The Fuelled Female

This episode wasn't planned. It came directly from something Poppy has been living through over the past few weeks — doing everything right nutritionally and still bloated, heavy, retaining fluid she couldn't shift, with no explanation. Until she realised the problem was never the food. It was her nervous system. In this episode Poppy breaks down the vagus nerve and why it controls digesti...

You nailed the session. But what happens in the next 60 minutes determines how the next one goes. This episode is for women doing back to back training — running consecutive days, lifting after a long run, or doing any kind of hybrid programme where sessions stack up across the week. Because the most common reason the second session feels heavy from the first kilometre, or legs feel dead despite s...

The UK has finally decided to have a summer and your training is suffering for it. Your pace feels awful, your gym sessions feel like cardio classes, you're not sleeping and you can't figure out if your fitness has just completely fallen off a cliff. It hasn't. You're just not adjusting for the conditions. In this episode I break down exactly what's happening in your body when...

Training's consistent. Food's on point. Nothing's changed. And yet the scale jumps a kilo, sometimes two — and the panic sets in instantly. Have I gained fat? In the vast majority of cases, no. What you're actually seeing is your menstrual cycle influencing water retention, glycogen storage and inflammation in your body. That's it. In this episode Poppy breaks down exactly why...

At what point do you accept that you train hard enough to need proper support? In a world full of supplement stacks, diet trends and quick fixes — sometimes the answer is simpler than you think. And for a lot of the women I work with, that answer is iron. This episode is for the everyday athlete. The woman training four, five, six times a week who is doing everything right on paper and still runni...

The Layer Beneath the Macros: Micronutrients for Active Women You're training consistently, hitting your protein, and carbs are dialled around your sessions. So why are you still tired, still not recovering, and still feeling flat? This episode is for the woman doing everything right on the surface — and the answer is almost always the layer underneath. Micronutrients. In this episode Poppy br...

That Bank Holiday run wasn't punishment. It wasn't earning anything. It was regulation — and knowing the difference might be the most important thing you do for your long-term health as an athlete. In this episode, Poppy breaks down something the fitness industry rarely talks about honestly: the difference between discipline and fear. Because from the outside, they look completely identica...

If your long run is wiping you out for the rest of the day — sofa, nauseous, can't function — this episode is for you. Because that feeling isn't normal, and it isn't your fitness. In this episode I'm breaking down exactly why long runs destroy so many women, the science of what's actually happening in your body when glycogen runs low, and the three practical changes you can ma...

44% of you said balancing performance and physique is the hardest thing. This episode is for you. This week I walk through a real client case study that perfectly illustrates a pattern she's seeing everywhere right now, women who are fuelling hard, training consistently, and still not seeing the results they expected. Not because they're doing everything wrong. Because the type of fuel, th...

Your cycle is the most underrated performance tool you own — and most women are fighting it instead of using it. In this episode, Poppy breaks down exactly why you feel like a different athlete in week 2 versus week 4, why your hunger in the luteal phase is not a willpower problem, and how fuelling with your cycle rather than against it changes everything — from your training consistency to your b...

Most women think calorie banking is smart. Eat less now, eat more later… balance it out, right? Wrong. In this episode, I break down why calorie banking is actually just under-fuelling in disguise — and how it’s quietly wrecking your performance, your body composition, and your hormonal health. If you’re training hard, trying to lose fat, and constantly feel like your body isn’t responding… this i...

If you train hard, eat well, and still feel bloated, uncomfortable and like your body is working against you — this episode is the one you've been waiting for. Poppy opens up about her own experience of a year of gut issues so severe that doctors were testing her for SIBO and Crohn's disease. She had a clean diet. She's a nutritionist. She was doing everything right. And it turned out...

If you’re running a marathon and stressing about carb loading… this is the episode you need. Because here’s the truth: It’s not carbs that ruin your race — it’s how you use them. In this episode, I break down: Why carb loading actually matters (especially for women) What most people get completely wrong How to fuel without feeling heavy, bloated or out of control The exact strategy I used to fix m...

In this bonus episode of Fuelled Female , I’m diving into a topic that comes up with clients all the time — the evening sweet treat and what a healthy relationship with food actually looks like. Because somewhere along the way, we started to believe that eating freely, fitting desserts into our macros, and never saying no automatically equals balance. But is that really true? Today I’m talking abo...

If your training suddenly feels harder than it used to — you're more tired, your sessions feel heavier, and your progress has stalled — this episode is for you. Because the problem is rarely a lack of discipline. It's usually a mismatch between your training load and the support your body is getting. In this episode, I break down the real reasons training starts to feel harder, including:...

HYROX looks incredible on social media. Matching kits, finish line smiles, electric atmospheres. And it is incredible — but it's also one of the most physically demanding sports you can put your body through. And nobody is talking about that loudly enough. In this episode I'm getting into the truth about what HYROX actually demands from a female body — the physiology, the glycogen cost, th...

One of the biggest mistakes active women make isn’t training too much it’s fuelling the same while their training changes. In this episode, we break down the real difference between fuelling for strength training, running, and high-intensity classes and why your nutrition needs to evolve as your training demand increases. You’ll learn: why gym and running place different demands on the body how in...

A lot of women who train hard feel stuck between two goals: They want to perform well in training… but they also want to lean out. And the advice online usually makes it sound like you have to choose one or the other. Eat less and sacrifice performance… or fuel properly and accept gaining weight. But the reality is that fat loss for active women just has to be approached differently. In this episo...

RED-S (Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport) is often talked about in elite sport — but it’s quietly becoming more common in recreational athletes too. In this episode, I break down why so many high-performing women drift into under-fuelling without realising it, especially when trying to balance running, strength training, work and everyday life. You’ll hear why being lean and performing well is o...

Still eating to one random calorie number every day… and wondering why your body feels flat, tired, or stuck? In this episode of Fuelled Female, I’m breaking down exactly how active women should be calculating their calories — whether your goal is performance, fat loss, or both. Because the truth is… most high-performing women aren’t lacking discipline. They’re under-fuelling for the work they’re...

What if the reason your body isn’t changing… isn’t because you need to do more — but because your body is under-fuelled for the work you’re asking it to do? In this bonus episode, I walk you through Hannah’s 12-week transformation — a high-performing, Type A woman who was training hard, eating “clean,” and still feeling stuck in a body that felt puffy, tired, and frustrating. Together, we did the...

You’re training more than ever. Lifting. Running. HYROX. Busy job. Full life. You’re not dieting. You’re not out of control. On paper, you’re “fuelling right.” So why does your body feel like it’s drifting? In this episode, I’m talking about something I’m seeing more and more in hybrid women — the quiet shift that happens when training volume goes up and eating becomes reactive instead of intentio...

Electrolytes are everywhere right now — but do you actually need them? In this episode, we break down: • what electrolytes actually do • the difference between hydration for health vs performance • why low sodium can mimic fatigue and flatness • how electrolyte imbalance affects scale weight, puffiness and appetite • who genuinely benefits from daily supplementation • when you’re just buying expen...

We don’t talk about this enough. Not the kind of rest that comes from quitting or avoiding training but the kind that actually protects progress. In this episode, I break down why I took an unplanned rest day this week, how I knew it was the right call, and why pushing through fatigue often backfires later. We talk about: The difference between laziness and accumulated fatigue Why performance does...

You can eat the right foods , follow the right advice , and still end up underfuelled. In this bonus episode, I break down a real training day where I did exactly what I coach — and still got it wrong. We revisit energy availability (in plain English), why timing matters just as much as food choice, and how one small mismatch can lead to hunger, fatigue, overeating later in the day, and that frust...