If you can’t live your life, your training isn’t working – food, cardio & capacity with Libby Wescombe

I sat down with my girl, Libby Wescombe (her 6th time on the pod — because every time she evolves, we evolve with her), and we went ALL the way in on the conversation women aren’t having out loud: food, disordered eating, tracking, cardio, capacity, nervous system, and why so many women are exhausted doing “all the right things.”

We talk about how tracking went from helpful tool to identity, why 95% of women are sitting somewhere on the disordered eating spectrum, and how the industry quietly taught us to outsource our hunger, our cues, and our power to an app.

Then we flip it.

Lib walks us through her shift from “macros as a lifestyle” to building women who can actually live their lives — women with an aerobic base, emotional regulation, and a relationship with food that isn’t built on fear.

We go hard on this idea of capacity:If your nervous system can’t handle your life, it can’t handle your training.If you can’t recover from your day, of course you can’t recover from your deadlifts.

This episode is part intervention, part blueprint.

If you’ve ever struggled with tracking, food obsession, overwhelm, burnout, poor recovery, or feeling like your body is “not responding,” this conversation is going to crack something open for you girl.

This one is for the woman who wants to build muscle, get strong, train hard, and live a big life — without falling apart in the process.

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Key Takeaways

Most women don’t have a food problem — they have a

relationship

problem. Tracking didn’t fail you. The industry taught you to outsource your hunger, your cues, and your confidence to an app.

Disordered eating isn’t rare — it’s the norm. 95% of women are living somewhere on the continuum without realising it.






A strong body is built on behaviours, not rules. Women who maintain strength, muscle, and ease don’t rely on hacks — they live a different kind of life.






Internal boundaries are the missing piece. Not macro targets, not fasting windows, not food rules. Your own hunger, satisfaction, rhythm, and awareness.






Your aerobic base is your recovery system. If you can’t recover from life, you won’t recover from lifting. Capacity isn’t optional — it’s the engine for everything.






Strength and cardio aren’t in competition — they are co-conspirators. One builds the muscle. The other builds the woman who can keep it.






Overwhelm isn’t a personal flaw — it’s a lack of strategy. You’re not tired because you can’t handle it. You’re tired because no one taught you

how

to handle it.

You can’t skim your way into a different body. At some point you have to stop consuming and start marinating — in a method, in the work, in yourself.

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Quotes

“If you can’t not track, the problem isn’t your macros — it’s your relationship with food.” — Amy

“Your capacity for life is your capacity for training. If you can’t handle your life, why would your body handle the training you’re asking of it?” — Libby

“Tracking is a tool, like a deadlift. We’ve just put it on a pedestal and built our whole identity around it.” — Libby

“Women don’t need more rules. They need a relationship with their body that they actually trust.” — Amy

“You don’t have a training problem or a food problem. You have a strategy problem.” — Amy

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Resources Mentioned

Book: The Rules of Normal Eating — Karen R. Koenig

Research: Eating Disorder Continuum & Disordered Eating Spectrum

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Connect with Libby

Instagram: @libbywescombe

Membership: Monthly Fuel

Lifestyle Lean Program

Connect with Amy

Instagram: @amykatebowe

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THE WOMEN WHO TRAIN SURVEY

Is this you?

A woman in her 40s who’s doing all the right things — lifting, walking, fuelling — but still not seeing the strength, shape, or confidence you expected because you’re not sure what the right thing is for your body, in the right way, at the right time?

If yes, I’d love you to complete this short survey.

Please complete the survey by December 14th '25 to go into the draw to win a 60-minute 1:1 Build Your 2026 Body Strategy Session with me — plus a limited-edition Warrior School sweater for one lucky runner-up.

Link to survey

https://amy639434.typeform.com/to/ciB5yQlH

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