The Fuelled Female

Poppy Hawe

The Fuelled Female Podcast is for women who train hard, think bigger than fat loss, and want to live fully - with energy, strength, and clarity. Hosted by Poppy (MSc, Sport Nutritionist & Performance Coach at NutriFit), this is where evidence meets empathy and real-life results. Expect raw conversations on fuelling, training, cycle health, mindset & recovery - plus unfiltered Q&As from our WhatsApp group. For active women who want more than macros and burnout. You’re not broken. You’re under-fueled. 🧠 Join us: chat.whatsapp.com/JC6gwH6HWpvD9BH5LMMpHG 📲 @poppy.nfc

  1. 4d ago

    Why Your Head Is What's Actually Limiting Your Running

    Why Your Head Is What's Actually Limiting Your Running Your legs aren't always the thing holding you back. Sometimes, it's your head. In the final episode of the running series, we're diving into the mental side of running — from ego and Strava comparisons to the very different skill of learning to push when things get genuinely hard. Because there are times when you need to get your ego out of the way: slowing down your easy runs, ignoring what everyone else is doing, and trusting your training plan. But there are also times when you need to strengthen your mind. When your legs are fried halfway through a peak-week long run. When you look at an interval pace and think, there's absolutely no way I'm doing that. When a race starts hurting and your brain immediately tells you to slow down. Running isn't supposed to feel easy all the time. The right training programme should challenge you — and learning that hard doesn't automatically mean bad is a huge part of becoming a better runner. We'll talk about race-day anxiety, negative splits, comparison, Strava, confidence, handling races that don't go to plan, and why every difficult session gives you another piece of evidence that you can do hard things. Because confidence doesn't come from telling yourself you're capable. It comes from proving it to yourself, run after run. Message me on instagram @poppy.nfc if you've enjoyed these running episodes or would ike to know more about the Half Marathon Program.

    Why Your Head Is What's Actually Limiting Your Running
  2. Sep 8

    Race Day Nutrition: Everything You Need to Fuel a Half Marathon From the Night Before to the Finish Line

    You've trained hard. Done the sessions. Shown up consistently. This episode is about making sure you don't get the fuelling wrong on the day that actually matters. Because that's where most mistakes happen. Not in the training block. On race day itself, or in the 48 hours before it. And almost always it's not because women didn't try — it's because nobody gave them the specifics. Not the vague eat more carbs advice. The actual numbers, the actual timing, the actual decisions that separate a race that reflects your training from one that falls apart in the second half. In this episode Poppy covers everything from the night before to the finish line. Why carb loading and calorie loading are completely different things and which one most women accidentally do. What to eat the night before and why the night before a race is not the time to try a new restaurant. Race morning timing, quantities, and the small top-up 15 to 20 minutes before the start that most women skip. Why 30 grams of carbs per 30 minutes during the race is the target and why one gel for a two-hour run is not enough. The carbohydrate oxidation study that found one female runner burned 120 grams of carbs per hour at half marathon pace. Why gut training is non-negotiable and how to build it across your training block. And what changes if race day lands in your luteal phase. Nothing vague. Just the specifics. Running series episode three. Episodes one and two are live now. Fuel Her Fire 2.0 is open — 12 week progressive half marathon programme with bi-weekly check-ins. £299. DM HALF to @poppy.nfc on Instagram.

    Race Day Nutrition: Everything You Need to Fuel a Half Marathon From the Night Before to the Finish Line
  3. Sep 2

    How to Train and Race Around Your Cycle: The Performance Edge Most Women Are Ignoring

