Weight loss without dieting

One of the most common New Year resolution is weight loss (or changing body composition). If you are feeling dissatisfied with your body, wanting to improve your health or feeling tempted to lose weight fast, you may be thinking that a diet, calorie restriction or extreme exercise is the solution.

A desire to lose weight coupled with body dissatisfaction can easily turn unhealthy and dangerous. It's easy to take a diet too far. It's not uncommon for people to make extreme changes - like not eating grains, dairy, sugars and processed foods - severely restricting calories and nutrients all in the name of weight loss. A "diet" may offer quick fixes and a black and white method of dictating what you can and can not eat, but the truth is that these methods are extreme and impossible to maintain in the long term. Plus, they teach you nothing about changing your lifestyle habits which is how long lasting weight loss is achieved.

You can take a pill, injection, supplement, purchase a meal replacement kit, fast for 8-12 hours or follow a fad diet but if your weight loss method isn't sustainable, the weight loss you achieved will not last. Furthermore, with many extreme weight loss methods, there may be long term risks associated. It's easy to think that weight loss will happen easily from eating less and exercising more but maintaining a healthy weight means making sustainable habit changes. 

Here are some practical tips to help you eat healthier without the constraints of dieting:

1. Embrace whole foods

• Fruits and Vegetables - make sure your plate shows color variety
• Whole Grains and potatoes - choose brown rice, quinoa, oats, and potatoes.
• Lean Proteins - incorporate beans, lentils, fish, chicken and tofu.

2. Eat slowly and mindfully

• Take your time to savor each bite.
• Look forward to something at every meal.
• Limit distractions while eating (ex. avoid eating in front of the TV, while reading, scrolling social media, in the car, etc.)
• Pay attention to your hunger and satisfaction cues.

3. Stay Hydrated

• Carry a water bottle with you as a reminder to drink. 
• Add a slice of citrus fruit, a splash of fruit juice, cucumber or mint to add flavor to plain water.

4. Adopt a positive relationship with food

• Avoiding Labeling Foods as "Good" or "Bad" as this can lead to guilt and unhealthy eating habits.
• Focusing on eating for fuel, nourishment and joy. Think about how foods make you feel and how they fuel your body.
• Induldge responsibly to prevent feelings of deprivation and the tendency to overeat.

5. Plan and Prepare Meals and Snacks

• Set aside time once or twice a week to prepare meals and snacks.
• Create a grocery list to help with meal planning (and to avoid impulse buys).
• Don't go more than a few hours without eating. 

A weight loss journey reminder

The way you feel about your body can fluctuate over time. So can your body shape, weight and size. It's normal for your body to change throughout your lifespan.

However, at any one time, more than 160 million Americans are on a diet. The human body is designed to protect you from extreme weight loss and starvation. Losing weight is not easy because it is a complex and multi-faceted journey. 

I am a anti-diet, body positive sport dietitian. I accept all bodies and I never tell athletes that they need to lose weight in order to improve performance. Even if an athlete comes to me wanting to lose weight, I never make weight the primary focus.Before you set out on your effort to lose weight, make sure you keep the following in mind. 

• You may long for a flatter stomach, leaner arms and slimmer thighs but looking a certain way or dieting your way to a smaller version of yourself will not make you happy - or happier. You can lose weight and struggle with your mental health, experience joint pain, find it difficult to run or bike up hills, not like the way that you look and lack self confidence. If you are struggling with your body image, unhappy with your weight or in pursuit of the ideal body, a different body will not give you love, acceptance, a better relationship, a more enjoyable career, a more enriching social life, fulfilment or self worth. Weight loss alone isn’t a prescription for happiness. Your weight does not determine your self-worth. Your body does not define who you are. Dieting into a new body and making yourself smaller won’t make you happier.
  
  
• In a world where unrealistic body standards are everywhere, developing a positive relationship with your body and a healthy relationship with food can be challenging. It's easy to compare yourself to others, believing that losing weight will make you healthier or achieving a specific body composition will make you a better athlete. In our body obsessed culture, which normalizes disordered eating patterns, it's easy to prioritize appearance over health. Negative self-talk is one of the biggest barriers to body acceptance. It's very difficult to want to take care of (and respect) something that you hate.
  
  
• Dieting can easily turn unhealthy and dangerous. It's easy to take a diet too far. It's not uncommon for people to make extreme changes - like not eating grains, dairy, sugars and processed foods - severely restricting calories and nutrients all in the name of weight loss. A "diet" may offer quick fixes and a black and white method of dictating what you can and can not eat but the truth is that these methods are extreme and impossible to maintain in the long term. Plus, they teach you nothing about changing your lifestyle habits which is how long lasting weight loss is achieved.
  
