What happens when your body can’t keep up with your ambition? In this powerful and deeply introspective conversation, world-leading sports dietitian Renée McGregor sits down to unpack one of the most misunderstood issues in sport — Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S). Renée shares her expert insights on how under-fueling, overtraining, and perfectionism intersect to impact athletic performance, mental health, and long-term wellbeing. Whether you’re an elite athlete, weekend warrior, coach, or health professional, this episode offers science-backed guidance, emotional honesty, and practical tools to help you find balance between drive and recovery. 🎧 Tune in to explore:

• The truth behind RED-S and how it develops
• Why energy availability matters more than you think
• How athletes can fuel smarter, train stronger, and recover better
• Renée’s personal reflections from working with Olympians and recreational athletes alike

💡 A must-listen for anyone passionate about sports performance, nutrition, body image, and sustainable success. 🔍 SEO Keywords (for metadata, tags, or show notes): Renée McGregor, RED-S, Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport, sports nutrition, athlete health, female athletes, overtraining, energy availability, sports dietitian, endurance training, recovery, performance nutrition, eating disorders in sport, mental health in athletes, fueling for performance



Are you eating enough to fuel your active life? Are you training too often or too intensely? Could your digestion problems, low mood and frequent injuries be a sign that you haven’t got the balance right? Dr. Juliet McGrattan is joined by leading sports dietician Renee McGregor to dive deeply into the condition of Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S). Listen in to hear what this condition actually is, the symptoms you might experience and why it affects recreational runners, and not just elite athletes. RED-S is a complex and important condition that all active women need to be aware of. Find out what immediate steps you can take if you think you might be affected and when and how to get help.

Host: Dr. Juliet McGrattan
Recorded: February 24, 2022

For more information, links and resources and hundreds more conversations from the world of women’s sport including articles, blogs, videos and podcasts visit wispsports.com.
WiSP Sports is the ONLY GLOBAL PODCAST FOR WOMEN’S SPORT with more than 60 hosts, 1600+ episodes across 50 shows and over 7 million downloads.
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We are ranked in the top 2% of more than 2.71 million podcasts worldwide. WiSP Sports is on all major podcast players. Follow WiSP Sports on social media @WiSPsports. Contact us at [email protected].

Did you know that one in three women leak urine when they cough, sneeze, jump or run? That’s a huge figure and our guest thinks it’s an underestimate too. Pelvic health physiotherapist Emma Brockwell joins Dr. Juliet McGrattan to talk about stress urinary incontinence. Emma is a leading expert in women’s pelvic health with national and international influence. She’s passionate about raising awareness, educating and encouraging women to prioritize their pelvic health. We learn who is most likely to be affected by stress incontinence, why every woman needs to take action, and what to expect when you go and see a women’s health physio. Emma drills down into what’s known about running technique and leaky bladders as well as which exercises are beneficial for runners with stress incontinence. You’ll most definitely find yourself squeezing your pelvic floor muscles while you listen and there’s lots of tips on how to do it correctly. The take home message is that all women need to get familiar with, and strengthen their pelvic floor and if you’re leaking – get an expert assessment.

Host: Dr. Juliet McGrattan
Recorded: December 17, 2021

For more information, links and resources and hundreds more conversations from the world of women’s sport including articles, blogs, videos and podcasts visit wispsports.com. WiSP Sports is the World’s First and Only Podcast Network for Women’s Sport with more than 60 hosts, 1500+ episodes across 50 shows and over 7 million downloads. We are ranked in the top 2% of more than 2.71 million podcasts worldwide. WiSP Sports is on all major podcast players. Follow WiSP Sports on social media @WiSPsports. Contact us at [email protected].

Be honest with yourself, are you a runner who could probably benefit from doing some strength and conditioning? Do you struggle to stay motivated to do it? Are you recurrently injured? Perhaps you don’t really know what to actually do or where to even start? 

In this episode, Dr. Juliet McGrattan is joined by fitness instructor and Health Coach Chantel Oakley.  With huge experience as a trainer, including working with Nike, Chantel walks us through why strength work is so important for runners. She explains what benefits we’ll get, how quickly we’ll notice them and how to do exercises with good form. Starting with simple body weight exercises and progressing to resistance bands and one set of dumbbells, we’ll discover how it’s actually quite simple for us all to add some strength work into our week. 

