Nutrition is one of the pillars underpinning health, performance and body composition.

The question is, is it possible to have all three simultaneously? The answer, as with everything, is ‘it depends’!

To make a generalization, it is usually easiest to ‘have it all’ the less extreme your goals in any one area, or at least with respect performance and body composition.

What do I mean by this?

Let’s take a sport like dancing, for example. To be an elite dancer you have goals of maintaining a lean physique for aesthetics and so that you are lighter in lifts and jumps. And you also want to perform to a high level and so train many hours with high energy expenditure. Under these conditions, it can be challenging – performance and body composition wise, as well as practically when training many hours a day – to take in enough energy and nutrients to maintain optimal health.

Or combat athletes, who undergo rapid weight cuts involving low calories, dehydration and low fibre to hit their competition weight class. These periods are not prioritizing health (and potentially performance, if done incorrectly!), but may be necessary for the athlete to be permitted to compete.

On the flip side, the recreational athlete or the athlete who does not need to focus on a specific bodyweight or composition to perform or for their own aesthetic goals may more easily be able to have it all. In this case it can be possible to ensure all the nutrients and energy needed to maintain health and perform are eaten, whilst still maintaining a body composition that is healthy and suitable for their sport.

So, what can you do if your goals push you to the edges of the parameters of body composition and / or performance?

One approach could be to periodise nutrition – prioritizing energy intake to best support health in parts of the off season, performance in season, and body composition in appropriately placed points in the on and off season. Knowing what these levels are brings its own challenges, but it is an approach that may provide the necessary balance between priorities.

To learn more, have a listen to this podcast here.

Dr Sinead Roberts, PhD