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A review by tophat8855
Roar: How to Match Your Food and Fitness to Your Unique Female Physiology for Optimum Performance, Great Health, and a Strong, Lean Body for Life by Stacy T. Sims, PhD
3.0
This would be a 3 and a half book, if they allowed half stars. Also, how terrible is the title of this book? About 200 other books in existence have the title “Roar.”
I did not mean to read this right at the New year- I had it on hold since October and finally came up in the list. I listened to one of Stacy Sims’ talks on the Internet (maybe it was a Ted talk?) and was curious.
So some things: the assumptions here are that 1) the reader is an endurance athlete and 2) the reader is a cis-woman. I think the information about hormones affecting performance would be useful to anyone with a menstrual cycle, though. Probably even useful for people taking estrogen or progesterone too. 3) the reader is already an athlete and is probably less than 150 pounds (more like 130). All the athletes featured in the book are around 130 pounds it seemed- definitely was geared towards the trimmer athlete than the one who carries more fat on them, which is another glaring omission.
Glaring things she overlooked besides the above: hormones while nursing. She has a section on pregnancy and how it’s hormones affect performance and how to work with that, but ignores the postpartum stage when your body is lactating. Pregnancy lasts less than 10 months, but if you are nursing the recommended minimum of 2 years (WHO recommendation), that’s actually a much longer portion of your life and training that Sims glossed over. There is a section on peri menopause and post menopause, so it does get that portion off time included. Might be interesting to read closer to that time.
Things I’m unsure about: Sims has a lot of emphasis on the timing of your meals (before and after workouts), but I’ve also chatted with intelligent athletes about how timing of meals is a bit of broscience. Eating enough protein is more important than timing it at exactly the right time. But maybe it’s broscience for people who don’t have estrogen and progesterone cycles and legit science for those who do? I don’t know. Can’t tell if I trust this.
Things that are bunk: somatypes and the “brain science” bit. Probably also the gut chapter.
Also, she gets excited about how we now know dietary fat isn’t our enemy anymore, but then in the nutrition sections recommends some low-fat or no-fat dairy like cottage cheese or yoghurt. That was a ?huh?
I am not an endurance athlete. I bike, but for transportation and not fitness. I try to do more strength and mobility training and she does touch on protein and for strength-focused workouts, but all the “sport-specific fueling” info was about endurance sports and not weights.
Big take aways: Eat more protein (but anyone is going to tell you that). High fat/low carb diets do not necessarily work well for menstruating bodies. You need slightly more carbs during your luteal phase. Hydration is very important. Also, strength training is important because you probably want decent bones past the age of 40, yes?
I don’t regret reading it as there really isn’t a lot of research on women’s bodies and athletic performance and we definitely need more research about that and I liked learning about the research she has done.
I did not mean to read this right at the New year- I had it on hold since October and finally came up in the list. I listened to one of Stacy Sims’ talks on the Internet (maybe it was a Ted talk?) and was curious.
So some things: the assumptions here are that 1) the reader is an endurance athlete and 2) the reader is a cis-woman. I think the information about hormones affecting performance would be useful to anyone with a menstrual cycle, though. Probably even useful for people taking estrogen or progesterone too. 3) the reader is already an athlete and is probably less than 150 pounds (more like 130). All the athletes featured in the book are around 130 pounds it seemed- definitely was geared towards the trimmer athlete than the one who carries more fat on them, which is another glaring omission.
Glaring things she overlooked besides the above: hormones while nursing. She has a section on pregnancy and how it’s hormones affect performance and how to work with that, but ignores the postpartum stage when your body is lactating. Pregnancy lasts less than 10 months, but if you are nursing the recommended minimum of 2 years (WHO recommendation), that’s actually a much longer portion of your life and training that Sims glossed over. There is a section on peri menopause and post menopause, so it does get that portion off time included. Might be interesting to read closer to that time.
Things I’m unsure about: Sims has a lot of emphasis on the timing of your meals (before and after workouts), but I’ve also chatted with intelligent athletes about how timing of meals is a bit of broscience. Eating enough protein is more important than timing it at exactly the right time. But maybe it’s broscience for people who don’t have estrogen and progesterone cycles and legit science for those who do? I don’t know. Can’t tell if I trust this.
Things that are bunk: somatypes and the “brain science” bit. Probably also the gut chapter.
Also, she gets excited about how we now know dietary fat isn’t our enemy anymore, but then in the nutrition sections recommends some low-fat or no-fat dairy like cottage cheese or yoghurt. That was a ?huh?
I am not an endurance athlete. I bike, but for transportation and not fitness. I try to do more strength and mobility training and she does touch on protein and for strength-focused workouts, but all the “sport-specific fueling” info was about endurance sports and not weights.
Big take aways: Eat more protein (but anyone is going to tell you that). High fat/low carb diets do not necessarily work well for menstruating bodies. You need slightly more carbs during your luteal phase. Hydration is very important. Also, strength training is important because you probably want decent bones past the age of 40, yes?
I don’t regret reading it as there really isn’t a lot of research on women’s bodies and athletic performance and we definitely need more research about that and I liked learning about the research she has done.