More than that, Chantel helps us to reconsider our motivations for training. How to move from a life of ‘should do’s’ and shame to one of ‘can do’s’ and hope. A mind set switch can prove very powerful when it comes to creating and sticking with new habits. You’ll be heading straight for your fitness kit by the end.

Host: Dr. Juliet McGrattan.
Recorded: November 17, 2021

For more information, links and resources and hundreds more conversations from the world of women’s sport including articles, blogs, videos and podcasts visit wispsports.com. WiSP Sports is the World’s First and Only Podcast Network for Women’s Sport with more than 60 hosts, 1500+ episodes across 50 shows and over 7 million downloads. We are ranked in the top 2% of more than 2.71 million podcasts worldwide. WiSP Sports is on all major podcast players. Follow WiSP Sports on social media @WiSPsports. Contact us at [email protected].

Dr. Juliet McGrattan kicks off a second season of the Active Health podcast with a motivating and inspiring chat about marathon running. She is joined by sports journalist and co-host of the WiSP Sports Desk, Nancy Gillen who was steered into running as a way to stay fit during the Pandemic lockdown in the UK.  Nancy admits she had previously hated running and never thought she would ever be capable of taking on a marathon. Fast forward a few months and she impulsively entered herself in the 2021 London Marathon ballot. Rather than freaking out when she got a spot, she decided to embrace the opportunity. She set about researching marathon plans, training in earnest and just taking things week by week at her own pace.  Nancy tells Juliet how she made the whole journey entirely on her own with no coach or running buddies. And how she overcame a previous knee injury, kept herself occupied on long runs and slowly discovered how powerful her body and mind truly are. This really is a masterclass in how to run your first marathon. If you’re thinking you might like to rise to the marathon challenge, don’t miss this. Full of tips and advice, motivation and inspiration, this very personal story of how to aim high will have you signing up for a marathon and heading to the start line with confidence. 

Host: Dr. Juliet McGrattan

Recorded: October 20, 2021

For more information, links and resources plus conversations from the world of women’s sport including articles, blogs, videos and podcasts visit wispsports.com. WiSP Sports is the World’s First and Only Podcast Network for Women’s Sport with more than 60 hosts, 1500+ episodes across 50 shows and over 7 million downloads. We are ranked in the top 2% more of than 2.69 million podcasts worldwide. WiSP Sports is on all major podcast players. Follow WiSP Sports on social media @WiSPsports. Contact us at [email protected].

Why does your nose run when you exercise? It’s so annoying to always be searching for a tissue the moment you start your activity. This is a common complaint and affects many people. Dr. Juliet McGrattan tells us the condition is called rhinitis, she explains the causes and different types of rhinitis and advises us all to look for our triggers. Whether it’s cold air or chlorine in pool water, polluted air or just the exercise itself. Knowing your triggers will help you to reduce the problem. Listen in for tips and advice on how to ease this condition and hear why visiting your pharmacist is a good idea.

Host: Dr. Juliet McGrattan

For more information, links and resources plus conversations from the world of women’s sport including articles, blogs, videos and podcasts visit wispsports.com. WiSP Sports is the World’s First and Only Podcast Network for Women’s Sport with more than 60 hosts, 1500+ episodes across 50 shows and over 7 million downloads. WiSP Sports is on all major podcast players. Follow WiSP Sports on social media @WiSPsports. Contact us at [email protected].

Exercise-induced pooping or the runner’s trots is such a common problem. It’s also quite a taboo one as not many people are open about the secrets of their bowels. This podcast addresses it head on. Why does exercise make people need to poo? Why is the poo that strikes you when you’re racing usually runny and explosive? We explore the theories that might explain this phenomenon. Dr. Juliet moves on to give lots of tips and advice for you if you are affected by the runner’s trots. There are plenty of ideas for you to try to stop it happening, from keeping food diaries to listening to music before an important race. Most importantly, you will find out that you are not alone.

Host: Dr. Juliet McGrattan

For more information, links and resources plus conversations from the world of women’s sport including articles, blogs, videos and podcasts visit wispsports.com. WiSP Sports is the World’s First and Only Podcast Network for Women’s Sport with more than 60 hosts, 1500+ episodes across 50 shows and over 7 million downloads. WiSP Sports is on all major podcast players. Follow WiSP Sports on social media @WiSPsports. Contact us at [email protected].

