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How much of your chronic fatigue, your missed periods, or your recurring injuries might actually come down to simply not eating enough?

Florence Sargent, founder of RED-Scue, a nutrition company created from her own experience with Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S). A former Spanish national athlete, Florence tore her Achilles at 17 after years of overtraining and under-fuelling, and later realised just how much the culture around performance, perfectionism and restriction had shaped her relationship with food and recovery.

In this episode, we unpack why RED-S is not just a problem for elite athletes. Long working hours, missed meals, fasted training, marathon training and the constant pressure to perform can leave busy professionals chronically under-fuelled too. Florence explains the signs to look out for, why carbohydrates have become so unnecessarily demonised, how under-fuelling can affect everything from sleep and gut health to hormones and injuries, and why burnout and energy deficiency can become a vicious cycle.

Get 20% off on your first RED-Scue order with code CHARLENE20: https://www.red-scue.com/products/red-scue-remedy-jars

What We Cover

• Why RED-S can affect busy professionals, not just elite athletes
• The physical and psychological signs that someone may be under-fuelled
• The connection between chronic energy deficiency, burnout and overtraining
• Why missing meals and carbohydrates can have serious consequences
• How restriction, perfectionism and “discipline” can disguise under-fuelling
• What sleep, gut health, injuries and hormonal changes can tell us
• Why rest and recovery need to be treated as part of performance
• Why female athletes and high performers often lose their periods and how that connects to fertility and early perimenopause
• How marathon training culture can quietly fuel over-training in busy professionals

Key Takeaways

• RED-S is a metabolic injury. When the body is chronically under-fuelled, entire systems start switching off to conserve energy.
• Carbohydrates are the main fuel for the brain and body. Restricting them does not support performance, it undermines it.
• Burnout and under-fuelling can reinforce each other. When exhaustion becomes the norm, working and training harder can feel like the only productive response.
• Your body’s warning signs matter. Fatigue, sleep disruption, gut issues, injuries and hormonal changes can all be signals worth investigating.
• Fuel without fear. Florence’s message is ultimately about moving away from rigid food rules and towards giving your body what it needs to perform.

Resources

• Website: https://www.red-scue.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/red_scue_/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/red-scue/
• Substack: https://redscue.substack.com/
• Global RED-S Awareness Day (Nov 21st): https://awareness-days.co.uk/awareness-day/global-reds-awareness-week/2025-11-18/

Get 20% off your first order with code CHARLENE20: https://www.red-scue.com/products/red-scue-training-pack

Connect with Charlene

• Website: https://charlenegisele.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/charlenegisele/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/charl%C3%A8ne-gis%C3%A8le-bourliout/
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