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What Is an Athlete?
You don't have to be elite, professional or competitive to fuel like one
When you hear the word athlete, what do you picture?
An Olympic runner?
A professional cyclist?
Someone standing on a podium?
A marathoner with a six-pack and a perfectly structured training plan?
For a long time, I think sports nutrition has helped create that image.
The gels.
The carbon-plated shoes.
The watches.
The race-day kits.
The perfectly measured bottles.
The language around “performance”.
It can make sports nutrition feel like something that belongs to serious athletes.
But here's something I think we need to change:
What actually makes someone an athlete?
Because I don't think you need to be elite.
You don't need a sponsorship.
You don't need a race number.
You don't need to be fast.
You don't even need to compete.
You just need to be asking your body to do physical work.
And if you're asking your body to do physical work, it needs fuel.
An athlete isn't a level of achievement
An athlete isn't necessarily someone who gets paid to compete.
They're not necessarily someone who trains twice a day.
They're not necessarily someone who has qualified for a national championship.
An athlete can be someone training for their first ever 5K.
Someone cycling at the weekend.
Someone going to the gym three times a week.
Someone playing football after work.
Someone dancing for hours.
Someone training for HYROX.
Someone swimming before work.
Someone hiking a mountain.
Someone doing their first triathlon.
Someone lifting weights because they want to feel stronger.
Someone who simply loves moving their body.
You don't have to be the best at something to be someone who trains for it.
Your body doesn't know whether you're elite
This is one of the reasons I find the language around sports nutrition so interesting.
Your body doesn't look at your Strava and decide whether you've earned carbohydrates.
It doesn't know whether you have 50 followers or 50,000.
It doesn't know whether you're running a 2:30 marathon or a 5:30 marathon.
It doesn't know whether you're racing for a podium or trying to finish before the course closes.
Your body knows that you're running.
It knows that you're cycling.
It knows that you're lifting.
It knows that you're dancing.
It knows that you're asking your muscles, cardiovascular system, brain and other physiological systems to do work.
And that work requires energy.
You don't have to earn sports nutrition
I think this is particularly important because food can become tangled up with achievement.
You run further, so you feel like you deserve more food.
You train harder, so you allow yourself a snack.
You have a rest day, so you feel like you should eat less.
You miss a session, so you feel guilty about eating.
But food isn't a reward for exercise.
Fuel isn't something you earn.
It's part of supporting your body.
And this is especially important on rest days.
Your body doesn't suddenly stop needing energy because you didn't train today.
Recovery is still work.
Your muscles are still repairing.
Your body is still regulating hormones.
Your immune system is still functioning.
Your brain is still using energy.
You are still alive.
You still need food.
The first 5K deserves fuel too
Imagine someone signs up for their first 5K.
They've never considered themselves an athlete.
They start running once or twice a week.
Eventually they're running three times a week.
They're getting stronger.
They're recovering from sessions.
They're building their fitness.
They've changed their routine around training.
They've committed to something that matters to them.
Why shouldn't they think of themselves as an athlete?
Because they're not fast enough?
Because they haven't raced before?
Because they don't look like the people in sports nutrition adverts?
None of that makes sense.
They're training.
And if you're training, you deserve to understand how to fuel that training.
“But I don't train that much”
I hear this kind of thinking all the time.
“I only run a few times a week.”
“I just go to the gym.”
“I'm not a proper athlete.”
“I only do parkrun.”
“I don't race.”
“I’m just getting back into exercise.”
But sports nutrition doesn't have to be all or nothing.
You don't have to follow an elite athlete's fuelling plan because you went for a 30-minute run.
Equally, you shouldn't have to ignore your body's needs because you don't consider yourself “serious enough”.
Fuelling should match what you're actually doing.
Sometimes that might mean a normal meal.
Sometimes a snack before training.
Sometimes something during a longer session.
Sometimes something afterwards.
Sometimes simply making sure you haven't gone six hours without eating because you've been busy.
It's about practicality.
Not perfection.
The athlete spectrum is huge
I like to think of athletes as a spectrum rather than a category.
At one end, you have professional and elite athletes whose sport is their career.
At the other, you have someone who has just decided to move their body more.
And between those two are millions of people.
Recreational runners.
Club cyclists.
Weekend footballers.
Dancers.
Gym-goers.
Swimmers.
Hikers.
Martial artists.
CrossFitters.
HYROX competitors.
Masters athletes.
Parents training around childcare.
Students fitting sessions around university.
People working shifts and squeezing training into whatever time they have.
People returning to sport after injury.
People training for their first event.
People training because movement makes them feel good.
There isn't a minimum performance level required to deserve fuel.
And this matters for RED-Scue
This is a huge part of why I started RED-Scue.
I couldn't find sports fuel that felt like it was made for real people.
Everything seemed to be telling you what a “serious athlete” should look like.
More training.
More intensity.
More optimisation.
More performance.
But I wanted to talk about something much simpler.
Eat enough to support what you're asking your body to do.
And make that food something you actually enjoy.
That's why RED-Scue isn't just for marathoners.
It's for the person going out for their first long run.
The cyclist doing their Sunday ride.
The person heading to a gym session after work.
The dancer doing a full day of rehearsals.
The HYROX athlete preparing for race day.
The person doing their first half marathon.
The person training for an ultra.
The student heading to training between lectures.
The shift worker trying to fit exercise around an unpredictable schedule.
The person who simply loves sport.
You can be an athlete without making sport your identity
And maybe this is the biggest distinction.
Being an athlete doesn't have to mean that sport is your entire life.
You can be an athlete and a parent.
An athlete and a student.
An athlete and a teacher.
An athlete and a nurse.
An athlete and a business owner.
An athlete and someone who works nights.
You don't have to organise your entire existence around your training for your training to matter.
In fact, most people don't have the luxury of doing that.
They train around life.
And that's exactly why fuelling needs to fit around life too.
What if we stopped asking whether we're “athlete enough”?
I think this is the question I'd really like to change.
Instead of:
“Am I athlete enough to need sports nutrition?”
Ask:
“What am I asking my body to do?”
How long are you training?
How hard?
When did you last eat?
What will you need before?
Will you need something during?
What will help you recover afterwards?
How much else is happening in your life?
Are you sleeping?
Are you working long hours?
Are you stressed?
Are you recovering from an injury?
Are you eating enough to support everything you're asking your body to do?
Those questions are much more useful than deciding whether you've earned the label athlete.
So, what is an athlete?
For me, it's simple.
An athlete is someone who asks their body to train, practise, perform or participate in physical activity.
They don't have to be elite.
They don't have to be professional.
They don't have to compete.
They don't have to be fast.
They don't have to look a certain way.
And they definitely don't have to earn the right to eat.
If you move, train, play, practise or compete, your body deserves to be supported.
Maybe you're training for the Olympics.
Maybe you're training for your first 5K.
Maybe you're training because you love dancing around your kitchen.
All of those bodies are doing something.
All of those bodies need energy.
And all of them deserve to Fuel Without Fear.
You don't have to be an elite athlete to fuel your body.
You just have to be human.
