Educated professionals for nutritional advice?

August 29, 2010 10:45 AM

What kind of highly-educated specialist (MD or PhD-level expertise) would I want to go to for sophisticated and custom-tailored 1) nutritional and 2) exercise planning recommendations for body-building and weight-loss? I'm looking for experts who know the science and have experience and common sense. Any particular recommendations in NYC?
posted by shivohum to health & fitness (14 answers total)

Why not registered dietician?
posted by k8t at 11:00 AM on August 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

Personally, I think Lyle McDonald is a good place to start reading about this stuff.

Obviously, competitive bodybuilders comprise a big portion of his audience, but endurance athletes are also among his fans. I think he's a smart guy.
posted by Ideefixe at 11:07 AM on August 29, 2010

Sports medicine may work if you're already into bodybuilding. They might not be so good if you are just getting started, since the docs are used to working with people who are already dedicated athletes and don't have motivation issues. If your primary goal is weight loss you might want a registered dietician.

PhD-level nutrition researchers (at least the ones I've known) are usually much less confident in their predictive abilities since they know all the caveats with the existing research.

What's unique about your situation that requires a specialist?
posted by benzenedream at 11:57 AM on August 29, 2010

What's unique about your situation that requires a specialist?

Ditto. The specialists in these fields do research or work with well-funded professional athletes. Just a find a coach or trainer who has helped others do what you want to do and hire him/her.
posted by ferdinand.bardamu at 12:02 PM on August 29, 2010

Dietician is precisely the specialist you want to consult. SCIENCE! is good at predicting across a population of people. Personal experience, in the form of an experienced personal trainer over time, is better at designing, monitoring, and modifying a regimen for a specific individual.
posted by porpoise at 12:03 PM on August 29, 2010

Are you asking for a personal recommendation, or in general? Such as "what type of person with X designation would have the know-how to help?"
posted by P.o.B. at 12:05 PM on August 29, 2010

If you want a dietitian, find one who works with bodybuilders and isn't in love with the DoA food pyramid. There's an International Society of Sports Nutrition.
posted by Ideefixe at 12:45 PM on August 29, 2010

I don't have a personal rec, but I'm sure you'll be able to find someone good in NYC. So here's the problem with answering your question though, the health and fitness industry is highly unregulated. And to add to that the person your looking for "makes" a product that has a "quality" that is not objectively scrutable nor usually available for reference.
The two things you should look for in a trainer/coach/whatever are; do they have specific skill and knowledge to help you?

Practical Experience - This should be one of the topmost things you should look for. How much time have they spent actually working with clients? Preferrably under the guise of their own volition rather than some corporate facility. Training someone really does take more than telling someone to "go do X,Y,Z" and they should be able to demonstrate they "understand" you and your goals.

Degree and Cert(s) - What type of schooling and how much? It's not the greatest metric for telling if someone "knows" what they're doing but it will at least tell you they put in time learning something. The caveat is that there are coaches and trainers out there who never had formal schooling and are fantastic.

find one who works with bodybuilders

Exactly. Make sure you find someone who fits that criteria of having the know-how to work with your specific wants and needs. I see the Dieticitian suggestion regularly and most all of the ones I've run into are either a) way more woo-woo than science and b) don't know the first thing about feeding an athlete.
posted by P.o.B. at 1:01 PM on August 29, 2010

What's unique about your situation that requires a specialist?

Perhaps what the OP wants is a personal trainer who uses evidence-based techniques and who is up to date on the relevant results from the latest scientific literature.

I mean, the personal trainers I know are nice guys, very fit, and good at motivating people - but they don't know a double-blind trial from a confounding factor.

Particularly when it comes to things like diet, I just plain find it easier to follow advice that I don't have to second-guess all the time. Evidence-based advice helps me with that.
posted by Mike1024 at 1:31 PM on August 29, 2010

Dietitians aren't necessarily going to know anything about training. I wouldn't recommend getting training advice from Lyle McDonald.

I don't know of anyone local to NYC, but I recommend e-mailing John Sheaffer of Greyskull Barbell, which is outside Philly. He does consults online as well as in-person which are exactly what you're asking for -- he'll ask you about your goals and background and come up with a meal plan and a training program for you. He works with many types of athletes of both genders and all ages, including football players, bodybuilders, powerlifters, firefighters and people training for general strength and conditioning. He as a Q&A forum here where you can also read testimonials from clients.
posted by JohnMarston at 2:24 PM on August 29, 2010

Thanks for the info and suggestions so far.

Why not registered dietician?
I'm looking for someone who can help me with an exercise plan as well.

What's unique about your situation that requires a specialist?
Well, I've used personal trainers in the past and they usually don't do nutrition. Also, I'd just prefer the higher level of scientific rigor that might come with a serious education in the field. I don't necessarily need someone to hold my hand through 3 sessions/week... more like a few consults to help plan things out and monitor progress.

Are you asking for a personal recommendation, or in general? Such as "what type of person with X designation would have the know-how to help?

Both :).

Perhaps what the OP wants is a personal trainer who uses evidence-based techniques and who is up to date on the relevant results from the latest scientific literature.
Yep.
posted by shivohum at 9:41 PM on August 29, 2010

One other thing -- in my experience, seeking out MDs and PhDs isn't the best way to find the folks who know what works when it comes to training and diet. It's not that simple. You've got to educate yourself as best you can, look into different people, look at what results they've gotten for their clients, ask them about their approach, use your BS-detector, and do some trial and error.
posted by JohnMarston at 9:52 PM on August 29, 2010

We were pleased with Nutrition Energy who consulted on both nutritional needs and exercise needs (and can work with, say, the personal trainer at your gym).
posted by kathryn at 8:56 AM on August 30, 2010

To follow up and give you the degree I think you're looking for would be in Exercise Science. At least that is what most universities offer as a Bachelors as a learning route to "health & fitness". I believe there are graduate level routes to getting degrees in things like Physiology and Kinesiology. But I'd have to reiterate what I, and JohnMarston, was saying that people with degrees sometimes don't have the practical knowledge or experience to simply guide people through a "good" workout. Years ago when I was planning on becoming a certified strength coach, I quickly found out that even the upper level under grads really didn't know much at all about training. Like I said that was years ago and was maybe just at my school. Perhaps curriculums are better now. If you really do want to look for other "qualifications" you can also look for: NSCA, NASM, ACE, or ASCM. I know some of those certs used to be a hell of a lot harder to get than nowadays, but I've also heard some of them have tightened up their quality and are much better.
posted by P.o.B. at 12:57 PM on August 30, 2010