How to Prevent GI Distress in Endurance Athletes [Replay] Ep 159

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I am so excited that you are here. Today we're talking about gut health, but this time gut health specifically for athletes during exercise. So if you don't do endurance sports, that's okay too. You might get a couple of pearls out of this, or certainly if you've heard some of your friends discussing this, this might be an episode that you might wanna pass along to them. So if you know someone, or if you've ever had to sprint to the porta-john mid-race, or felt so nauseous that you couldn't take another gel or another sports drink, You're not alone. GI distress is one of the most frustrating and complex issues in endurance sports, and today we're diving into what causes it, how your gut health plays a role, and what you can do about it. Don't forget that all of this is included in our Fueling and Hydration Bootcamp, which you can find in the show notes. So first of all, what is GI distress or gastrointestinal distress? Some of the most common symptoms you may experience or know someone telling you about nausea, bloating, cramping, and I don't mean cramping like my calves are on fire or my quads are cramping. This is cramping like in your belly area, in your abdominal region. Diarrhea certainly is a common one, reflux, or urgency to make your way to the porta-john, or as my kids' favorite word, you gotta poop. You know what I'm saying? So check this out. Some studies have indicated that as many as 93% of long-distance triathletes have experienced at least one GI symptom. That's pretty much everybody. That's pretty much all of you guys out there. That's insane to me. So, and this is also why I have a job. So more specifically, serious GI problems were reported by 43% of those athletes with 7% Of people having to abandon or basically DNF. So another study found that 31% of Ironman triathletes and 14% of half Ironman or Ironman 70.3 racers experienced severe GI symptoms. Y'all, I feel so terrible for you and don't want you to have game-changing GI symptoms. This is something that, yes, it's complex and yes, it's frustrating, but some of these things are fixable. All right, so let's get into what could potentially be some of the causes of distress. So, number 1, overeating or chugging fluids or just consuming too much all at once while you are exercising. So let me remind you, during exercise, especially high intensity, or if you're really pushing your body a long way, like an Ironman, especially if you've only trained, say, up to 5 or 6 hours and then you're going for 12 13, 14, 15+ hours. That is a long time for blood to be shunted away from your gut, which means that basically your gut is kind of like one big tube from tip to tail, that the amount of blood that your body— because your body needs energy to digest— the amount of blood that is being sent to working muscles is reduced Reducing your ability to digest as effectively as you can. Thereby, you're probably going to have some intestinal issues, especially lower GI. And I sort of separate them into upper and lower GI regions. So lower GI might be the more sort of bloating sensation or needing to run to the porta-john. Upper symptoms, upper GI symptoms are more like the nausea, feeling overly full, or maybe even vomiting. So your gut gets overwhelmed when you consume too much all at once. It's kind of like— I like to use the analogy of sitting down on your bike or during your run and having like Thanksgiving dinner. What are you going to want to do? Like stop and take a nap because your body's like, okay, I need some extra time and energy, literally energy, to digest all of this. So your gut Basically gets overwhelmed. And then you might experience nausea, you might experience some level of sloshing, you may even have to vomit or just generally slow down. So pro tip there, make sure that you are consuming your fluids and foods. And when I say food, that could be anything from Fig Newtons to gels to, uh, anything that is going to provide an excess amount of calories. So take your time, sip slowly in order to avoid overloading your system. That helps by allowing gastric emptying, so the ability of your stomach to empty into your small intestines, which is where the real magic happens and all of that energy is able to be absorbed and sent to working muscles. All of that Happens more consistently if you sip and consume steadily rather than in these large gaps. So like if you're taking 90 minutes before you have anything and then you have too much, it's just gonna overload the system. All right. Another one is race day anxiety. Poor Carly, who is our sports psychologist. I love to send her all my folks who are pooping excessively on race day, and she's like rolling her eyes at me, but honestly. The gut is so deeply tied to your brain and your body's fight or flight response. So when you get really nervous, so that, those race day jitters or those, that race day anxiety kicks in, your body is like, okay, cool. We're running from the tiger now. That's great. I need to empty myself out, like right now. So then you're taking several trips to the porta-john, probably having some level of diarrhea. That is a normal response. Another response is sometimes people will get constipated. It's almost like, nope, I'm holding onto it.

