Nutrition for Performance

Each sport or active pursuit requires you to use a different energy system. Each energy system requires a different approach to fuel. Every sport also requires different recovery needs. 

Is it really that important?

I've worked with amateur / recreational to higher level athletes over the years. When I first started nutritional interventions were only available to higher level athletes who seemed didn't seem to realise the impact that their diet had on performance. In the past 10 years the quality information available has improved immensely. Although belief systems and context can warp good information. Not only that phone apps have made it 100 times easier to track & stay on top of things.

Research in nutrition for sports performance has also advanced. I recently worked with an endurance athlete who was grossly under eating by nearly 1200 calories. Her performance actually started to decrease. This was due to misinformation about weight loss in conjunction with a demanding training schedule. We step increased her calories to avoid previous digestive issues. This athlete hit personal bests very quickly and dropped weight probably due to the extra energy out put. This is a great example of poor context of information.

Consistency is probably the most important factor when considering how to set up a long term plan. 

I'd be suspicious of anyone promising instant results with a 1 size all nutrition approach. I'd also be suspicious of extreme protocols alluding to quick results.

Finding the right approach requires building a needs analysis collecting data and slowly changing variable over time based on sound nutritional principles.

This also requires you to collect as much info required to improve over time.

This is not a quick fix.