Stacy Sims, Ph.D., is an Exercise Physiologist and Sport Nutritionist at Stanford University.
Dr. Sims is a long time endurance athlete, from cross country running in her teens, racing Crew for Purdue in undergrad, ultra running in graduate school, Ironman in her late twenties, to currently tearing it up on the road cycling scene. She has always had an interest in sports, health, and nutrition, hence her drive for education in the field. Dr. Sims was racing competitively in Ironman for New Zealand prior to starting her Ph.D. in thermoregulation and hydration. She promised herself she would give up Ironman for the duration of her Ph.D. – but not riding her bike. During her time at Otago University she discovered the true road racing scene and has never turned back. Starting as a newbie, she quickly raced her way into the elite race scene of New Zealand, racing nationally and internationally in the World Cup races the southern hemisphere.
Dr. Sims made the move to the Bay Area in March 2007 when recruited to work as the exercise physiologist in the human performance lab at Stanford University. She has since made the move to (disease) prevention research to continue her studies in thermoregulation and nutrition across all populations (sedentary obese individuals to elite athletes). Outside of Stanford Dr. Sims works with individual endurance athletes to find the optimal formulae of hydration and nutrition to succeed in their sport. Currently she is a consultant for Team RadioShack and Dr. Allen Lim, individuals of TeamTibco and Webcor professional women’s cycling, Matt Dixon of PurplePatchFitness, and Craig Upton of PerformanceLabsHC. She worked with Garmin-Slipstream for the 2009 Tour de France and USACycling West Coast Development camps.
Her philosophy is exercise stress adaptations and nutrition go hand-in-hand, thus knowing the explicit demands of each mode-duration-intensity of exercise will predict which nutritional alterations will benefit the individual the most – be it performance, injury prevention, rehabilitation, or general health. Dr. Sims finds the best balance in life is working and living what you know and love, and is fortunate to have found a balance between research and (personal) athletic endeavours.