I enable endurance athletes to overcome lack of energy and gut upset so that they can fuel their bodies with confidence and race to their full potential. Subscribe to my weekly 'Fuelling with Purpose' newsletter to receive endurance nutrition insights directly in your inbox.
Fuelling With Purpose — 10 March 2026
💡 Fuel For ThoughtYes, your nutrition is causing your gut issues... but not in the way you thinkI often meet athletes after a race that fell apart because of their gut. They’ve tried everything: every gel brand, every carb mix their friends swear by, even the “real food vs sports products” experiment. By the time they come to me, they’re frustrated, confused, and sometimes even wondering if they should quit the sport altogether. Nutrition is often part of the problem, but rarely because of what they’re eating. The stress of exercise itself is the main driver of most gut issues during long runs. When you’re running, your body redirects blood flow away from the digestive system to working muscles. Add in heat, dehydration, and rising intensity, and suddenly your gut is trying to process fuel with limited resources. It’s like asking a kitchen to cook dinner during a power outage. The system isn’t broken, it’s just under strain. That’s why simply switching to the “next best gel” rarely fixes the issue. More often, the real solution lies in how nutrition is used: portion size, timing, and frequency of intake. Taking in too much at once, waiting too long between fueling, or pushing carb targets your gut hasn’t trained for can quickly overwhelm an already stressed digestive system. Yes, intolerances exist and are worth ruling out. But for many runners I work with, gut problems improve dramatically once we adjust the structure of fuelling, not the ingredient list. If you've been troubleshooting on your own and still hitting a wall, that might be the sign to stop experimenting and get a proper strategy in place. The answer is usually simpler than you think. 🚀 Endurance Highlights1️⃣ Sleep and performance in ultra-endurance athletes: What research tells usThere is no doubt that sleep is critical for optimal recovery and health, yet it remains one of the areas most commonly overlooked or underestimated by endurance athletes. For ultra-endurance athletes specifically, the science on sleep has been surprisingly thin, until now. A recently published systematic review sought to fill that gap by examining how sleep characteristics relate to both physical and cognitive performance in this population. Pre-race sleep extension was linked to improved performance, while higher pre-race sleep quality correlated with quicker reaction times during the event. Strategic napping mid-race also demonstrated notable cognitive benefits. The connection between sleep and physical performance during the race was less clear. Athletes who slept less during competition often finished faster, which the researchers suggest may indicate greater resilience to sleep restriction among higher-performing athletes, or that more sleep during a race reflects accumulated fatigue rather than recovery. In practice, sleep is often the first thing athletes sacrifice when life gets busy, yet it's a recovery lever that no supplement can fully compensate for. This research is a good reminder that those pre-race nights matter more than people realise. If you're preparing for a long-distance event, your sleep bank in the week before the start line is part of your race strategy. 2️⃣ Iron deficiency in endurance athletes: More common than you thinkIron is an essential nutrient for oxygen transport, energy production, and muscle function, all of which are critical for endurance performance. What many athletes don't realise, however, is that you don't need to be anaemic for iron deficiency to affect how you train and race. This scoping review synthesised current evidence on iron deficiency in endurance athletes, focusing on its effects on performance, fatigue, and the body's ability to adapt to training. Iron deficiency affects 15–35% of female and 3–11% of male athletes in endurance sports. It links to lower aerobic capacity, less exercise efficiency, and fatigue, even with normal haemoglobin. Hepcidin, a hormone that rises in response to training stress, temporarily suppresses iron absorption. During intense training or twice-daily sessions, repeated hepcidin increases can limit iron absorption over time, despite adequate dietary intake. Iron status is worth monitoring regularly, and haemoglobin alone is not a sufficient screening tool. Serum ferritin, a marker of iron stores, needs to be part of the picture. Intervention studies included in this review found that restoring iron stores improved aerobic performance and reduced fatigue in iron-deficient athletes, including those without anaemia. 🕵🏻♀️ Retail Finds*This week's product review: Hyperlyte Liquid PerformanceI've received a couple of messages from clients asking about this product, and even though I haven't personally tried it, it's worth reviewing based on what we see on paper. Features & benefits
Things to keep in mind
Final take 100g of carbohydrate per serving sounds impressive until you look at the serving size. When you compare gram-for-gram, this product isn't any different from similar competitors, with its biggest selling point being the simplicity of its ingredient list. 👩🏻🍳 Kitchen CreationsI'm committing to sending the most valuable endurance nutrition newsletter. I want to make sure that every piece of content you receive includes information that helps you on your journey toward achieving your personal best. Happy fuelling! Gaby | Endurance Nutrition Specialist 🏃🏻♂️ Want to work together?When you’re ready, here are 3 ways I can help you:
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Gaby Villa
I enable endurance athletes to overcome lack of energy and gut upset so that they can fuel their bodies with confidence and race to their full potential. Subscribe to my weekly 'Fuelling with Purpose' newsletter to receive endurance nutrition insights directly in your inbox.
💡 Fuel For Thought The gap your training plan can't fix Yesterday I received this email from a client: "It makes such a huge difference to fuel properly… especially during my longer runs. I feel so good for the rest of the day. Compared to the old days when I was soooo overtired and struggled with fatigue." One month in. That's all it took. What worries me, and why I keep coming back to this, is that the exhaustion she described isn't unusual. Constant fatigue, heavy legs, and struggling to...
💡 Fuel For Thought Here's why you're hungrier on rest days I see this pattern constantly in practice: an athlete trains hard all week, hits a rest day, and suddenly finds themselves hungrier than usual. Their normal meals don't seem to cut it. They eat, and an hour later, they're back in the kitchen. And more often than not, they can't figure out why. Does this sound familiar to you, too? Here's what's actually going on. Physical activity has a suppressing effect on appetite. It's almost like...
💡 Fuel For Thought Last woman standing, and what got Tammy there Last week, Patto from the Backyard Ultra Podcast sat down with IntensEAThlete and Fuel To Thrive Academy graduate Tammy Lovett, who has now completed three backyard ultras, breaking 24 yards every single time, including a top 10 Australian performance at Red’s Backyard Ultra last year. In this episode, Tammy shares her journey through backyard ultras and how nutrition became an asset in taking her PB from 25 to 38 yards. She...