    You're not going crazy. The same session genuinely does feel completely different depending on the week. And if nobody has ever explained why, this episode is for you. In this episode Poppy breaks down exactly how your menstrual cycle affects your running performance from a sports science perspective — not a wellness one. How oestrogen and progesterone create four genuinely different physiological environments across the month, what that means for your heart rate, fuel utilisation, recovery, thermoregulation and sleep — and the practical nutrition and lifestyle tools you can use across each phase to keep your training intensity without burning out. Including why a 10k run in the luteal phase might need a gel when the same run in the follicular phase needs nothing. Why your zone 2 pace being 30 seconds slower in week three isn't your fitness dropping. Why highly symptomatic periods might be a deficiency problem as much as a cycle problem. And what to actually do when race day lands in your luteal phase. This isn't cycle syncing. It's practical adaptation, the tools in the toolbox that make each phase more manageable so you can stay consistent across a full training block. Running series episode two. Episode one, What Actually Gets You From Good to Fast — is live now if you haven't listened yet. Fuel Her Fire 2.0 launches September 15th. 12-week progressive half marathon programme with cycle-aware nutrition, RPE and pace calculators, and bi-weekly check-ins. DM HALF to @poppy.nfc to secure your space — limited numbers.

    How to Train and Race Around Your Cycle: The Performance Edge Most Women Are Ignoring
  4. Aug 19

    Why Eating More Is What Finally Gets You That Leaner Physique: The Body Recomposition Engine

    One of my clients messaged me last week - "How and why is it working? Like why does eating more allow the body to become leaner yet build muscle at the same time?" And I love this question because it sounds like it shouldn't make sense. Eat more, get leaner and build muscle? Surely that's backwards? It's not. But the reason it works is more interesting than most people realise. In this episode Poppy breaks down the three conditions that have to be met simultaneously for body recomposition to happen, why your body's survival mechanisms actively work against fat loss when you're chronically underfed, why you have to cover the cost of your baseline day before your body has any spare capacity to build anything, and why training quality is the silent variable that most women are getting wrong. Including the business investment analogy that makes the whole mechanism click, why crash dieting produces smaller but softer not leaner and stronger, and what consistently eating enough actually looks like in practice, not unlimited food, but matched to the real cost of your training life. This is not an eat more and everything will be fine episode. It's the engine underneath body recomposition, why it works, what's actually happening, and why so many women are stuck not because they're doing the wrong training but because they've been trying to outperform underfuelling for years. 📩 Comment STRONG on Poppy's latest post for coaching details. Comment FUEL for the full fuelling guide. DM @poppy.nfc with questions.

    Why Eating More Is What Finally Gets You That Leaner Physique: The Body Recomposition Engine
  5. Aug 12

    Protein: Everything You Think You Know Is Probably Half Right

    Protein is the macro women fear least. Which makes it the one most likely to be overused, mistimed, and blamed for the wrong things. This episode isn't eat more protein and here are some chicken breast ideas. It's the honest conversation about what happens when protein becomes the safe macro women cling to when everything else feels unsafe — and what happens when that approach collides with hard training. In this episode Poppy breaks down why eating 160g of protein on 1,600 calories leaves no room for carbohydrates, why keeping protein high and adding carbs is calorie loading not carb loading, the difference between diet phase protein logic and performance phase protein logic, and why applying the wrong one to the wrong phase is why so many training women feel off despite doing everything right. Covers: how much protein you actually need and how it changes by phase · the portion reality check (two eggs is not a high protein meal) · why a high protein breakfast is consistently the single highest leverage change Poppy makes with clients — and why the effect shows up within days not weeks · why protein before high intensity cardio is working against you · the luteal phase protein anchor · what happens to runners who keep protein high without upping carbs · protein pairing for plant-based women · and why red meat deserves a better reputation than it gets. 📩 Comment FUEL on Poppy's latest post for the full fuelling guide. Comment HYBRID for the hybrid training and fuelling framework. DM @poppy.nfc with questions.

    Protein: Everything You Think You Know Is Probably Half Right

About

The Fuelled Female Podcast is for women who train hard, think bigger than fat loss, and want to live fully - with energy, strength, and clarity. Hosted by Poppy (MSc, Sport Nutritionist & Performance Coach at NutriFit), this is where evidence meets empathy and real-life results. Expect raw conversations on fuelling, training, cycle health, mindset & recovery - plus unfiltered Q&As from our WhatsApp group. For active women who want more than macros and burnout. You’re not broken. You’re under-fueled. 🧠 Join us: chat.whatsapp.com/JC6gwH6HWpvD9BH5LMMpHG 📲 @poppy.nfc

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