What If Food Is Just Another Thing on Your To-Do List?
Making the act of eating more practical when life gets busy
You have training.
Work.
Kids.
Uni.
Emails.
Meetings.
Commutes.
Deadlines.
Things to do.
And somewhere in the middle of all of that, you're supposed to remember to eat.
So you don't.
You finish training and realise you haven't eaten.
You get to 3pm and realise lunch never happened.
There's food in the fridge, but nothing looks appealing.
You're too busy to make something.
Too tired to think about what you should eat.
Or you get so focused on work that stopping to eat feels almost impossible.
And suddenly:
food has become another task on your to-do list.
This is something we've been hearing from our community.
Athletes.
Parents.
Teen athletes.
Coaches.
People working from home.
People studying.
People working full-time.
People trying to fit training around an already full life.
“I know I need to eat. I just forget.”
“I get so focused on work that suddenly it's 3pm.”
“I'm too busy to make anything.”
“There's food there. I just don't want it.”
And sometimes, when you tell someone this, the response is:
“How can you forget to eat?”
But sometimes the issue isn't that you don't know food matters.
You simply have too much else going on.
When food becomes another decision
Think about how many decisions can suddenly surround something as simple as eating.
Do I need to eat before training?
Should I train fasted?
What should I eat afterwards?
What about protein?
How many carbs do I need?
What if I'm not training today?
What if I work from home?
What if I miss lunch?
What if I don't feel hungry?
What if I don't have the energy to cook?
What if I don't want another “healthy” meal?
When you're already overwhelmed, food can become another thing you have to think about, plan and execute.
And the more complicated it feels, the easier it can become to put it off.
You get busy.
You don't eat.
You keep working.
Lunch passes.
It's 3pm.
Now you're tired, hungry, distracted — or sometimes you've lost your appetite altogether.
And eating feels like yet another job.
So you keep going.
This isn't something to feel stupid about.
It's something to make easier.
Fuelling isn't just about training
One of the things we want to change about the way we talk about sports nutrition is the idea that food is only important when you're exercising.
You don't stop needing food because you've taken a rest day.
You don't stop needing food because you're working from home.
You don't stop needing food because your training session was shorter than expected.
And you don't need to earn food by training.
Training is one part of your day.
Food supports the rest of it too.
And if you're sitting at a laptop for eight hours, your body hasn't suddenly stopped using energy.
Your brain is working.
You're concentrating.
Answering emails.
Writing.
Studying.
Problem-solving.
Making decisions.
Work requires your brain. Your brain requires energy, and carbohydrate is an important fuel for the brain.
So fuelling isn't only about getting through your run, ride or workout.
It's part of fuelling your life.
The amount of carbohydrate you need will change depending on your training demands, but the principle is important: carbohydrate intake needs to increase as training load increases rather than remaining the same every day.
The research: athletes aren't always eating enough carbohydrate
This isn't just something we're seeing anecdotally.
A 2025 study published in Nutrients looked at 72 female endurance athletes who completed four-day weighed food diaries. Twenty of the athletes also took part in interviews about their experiences with nutrition. Participants were endurance athletes training more than seven hours per week across running, cycling, swimming and triathlon.
The researchers found a clear gap between knowing about fuelling and actually doing it.
Average carbohydrate intake was around 3.8 g/kg/day.
On rest days, athletes were around the lower end of carbohydrate guidance.
But as training demands increased, the gap grew:
- Moderate training days: approximately 1.4 g/kg below the relevant carbohydrate target
- High training days: approximately 3.5 g/kg below
- Very high training days: approximately 5.5 g/kg below
The researchers also found that energy intake increased by only around 473 kcal/day for every additional 1,000 kcal/day of exercise energy expenditure.
In other words, athletes were doing more work, but their food intake wasn't increasing enough to match the additional demand.
And here's the really interesting part.
The study found that protein was being prioritised.
Average protein intake was around 1.7 g/kg/day, which sat within the recommendations used by the researchers.
But carbohydrate was the thing that was more likely to slip.
The qualitative interviews identified time constraints, diet culture, body image and practical food preparation as barriers to carbohydrate intake. One participant described food as something that could easily become the thing that was “spared thought or prep” when life was already too busy.
That matters.
Because it suggests the problem isn't always:
“Athletes don't know they need carbohydrate.”
Sometimes it's:
“There simply isn't enough space in the day to think about, prepare and eat it.”
And this isn't only a female athlete issue
Low energy availability can affect athletes across sports and genders.
A study of 50 competitive male road cyclists found that 28% had low energy availability, while 44% had low lumbar-spine bone mineral density. The 10 cyclists with chronic low energy availability also had lower testosterone levels than those with adequate energy availability.
That doesn't mean 28% of all cyclists have RED-S.
It was a specific study population and assessment method.