  
• Sustainable weight loss means making sustainable habit changes. You can take a pill, injection, supplement, purchase a meal replacement kit, fast for 8-12 hours or follow a fad diet. But if your weight loss method isn't sustainable, the weight loss you achieved will not last. Furthermore, with many extreme weight loss methods, there may be long term risks associated. It's easy to think that weight loss happens from eating less and exercising more but adopting and maintaining healthy behaviors is key to living a long and healthy life. 
  
  
• Health is physical and mental. Although changing your eating behaviors may improve your physical health, your efforts to change your body should not bring on mental fatigue. Overthinking your food choices, counting and recording every calorie consumed and constantly feeling deprived are not ways to improve mental health. More so, when you are severely restricting your food, you will be fatigued, hungry and only able to focus on food. 
  
  
• It is hard to feel good about yourself if you hate your body. And if you hate your body, it's hard to take care of yourself. Because weight is so closely connected to self-esteem, when you feel bad about yourself, you are more likely to overeat or under-eat. Your thoughts about food matter. Seeing food as an enemy can make it difficult for you to eat for fuel and nourishment. In our diet-crazed society, constantly eating too little, eating too much and never eating with pleasure can cause serious physical health issues. Undereating and a cycle of restriction and binging can have serious mental effects, especially when this style of eating becomes a way of life. Considering everything your body can do and everything it does for you, it's so easy to take your body for granted - especially when you are having a "bad body image day." (yes - that's a thing and it's normal). It isn’t until your body stops working properly (sickness, injury, illness) that you really begin to appreciate the greatness of your body. The body is complex and is constantly changing. Every day your body is adjusting to it’s environment and the stress placed on it. As you move through life, you will experience many wonderful changes - intellectually, spiritually and emotionally. It’s only natural and normal that your body will change along with you.

Avoid These Common New Year Weight Loss Strategies

 

When it comes to eating, it's not uncommon to have developed a few unhealthy habits over the years. For example, relying too much on caffeine to survive work, using alcohol as a reward after a stressful day or frequent eating out because you forgot to meal prep.

When it comes to the New Year, it's not uncommon to want to make a dietary change, especially if there is a desire to change body composition or to lose weight.

However, it's not uncommon for athletes and fitness enthusiasts to make radical dietary changes. While short term weight loss may result, fad diets and extreme dietary methods are not linked to long term weight loss or health benefits. Rather, following a fad diet increases the risk of disordered eating which increases the risk of developing an eating disorder. And eating disorders are mental illnesses that have serious physical consequences.

If you seek a dietary change for health, performance and/or weight loss, it's important to take a mindful approach. Instead of making drastic changes, here are a few realistic healthy eating changes to foster long-term results.

Should a coach tell an athlete to lose weight?

Coaches are influential role models for athletes and can impact how athletes perceive and feel in and about their bodies.

Unfortunately, as was recently courageously shared by @skyemoench, it's not uncommon for coaches to focus on appearance over body functionality. Body weight is a sensitive and personal issue yet far too many coaches share a belief that a lower body weight will improve performance.

If you are a coach, you have a responsibility to take care of your athlete - physically, emotionally and mentally.

Every athlete has his/her own optimal body composition where the body functions the best and this body is achieved through consistent training, nutritious eating and proper fueling and hydration.

Acknowledge an athlete’s strengths beyond a look, for an athlete is a human - not an object. Making remarks about body composition and performance (even if well-intentioned) can trigger or exacerbate disordered eating thoughts and behaviors.

Having a diverse representation of athlete bodies is important in every sport.

In today’s fad-diet, body image obsessed society, it can be difficult for athletes to keep a healthy perspective on body image. As a coach, use your authority. Help your athlete understand the importance of maintaining a healthy relationship with food and the body. Protect the physical and psychological well-being of your athletes by not associating weight to performance.

For further reading: 

• Why I never tell my athletes to lose weight
• Something needs to change - weight loss in sport
• Ahh, I need to lose weight
  
• For the coaches, when an athletes wants to lose weight
• Trying to reach your race weight
• Race weight

For the Coaches - when an athlete wants to lose weight

 

With so many ways to enhance performance and to optimize health, two of the most popular sought-after strategies include diet and body composition changes. When done correctly, performance may improve. However, it’s not uncommon for athletes to engage in unhealthy weight control methods, resulting in great emotional and physical consequences. Whether for aesthetics, competitive leanness, body dissatisfaction or in pursuit of an ideal “race weight,” athletes often place unrealistic expectations on performance and their bodies. What may start as an innocent attempt to lean-up or to lose a few pounds, can easily spiral out of control, undermining health, training, recovery, performance and mental well-being.

