To prepare for the cold-weather months, Montreal endurance athlete Emmanuelle-Salambo Deguara tracks her shifting nutrition needs, hydration and energy use with apps and wearables. “For the same run in the winter, I’m going to spend more energy than in the summer,” she says.Andrej Ivanov
On misty mornings, over crisp lunch breaks and even during work meetings Emmanuelle-Salambo Deguara is out running.
An endurance athlete and co-founder of the global running community The 6 AM Club, the Montreal lawyer views the cold months ahead as a chance to sharpen her resilience and deepen her self-awareness.
“When I go for a run and it’s dark, I feel like I’m the only one outside,” says Ms. Deguara, 29. “I just have to dress well and enjoy the moment.”
Currently training for a 320-kilometre ultramarathon in the Canadian Rockies on September 12 – an undertaking few can relate to – she’s also part of a growing trend using technology to track and optimize her health.
As the colder months approach, she pays close attention to shifting nutritional needs, water intake and energy expenditure, all tracked with the help of apps and wearable devices.
“I’m very, very into tech,” says Ms. Deguara, who never goes anywhere without her smartwatch. “It’s almost a part of my body now.”
Monitoring shifts in activity through wearables
While many Canadians slow down as the weather cools, others become more active, having waited with anticipation to head out on autumn hikes or get back on the slopes.
Wearable tech like Apple or Garmin watches, Fitbit, the Whoop Band or the Oura Ring helps users track calories burned, sleep quality and overall body strain. This data can guide adjustments to nutrition accordingly.
Even without a change in activity, your fuel needs are likely to change during colder months.
“For the same run in the winter, I’m going to spend more energy than in the summer,” says Ms. Deguara. “You’re fighting the elements, your body needs to remain warm, so you’re going to use more energy.”
Every time I feel like something is weird, I look at my stats.
— Emmanuelle-Salambo Deguara, endurance athlete
The extra exertion makes it even more important to pay attention to greater nutritional needs. Halifax-based registered dietitian Carol-Ann Robert recommends listening to your hunger cues first and foremost, although that adjustment isn’t always easy.
Wearables and other tech that track your activity in relation to your food intake can be a useful tool, she says.
Like Ms. Robert, Ms. Deguara says she prioritizes listening to her body, using smartwatch data as a check if something feels off or when she gets an alert about a change.
“I adjust my nutrition daily based on how much I train,” she says. “I used to not adapt it much, but now I’m very mindful about what I consume and what I expend and adjust it as much as possible.”
She also uses her smartwatch to monitor her sleep. “Depending on my heart-rate variability, my level of stress and fatigue, I might adjust my next run accordingly,” she says.
Sleep can also play a role in nutrition, particularly when it comes to digestion, says Ms. Robert.
“When people are less active and less relaxed, they’re more likely to have digestive issues,” she says.
Sleep and digestion connection
A decline in sleep quality reported by your wearable tracker may help explain digestive upset. For those experiencing digestive issues, Ms. Robert recommends Monash University’s Low FODMAP Diet App, which helps users identify whether foods are low or high in a group of short-chain carbohydrates the small intestine struggles to absorb.
Not all seasonal nutrition changes show up on your smartwatch, says Ottawa-based naturopathic doctor Emma Pollon-MacLeod.
“The most obvious change is poor vitamin D from less sun exposure,” she says.
Lower vitamin D levels can affect mood and cause brain fog, especially once stores are depleted later in the fall, Dr. Pollon-MacLeod notes.
As the colder months roll in, she also sees more people affected by skin conditions or irritation.
“The dryness in the air really impacts skin barriers,” she says. To counteract this, she recommends increasing consumption of fish oils that contain omega-3 fatty acids, which are known to combat inflammation. Water intake is also key, she adds, and hydration should be maintained year-round.
Some health apps, such as the Canadian app Cronometer, allow users to set specific nutrient goals in addition to providing overall data.
According to Cronometer’s lead nutrition scientist, Karen Stark, the app’s immunity score function can be particularly helpful in the lead-up to cold and flu season.
“There are a lot of nutrients that support all the functions we need to prevent infections,” says Ms. Stark. “We bundled them to make it easier to for users to understand.”
Other popular nutrition tracking apps include MyFitness Pal or Yuka, a mobile app for scanning food products for nutritional information.
Cronometer and similar apps can sync with wearables to pair food tracking with physical activity and sleep stats – useful for spotting patterns behind energy dips or mood shifts.
Motivation can dip as temperatures drop
If you’re looking for motivation in colder months, Ms. Robert says some people respond especially well to gamified app features. The popular water-consumption tracker Waterllama, for example, motivates users by letting them “fill up” a cartoon llama as they hydrate throughout the day.
When it comes to using tech to support health and nutrition, Dr. Pollon-Macleod reminds patients to check in with themselves first.
“What would you say if you couldn’t see a score?” she says. “It’s a way to validate your connection to your body: Ask yourself first, and then check it.”
Ms. Deguara takes that approach. Whether tracking a run or monitoring her nutrition, she says she lets the data support but not dictate her choices. “Every time I feel like something is weird, I look at my stats,” she says. “I ask myself, ‘Do I need to rest?’ or ‘Do I need to eat more?’
“It’s a tool that is part of my training,” she adds. “If you do horseback riding, you need a horse, when I do run, I need my shoes and my watch.”
