 You saw the title and thumbnail of this video and there's a good chance that right now you're trying to determine whether or not it was clickbait. I think by about halfway through this video you are going to agree that it was not. So let's talk about arguably the most important nutrient for cyclists and other endurance athletes and that is iron. In short iron is responsible for getting oxygen from the air we breathe to the working muscles. However in some sort of twisted irony pun very much intended endurance training like cycling running swimming etc has actually been shown to diminish iron stores. If you're tired all the time lost motivation to train or you just don't have the snap that you used to low iron could be the reason. Today we'll be getting into the science on why iron is so important for endurance athletes why and how much training depletes it and what the solutions are. Welcome back to the channel this video is fueled by the feed well it's been a while since I've done a science video which is a little bit weird to say some of my newer viewers may not even realize that this used to be the only kind of content that I made and not every video on this channel was just about some race that I did where I did way too much overthinking about pacing or some incredibly pretentious bike setup or something like that and still didn't win don't forget that part let's get back to the topic in the video though why is iron such a critical nutrient particularly for endurance athletes for the most part these sports are aerobic meaning that the number one determining factor for success is how well you can turn the oxygen that you breathe in into ATP or energy and iron plays a key role in this process hemoglobin which contains iron and is found in red blood cells carries oxygen from the lungs to the working muscles this process creates ATP thus a deficiency in iron impairs ATP production and increases reliance on anaerobic metabolism or glucose which in effect reduces endurance capacity essentially not having enough iron means that you can't transport as much oxygen which means that your aerobic power goes down the drain your body can try to compensate with a larger reliance on anaerobic metabolism but that won't last you nearly as long the classic symptom that you'll experience if your iron deficient is chronic fatigue I've personally had low iron before and the best way that I can describe it is that you feel like you're weak and fatigued all the time even doing simple tasks like getting out of a chair or taking out the trash seem like a monumental effort well my girlfriend would argue that taking out the trash is still a monumental effort for me but I digress girlfriend let's be honest he's talking about his mom on the bike you feel like all of your energy is sapped you have no snap or punch and putting power into the pedals is a chore your recovery time also slows way down workouts that you used to be able to bounce back from in a day or two might put you out for a week for obvious reasons this is not optimal for performance it's also important to note that iron deficiency can lead to an increased susceptibility to infection as iron plays an important role in immune function if you frequently get sick and you display some of these other symptoms then it is possible that the underlying cause is an iron deficiency so now that we have a full understanding of just how important iron is for aerobic exercise let's get to the kicker of this video which is this increased prevalence of anemia and low iron in endurance athletes the rate of iron deficiency in the u.s for the general population is between 11 and 13 percent for women and less than 1 percent for men the reason for this discrepancy is of course the fact that women menstruate and in the process lose a lot of iron but also the fact that women generally take in less iron in their diet again this is just for the general population when we look specifically at athletes though this number balloons to between 20 and 50 percent for female athletes and four to 50 percent for male athletes depending on which study you look at and the frequency seems to be even higher amongst endurance athletes specifically this is quite a large discrepancy but the point is that it's a significant chunk of the athlete population i know the population of people that seem to be the most reliant on iron also tend to struggle with low iron life really is a cruel joke so the question is why why are endurance athletes so much more susceptible to iron deficiency the most common routes of iron losses are by way of sweat skin urine gastrointestinal tract and menstrual blood i think you can see where i'm going with this the amount of iron lost in sweat increases simply because athletes are sweating more than their sedentary counterparts that being said it does seem likely that heat acclimation reduces sweat iron concentration but there's no getting around the fact that if you exercise for hours a day then you're sweating a lot more than the average person and therefore losing a lot more iron exercise can also increase the amount of blood loss in urine as well as increased gastrointestinal blood loss not to mention the lifespan of a red blood cell in an endurance athlete can be reduced significantly and this further increases iron losses for these reasons the iron needs of an athlete specifically an endurance athlete are much higher than for your average person it's estimated that iron requirements may be 30 to 70 percent higher for athletes and of course this is an issue that female athletes need to be particularly vigilant of as well as frequent blood donors and vegans and vegetarians that's right for all the health benefits that plant-based foods provide unfortunately they do also have a reduced iron bioavailability because the iron they contain is non heme iron so i do realize that by this point in the video i've probably scared half the people watching into picking up