The nutritionist is the professional responsible for human nutrition, and is therefore able to act in various areas, such as sports, clinical and collective nutrition. This branch has currently grown a lot, as there are many people interested in the fitness world, with the aim of taking care of their health and improving their physical condition through exercise and good nutrition. It is therefore important to know how to become a professional in sports nutrition.
What is sports nutrition?
Sports nutrition is the scientific study of the effects of food and drink on the physical performance of athletes, therefore, it is the application of nutritional science to the improvement of sports performance.
This profession is a discipline separate from nutrition in general, as it is a specialisation that responds directly to the characteristics of sport, with respect to physical wear and tear, injury prevention, muscle development, among others, under the standards of good nutrition.
It must be taken into account that the nutritional needs of an athlete are different from those of a sedentary person or an amateur sportsperson.
What are the functions of a sports nutritionist?
For a long time the sports nutritionist was only sought after by high performance athletes, but their performance has grown because more and more people are interested in a healthy, athletic and beautiful body, so they seek to pay more attention to what they consume and what can help by complementing it with exercise.
Sports nutritionists are responsible for providing a food plan with appropriate amounts of macro and micronutrients according to the physical activity that the person practices, taking into consideration the hours and duration of training to ensure this way the energy and protein intake needed for muscle recovery.
In addition, to improve the performance of athletes when they go to compete, nutritionists are the ones who make modifications in the diet to achieve the objective that each event deserves, being responsible for recommending even food supplements if necessary.
Best of all, they can work in gyms, clubs, medical practices and as personal dieticians, attending patients at home.
Related studies
Sports nutrition has studies that are closely related to the profession, such as:
- Dietetics: these are those who study dietary regimes in order to maintain a healthy state, counteract an illness or an eating disorder.
- Clinical nutrition: This is nutrition applied to the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of people with acute nutritional diseases.
- Bromatology: The study of food in its production processes, handling, storage and nutritional and caloric value, to see if its consumption is beneficial.
- Oncological nutrition: This is the professional who provides guidance on nutrition when suffering from certain illnesses. Such as cancer, where special nutritional protocols must be applied.
Professional opportunities
The world of sports and nutrition enjoys popularity, because as already mentioned, not only athletes are concerned about their bodies and seek professional advice, which has led to sports nutrition being more in demand and therefore has various professional opportunities.
Sports nutrition specialists can work as independent nutritional advisors, providing their services to all types of sports enthusiasts. As nutrition specialists within gyms; advisors in the food and sports supplement industry, which is not one of the most common. But they are able to work in advising on the development of supplements that focus on the sports sector.
In addition, they can work in training and teaching, so they can teach at universities and educational centres offering sports nutrition programmes.
Required skills
A good sports nutritionist should have the following skills:
- Have broad scientific knowledge regarding the physiology of the human body, nutrition and the effects of exercise.
- Up-to-date knowledge of any new developments or discoveries in the world of sports nutrition, which means that they must be constantly learning.
- Be able to create personalised nutrition plans, and be able to modify them if circumstances warrant.
- Have the ability to work as part of a team and good communication skills. You will be working with people who are subjected to high levels of physical and psychological demands.
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