I’ve been kicking around the idea of getting a sports nutritionist on my side to take my training and performance to the “next level”. I feel like I do an okay job with my diet and taking in the right supplements but feel a nutrionist would be able to really dial it in.
My main goals with this nutrionist would be:
Aid in recovery
Decrease inflammation in the body
Boost gut health
Boost the immune system
I’d like y’all’s perspective and experiences on working with a sports nutritionist.
Keep in mind a “nutritionist” needs no formal training and no two nutritionists will give you the same advice and some will even give conflicting advice.
If you go this route then I think you should find one that you can vet via other athletes who have had good results.
There is a lot of woo amongst nutritionists and not much hard science.
I can definitely say that a nutritionist can help, as I have it included with my coaching! But the most useful thing so far has been how much to fuel to work off the bike, when to focus on protein, how many carbs and when etc.
BUT, and this is big but! They won’t be cooking your meals. So regardless of nutritionist or not, it’s going to require you to have insane control of all ingredients etc. Eating out is hell when “on a diet” when it comes to nutrition.
Also from a cost perspective. Its actually not that hard to eat well… half plate veggies, lots of protein and carbs, keep saturated fat low, get fat from avocado, olive oil etc.
If you have rest day day after workout, focus on protein after workout and day after. Back to back workouts, focus on carbs.
The biggest thing is portion control, getting enough protein (which can be hard honestly)
So my advice is to make sure you’re doing 99% already before you start paying someone to tell you to eat your veggies and protein…
For me, I have questions regarding portion size at the moment, depending on workouts, so digging into that now with my coaches.
The rest is just weighing your food… and cooking everything from the ground up.
Good recommendations here already. The biggest thing for me was making sure I worked with someone who understood endurance sports. I worked with someone before who understood sports but not really to the extent of having to fuel workouts the way endurance sports needs!
I would tone down your enthusiasm of a nutritionist taking your “training and performance to the next level”. Unless your current diet is way off, this is very unlikely to happen. I would agree with what @Dubadai said above.
I recommend reading the Endurance diet by Matt Fitzgerald.
This might sound overly critical, but at least the last three points are not measurable and also not exactly proven. Unless you have clear issues, how are you going to know your immune system or your gut health has improved? Imo thats just asking to get hooked on all sorts of pseudoscience.
Improved recovery - yes maybe, but again I would think about a way that you can actually measure this.
Yep! Look for a registered dietitian (RD, RDN) with a specialization in sports nutrition (CSSN). I’m going to disagree with @Dubadai 's point that “the rest is just weighing your food”. Sure, tracking can be a short-term tool to help with achieving nutrition goals, but that’s not the most sustainable or realistic approach for many. An RD should be able to work with your specific goals, lifestyle, preferences, and other constraints. And for most people, nutrition is not just a series of numbers in and out. Food and diet are complex and intertwined with psychosocial factors.
Don’t let these guys talk you out of hiring someone.
That’s like saying to not get a coach because you could spend 100 hours reading about training and design your own plan. Or you could just use TrainerRoad instead of hiring a coach.
Sure, it’s best to read and learn but you can also have someone put you on a good path now rather than taking years to get there.
If anyone wants to do deep dives into sports nutrition I recommend this podcast. There hasn’t been a new episode in a long time but they provide good info and they go deep. They are climbing focused which is similar to cycling since it’s a power to weight sport:
Yea probably a little stating with that. Thanks for the recommendation!
I disagree you can take a CRP blood test for inflammation and I bet there are markers for immune health. understand where you’re coming from and trying to get at and this was exactly the type of feedback / challenge to my post I was looking for.
Thanks for the recommendation, I’ll take a listen to the podcast!