By Mitch Kemmis
Most people would associate Nutrition Coaching with weight loss, and this is a fair assumption. Many of the clients I deal with get in touch when they have made the decision to get healthier and lose weight. However in my time as a Nutrition Coach I've realised there are a number of misconceptions around Nutrition Coaching. I've addressed the most common ones below.
Misconception #1 - It’s just about losing weight.
The goal of nutrition coaching is to make people healthier and have a healthy relationship with food. While weight loss can be, and often is a part of that, nutrition coaching can also be used to:
Help create healthy eating habits
Develop meal prep skills and ideas
Improve exercise and training performance
Help support muscle growth and recovery from training
Misconception #2 - You’ll have to go on a diet
Nutrition coaching is about helping you create a healthy balanced approach to eating, not about following a diet. While restrictive diets can provide short term weight-loss results, the weight lost often returns not long after the diet is stopped. Restrictive diets ultimately aren’t sustainable. Nutrition coaching will help create sustainable healthy eating habits for your long-term health, while still allowing you to enjoy that piece of chocolate.
Misconception #3 - You’ll have to measure and track all your calories
No, I don’t ask clients to track calories for the following reasons:
Reported calories on food aren’t always right and can be wrong by up to +/-20%. Foods behave differently in a human body compared to how they’re analysed in a lab.
Energy expenditure calculations aren’t perfect and are ultimately an educated estimate. Getting inaccurate estimates can lead to demotivating results.
All calories are not created equal. You could hit your calorie target just eating donuts, but it doesn’t make you a healthy person. There’s so much more to food than just calorie.
Calorie counting can be imprecise, stressful, and demotivating. Your time could be better spent on prepping healthy meals or on your training and recovery.
Do you need some help to create healthy and sustainable eating habits? Our Nutrition Coaching Program can help you set and achieve those goals to help improve your overall wellbeing. Click here to learn more