OM DENNE EPISODE
Amanda Theodore is training for the 2028 Olympic Trials marathon with Pop-Tarts before most runs and a hard lesson about what happens when athletes eat too little instead of too much.
Amanda joins Dr. Andrew Fix for a conversation about marathon training that moves well past splits and mileage logs. She talks openly about the eating disorder she developed at Duke, the femoral neck stress fracture that followed, and why she waited until she had recovered from disordered eating before starting her path toward becoming a sports dietitian. What does recovery actually look like when your sport depends on discipline around eating? For Amanda, it means dropping the all-or-nothing mindset entirely. Dessert most days, a gluten-free Pop Tart before runs, a four-to-one carb-to-protein shake after them. The science stays in place. The rigidity does not.
She and Dr. Fix dig into why under-fueling carries far greater risk than over-fueling, especially for young athletes still figuring out what their bodies need, and why disordered eating patterns often hide behind the language of discipline. Amanda shares how routine bloodwork caught low ferritin levels early in her marathon buildup and how she scaled back training for three weeks rather than push through it. The two also trade notes on the unglamorous habits that keep athletes healthy enough to show up on race day, the warm-ups, cool-downs, and few minutes of mobility work on the living room floor. As Amanda puts it, getting to the start line healthy is sometimes the harder win.
Quotes
- "If you feel like you need help, you need help." (11:20 | Amanda Theodore)
- "It's really hard to overeat as an athlete, and it's really easy to undereat, and the consequences of undereating are much greater than the consequences of overeating." (39:51 | Amanda Theodore)
- "When you're talking about overeating and under-eating, I think society pushes a lot of weight with that. But how are your labs looking?" (44:13 | Amanda Theodore)
- "You can't just have a supplement and expect that it's going to fix everything." (50:13 | Amanda Theodore)
- "If you have a goal, don't let anybody tell you that you can't do it." (51:30 | Amanda Theodore)
Links
Connect with Amanda Theodore:
Tracksmith Stamata: Team Biographies
Amanda Theodore is an elite marathon runner and dietetics graduate student living and training in Colorado. After competing for Duke University and Florida State University in college, she set new goals at the marathon distance, running a personal best of 2:34 at the 2025 Boston Marathon. She has since qualified for the 2028 US Olympic Trials in the marathon and competes for Tracksmith Stamata. She is passionate about nutrition, with her perspective having been shaped by years of learning how proper fueling and recovery can contribute to a sustainable and fulfilling athletic career.
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