But it does show why underfuelling shouldn't be dismissed as something that only happens to elite female athletes.
Male athletes can underfuel too.
And so can recreational athletes.
Even athletes who plan to fuel can end up eating less than they intended
Another recent study makes this particularly interesting.
Researchers looked at 60 non-elite endurance athletes during official races: 38 marathoners and 22 cyclists.
Across the whole group, athletes planned to consume an average of 38.0 g of carbohydrate per hour.
Their actual intake was only 31.7 g/hour.
The difference was particularly noticeable in the cyclists.
They planned around 58.9 g/hour.
They actually consumed around 49.1 g/hour.
That's roughly a 17% shortfall.
So even when athletes have a plan, there's a difference between:
“I know what I'm supposed to eat.”
and
“I actually managed to eat it.”
And that distinction is important.
Because fuelling isn't just a knowledge problem.
It's a practical behaviour problem too.
How much carbohydrate do you actually need?
This is where sports nutrition can start feeling complicated.
Daily carbohydrate requirements aren't one fixed number.
They should reflect your training load.
Broad sports nutrition guidance commonly places daily carbohydrate needs somewhere around:
5–7 g/kg/day for around an hour of moderate exercise,
6–10 g/kg/day for around 1–3 hours of exercise,
and potentially 8–12 g/kg/day for very high training volumes.
The exact requirement depends on the athlete, sport, session, training phase and overall energy needs.
Then there's carbohydrate during exercise.
For sessions lasting around 1–2.5 hours, 30–60 g/hour is a commonly used range.
For longer endurance events, intake can increase towards 60–90 g/hour, where tolerated and appropriate.
And research supports the idea that more carbohydrate can matter for performance.
In one controlled cycling study, 12 cyclists completed a two-hour ride followed by a 20 km time trial while consuming either 15, 30 or 60 g/hour of glucose.
Compared with placebo, mean power in the time trial was approximately:
- 7.4% higher with 15 g/hour
- 8.3% higher with 30 g/hour
- 10.7% higher with 60 g/hour
The study showed a dose-response relationship between carbohydrate intake and performance in that setting.
But here's the important bit:
That doesn't mean everyone should suddenly consume 90 g/hour.
Higher carbohydrate intakes need to be practised.
Your gut needs to adapt.
Your individual tolerance matters.
And the demands of a 45-minute easy run are very different from a five-hour ultra.
Carbohydrate isn't only about what happens during exercise
This is where we think the conversation needs to get broader.
If you only think about carbohydrate as:
“the thing I eat while I'm running”
you miss a huge part of the picture.
Carbohydrate contributes to your daily energy intake.
It helps support training.
It contributes to glycogen restoration.
And it provides an important fuel source for the brain.
So if you're doing a long training session in the morning, then spending the afternoon working, studying or looking after your family, your nutrition isn't suddenly irrelevant because your training finished.
You're still fuelling the rest of your day.
What about protein?
Protein matters.
It's important for muscle repair, adaptation and recovery.
And athletes generally need more protein than sedentary people.
But this is where nutrition can become unnecessarily complicated.
You don't need every individual snack to contain:
carbohydrate + protein + fat + fruit + vegetables + fibre + every micronutrient imaginable.
Look at the whole day.
A carbohydrate-focused snack can simply be a carbohydrate-focused snack.
Your next meal can contain protein.
Your breakfast can contain protein.
Your evening meal can contain protein.
The 2025 female endurance athlete study is actually interesting here: protein was already being prioritised, while carbohydrate intake was more likely to fall behind as training demands increased.
So perhaps the question isn't always:
“How do I add more protein?”
Sometimes it's:
“Am I eating enough overall to support what I'm asking my body to do?”
What if you don't train?
You still need to eat.
This sounds obvious.
But athletes can fall into the trap of thinking about food almost entirely through the lens of exercise.
Training day:
I need to fuel.
Rest day:
Maybe I don't need as much.
But rest days are part of training.
Recovery happens on rest days.
Your body still needs energy.
Your brain still needs energy.
Your organs still need energy.
You still need protein, carbohydrate, fats, vitamins, minerals and fluids.
Your carbohydrate requirement may be lower on an easier day than on a long training day.
But that isn't the same as not needing carbohydrate.
What if you're working from home?
This is one of the biggest practical problems we hear about.
Working from home can make eating easier.
The kitchen is right there.
But it can also make it easier to forget.
There's no commute.
No obvious lunch break.
No colleague asking if you're coming for lunch.
No physical cue that tells you to stop.
You can open your laptop at 8am and suddenly it's 3pm.
So instead of relying on memory, change your environment.
Put lunch in your calendar
Not because lunch needs to become another meeting.
Because you're deliberately creating space for something important.
Keep food visible
If it's hidden away in a cupboard, it's easier to forget.
