Demystifying Sports Nutrition: Straightforward Tips & Expert Secrets
- By Mario Fraioli
- Published Sep. 6, 2011
- Updated Mar. 15, 2012 at 5:09 PM UTC
Why Diets Don’t Work
“I’m not a big believer in anybody sticking to a very rigorous nutrition plan,” says Boston-based Krista Austin, Ph.D., exercise physiologist and sports nutritionist, and founder of Performance and Nutrition Coaching. “It’s too obsessive; people don’t do as well with a program where they’re told exactly what to eat. They stop listening to their bodies.”
If you want to get leaner for good, a quick-fix diet won’t work—a sustainable, individualized plan will.
“I tell people there isn’t a body weight or composition that I can give you that will make you run a certain time,” says Austin. “If they go through the training I prescribe, they’ll just end up at the weight they should be. Once we have good nutrition in them, they end up finding their performance weight.”
FILED UNDER: Nutrition TAGS: Antioxidants / Carbo Loading / dietary supplements / dieting / perform / race fueling / Recovery Nutrition / sports nutrition
Mario Fraioli
Mario Fraioli is a senior editor at Competitor magazine. A cross-country All-American at Stonehill College in 2003, he now coaches the Prado Women's Racing Team in San Diego and was the men's marathon coach for Costa Rica's 2012 Olympic team. His first book, The Official Rock 'n' Roll Guide To Marathon & Half-Marathon Training (VeloPress, 2013) is available in bookstores, running shops and online.