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The number one goal of a sports dietitian or sports nutritionist is to identify the best eating and drinking strategies to meet an individual’s schedule and training/competition needs.

a dietitian needs to have a love of food - cooking, eating, and talking about it!

Ultimately the aim of the sports dietitian is maximize performance. The achieve this, the main specific areas that a dietitian can make a difference are the following:

• General health and immunity
• Energy levels
• Concentration
• Growth and body composition
• Recovery

What services can a sports dietitian provide?

The sport dietitian can provide services to individuals or groups through counseling, small group sessions or lectures. The following are the main areas that are covered.

Dietary analysis

• Nutrient adequacy; such as Carbohydrate, Fat, Protein, Micronutrient levels; Ca, Fe, Zn, Vit C etc. and Antioxidant density
• Pre- and post-training eating patterns
• Timing of carbs/protein intake related to training stage
• Food variety checks
• Lookout for and deal with medical issues such as diabetes, anemia, eating disorders, food allergies.

Weight management

• Strategies for skinfold reduction
• Psychology of eating

Bulking up

• Nutrition planning to meet requirements of weights training program
• Supplements

Meal planning

• Recipe ideas
• Dietary periodization

Competition eating

• Preparation, such as Carbohydrate loading and Hydration
• Single day vs multi day events
• Eating on the road, e.g. Local, Interstate and Overseas travel

Hydration issues

• Daily fluid needs for body size
• Training hydration strategies
• Fluid types and effect on hydration status - Water, sports drinks, coffee, tea, energy drinks, juice, milk

Anthropometry

• Weight and height (BMI) measurement
• Waist Hip Ratio (WHR) measurement
• Skinfold testing
• Girth measurements

Other Services

• Implementation of Nutrition Systems
  • Supplement provision
  • Recovery Strategies
  • Nutrition support for Team travel
• Produce education resources
• Nutrition research
• Group education sessions
• Hydration testing
• Shopping tours
• Cooking classes
• Attendance at training

Related Pages

• More Resources for Sports Dietitians
• Sports Chef — providing tasty meals that are also good for the athlete.
• Clare Wood — sports dietitian
• Consulting a Dietician for Weight Loss
• How to become a sports dieitician, and other careers in sport
• My Career as a Sports Dietitian — what I do
• Sports nutrition courses

Any comments, suggestions, or corrections? Please let us know.