Women have been historically understudied in exercise and nutrition research, leaving significant gaps – and widespread misinformation – about how diet and physical activity interact to optimize women’s health across the lifespan. Conflicting claims about whether women require unique exercise and nutrition strategies across the menstrual cycle, perimenopause, and menopause have led to confusion among practitioners, researchers, and the public alike. This session will synthesize the current state of the science on how nutrition can complement exercise to enhance metabolic health, muscle mass, and strength in women. Speakers will address sex-specific similarities and differences in exercise and nutrition responses, including how hormonal changes influence adaptations to training and nutrient needs. Evidence-based strategies will be presented for supporting women’s metabolic and musculoskeletal health, including optimizing post-exercise nutrition (e.g., adequate protein intake from whole foods), supplementation approaches such as creatine, and nutrient timing strategies such as training in the fed versus fasted state. Attendees will gain a clear understanding of what is evidence-based versus speculative, and take away practical, actionable recommendations to help women use nutrition to amplify the health benefits of exercise—ultimately reducing the burden of conditions such as type 2 diabetes and sarcopenia. Speaker for this session are: Associate Professors Dr. Jenna Gillen and Dr. Michaela Devries-Aboud. Together, they will integrate cutting-edge evidence from mechanistic and applied research to clarify how nutrition can amplify the health benefits of exercise for women.
Kinesiology and Health Science
York University
Dr. Andrea Josse is an Associate Professor in the School of Kinesiology and Health Science, Faculty of Health, at York University (Toronto, Ontario, Canada). She is a nutritional scientist and exercise physiologist whose research area combines human nutrition and exercise science in the context of both human health promotion and chronic disease prevention. Her human research program spans 2 main areas, one focusing on longer-term lifestyle modification intervention strategies that include the provision of protein and micronutrient-rich dairy foods to improve body composition, body weight, bone health and cardiometabolic outcomes. The other focusing on the immediate/short-term physiological responses following the post-exercise consumption of different wholefoods, nutritional supplements and individual nutrients on bone metabolism and inflammation to improve exercise recovery and musculoskeletal outcomes. Dr. Josse has published 76 peer-reviewed papers, and herself or her trainees have presented over 80 abstracts at national/international conferences. Her research program is supported by a variety of government, organization and industry funding sources.