If you are a coach, you have a responsibility to take care of your athlete - physically, emotionally and mentally. 

When your athlete feels pressure to achieve a leaner body composition, an increased fascination with nutrition, body fat, weight and calories can develop into an unhealthy group of eating behaviors called disordered eating. Typical disordered eating behaviors include obsessive counting calories, clean eating, carrying out food rituals, fasting, avoiding sport nutrition products, having an off-limit food list, or avoiding certain foods or food groups for non-medical reasons.

If you are concerned that your athlete may have an unhealthy relationship with food and the body, start the conversation with a non-judgmental tone in order to make your athlete feel safe and cared about. Making it clear that you care about your athlete’s health and well-being, you may say, “I’m worried about you because I’ve noticed that you are struggling to complete your workouts lately.” You may also say, “you’ve been experiencing a lot of injuries/sicknesses lately. It may be best to consult with a sport dietitian to make sure you can adapt to your upcoming training load.”

The most common precipitating factor in the development of an eating disorder is dieting. What starts as a well-intentioned diet plan, slowly transforms into skipping meals, undereating, removing specific foods or entire food groups from the diet and sacrificing calories before and after workouts. An eating disorder is a serious psychiatric condition that affects all types of individuals. Eating disorders are complex and multifactorial. Interestingly, athletes are at higher risk for an eating disorder compared to the rest of the population. A disciplined, goal-oriented athlete can be guilty of chasing perfectionism. Feeling great pressure to succeed, restricting food can become an easy way to exert control. Constantly pushing the body to the limits, athletes don’t realize how much energy is needed for training. Lastly, many athletes believe that leanness is an essential factor in improving performance. But as we can see in today's society, records are being broken by all different body types.

With several different genetic and socio-cultural triggers, risk factors for an eating disorder include dieting, need for control, weight stigma, body dissatisfaction, perfectionism, anxiety, biochemical imbalances, traumatic life events, behavior inflexibility, nutrition misinformation, low self-esteem, and being teased or bullied. With a strong stigma behind eating disorders, it’s important to show support to those who are struggling and to emphasize that help is available.

As a coach, routinely remind your athletes that optimizing performance should not require excessive training and restrictive eating. Resorting to destructive methods of manipulating body composition will only sabotage performance and health.

Pay attention to any warning signs that your athlete may be eating too little and training too hard. Fatigue, anemia, compromised bone health, hormonal imbalances, hair loss, notable weight loss, lack of energy, a decline in muscle mass and strength, mood changes, amenorrhea, restless sleep, and overuse injuries are common signs of an energy imbalance. Inadequate caloric intake relative to energy expenditure (RED-S) will result in extra stress on the body – increasing the risk for injury, sickness and burnout. 

Encourage athletes to maintain healthy training and eating behaviors that will favor long-term health and longevity in sport. It’s encouraged to partner with a Board Certified Sport Dietitian to provide effective, safe and personalized nutrition advice to athletes. If you are concerned about an athlete’s weight or health, a Board Certified Sport Dietitian can counsel athletes who are struggling with the physical and emotional consequences of dieting. 

As a coach, how much emphasis do you place on body image?

Do you often talk about weight loss, body fat or dietary trends to your athletes?

Body composition is a sensitive and personal issue yet far too many coaches share an overvalued belief with their athletes that a lower body weight will improve performance. Inadvertently, you may be placing your own values and attitudes regarding weight, dieting and body image on your athletes. As a coach, you should never assume that reducing body fat or weight will enhance the performance of your athlete. Every athlete has his/her own optimum performance weight where the body functions the best and this body type is achieved through consistent training, nutritious eating and proper fueling and hydration. Acknowledge an athlete’s strengths beyond the physical, for athletes are more than just a look. Making remarks about body composition and performance can trigger or exacerbate disordered eating thoughts and behaviors. Don’t be the coach who makes stereotypical assumptions about the ideal body type for athletic greatness.

As a coach, use your power and authority. In today’s fad-diet, body image obsessed society, it can be difficult for athletes to keep a healthy perspective on body image. Help your athlete understand the importance of maintaining a healthy body composition – even if that image doesn’t look like the idealized image seen on social media. Protect the physical and psychological well-being of your athletes by discouraging dieting and enforcing health and performance-promoting eating habits.

Extreme nutrition habits are extremely trendy while discussions of health are lacking. Be a role model and encourage your athletes to care for their mental and physical health. Eating is not cheating. Meeting daily nutritional needs and supporting training sessions with proper sport nutrition is a necessary component of athletic success, and it keeps sport fun, long-lasting and health-promoting.