Keep a no-prep option nearby
Something you can eat without cooking, chopping or assembling.
Don't work through every meal
You don't need to spend an hour preparing lunch.
But stopping long enough to eat is still part of looking after yourself.
What if you train at lunchtime?
This is another easy trap.
You have one hour.
You use it to train.
The session runs over.
You shower.
You get back to your desk.
And suddenly:
lunch never happened.
Instead, think about the whole sequence.
Before training
What can you realistically eat?
During training
Does the session require carbohydrate?
After training
What can you eat quickly?
Your post-training food doesn't necessarily need to be your entire lunch.
It can simply bridge the gap until you can eat a proper meal.
The important thing is not allowing your training session to automatically replace a meal you would otherwise have eaten.
What if you train after work?
This is where planning can remove a lot of decision-making.
Instead of getting to 5:30pm and asking:
“What am I going to eat?”
decide earlier.
Maybe you need a meal earlier in the day and a snack before training.
Maybe you need something small before heading out.
Maybe you know you'll eat a proper meal afterwards.
There isn't one perfect answer.
The useful part is removing the decision when you're already tired.
What if you don't feel hungry?
This can be particularly frustrating.
You know you haven't eaten.
But food doesn't appeal.
Or you don't want a big meal.
Or the thought of cooking makes you want to give up completely.
So don't necessarily start with a massive meal.
Start smaller.
A banana.
Yoghurt.
Toast.
Cereal.
Fruit.
A sandwich.
Oats.
A bar.
Something you know you like.
Something you know you tolerate.
Then eat again later.
The goal isn't perfection.
It's breaking the cycle of putting food off.
If persistent gastrointestinal symptoms or other issues are making it difficult to eat enough, that's something to discuss with an appropriate healthcare professional rather than simply trying to force your way through it.
Don't wait for the perfect meal
This might be the biggest practical lesson.
When you're busy, the perfect meal often doesn't happen.
So instead of:
“I need to make lunch.”
try:
“What can I eat right now?”
Maybe it's leftovers.
Maybe it's toast.
Maybe it's fruit and yoghurt.
Maybe it's a sandwich.
Maybe it's oats.
Maybe it's a snack now and a meal later.
Food doesn't have to be perfect to be useful.
Stop relying on memory
If forgetting to eat is the problem, remembering harder isn't necessarily the solution.
Build food into your environment.
Put it where you need it.
Desk.
Bag.
Gym kit.
Kitchen.
Work drawer.
Set a reminder.
Keep a few reliable foods around.
Have a plan for the days when your plan falls apart.
This isn't about constantly snacking.
It's about creating a safety net.
Because sometimes:
the meeting runs over.
the training session takes longer.
the kids need something.
the commute changes.
the deadline moves.
lunch disappears.
Sometimes the plan doesn't happen.
Create a “just in case” food kit
Think about the places where you regularly get stuck.
Your bag
Keep something portable and shelf-stable.
Your desk
Keep something you can eat without preparation.
Your gym kit
Have an option for when training runs over or you need something afterwards.
Your kitchen
Keep simple foods available for low-energy days.
Your car
If you keep food in your car, make sure it's appropriate for the temperature and storage conditions. Not everything belongs in a warm car.
The principle is simple:
Make the easy choice available.
And what about long training and racing?
This is where carbohydrate variety becomes really useful.
Imagine you're five hours into a long event.
You've already had:
gels.
drinks.
chews.
More gels.
And suddenly the thought of another sweet gel makes you feel sick.
You don't necessarily need to stop fuelling.
You might just need a different way of consuming carbohydrate.
Different textures.
Different flavours.
Different forms.
Something chewy.
Something solid.
Something that feels more like food.
That's why a long-event fuelling strategy can include:
gels
drinks
chews
bars
familiar foods
Food-first doesn't mean one thing.
It means having practical options.
Research and sports nutrition guidance support using a range of carbohydrate forms, with higher carbohydrate intakes for longer events where appropriate and tolerated.
And practise them.
Don't wait until race day to find out whether something works for your stomach.
We need to talk about the gap between planning and eating
This might actually be the biggest takeaway from the recent research.
We have spent years talking about:
What should athletes eat?
But perhaps we also need to ask:
Can athletes realistically eat that?
Can they prepare it?
Can they carry it?
Do they enjoy it?
Will they remember it?
Will they actually want it at 3pm?
Can they eat it between meetings?
Can they eat it after training?
Can they tolerate it?
Can they keep eating it for five hours?
Because a theoretically perfect nutrition plan isn't particularly useful if you can't implement it.
The 2025 female endurance study specifically concluded that practical, evidence-based interventions are needed to bridge the gap between nutrition knowledge and behaviour.
That's the gap we're interested in.
