This time of year athletes are struggling to lose weight they gained over the holiday, fall, winter, “out of season” months. I used to be one of them. I see comments, questions and posts on facebook about the best nutrition book, how to loose “X” amount of pounds, how to reach race weight. Ask 10 people how they are successful with weight maintenance and you will get 10 different answers. Today, someone posted on my timeline an article that eating bacon prolonged your life, seriously!!!!! Unfortunately not the life of the pigs. When searching for fitness and nutrition information, always look at the source and context of information before you jump on any bandwagon regarding weight loss and nutrition.

Nutrition and sport can ofter creates confusing for coaches and athletes. I am talking about nutrition as the platform of healthy eating and living, breakfast, lunch, dinner and fueling, the calories you intake during and after a training session. I believe that fueling for training and race intake is different then nutrition, calories you consume in every day life

A few key components of each

Fueling is not only important to perform well and get though a session, taking in enough calories to to manage stress will help your performance and facilitate proper recovery, enabling you to be able to string together consistence training and suppress stress that the workout created,   to prevent athletic starvation and set up a good platform for the rest of your daily nutrition,

Nutrition is what you eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks.  The  building blocks of solid nutrition include lean meats and proteins, healthy oils and fats and fruits and veggies for vitamins and minerals. If you succeed in fueling and getting in enough calories during and after, it opens up for you to be successful eating plan though out the day

Athletes looking to loss weight and improve body composition, often are most successful doing so when they cut down on training and eat more. Keeping a food log is important to not only to see if you are eating too much, often a good eye opener to see if you are not eating enough. Athletes who train for a 70.3 and 140.6 event are more often then not under fueled and not taking in enough nutrition to maintain lean body mass and can struggle with losing body fat.

When it comes to nutrition there are so many plans on the market. Many popular plants include but are not limited to : Vegan, Paleo, Metabolic Efficiency, Plant Based, High Fat/Low Carb/High protein.  I believe every diet works for someone.  If you look into many of the successful plans, they all  limit processed foods and offer portion control systems. I believed the key to sustainable weight, lean body, and perform to your potential,  include whole foods (fruits, veggies, lean meats, healthy fats, whole grains)  not over eat and not eliminating a macro-nutrient. If you dont know what a macro-nutrient is, what whole and processed foods are or have questions about your current nutrition, please send me an email and I can get you in touch with the experts if I am not able to help you..

Although I am registered dietitian, I did my Masters Thesis on “Eating, Training and Prevalence of Disordered Eating Among Triathletes”,  and have been training for triathlon for 25 years. I have tried all the above nutrition plans mentioned and found the eating plant based vegan works for me.   If you are part of the masses that struggle to loss weight, like I once did, I offer my advice below.

1. Seek out advice from friends and “experts” and then do your own research on their advice
2. Get your body compostion tested so you know how much body fat you have to lose.
3. Ask yourself when the last time you weighed what your current goal weight is and is that goal weight realistic
4. Consult with your local Registered Dietitian.
5. Keep a food log, there are many apps, most popular is myfitnesspal.com
6. What works for me, may not work for you. If you want to learn more about eating plant based, vegan, I can share recipes and how I made the shift and why and well as many articles I have keep over the years.
7. Make small changes, over time, will create long lasting healthy eating habits.
8. The Book “State of Slim” teaches you how to reset your metabolism and I have had many athletes change their lifestyle.

If you follow the above guidelines,  you will not see a quick fix. Over time you will create a  lifestyle that works for you, your goals and your training.  

Please reach out to me wit questions, comments or concerns.