As of this week, I am now a certified nutrition coach. Another feather in the cap as I start to build on my previous education. For anyone that knows me, I'm usually anti-certification because there's so many out there that it has started to become a bit ridiculous. If it doesn't help you get a job / progress you in your current role and there's no rationale for getting it, then is it really worth it? Anyway, that's not the point of this. I am now a certified coach in the area of exercise nutrition. I already has a pretty broad knowledge of the scientific principles and core underpinnings of nutrition but this is another step up. Like exercise & training, it's purposely planned towards building competency & confidence in certain exercises before loading them up in the hope of gaining strength, size or whatever your primary goal is. Nutrition should be no different, and if I'm being honest, it's definitely an area I've fallen down on in my coaching service in the past few years. That's all about to change.

Although it is one of the most extensively researched supplements on the market, it still gets a lot of hate. There are numerous myths and fallacies surrounding creatine and most of which are untrue.

In the last blog we spoke about how calorie intake and energy balance can affect weight gain or weight loss. The next important stage of evaluating your nutrition is checking your macronutrient intake. Macronutrients are the groups that food is divided into based on their chemical structure. They are divided into protein, fat, carbohydrates. I have also added in fibre and water into this section as I feel they are just as important in the context of an all-round diet.

The problem people have nowadays is that the media has vilified each of the macronutrients and led you to believe that they are all bad.

"Fat increases chance of heart disease."
"High protein intake can damage your kidneys and liver."
"Sugar is addictive and causes you to gain weight."

Everybody has heard at least one of these in the past. The thing is they simple aren't true. While they originate from some scientific research, they are a prime example of the research being extrapolated incorrectly and a false conclusion being drawn. Each one of them has a place in your diet and I'm about to explain why. None of the macronutrients inherently cause you to gain weight, hence why we spoke about calorie balance first.

Over the next couple of days we are going to explore what really matters when it comes to nutrition. By the end of this series, everything will be a lot clearer and you will finally be able to structure your own nutrition regardless of your goal.

​Below is the different elements of structuring a nutrition programme for an individual, ranked in order of importance from most to least. The most important at the bottom and the least at the top. How many people have you known to ask about what supplements they should be taking, without ever having thought about the important things that precede it. Unless those things are in place and taken care of, then supplements are pretty much null....

When it comes to nutrition there's a tonne of places putting out information, but is it the right information? We have big TV companies producing shows but are they recruiting the right people to share that information. The reason I say this is because how many times have you been told something by someone in relation to nutrition, only for someone else to tell you something else contradictory a mere 60 minutes later? Trust me I hear it all the time. 

There isn't many things I haven't heard when it comes to nutrition from a variety of different people. But don't worry, once you've finished reading this (trust me you're going to want to keep reading), you'll know almost all you need to know about nutrition. Then you can get on with the more important things in life like enjoying yourself and not worrying about whether you can have that chocolate bar or ice cream at the weekend if you're trying to lose fat!