"Leaning out" and manipulating body weight have been widely accepted modes of performance preparation for elite athletes. But as the sports world wakes up to the harm that the emphasis on weight manipulation can have on athletes' mental and physical health (like in runner Mary Cain's story), this question should be front and center: Is it ever appropriate to manipulate weight and body composition to enhance sport performance? What about using instrumental eating strategies to enhance performance? Opal Co-Founder and Exercise + Sport Director Kara Bazzi, LMFT, CEDS sits down with host Carter Umhau, LMHC to discuss periodization in sport, attitudes around racing and competition, and what nutritional skills are essential for athletes to master before even contemplating nutritional strategies for performance enhancement.

Links: The Appetite Episode 23: Was I Only Fast Because I Was Anorexic? The Appetite Episodes 64-67: four-part series on Ellyn Satter's eating competency skill Tina Muir podcast RED-S in Sport time for a revolution in sports culture and systems to improve athlete health and performance.

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Thank you to our team...

Editing by Hans Anderson: http://www.hfanderson.com/

Music by Aaron Davidson: https://soundcloud.com/diet75/

Daniel Guenther at Jack Straw Cultural Center: http://www.jackstraw.org/

Host and Producer Carter Umhau: www.carterumhau.com