an iron supplement from the store and popping them like skittles please do not do that before watching the next part of this video now i'm not saying that iron supplements don't work they do work and have been shown to improve performance in those suffering from iron deficiency or anemia the last part of that sentence was key for those suffering from iron deficiency or anemia it's important to note that if you're not deficient in iron then supplementing with iron will not improve your performance in fact it may actually do more harm than good iron overload is a thing and can be prevalent amongst athletes who supplement when they don't need to for example this study found that one in six male runners had signs of iron overload meaning that they were likely supplementing when they shouldn't have why is this a big deal isn't it better to be on the safe side and be a bit too high than a bit too low well that is the case with some nutrients iron is not one of them when body iron exceeds storage and transport capacity the excess iron remains unbound to proteins this free iron causes lipid peroxidation and free radical production processes that damage the cardiovascular system kidney liver and central nervous system for these reasons even if you're experiencing symptoms of low iron most notably fatigue and in endurance athletes a loss of performance that doesn't mean that you should just take an iron supplement and hope for the best and see what happens there are many potential causes of fatigue and low iron is just one of them again if that's not the cause of your fatigue then taking iron supplements won't help you for this reason please get blood work done before starting on iron supplements and get a healthcare professional to help you interpret the results too late anytime i hear take a pill and get faster in the same sentence i just order a year supply and leave the test tubes for the nerds so assuming that low iron is a concern for you what can you do about it as with any nutrient that you're concerned about getting enough of the first place to start is your diet and there's a couple things that you need to know that can help boost your iron intake and absorption the first and most obvious is to consume foods that are naturally high in iron and iron fortified foods but you will also want to take into account foods and nutrients that inhibit and promote iron absorption inhibitors will reduce the absorption of iron this does not mean that you should avoid these foods altogether but perhaps you do want to avoid them when you are having an iron-rich meal or supplementing the most notable of these are probably whole grains nuts and seeds coffee and tea and calcium and other minerals promoters on the other hand will increase iron absorption so including them in your iron-rich meal is a good idea and probably the easiest way to do that is to include vitamin c and vitamin c containing foods there's also an optimal time of day to consume iron iron intake appears to be higher in the morning and if you can manage it particularly within 30 minutes after exercise unfortunately this window of opportunity for increased iron absorption post exercise does not appear to be present in the afternoon of course though for some people diet alone will not be enough to meet all of their iron needs in fact because the amount of iron in the american food supply is roughly six milligrams per 1000 calories achieving the recommended intake of iron 18 milligrams per day through diet alone is difficult for most women indeed a woman would have to consume 3000 calories to get 18 milligrams of iron and this energy intake exceeds the needs and actual intakes of many female athletes iron supplementation is warranted in athletes with diagnosed iron deficiency anemia or serum ferritin less than 20 nanograms per milliliter and we have research that indicates that supplementation in this group not only raises iron levels but improves performance markers as well it can take time to raise iron levels but most cohorts do see a 40 to 80 percent increase in ferritin in an 8 to 12 week time frame again morning supplementation following exercise is ideal and for those with sensitive stomachs supplementing every other day instead of every day or lowering the dose is recommended all right that was a lot of information in a short amount of time so let's do a rapid fire conclusion here and then we'll wrap this video up iron is particularly important for endurance athletes because as part of hemoglobin it transports oxygen to the working muscles if your iron levels are low not only will you feel fatigued on a regular basis but your performance will also suffer daily iron requirements are higher amongst endurance athletes meaning that unsurprisingly deficiency is higher amongst endurance athletes as well especially females and people training at altitude that being said you do want to get blood work done to see if you're actually iron deficient before supplementing with iron because there is such a thing as iron overload and it is not good you can boost your iron intake and absorption by consuming iron rich foods and also by pairing them with absorption promoters and avoiding absorption inhibitors when you eat them in the morning and after exercise is the ideal time for iron absorption some people will need to supplement and for supplementation these same absorption rules apply wow so i could have just watched the last 60 seconds of this video and gotten all the information i need to know without all the boring science crap great thanks for saving this part to the end of the video bro it's really been a great use of my time thanks for watching if you want to take your training to the next level then i have coaching available as well as online training plans both of which are linked down in the description below if you enjoyed this video be sure to give it a like subscribe and share it with your cycling friends i'll see you in the next one