Let's go.

Let's roll out. So it's so interesting to me, the difference in our specific responses to stress. So one of the things that you can help is using things like breathwork, like visualization. This is literally what Carly does on a day-in and day-out basis of helping people with sports psychology so that they can be more grounded, more centered, and check it out, then you also digest better. What? So amazing how those tools can really help with race day anxiety. All right. Another thing, and you've probably heard this before, unfamiliar foods or new products on race day. You're like, hey, Check it out. There's this brand new gel that the race has that I've never tried before, or it just happened to be there, or my training buddy gave me this thing. It's always best to test any of your products or any of the foods that you're going to be doing prior to race day. So in other words, train your gut just like you train your body. So consistency is key, getting used to all of the different textures, all of the different flavors, and whether your body is actually going to accept whatever it is that you're putting in your body. All right, next up, sugar overload or sugar alcohol overload. This is a more interesting one that I will see more commonly in athletes rather than just the general population. Is too much fructose. There is something called fructose intolerance, and oftentimes you're going to have symptoms outside of exercise, but sometimes you may not until you get to be exercising and now you're consuming all of these foods and gels and products with excess free fructose. And what I mean by free fructose is that it's literally stated on The product as fructose. Now, fructose is a magical thing because, for an— from an exercise perspective, because once those glucose transporters in your body get saturated, we need another avenue to get calories to your muscles. And one of those ways is via fructose. So finding that right balance— That is not going to throw your body overboard with too much fructose, which oftentimes will create this bloating sensation. You may have some diarrhea, and it could be not great, or just GI chaos is what I like to call it. It can be crazy. So yes, it's helpful to use multiple carb sources, so like glucose and fructose and maltodextrin, or dextrose and fructose, that kind of thing, so that you can saturate different transporters in your body, but consider options that might be a little bit more whole-foods-based or adjusting the ratios of that glucose-to-fructose option. So play around with different things, and we help you in that process in our Fueling and Hydration Boot Camp. So there's other things that, like I just mentioned, that we discuss in the Fueling and Hydration Boot Camp and even digging deeper on our live calls. We talk about everything from caffeine, including the genetics of caffeine, NSAIDs, infections, toxins, and even menstruation. So those are all the things that you can learn more about and see if that's more specific to you in our Fueling and Hydration Boot Camp.

All right.

