Nutrition Overview – An Industry Level Slippery Slope

TL; DR:

1)    If you struggle with your nutrition or have specific body composition goals, it may be beneficial to enlist help.

2)    Follow the guidance of an experienced, qualified professional.

3)    Internet nutritionists aren’t registered dietitians. Find a registered dietitian.

4)    There are an insulting number of unqualified individuals being trusted with (and profiting from) the long-term health implications of manipulating client nutrition.

Determining daily Calorie requirements can be an exhausting process. We exist in a world that has difficulty dissociating the mathematics of nutrition from the emotional or psychological power of food. In terms of understanding the bottom-line of nutrition, it really can be that pragmatic. In a vacuum, ingesting the correctly prescribed number of macronutrients, micronutrients, fibre, and water is literally all that nutrition is. A mathematical prescription. For the vast majority of people however, it requires much more fluid thinking in order to account for the impact nutritional intake has on psychological, physiological and emotional well-being. Adherence drives dietary success; however, considerations for medical, social, cultural, and familial influences over our dietary choices do not need to be anxiety inducing, but rather, can be woven into our daily nutritional planning given the right amount of experience and forethought.

Adding to the perceived complexity is normal, daily fluctuation in non-fat body weight and the accompanying temporary changes in physical appearance – giving the deception of dietary success or failure. Bloating, water retention, high-fibre meals, inconsistent feeding schedules, and periods of high-stress, lack of sleep, or hormonal shifts can give the illusion of weight shifts.

My aim in the next several posts to breakdown the underlying mechanisms of manipulating body composition from the perspective of Calorie and macronutrient education. That is my scope. I am a trained nutritionist holding a Bachelor of Science degree in nutritional sciences and a certified sports nutrition qualification from the international society of sports nutrition (ISSN). With this background I am educated and comfortable teaching from a principle-guided standpoint under the pretense that I am teaching apparently healthy individuals free of any underlying conditions. While many principles overlap with individuals dealing with chronic or specialized conditions, MANY do not. This would be the scope of a registered dietitian with a formalized education in the clinical setting. I would encourage anyone interested in learning more to read my content and refer to a registered dietitian for deeper, more appropriate, guidance. Many in this industry do not respect that distinction, and I would caution against unqualified meal planning as they are often successful early, but extremely short-sighted – bordering on dangerous the longer they are followed.

This will not offer a perfect solution, and I would counter that no perfect solution ever exists for such a dynamic system like the human experience. But patience and a belief in the power of accumulating small daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly victories in your nutritional consistency will keep any goal comfortably in the crosshairs.

Best,

Eric