Food-first doesn't mean anti-sports nutrition
We don't think athletes need to choose between “real food” and sports nutrition.
Gels have a place.
Sports drinks have a place.
Chews have a place.
Bars have a place.
Everyday foods have a place.
The right choice depends on:
the sport,
the duration,
the intensity,
the athlete,
the environment,
the session,
the individual's gut,
and what they can realistically consume.
Food-first doesn't mean “never use sports nutrition.”
It means recognising that food can be practical fuel too.
So where does RED-Scue fit?
This is why I created RED-Scue.
Not because I wanted to create another product telling athletes what they should eat.
And not because I think one bar can solve someone's entire nutrition.
I wanted to create something that made the act of eating more practical when life gets busy.
Something that could sit between:
food and sports fuel.
Something food-first.
Something carbohydrate-focused.
Something you can actually carry.
Something you can keep in your bag.
On your desk.
In your gym kit.
Between work and training.
When lunch has disappeared.
When cooking feels like too much effort.
During longer training when you want something that feels more like food.
RED-Scue bars are made with ingredients including cassava, plantain and dates, providing around 38g of carbohydrate per bar.
Cassava and plantain might not be ingredients you've grown up eating.
That's okay.
They're staple carbohydrate foods in many parts of the world, and they're part of the reason we wanted RED-Scue to feel like food, rather than simply another piece of sports equipment.
Sometimes the hardest part of fuelling isn't knowing what to eat
It's actually eating.
It's stopping.
It's deciding.
It's preparing.
It's remembering.
It's having something available when the plan changes.
It's eating when you're busy.
It's eating when you're working.
It's eating when you're training.
It's eating when you're not training.
And sometimes, the solution isn't another complicated nutrition plan.
It's making food more practical.
8 ways to make fuelling more practical when life gets busy
1. Don't rely on memory
Set reminders.
Put food somewhere visible.
Keep something at your desk.
2. Have a no-prep option
Not every meal needs to involve cooking.
3. Don't wait for the perfect meal
Something now can be more useful than continually putting eating off.
4. Plan around training
Don't let training automatically replace lunch.
5. Think about the whole day
You don't need every snack to contain everything.
Look at your overall intake.
6. Build variety into long training
Different forms of carbohydrate can make it easier to keep eating.
7. Keep emergency food available
Bag.
Desk.
Gym kit.
Kitchen.
8. Reduce decisions
Have foods you know you like.
Repeat reliable meals.
Prepare when you have capacity.
And have something ready for when you don't.
These are simple things, but they're designed around one principle:
Make the act of eating practical.
You don't need to earn food through training
You don't need to wait until you're hungry enough.
You don't need to make every meal perfect.
You don't need to feel stupid because you forgot lunch.
And you don't need to turn nutrition into another performance metric.
You need enough food to support your body, your training, your recovery and your life.
Because food isn't another item you've failed to complete on your to-do list.
It's part of what allows you to do everything else on that list.
Training.
Working.
Studying.
Parenting.
Racing.
Living.
Make fuelling fit your actual life
We don't need more nutrition advice that assumes everyone has unlimited time, energy, preparation and mental space.
We need practical solutions for real people.
People who train before work.
People who train after work.
People who work from home.
People who have children.
People who study.
People who commute.
People who race.
People who are just trying to get through a busy week while still looking after themselves.
You don't need a perfect nutrition plan.
You need food you can actually eat.
Sometimes that means sitting down to a proper meal.
Sometimes it means preparing something in advance.
Sometimes it means a banana and yoghurt.
Sometimes it's toast.
Sometimes it's a sandwich.
Sometimes it's a bar.
Sometimes it's simply:
Eat something.
Then eat again later.
Start the cycle of fuelling rather than the cycle of putting it off.
That's the thinking behind RED-Scue.
Food-first carbohydrate fuel for real life and training.
Because sometimes the most useful thing you can have isn't another rule.
It's something you can actually eat.
Research referenced
- Fortis HO et al. (2025), Unintentional Underfuelling and Protein Prioritisation: A Multi-Methods Exploration of Nutrition Practices and Behaviours in Female Endurance Athletes, Nutrients, 17(23), 3773.
- Low energy availability in competitive male road cyclists: 50 cyclists, 28% identified with low energy availability and 44% with low lumbar-spine BMD.
- Lanpir et al. (2025), Under Consumed and Overestimated: Discrepancies in Race-Day Carbohydrate Intake Among Endurance Athletes: 60 non-elite endurance athletes, including 22 cyclists.
- Smith et al., carbohydrate dose-response study in 12 cyclists: 15, 30 and 60 g/hour compared during prolonged cycling.
- Endurance carbohydrate guidance: commonly 30–60 g/hour for 1–2.5 hours, with up to around 90 g/hour for longer events where appropriate and tolerated.
