How does the non-diet approach meet competing as an athlete?
In the world of sports nutrition and traditional dietetics, the first thing you might notice is how many times grams of carbs and protein or amount of calories need to be consumed each day. Tack on exercise at an intense level multiple times within your day, and you have now committed yourself to paying a WHOLE LOT of attention to food in order to 'get it right'. Now, this isn't to say that what you've been told to do is wrong, or won't work. In a lot of cases it does work. In fact, It works REALLY well.
However, what works really well for some, can be disastrous and/or dangerous for others. What I want to emphasise to athletes who are committed to performing at their very best, is that you DON'T have to obsess over food to 'get it right'. As a previous elite athlete myself, I totally understand there are SO many other things that need to be thought about like, oh I don't know, training schedule, planning competitions, entry fees, grocery shopping, and laundry (it's actually insane how many clothes we go through in a week), when to taper training, training in relation to performance and fine-tuning skills prior to game day, just to name a few. Adding in another HUGE component like timing of nutrition up to 6-7 times a day can start to wear on you. I acknowledge that there are people who are able and do actually enjoy having a detailed nutrition regime, however if placing your nutrition under a microscope daily sounds like it would impede on other areas of your life, there are alternative ways to fueling yourself well (perhaps even better) and performing that don't involve obsessing over food.
Developing and maintaining a healthy relationship with food is vital to your overall health and success. It may seem like eating perfectly and training intensely is the secret to winning and while nutrition and exercise are certainly important, they are just two of the components involved in overall success and fulfillment, and they certainly don't have to be perfect or intense all the time. The other key components involve sleep, mental health, confidence in your skills and your body to perform, and support networks. If these aren't in place, it might be time to put some of your eggs in these other baskets.
Research has suggested that athletes are at in increased risk of developing an eating disorder. Athletes who participate in sports that emphasise a certain body composition (gymnastics, dance, swimming, figure skating) or weight (running, triathlon, weightlifting and rowing) are particularly at risk (Beals, 2004). Eating disorders are only growing in prevalence due to diet culture and the traditional 'skinny equals healthy' mentality. There has been much shift in recent years, with the Health at Every Size (HAES) movement developed by Fiona Willer. In recent years, more and more high profile athletes are speaking out to raise awareness of disordered eating and the numerous pressures on athletes. For example, U.S. Olympic swimmers Amanda Beard, Misty Hyman and Maya DiRado, have outwardly spoken to USA Today about disordered eating among swimmers, stating their struggles and how prevalent they are among their own friends and teammates.
So where do sports nutrition and food freedom collide? This is where a non-diet dietitian who specialises in sports nutrition can help you improve your relationship with food and performance by working with you as an individual. Non-diet dietitians are useful to work with to develop strategies that are easy to implement, realistic for you, and don't involve counting each micro and macronutrient. Investing in this process can be valuable in gaining emotional freedom and the assurance you are hitting your requirements, despite not counting or calculating your intake. Athletes have so many things to think about, food doesn't and shouldn't be the main one.
References: Beals KA. Disordered eating among athletes: a comprehensive guide for health professionals. Champaign, III: Human Kinetics, 2004