The best Sports Nutritionist would be the one who comes with the relevant credentials, experience and expertise in the field. The field of Sports Nutrition is vast and choice should be made on the specialization of the sports that one belongs to.
Golfers, Cricketers, Swimmers, Badminton & Tennis players and marathon runners all need different strategies and understanding of their specific sports. The championships ranging from grassroots level to the elite level in any sport is the result of eating right.
The tech savvy and data driven sports nutritionists are the secret weapons that every sports warrior should have in their armory. Best sports nutritionist change lives, not just diets of athletes.
Below points should be considered to choose the right person for the best sports nutrition plan for teenage athletes:
# Best sports nutritionist is NUTRITION COACH instead of nutrition teacher:
Nutrition coach works with people instead of working with diets. Nutrition coach helps athletes to overcome their eating disorders and poor lifestyle habits through regular follow-up and counseling.
Their role does not simply ends at providing lectures on eating right foods, they see themselves as a partner in athletes journey towards being their best and are responsible to put-up in the place, a growth map for them.
# Best sports nutritionist are driven by data
Data helps in scientific monitoring of athletes in order to prevent injuries and enhance performance. It also promotes efficiency in doing basic things like procuring the right food, preparing the meal and eating it at the right time both on & off the field.
At QUA Nutrition first thing that we do with every young athlete is to check their blood chemistry as getting blood cell and vitamin/mineral status are the best suggestive measures of how things are been and helps to identify areas that need to be worked upon.
Body composition analysis is another health marker which provides a nutritionist basic understanding of current state of things and provides a platform based on which transformation process cycle is designed and performance goals are setup.
These analyses are done frequently to check progress and to decide on further course of action. At the heart of all lies Genetic test which provides us an idea on how our genes behave (to food, training etc), it’s a onetime test, as genes are gift from our parents and accompany us for the lifetime.
The data collected allows us to provide customized best kid nutrition to the young athlete to enhance his/her performance.
# Best Sports Nutritionist Gives Athlete Specific Advice
The focus of the nutritionist would be on to get to the heart of the matter, to get to know more about athletes through detailed profiling. Food preferences would help to know what, when and how frequently does an athlete love to eat certain foods and what foods put them off.
It will also helps in identifying the influence of cultural background on food choices. Eating patterns helps to understand how athletes make decision and their compliance level to the process, which is important, especially when an athlete is travelling for competitions.
The profiling helps in providing the customized specific advice to individual athletes. 2 of our Golfer clients at QUA Nutrition have different approach towards snacking during the event.
For Sharmila Nicollet, we realized that a cup of coffee works best in picking her up, but too much caffeine brought on jitters. For Anirban Lahiri, the custom hydration solution actually had to be toned down in glucose and amino acids as he felt too charged up.
Every player has different energy and nutrition requirement and any advice given to them should be customized and specific to them. The more you have information on the person, the higher will be the percentage of adoption.
# Best Sports Nutritionist promotes self cooking
The welfare of the athlete is the top priority of the sports nutritionist, so while working with them to align their eating habits it also a responsibility of the nutrition coach to take them out of their comfort zone and prepare them for the future obstacles.
Athletes have to travel to different cities/countries to play their matches. Not all time will they be accompanied by their parents who will cook food for them, they stay in academies where the quality of food is poor, and they will never get to eat healthy meal outside in any restaurant.
Best Sports Nutritionist promotes self cooking for the betterment of his player as to learn to cook few basic meals will empower the individual to be independent and remove barriers. We at QUA Nutrition go even further to encourage our athletes to procure fruits & vegetables for themselves from nearby grocery shops.
Yes we now have so many apps which deliver groceries at our doorsteps just at the click of a button, but that love and caring part is missing. When athletes go to procure fruits and vegetables for oneself, they will choose the best and the freshest available foods for themselves, which in turn will provide them with the high nutrition value.
# Best Sports Nutritionist makes the process engaging
Nutritionist tries to connect with the young athletes so that they enjoy the process and cherish nutrition. Young athletes are given cheat meal days so that they can unwind, relax and enjoy. Athletes who regularly share their food logs and comply with their plan are rewarded.
Rewards are the best way to engage and motivate young athletes. Sports nutritionist always lend his/her ear to the every single point of concern of the athlete, be the foods that they don’t want to eat/ want to be included in the plan or issues they are facing in their game or even finding it hard to stick to their regimen due to peer influence.
Listening to the child helps incorporating different viewpoints, makes a child feel comfortable with the nutritionist and responsible of his/her own actions, thereby encouraging the child to make right decisions for his/her own benefit.
At QUA Nutrition we work on counseling individuals and group/team nutrition counselling for performance and stamina, translating the latest scientific research in the field of Sports nutrition science and into practical implementable recommendations, tracking and documenting outcomes of the nutrition services, monitoring the athlete’s intake and response and feedback for coaches, trainers, and parents.
Visit www.quanutrition.com to change the way you fuel. Change to the way the best athlete’s fuel.
Ryan Fernando is an Award-winning celebrity Sports Nutritionist with 2GUINNESS world record and 2 Olympic medals under his belt. His client list include Olympic wrestler Sushil Kumar, cricketer Shikhar Dhawan & bollywood superstars Aamir Khan & Abhishek Bachchan. He is Chief Nutritionist at QUA Nutrition Signature Clinics.
©2023 All Rights Reserved Ryan Fernando.