Questions to ask a nutritionist?

I have an appointment with a nutritionist for the first time next week. My goals are to get my nutrition on and off the bike a little more dialed and continue to improve my body composition.

I’m always terrible at coming up with or remembering questions for health professionals. What sorts of things should I write down to ask about?

Me: almost 40, vegan 20+ yrs, structured training and racing 17 years. Typically training 10-15 hrs a week.

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I will loop @Jackson in here for his thoughts and also mention that nutrition is something we do within our coach-athlete relationships. Its what you may have heard of us podcast about Winning In the Grocery Store & Kitchen + Weight Loss for Cyclists:

https://fascatcoaching.com/tips/weight-loss-for-cyclists/

So I think if you tell your nutritionist your goals they should be able to take it from there and help you achieve that goal(s). Its the same with coaching : athletes tell us their goals and we tell them what to do to achieve their goals.

Hiring a nutritionist to ask what’s right and what’s wrong and ask questions to ask questions - that’s not their job to answer. Their job (like coaching) is to help you achieve your goal.

Don’t get me wrong - a nutritionist should be very detailed in their what you eat, when you eat it AND a what times and how that changes to meet your training and racing. Nutritional periodization - very important and why I include nutritional periodization in all my coaching because your nutrition changes per your phases of training and more importantly - the V O L U M E of that training.

The internet and your own research + individual experimentation is for all the questions you may think you should ask, I think!

Unless you were wondering about something specific? Good luck!

First thing I would ask them is if they have experience working with serious endurance athletes and/or vegan athletes. Unfortunately, many mainstream nutritionists, unless they’re trained and educated in sports nutrition aren’t always going to be the best option since they work primarily with people focused on weight loss and disease prevention so just make sure they know how to work with your situation.

I would also ask them what would be helpful for THEM to get from YOU as you work together potentially as some info is more helpful than others. For example, when I work with clients I’m much more interested in the foods and amounts and timing than the actual calorie numbers to start with combined with specifics of their training schedules so that we can make a broader stroked plan to start with based on that combination and then start to refine. So making sure they are getting the helpful info from you (which I suppose is more on them ha!).

Good luck!

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This is super helpful! Thanks, Jackson and Frank!

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