Addressing the body positive movement and weight loss

Picture source

Body positivity challenges the ways in which our society presents, celebrates and views bodies.  Sadly, far too many body shapes and types have been shunned by the mainstream media or not classified as beautiful. Our society has a fixation on the "tiny" ideal and encourages everyone to fit the social standards of being lean. This is why there are so many movements promoting body positivity. Because many people feel discriminated against because their body doesn't meet the "ideal" image, the body positive movement challenges social norms and promotes the belief that all bodies - regardless of size, shape, gender, physical abilities or skin tone - should be accepted.

The body positivity movement is a necessary movement but it can also be controversial - can you have a positive relationship with your body and desire weight loss/a change in your body composition? 

First off, it is a myth that large bodies are unhealthy. Being bigger doesn't mean being unhealthy. Someone can be thin and unhealthy. As an example, all runners are susceptible to injuries and overuse injuries - not just larger bodies. 

Secondly, your body = your choices. You deserve respect, equality and kindness regardless of your body size, what foods you eat or your health status.

Lastly, large bodies are not the only humans who can struggle with body image. Learning to hate your body is the primary goal of the diet industry. You can be small/thin and have a negative body image.

One of the missing focal points when discussing the body positive movement is the topic of developing and maintaining a positive body image. A positive body image means you embrace, accept and appreciate your body for all that it can do. You can be body positive but not have a positive body image - and vice versa. But both are important when it comes to weight loss. Body dissatisfaction often leads to unhealthy behaviors. If you love something, you are more likely to treat it well.

First off, the decision to lose weight should be a personal choice - not because you feel pressure to achieve an idealized image. This is why the body positive movement is so important. You should never feel pressure to look a certain way. If you desire weight loss, you need to be body positive and have a positive body image.

Choosing to become more active, eat a more nutritious diet and to live a more healthy lifestyle doesn't need to happen because you hate your body. Taking better care of yourself is a positive thing to do for your body.

The diet industry wants you to believe that your looks are everything and with weight loss, you will be happy and healthy. This desire of happy and "healthy" can lead to unhealthy behaviors like overexercising, dieting and eating disorders. When it comes to body positivity, I want to remind you that health is made of many different factors. You can't tell how healthy someone is from how they look.

And just because you lose weight or change the way your body looks, this doesn't mean that you will feel happier - or become healthier. Don't pin your happiness on achieving a smaller version of yourself. Weight loss should not come from a place of hate towards your body. Changing your body doesn't change how you feel about food, exercise and your body image.

For those who don't understand the body positive movement, there's a belief that this movement is normalizing unhealthy bodies. And this is not what this movement is about.

There's tremendous social pressure to look a certain way. Most people are not comfortable with what they see in the mirror because society has brainwashed you to believe that you need to change how you look in order to be healthier, fitter, happier and more successful. The diet industry has created an illusion that smaller = healthier.

All bodies deserve to be accepted. Your body should not be judged. But let's also celebrate self-care - even if your self-care acts don't lead you down the road to significant weight loss - and that is ok.

Body positivity is about finding an exercise regime that you enjoy, changing your diet because it makes you feel good, sleeping well to be more rested and looking after your mental health. Weight loss goals or not - don't forget to be kind to your body.

Appreciate your body image

We all come in different sizes and shapes based on our unique genetic make-up. However, it’s common to turn to exercise to change the way that you look. Some athletes may desire a body composition change to help improve endurance, speed, strength, power and agility. Others may want to improve health. While health and performance may be of interest, athletes are often heavily invested in appearance - wanting to look leaner or more like the idealized image of an athlete in their sport. Keeping in mind that athletic success cannot be predicted based solely on body weight and composition, athletes come in vastly different body compositions. Because no two athletes are alike and sports invite athletes of all different sizes and builds, your body weight should not be your sole focus for sport enjoyment. 

Due to pressure from society and coaches, it’s not uncommon for many athletes to have body image struggles, despite not being overweight or over fat. In turn, many athletes resort to unsafe weight loss methods and strategies when feeling "too fat."

It’s not uncommon for athletes to significantly limit caloric intake, believing that a body that weighs less will lead to athletic success. Harmful or obsessive eating behaviors are often used in attempt to achieve a lower than normal body weight or in pursuit of an extremely healthy diet. Examples include rigid or righteous eating, fasting, anxiety, control or preoccupation with certain foods, food rituals, extreme concern with body size and elimination of food groups. 

