Stacy Sims - Women are not Small Men

Stacy Sims

Stacy Sims is a leader in women’s sports physiology and the author of ‘ROAR’, a physiology-based nutrition and training guide specifically designed for active women. She is an environmental exercise physiologist and nutrition scientist and co-founder of OSMO nutrition

As a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Waikato, New Zealand, Stacy’s research specialises in sex differences of heat and/or altitude stress, recovery, genetics, and nutrition  to moderate adaptive responses for performance.

I heard about ROAR when Stacy was interviewed by the Fitter Radio podcast in 2016. ROAR’s focus is that ‘women are not small men, so stop eating and training like one’. Most sports science research has been based on men, and most nutrition products and training plans are designed for men. The result is many female athletes struggle to reach their full potential.  I was intrigued, bought the book and couldn’t put it down.

ROAR is a great read and highly practical guide to how women can optimise their fitness and nutrition by adapting how they train and eat/hydrate to their menstrual cycle. It also covers training during pregnancy, moving through menopause, recovery and psychological strategies. I highly recommend it to all women and coaches interested in operating at the next level.

ROAR has helped me better understand my own body and what it needs in terms of exercise and nutrition, and how to adapt training across the menstrual cycle to get the most out of myself.

Stacy is based in Mount Manganui, in Tauranga and recently started swimming at the same squad and lane as me at Omanu Swim Club! It was great to meet her in person and realise we know some of the same people from the Wellington Triathlon scene.

You can follow Stacy’s work on Instagram and Facebook. She has also featured on many podcasts.

There is now also the FitrWoman app based on the principles of ROAR that helps women track their cycle, provides cycle-related nutrition and other tips and integrates with TrainingPeaks so that coaches can use this information to optimise training schedules. You can hear more about the development of this app on a recent episode of Fitter Radio.