The importance of nutrition in endurance sports is obvious and the topic has already been nicely dealt
in previous reviews (1–3). The purpose of the present work is to focus on specific recommendations
that could be made for female endurance runners, a growing population that can reach up to 60%
of the participants of a running event (http://www.runningusa.org/statistics). Indeed, more and
more women are participating in running competitions and it may be assumed that this tendency
will even grow in the next few years. It is therefore important to make appropriate nutritional
recommendations taking the specific physiological requirements of female runners into account (4).
The present review is purposely not exhaustive. It was rather chosen to highlight key and sensitive
nutritional issues specific to the female endurance runner. The review will cover macronutrients
requirements and will highlight the importance of three micronutrients for the female runner, i.e.,
iron, calcium, and vitamin D. Often overlooked, hydration will be addressed in one specific section.
This review summarizes the information found on PubMed before April 2015 with the following
search terms: female runner, female athlete, nutrition, diet, and hydration. The search was restricted
to pre-menopausal and non-pregnant endurance runners.