Unfortunately, comments made by coaches, body shaming, fat talk, attributing poor performances on weight, and regular weighing intensify body image concerns, leading to disordered eating behaviors. Because many athletes are given a socially acceptable setting to justify excessive exercise and strict eating habits, it’s not uncommon for the performances by an energy starved athlete to be celebrated by coaches and on social media. Bear in mind that any initial performance improvement occurring from unhealthy weight loss is typically short-lived as nutrient deficiencies, fatigue, anemia, reduced cardio function, chronic illnesses or injuries and low motivation will eventually impair physical and mental health. 

If you are struggling with body image problems or fear gaining fat/weight, remind yourself that sport participation should improve the health of your body – not destroy it.  

As you learn to love your body image, I wanted to share this quote passed along to me by one of my athletes. 

Is your weight (too much) on your mind?

A common focus (or struggle) for athletes is losing weight (or changing body composition) while trying to improve fitness.

It may seem effortless for an athlete to lose weight while training for an endurance event because of the extreme energy expenditure experienced on a day-to-day basis but in truth, many athletes struggle to lose weight despite exercising 8-20+ hours a week.

In my opinion, there's no shortage of proper education on how to nourish and fuel the athlete. The problem lies in application. Athletes often fail to properly time nutrition with training and plan out a well balanced diet and thus, there's always a struggle to maximize fitness, health and body composition throughout a training/racing season. In other words, most athletes don't eat enough of the right foods at the right times. I also blame the lack of time, focus and energy that athletes give to the daily diet relative to the time, focus and energy that is given to training. Most athletes fail to create sustainable healthy eating habits because well, nutrition is just not a priority until it really needs to become one.

Like many things in life, healthy eating habits require education but also a lot of trial and error, planning ahead, commitment, organization and flexibility. If you are willing to work for your performance goals, you should also be willing to work on your diet - in a healthy, non-extreme manner. The key word here is "work" - it's not a quick fix or elimination diet but instead, a constant work in progress.

With so much nutritional advice available at your fingertips and ears these days, not to mention a lot of overly confident food gurus, I recommend to not get your nutrition tips from non-credible blogs, forums, podcasts, interviews, magazines and experts. Thanks to social media, anyone can claim to be an 'expert'. Year after year, I see a common trend of athletes trying to adhere of extreme methods of eating and fueling in order to change body composition while trying to train for an athletic event because they read about it somewhere on the internet.

When an athlete has weight (too much) on his/her mind, there's a good chance that an extreme approach will be taken. Restrictive eating has issues; it may cause food obsessions, social isolation, fatigue, weakness, hormonal issues, bone loss, irritability, anxiety, depression, low blood sugar, sleep disturbances and low energy to name a few. Many negative physical and psychological issues develop when weight loss methods are taken to the extreme yet athletes continue to seek a quick fix/extreme approach.

If you are currently abiding by food laws, adhering to a good food/bad food list eliminating whole food groups, avoiding anything with sugar in it, not using sport nutrition to become more fat adapted or considering going keto, ask yourself why you are choosing the extreme approach? Is this style of eating/fueling sustainable for the rest of your life? Your diet does not have to be (and should not be) all or nothing. 

Sadly, there are far too many misinformed athletes and unqualified professionals following and prescribing extreme styles of eating (or not eating) in an effort to help athletes lose weight without considering the health implications of extreme dietary recommendations.

If you feel unhappy with your body shape, size or weight and worry all day about what to or not to eat all in an effort to look differently, remind yourself that when you restrict yourself from food, you don't become a better athlete. Instead, you become weak, tired and withdrawn. Food is your fuel. Food is your medicine.

Seeing that there are safe, responsible and healthy ways to change body composition and many unsafe, irresponsible and unhealthy ways to change body composition, I encourage you to ask yourself the following YES or NO questions to see if your weight is too much on your mind as it relates to your current eating habits? 

• You have drastically cut out a significant amount of calories in an effort to lose weight?
• You have recently cut out specific food groups or macronutrients from your diet?
• You are constantly comparing your current body image to a leaner version of yourself (or another athlete), assuming that if you weighed less, you would be faster/better?
• You are intentionally avoiding consuming calories before and during workouts in order to become fat adapted? 
• You don't want to properly refuel post workout because you want to keep your body in a calorie deficit?
• Your weight loss goal is often a primary motivator to start and finish workouts, no matter how exhausted, tired or fatigued you feel?
• You are finding yourself overeating on the weekends because you "deserve it" yet restricting during the week?
• You find yourself irritable, moody, low in energy and sometimes have difficulty focusing/concentrating?
• You are almost positive that you can't maintain your current style of eating for the rest of your life but you are determined to reach your weight loss goal at any cost?

As you embark on another year/season of exercising/training with weight loss on your mind, remind yourself that you can not maintain good health and optimize your performance with a rigid and restrictive style of eating.  