The one that probably most people don't like to talk about. But GI distress isn't just about race day, it's about gut health. So you may have heard some of the terms like leaky gut, dysbiosis, inflammation. All of those things impact how you feel and perform. So if you are not taking care of yourself outside of exercise, that you're not getting your recovery nutrition, that you're not getting your fruits and vegetables, that you're not getting your good quality protein, and all of those things that are making us be an amazing human and an athlete, then you know that you are not gonna perform your best. So stress is another massive one. I know I talked a lot about that in our gut health podcast, so I'll link back to that one so that you guys can dig deeper into that with our STAIN acronym, acronym that we like to talk about, which is stress and toxins, adverse food reactions, infections, and nutritional imbalances. Those are all the things that we like to look at from a functional health perspective, tying that into functional nutrition for athletes. So stress and poor food choices and lack of diversity in your diet is going to equal an unhappy gut. And that can be easier said than done, right? The, the concept of, oh, I need to eat so many different types of fruits and vegetables on a regular basis can be hard when you're making so many other decisions. So the gut-brain connection can also affect your mood and your motivation. I mean, have you ever felt like, oh gosh, I just don't wanna train today, or I don't really wanna do anything today? So that may be related to the quality of food that you're putting in your body and also giving you quality sleep. Timing of your food is a really big one that relates to GI distress as well during exercise. If you're not allowing your body body to absorb appropriately through the night, that could even be an issue. So your fueling plan isn't just about calories or isn't just about carbohydrates. It's about digestion. It's about absorption. And it's also about long-term health, which is why we created our Longevity Nutrition Coaching Program for athletes just like you. who wanna dig a little bit deeper into what is my blueprint, not only for exercise, but also for health and performance. And what are some of the things that you can do more specifically to benefit you? So I will link to that below in the show notes. Our Longevity Nutrition Coaching Program is so amazing and can really transform not only your performance, But certainly your long-term health. So here are some strategies that may help you if you are somebody who's experienced GI distress. So before training, so prior to training, make sure that you keep meals somewhat simple and predictable, which I think is also interesting that I come off of getting some diversity in your diet. You might have to do some tweaks because then it's a matter of— If you're doing an elimination diet and then a reintroduction plan, that can be— oh my gosh, can be such a hot mess. So if there are so many different things that you're like, I don't know what's causing it, keep a log. I cannot emphasize this enough. The more symptoms that you can track on a regular basis, then we can start to look back and say, ah, this may be a culprit. Let's take an action here. So simplify the meals in the meantime to at least adjust and log those symptoms, and then you can start reintroducing more complex meals. And I know this is a big one, but definitely manage your stress. I cannot emphasize enough how much stress plays into your gut. I mean, it's so massive. So if you are not working on your breathwork, if you're not working on meditation, I highly recommend you start. And you don't have to start with, oh my gosh, I'm gonna have to be sitting on this yoga mat for an hour. No, start with even just 1 minute of deep breathwork, which is really, we'll call it 5 breaths, 5 deep, slow inhalations and deep, slow exhalations. That's 1 minute. That is one place that you can start, certainly prior to race day, prior to training. Or long-distance events that maybe you've not done before, or training that, because that's the whole point of training, right, is building your body physically and mentally to be able to go further or go harder, right? During training, make sure you use a tested fueling strategy. Again, this goes back into logging your symptoms. So this is something that we provide in the Fueling and Hydration Bootcamp. Mm-hmm. Is giving you a sweat log. This is not just to manage your pre and post weigh-ins so that you know how much fluid that you need to be taking, but it's also an opportunity to manage your different fueling options that you have tried, that you want to try, and then an entire rating system so that if you go back to something, you can look in your notes and say, oh yeah, I tried those Fig Newtons. On that one run and I felt really good, or Rice Krispies just didn't work really well for me, or that gel was too chunky, or whatever the case may be. We've got an entire tool to use so that you can manage what your fueling options have been so that you can write out that strategy. Also, don't forget to space out your intake so that you can have that consistent gastric emptying. And then on a daily basis, make sure that you're supporting your gut health with consistent hydration. And when I say hydration, I mean good old-fashioned water, not necessarily with anything else fancy in it, but good water, making sure that you're getting good quality protein, making sure that you're getting your fruits and vegetables, and maybe even some fermented foods if those are things that work best for you. So when in doubt, test and don't guess. So if you are consistently having these GI issues, there's additional testing that you can do, whether it be from your primary healthcare provider, your GI doc, or even working with us to do some more specific stool testing, to do some food sensitivity testing and gut healing protocols. I will say, especially for you triathletes out there, who might be swimming in some different types of waters, sometimes we see some parasites that can be lingering, and some of these things can stick around for a while. So another piece of that logging is when did these symptoms actually start? Did that actually start after you got back from a trip to Hawaii or after you had a specific race or something that may be a clue to say, okay, This may be more specifically what's going on to you. Anyway, so a lot of pieces to go with that. So GI distress, just as a reminder, doesn't have to be part of your sport story. So with the right plan and a little gut love, you can go from porta-potty panic to podium confidence. So we've helped hundreds of athletes just like you, and we'd love to help you too, whether it be in our Fueling and Hydration Bootcamp or doing some one-on-one work. Or joining our Longevity Nutrition Coaching Program. So if you found this helpful, I would love it if you could share this with a training buddy who may be visiting the porta-john a little bit too much, uh, who's had some of those tummy troubles. We would love to help them as well. Thanks again for listening, and we will catch you next week on the Find Your Edge podcast.

Thanks for listening to the Find Your Edge podcast. If you like what you heard, don't forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode. And if you're interested in learning more about our endurance coaching, sports and wellness nutrition, metabolic and sweat testing, triathlon training team, or our triathlon training library, be sure to check us out at theenduranceedge.com. And don't forget to follow us on social media at The Endurance Edge. Thanks again. And we'll catch you next time.