Sports nutrition’s blind spot: where are the women in the research?
Women buy, use and receive advice about sports nutrition, yet much of the evidence behind that advice still comes from studies dominated by men. These articles examine the gap, what it means for supplements such as creatine and why better representation matters for every woman who trains.
The evidence gap behind everyday advice
Sports-nutrition advice often sounds universal. Look behind it, however, and many studies were conducted mainly, or entirely, with male participants.
That does not make every earlier finding irrelevant to women. It means we need to know who was studied, under what conditions and whether the conclusions have also been tested in women. Better representation creates better questions, more useful answers and more precise sports nutrition.
Who is actually represented?
A 2025 systematic review examined 46 studies involving 928 elite athletes. Around 60% of the participants were men, while only 10% of the included studies focused on female athletes. The research was also concentrated in a limited selection of sports.
A Science News analysis previously found that women represented only 3% of participants in performance studies once one unusually large marathon study was removed from the calculation.
The point is not that women are too complicated to study. It is that research becomes more useful when the people expected to use the findings are represented in the data.
NutraIngredients · Performance supplements
“Significant knowledge gaps for female athletes and certain sports”
This 2025 article covers a systematic review of 46 studies and 928 elite athletes. It shows how supplement research remains concentrated in male athletes and a relatively narrow range of sports.
The Guardian · Creatine and women
“The creatine conundrum: can it really help your muscles and your brain?”
The Guardian examines the established evidence for creatine in high-intensity performance alongside emerging research into cognition, ageing and women’s health. It also distinguishes promising questions from conclusions that still need stronger evidence.
NutraIngredients · Where are the women?
“Where are the women in sports nutrition research?”
A candid look at why women have been underrepresented in sports-nutrition research and how researchers are beginning to examine the imbalance in their own published work.
The Washington Post · Creatine under the microscope
“Should I take a creatine supplement? Here’s what the science says.”
The newspaper examines the creatine boom by asking what randomised trials were designed to measure, which populations were studied and how far their conclusions can reasonably be taken.
American Physiological Society · The gender gap
“The Gender Gap”
Exercise physiologists explain why performance models developed mainly from male data cannot always simply be scaled down and applied to women. The article also explores what better representation could mean for the entire field.
Science News · Counting who gets studied
“Women in sports are often underrepresented in science”
This analysis counted participants across sports-science studies and found that the gap was especially pronounced in performance research, the same research often used to shape training and nutrition advice.
Women should be visible in the evidence
The Daily Performance was developed for women who train. That makes one principle essential to us: we distinguish between well-supported nutrition claims and questions science is still working to answer.
We use authorised EU health claims, state ingredient forms and amounts clearly, and avoid borrowing certainty from research that did not adequately include women. Good sports nutrition begins with knowing both what the evidence shows and who the evidence represents.
- Yu T, Ding C. Efficacy of dietary supplements on sports performance outcomes: a systematic review of evidence in elite athletes. Frontiers in Nutrition, 2025
- Science News. Women in sports are often underrepresented in science. Published 25 May 2016
Last updated September 2026. Links lead to the respective publishers. Power Woman has no commercial relationship with them.
Built to last, inside and out.