DrLilia Convit Cordova

Taken collectively, Lilia’s research seeks to better understand how humans respond, adapt, and maintain performance during exposure to environmental, physiological, and nutritional stressors. Her work is particularly focused on heat stress, hydration, thermoregulation, dietetic interventions, and sex-specific physiological responses, with an emphasis on translating mechanistic and laboratory-based findings into practical strategies for sport, occupational, and field-based settings.

Her early research examined hydration and cooling strategies in female endurance athletes, exploring how menstrual cycle-related hormonal changes may influence fluid balance, thermoregulatory strain, and exercise performance in the heat. This work strengthened her interest in female physiology and highlighted the importance of considering sex-specific and individual responses when developing performance, recovery, and safety strategies.

Lilia has since extended this expertise to broader applied environmental physiology, including controlled heat-exposure protocols, physiological monitoring, sweat and hydration assessment, and the evaluation of clothing ensembles and protective garments during work and exercise in hot conditions. Her research aims to support individuals who are required to perform in challenging environments by identifying practical strategies to reduce heat strain, improve tolerance, and optimise performance.

As a Sports Dietitian, Lilia’s research also explores food-first dietary interventions to support health, performance, recovery, and well-being across active and clinical populations. This includes investigating the role of nutrient-rich foods in sleep, appetite, body composition, symptoms, and broader markers of health during life stages such as the menopausal transition, as well as examining strategies to improve long-chain omega-3 intake and related physiological outcomes. Across this work, she is interested in developing practical nutrition strategies that are acceptable, feasible, and translatable beyond controlled research settings.

Her skills span controlled laboratory trials, environmental chamber testing, field-based data collection, body composition assessment, dietary intervention design, and applied monitoring approaches. Across her work, Lilia integrates physiological, perceptual, behavioural, dietary, and performance outcomes to generate evidence that is scientifically robust and directly useful to athletes, practitioners, heat-exposed workers, and broader community populations.