On this week’s episode this is something for everyone—the common cold, those pesky viruses that always seem to hit us when we’re in good shape and making great progress on our training plans. Dr. Juliet McGrattan explores the risks and benefits of exercising when you have a cold. Will exercise make you feel better? Will it make you feel worse? What type of exercise should you do? With a run through of the symptoms that suggest exercising might not be the best thing for you, this podcast is very practical and helpful because, let’s face it, we all get colds from time to time. As Dr. Juliet points out, it’s mostly about common sense but sometimes common sense leaves us when we’re really focused on a goal. Sometimes easing off and resting up is the best thing to do.

Host: Dr. Juliet McGrattan

For more information, links and resources plus conversations from the world of women’s sport including articles, blogs, videos and podcasts visit wispsports.com. WiSP Sports is the World’s First and Only Podcast Network for Women’s Sport with more than 60 hosts, 1500+ episodes across 50 shows and over 7 million downloads. WiSP Sports is on all major podcast players. Follow WiSP Sports on social media @WiSPsports. Contact us at [email protected].

We will all have experienced a side stitch at one time or another, they’re common, painful and annoying and can be really off-putting for beginners. Listen in to hear about the theories of what causes a stitch. With reference to this article in Sports Medicine on ‘Exercise-Related Transient Abdominal Pain’ Dr. Juliet points out that different types of exercise make stitches more likely. Learn what you can do to prevent stitches, from leaving sufficient time after you eat to simply increasing your fitness. Discover some simple techniques you can do to try to get rid of stitches whilst you’re on the move. Get informed and don’t let stitches slow you down.

Host: Dr. Juliet McGrattan

For more information, links and resources plus conversations from the world of women’s sport including articles, blogs, videos and podcasts visit wispsports.com. WiSP Sports is the World’s First and Only Podcast Network for Women’s Sport with more than 60 hosts, 1500+ episodes across 50 shows and over 7 million downloads. WiSP Sports is on all major podcast players. Follow WiSP Sports on social media @WiSPsports. Contact us at [email protected].

Dr. Juliet McGrattan talks us through some questions and concerns you may have when you’re a new mother and want to go swimming. So much of the advice is about when it’s safe for your baby to swim and not about you! When is it ok for you to hit the pool? What if you had a vaginal tear, stitches or a Caesarean section? Juliet discusses the new Return to Running Guidelines published in the UK in March 2019 that don’t suggest swimming until 8 to 12 weeks. Highlighting the importance of gradually building up pelvic floor and core muscle strength before returning to any exercise, you’ll feel informed and able to choose when the right time is for YOU to get back in the pool. Swimming can help relax your mind, give you headspace and quiet time which is a precious gift for tired, busy, new mums so listen in for some sound advice.

For more information, links and resources plus conversations from the world of women’s sport including articles, blogs, videos and podcasts visit wispsports.com. WiSP Sports is the World’s First and Only Podcast Network for Women’s Sport with more than 60 hosts, 1500+ episodes across 50 shows and over 7 million downloads. WiSP Sports is on all major podcast players. Follow WiSP Sports on social media @WiSPsports. Contact us at [email protected].

Even the most dedicated and focused of athletes enjoys a night out every now and then but what about the day after the night before? Is it ok to exercise with a hangover? Will it make you feel better or worse? Could exercising with a hangover actually be dangerous? Dr Juliet McGrattan talks us through the safe limits for drinking and the factors that determine how much alcohol affects each of us. With general advice of course to miss the session if we don’t feel well, Juliet is also aware that many people will just go anyway so there’s tips on rehydrating, checking your pulse, eating, taking it easy, being safe and not being stubborn! Remember there’s always tomorrow.

Host: Dr. Juliet McGrattan

For more information, links and resources plus conversations from the world of women’s sport including articles, blogs, videos and podcasts visit wispsports.com. WiSP Sports is the World’s First and Only Podcast Network for Women’s Sport with more than 60 hosts, 1500+ episodes across 50 shows and over 7 million downloads. WiSP Sports is on all major podcast players. Follow WiSP Sports on social media @WiSPsports. Contact us at [email protected].