Most of the myths and misinformation in the health industry comes from the nutrition sector. Everyone seems to think they are a nutritionist, and with popular newspapers regularly printing articles claiming one food group can cure cancer in a mouthful, its easy to see how this misinformation spreads.

Everyone knows nutrition is incredibly important when it comes to health and fitness, losing weight, and building muscle. So, for those who want it, I ask clients to fill out a weeks food diary after our initial consultation. I then analyse it and make some tweaks and suggestions where necessary, and create some food plans to tie in with the workout and exercise programmes that are being created specifically for you.

Like with most things health and fitness related, you have to plan things with your client on an individual basis. Nutrition is no exception and although everyone needs the same vitamins and minerals to allow the body to function and repair itself, these vitamins and minerals can come from different food sources depending on the client's tastes and preference. There should be no "one diet" fits all approach, and its also important to factor in days to feed the soul - cheat meals to eat and drink whatever you want. 

One quote I will use is that "you can't out run a bad diet", exercise alone has many health benefits physiologically and neurologically, but if weight loss is your goal we must start here with nutrition. Every diet has immediate success, I've seen people lose weight on: high carb, low carb, high fat, no fat, protein only, fruit only etc etc blah blah - they all work to start off with!
The key though is making them healthy, sustainable, and being able to keep ahead of an incredibly effective biological machine (your brain and body) that will try and neutralise continual weight loss. Rotational dieting is what will get you through any plateaus reached, and calorie restriction is never an option as it doesn't work for long, almost always you will put the weight back on after dieting, and the weight loss typically will be lean muscle mass not fat.  However, don't be alarmed, with a bit forward planning, common sense, patience and a determination to stick to a plan, then you will get great results.