If you feel you could benefit from a change in body composition/weight for health and/or performance, don't use forums and the internet for advice. Reach out to a Board Certified Sport Dietitian for help. 

Why I never tell my athletes to lose weight

There's not a day that goes by that I don't thank my body for what it allows me to do.
I may be an athlete, but I am also a coach.

As a triathlon coach and Board Certified Sport Dietitian, my job is to help athletes optimize performance for race day. Although many factors contribute to performance improvements, many coaches (and nutrition experts) believe that losing weight will aid in performance improvements.

Unhealthy weight control/loss practices are a serious problem in sport, especially in the two sports that I specialize in - triathlon and running. Too often, athletes are pressured by media, coaches and competitors to change body composition in order to boost performance. If losing weight was a guarantee to performance improvements, than any athlete who has lost weight would find it easy to succeed in sport. But this is far from the truth.

Many athletes are told (or assume) that they would be more successful in a sport if they lost weight or changed body composition. Regardless of whether or not weight loss may contribute to performance improvements, athletes who are asked or told to lose weight or change body composition are more likely to engage in unhealthy behaviors such as fasted workouts, skipping meals, replacing higher calorie foods for calorie-free/diet foods, fasting/cleansing/detoxing, using weight loss supplements, diuretics or laxatives and/or overexercising. These methods are not healthy or performance enhancing. Yet athletes feel pressure from coach to "lose weight."

So how do we break this cycle of brainwashing athletes that weight loss = performance improvements.

First off, it starts with the coaches, or those who are directly related to an athlete's ability to improve. Many coaches and experts wrongly place their own attitudes, thoughts, strategies and personal experiences with weight, dieting and body image on their athletes. Understanding that athletes need good role models that promote a positive self-image and healthy dietary and fueling strategies, I strive to be the change that athletes need to boost self-confidence when it comes to body image and performance.

Secondly, weight is a sensitive and personal issue for many athletes. Unfortunately, many coaches and nutrition experts do not realize how words can hurt or stick with an athlete. When a coach suggests to an athlete that weight loss may/will improve performance or if a coach makes comments about weight, the athlete is no longer able to recognize his/her individual strengths, improvements or skills but instead, feels a significant amount of pressure to change the way that he/she looks, often at any cost.

Coaches should consider how an athlete's lifestyle choices, mental and physical health, emotions and individual development can contribute to performance. Assuming that if an athlete weighs less that he/she will become a better athlete is not only wrong but it is on the verge of being unethical. There are so many other ways that an athlete can become a better athlete. We must stop assuming that when an athlete looks differently, he/she will become faster, fitter, stronger or better.

When I work with athletes (coaching or nutrition), I always consider the possible outcomes of my advice. I do this through getting to know my athletes as much as possible. I listen to my athletes to understand where they are at in their individual journey and their current relationship with food and the body. I explore every outlet possible to help an athlete improve performance and to get the most out of their body, without placing the focus on the body. Many times, athletes will come to me with a weight loss goal and without focusing on weight, they unintentionally lose weight because lifestyle habits have changed. While a coach or nutrition expert may mean well, telling an athlete to lose weight/change body composition can do more harm than good when coaches do not take careful consideration of the risks and benefits for each athlete that he/she suggests to lose a few lbs. Additionally, most athletes do not seek out professional guidance and support when starting a weight loss journey so no one is there to watch over an athlete for extreme behaviors, reduce misinformation and to debate against unhealthy dietary practices that can sabotage performance and health.

As a coach and nutrition expert, I take performance very seriously but more so, I take eating disorders and the health of my athletes very seriously. I don't believe in targeting weight as the limiter or best next step toward athletic success. Instead, I focus on the many ways that an athlete can improve performance and sometimes this results in a favorable yet unintentional change body composition, like eating "enough", fueling properly, timing food with workouts, strength training, mental strength, quality sleep, good recovery practices and consistent training. While weight loss may lead to performance improvements, we can't assume that reducing body fat will benefit every athlete. There are no shortage of cases where athletes have experienced a temporary boost in performance in the initial phases of changing body composition but it's no uncommon for these athletes to eventually experience eating-disorder/disordered eating symptoms, overtraining, hormonal issues, menstrual irregularities (female athletes), low bone density, a weakened immune system, chronic injuries and a performance decline (or a sporting career cut short) overtime.

Sports are designed to build self-esteem, boost confidence, promote physical strength and endurance, improve skills and teach life lessons. Being an athlete should not involve great psychological and physical stress, especially as it relates to body image. We have too many athletes spending far too much time trying to weigh less because a coach, trainer or nutrition expert suggested to do so.

