The Importance of Nutrition and Adherence

Below is a post from one of our clients, Reece, who came to see us for some help with his nutrition plan.

Reece Body Comp Before and After 12 Weeks

"Before: 105.2kg, 17.9% body fat, 86.5kg lean muscle mass - After: 96.2kg, 10.6% body fat, 86kg lean mass - Signed up with @totalhealthperformance to assist me with my nutrition and my results are beyond what I could imagine, even after my training going from 6 days to barely any 2 weeks in, we still reached the goal of 10%bf. Thanks to Nathan i’m leaner than I’ve ever been and my lowest weight since I was 13 years old. Signed up again for a nutrition/training program and can’t wait to see what I can achieve with THP this time. #goals #nomoreheavyweight #newweightclass"

As Reece mentions in his post, he went from grappling 6 days a week to barely training at all due to the lock down. By being disciplined with his nutrition, he was still able to lose 9kg, 7.3% body fat, and only lost 0.5kg of lean muscle. These are very good results.

What it really highlights to me is the importance of having a proper nutrition plan in place. I see way too many people doing a lot of training sessions that they would not otherwise have to do if they just prioritised their nutrition. It is like the old saying “you can’t out train a bad diet”, but in a lot of cases I see they kind of do. A lot of athletes remain in decent shape despite a pretty poor diet but only because they do so much more work than they need to be doing to maintain that level of body composition and conditioning. If they were to prioritise their nutrition, like Reece has here, they would have more time and energy to dedicate to other things like technical skills, strength, recovery, or just have more time to be able to do things they enjoy in general.

The other thing Reece’s results show, is the importance of discipline and adherence to the plan. He even had a buck’s party in Melbourne during this time, and he still managed to stay on track enough to get the results he was after. It doesn’t matter what advice I give, if Reece didn’t implement the advice given, he would not get the results. The perfect plan not implemented is worthless. This is the biggest problem I face. It is whether or not the client really wants to change or just likes the idea of it. Too many people say they want this or that but then don’t ever implement the things needed to achieve their goals. They may for a week but they get lazy and decide to stay as they were. I can want them to be successful as all I want but if the individual doesn’t want to implement any advice, there is nothing I can do about it.

Obviously, I try many different tactics to try and get them to make some small changes and hopefully get them to develop some new habits, but the simple fact is, people either really want to change or they don’t. This will show in their actions. I am not a psychologist and don’t want to be so it is not enjoyable for me trying to convince people to make changes in their life. It doesn’t really matter to me. If you want help, I’ll help, but if you don’t do the things that need to be done, I’m useless.

Someone like Reece is a pleasure to work with. It makes me happy to see him get the results for his hard work and dedication. I look forward to seeing further results from him in the coming weeks, and when the restrictions from this virus are lifted, watching him compete.