reasons for and Consequences of Low Energy Availability in Female and Male Athletes: Social Environment, Adaptations, an
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(2020) 6:44
REVIEW ARTICLE
Open Access
Reasons for and Consequences of Low Energy Availability in Female and Male Athletes: Social Environment, Adaptations, and Prevention Paulina Wasserfurth1† , Jana Palmowski2†, Andreas Hahn1
and Karsten Krüger2*
Abstract Low energy availability (LEA) represents a state in which the body does not have enough energy left to support all physiological functions needed to maintain optimal health. When compared to the normal population, athletes are particularly at risk to experience LEA and the reasons for this are manifold. LEA may result from altered dietary behaviours that are caused by body dissatisfaction, the belief that a lower body weight will result in greater performance, or social pressure to look a certain way. Pressure can also be experienced from the coach, teammates, and in this day and age through social media platforms. While LEA has been extensively described in females and female athletes have started fighting against the pressure to be thin using their social media platforms, evidence shows that male athletes are at risk as well. Besides those obvious reasons for LEA, athletes engaging in sports with high energy expenditure (e.g. rowing or cycling) can unintentionally experience LEA; particularly, when the athletes’ caloric intake is not matched with exercise intensity. Whether unintentional or not, LEA may have detrimental consequences on health and performance, because both short-term and long-term LEA induces a variety of maladaptations such as endocrine alterations, suppression of the reproductive axis, mental disorders, thyroid suppression, and altered metabolic responses. Therefore, the aim of this review is to increase the understanding of LEA, including the role of an athlete’s social environment and the performance effects related to LEA.
Key Points Reasons for low energy availability (LEA) are
manifold and may range from unintentional undereating to severe eating disorders. The dietary behaviour of an athlete can be affected by the exercise practice environment. In addition, new challenges from the use of social media have arisen. Adaptations associated with LEA are known to negatively influence muscular adaptations in both * Correspondence: [email protected] † Paulina Wasserfurth and Jana Palmowski contributed equally to this work. 2 Institute of Sports Science, Department of Exercise Physiology and Sports Therapy, Justus-Liebig University Giessen, Kugelberg 62, 35394 Giessen, Germany Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
endurance and strength and power athletes. Endurance athletes, because of a negative impact on mitochondrial protein synthesis and strength, and power athletes, because of a negative impact on muscle protein synthesis. Underperformance due to LEA may not always be noticeable as it can be masked by the positive influence of lower body weight in some sports. Athletes experiencing LEA either increase, stagnate, or decrease performance, depending on the intensity of LEA adap
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