To ensure athletic success, I advise coaches, nutrition experts and trainers to stop advising athletes to lose weight and instead, focus on good lifestyle practices to help athletes optimize performance. If you think that your athlete may be taking extreme measures to change body composition in an effort to become a "better" athlete, here are some of the warning signs to watch out for:

• Eating too little, exercising/training too much
• Increased focus on weight, body composition, size, appearance
• Using caffeine or boosters to get through workouts
• Sudden change in mood
• Feeling the need to be perfect, persistent feelings of inadequacy
• Rapid/notable weight loss
• Significant energy deficit during advanced training
• Injuries (stress fractures) and overuse injuries
• Symptoms of overtraining 
• Hormonal/health issues

Coaches - let's help athletes build a better relationship with their bodies and with food. With proper education, support and guidance, athletes are more likely to improve performance and maintain great enjoyment for the sport for many years to come when they don't feel pressure to look differently.

Athletes - love your amazing body and be sure to thank it daily. Rest it, respect it, nourish it and fuel it. 

Ahhh, I need to lose weight!!

As an athlete, you probably feel that you work very hard to develop the necessary skills, resilience, stamina, power, speed and endurance to help you prepare for your upcoming athletic events. Developing the fitness to participate in a running or triathlon event requires a lot of training and it takes commitment and requires patience, so it's assumed that skipping workouts, being "all in" all the time, not caring, deviating from your training plan to do what other athletes are doing, or haphazardly guessing your way through training are not effective ways to reach your race day goals. You simply become inconsistent with training, you lose confidence in what you are doing and you may compromise your health.

Is nutrition an important component of your training?

If you don't work at healthy eating, you miss out on one of the best opportunities to improve your performance and to keep your body in good health. To perform at your best, your body needs to function at it's best and the best fuel comes from a healthy, balanced and well-planned and timed diet.

So what's an athlete to do if weight loss is a goal, alongside performance/fitness improvements? And for the purpose of this article, I'm speaking about weight loss that brings you to a healthy weight and not weight loss for aesthetics, to show off your abs or to tone up your butt or to lose a few vanity pounds.

I can't say it enough but eating a healthy diet as an athlete is not easy. When your time is limited, you are exhausted from training, energy expenditure is high, you get up early to workout and your appetite is ever-so unpredictable, energy comes and goes and you are tired and sore, developing the SKILLS to maintain a healthy diet as an athlete takes a lot of work.

Most athletes would rather put the time into training than to work on improving dietary habits but this strategy does not work. You see, if you don't work on developing healthy eating habits in your early season, how do you expect to carry healthy habits with you as your training volume and intensity increase as the season progresses?

Healthy eating and performance fueling requires education, trial and error, a lot of planning, commitment, organization and an open-mind. Most athletes need help to learn how to eat healthy as an athlete. Because of this, there are many credible professionals that specialize in helping athletes learn how to eat a healthy diet and how to eat for performance, so that you can develop healthy daily habits and smart fueling and hydration strategies in order to make the best food choices possible throughout the day and before, during and after workouts, in order to reach athletic excellence.

With so much nutritional advice available at your fingertips and a lot of overly confident nutrition experts, it's important that in your attempt to lose weight, you understand and accept that there are significant physical, psychological, emotional and social changes associated with dieting. Asking an athlete to restrict calories, starve the body of nutrients or avoid/restrict carbohydrates, when energy expenditure is high, can cause great emotional, cognitive and behavioral symptoms that are performance and health limiting....NOT ENHANCING. Intentional or not, when athletes do not "eat enough", the body systems become compromised and you feel horrible.

Dieting, or restrictive eating, may cause food obsessions, social isolation, fatigue, weakness, hormonal issues, bone loss, irritability, body temperature changes, anxiety, depression, low blood sugar, sleep disturbances and the desire or motivation that you once had to do what you love to do with your body is no longer a driving force to keep you present in your sport. Instead, your mind is obsessed with your body and not on performance or health.

Seeing that so many negative physical and psychological issues develop when exercise and nutrition are taken to the extreme, there must be a stop to all of this talk on "righteous, good vs bad, eliminate whole food groups, sugar is bad, don't use sport nutrition, fasted workout" eating. This is NOT a healthy approach to weight loss. Sadly, there are far too many misinformed athletes that do not have a good perspective on what is needed in the diet and before, during and after workouts, in order to keep the body in good health while working for fitness improvements. 

As for the athletes who ignore fad diets and work hard to organize and plan the diet in order to eat "enough" and fine-tune details like proper fueling and hydration for individual needs (often working with a sport dietitian), well, those are the athletes to look-up to on race day because not only are they having a lot of fun in training but they are fit, fast, healthy and prepared on race day. These athletes don't diet or obsess about body image, but they give themselves permission to eat, indulge and fuel for performance and well, a better overall quality of life.

If you are trying to lose weight for health and/or performance reasons, you should not have to devote every minute of your day eating or training as you try to lose weight. And never should you have to use extreme exercise and food restriction in order to achieve or to maintain your "goal" weight.

It makes me so sad to hear that there are so many athletes who feel so unhappy with their body shape, size or weight. Worrying all day about what to or not to eat, trying not to eat "too much" and grinding out workouts on empty just to look differently. When you restrict yourself from food, you don't become a better athlete. Instead, you become weak, tired and withdrawn. Extreme exercising to burn calories or to reward yourself with food is not performance enhancing and it's not health promoting. You can't perform well with this type of lifestyle. You may think that you look fitter but you may not be able to do much with your body. The mindset to be "thinner to be a winner" is not worth the price that your body has to pay when you are energy deprived and trying to train consistently.

Seeing that there is a safe way and an unhealthy way to lose weight, ask yourself the following YES or NO questions to see if you are taking a smart approach to weight loss?

-You have drastically cut out a significant amount of calories?
-You are avoiding specific food groups?
-You are frustrated that you are not losing weight fast enough?
-You are intentionally avoiding taking in calories before and during workouts?
-You have your weight on your mind when you are working out?
-You are finding yourself overeating on the weekends because you "deserve it"?
-You feel irritable and moody, often low in energy and hungry?
-You feel confident that you can maintain this type of diet for the rest of your life, and be happy?

A smart eating approach maintains energy levels as you change your body composition. A smart eating approach does not negatively affect your health.
A smart eating approach does not limit you from food groups.
A smart eating approach keeps you training consistently. 
A smart eating approach helps you get fit, fast and strong.
A smart eating approach is sustainable and sets you up for a lifestyle of healthy eating habits. 

If you have recently found yourself saying "Ahhh, I need to lose weight!!" remind yourself that it won't come from a diet, weight will not rapidly fall off, there's no quick fix and you can't maintain good health and optimize your performance with a rigid and restrictive style of eating.  

Not sure if you can safely and confidently lose weight on your own, without affecting your health and/or performance?

Don't use forums and the internet for advice.

Reach out to a Board Certified Sport Dietitian for help. 

How do I fuel if.....

Writing an article for a magazine usually goes like this....

I pitch a lot of articles to a magazine and a few (or one or none) gets selected OR a magazine reaches out to me with an article topic for me to write about.

Back in December, after I received confirmation that I would be writing three articles for Triathlete Magazine for the May (Fueling the Vegetarian athlete), June (Sport Nutrition - progressing from short to long course racing) and July (Common fueling mistakes) issues, I was asked to write a 2000-word, feature assignment for the March/April issue on "How do I fuel if...." with the following topics discussed:
-I don't have time to cook
-I'm trying to lose weight
-I'm (going) gluten-free
-I'm a female athlete
-I bonk in races

The article would include 5 different scenarios (each around 200-300 words or the equivalent of a short article) with specific advice, tips and suggestions for each topic, in addition to a sidebar of common-race day fueling mistakes. 

Not only was this the longest article I have ever written for print (essentially, 6 articles into one) but I had a two week turnaround with a very quick deadline as it was a last minute addition to the magazine.

While reading an article after it is completed is rewarding (and hopefully, it flows well and makes sense), the process of writing an article is not easy. And I think any writer can admit that sometimes words easily flow from the brain to the fingers to paper and viola, an article is written quickly but many times, writing an article is a tough process with a lot of mental struggles, either lack of creativity or difficulty getting anything done.

When I am about to write an article, I always do a lot of research before I start typing and this includes reading a lot of current scientific studies as well as learning/understanding what the masses (athletes) are doing, not doing or are most concerned about (or struggling with). There is a lot of thinking that goes into writing easy to read, easy to apply and easy to understand sentences. Finding a way to get 2000 words on to a blank piece of paper is not an easy process but I love the challenge of being a writer.
(If I didn't write, my brain would stay filled with words. Getting those thoughts on paper clears up my head).

While this article took a lot of time, energy and brain power, and several long days of locking myself in a room (with Campy - who is a professional napper) to work on this article, I loved the challenge of writing this feature article and I am really happy with how it turned out. 

I hope you enjoy the article and can take away something helpful from one or all six of my nutrition topics.

How to be a well-fueled machine
(2016 March/April issue)

If you need a more personalized approach with nutrition or have concerns about specific nutrition topics, be sure to reach out to professional who can help in your individual journey.