Giving nutrition advice? | My thoughts

I love learning more about nutrition and i love being able to help others with their nutrition, food intake and balance with food.

I would gladly give out nutrition advice when asked for it, however i also try to abstain from writing general nutrition advice or recommendations because how much you need to eat or what you should eat is so individual.

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Of course, there are general recommendations for the majority of people which can be good to follow. Such as eating your 5-a day/or c.a 500g of fruit and veggies. Limiting the amount of processed food and sugar you intake. Not drinking soda with sugar. Trying to eat 25-35g fiber per day. Drinking several glasses of water a day etc. Limiting the amount of red meat you eat a week to 500g. etc

Those are general recommendations everyone should try to follow.

But i can’t give a general recommendation of how many carbohydrates everyone should eat, or how much protein, or how much fat, because it varies from person to person.

Example for an inactive person who needs to lose weight, then they might need to limit their intake of carbohydrates and choose lots of wholegrains and fiber rich food. Whereas someone who is very active may feel better eating more fast processed carbohydrates and maybe choosing less fiber rich foods before/after their workouts, or they may benefit from eating a very carbohydrate rich diet.

Or someone with IBS may need to limit their intake of fiber because it causes too much gastrointestinal pain, and for others they may need to increase their fiberintake to keep their digestive system working as it should.

Some people can handle a high fat diet, whereas others don’t feel good eating so much fat (apart from of course getting their daily essential fatty acids.)

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And the same goes for healthy eating. What is healthy is individual – even if there are certain guidelines everyone should follow. There are different factors that affect health and what a healthy diet is.

Also a person’s view on what is healthy depends on many factors. Ex. what i view as healthy eating, with my background with an eating disorder as well as growing up in a family where i ate vegetarian meals is different from someone who ex. grew up eating alot of junk food and has had to lose alot of weight.

Not to mention twhat is considered health depends on culture, how you grew up and what you grew up eating, what normal eating is in your social circle etc

Also, sometimes i want to share different food/eating/recovery quotes on my social media, but then i also realise that the reminder/quote is mainly aimed at those with an eating disorder or ex. a restrictive eating disorder.

Because the fact is, not everyone can eat whatever they want.

Some people do need to track their food intake, some people do need to watch their portion sizes. Some people can’t eat a sweet treat everyday, because it just triggers them to eat the whole thing.

Some people feel best following some sort of food schedule whereas others can eat very freely and be healthy.

Eating is so incredibly individual and the same goes with the food recommendations and how much you should eat.

When you read or hear different nutrition advice or recommendations it is also important to think, is this information relevant to me?

If you are in recovery from an eating disorder you WON’T have the same food recommendations as someone who is overweight and needs to lose weight. Ex. if you are in recovery from a restrictive eating disorder and need to gain weight, you will need to eat alot and also need to face your fear foods. Whereas if someone is emotionally eating and needs to lose weight, they will be recommended to eat less and keep treats to certain days.


If you have an illness you will have to eat differently and have different food recommendations than someone who doesn’t have the illness.

If you are active or inactive you will have different food recommendations. And the same goes for supplementation… some people may need to take supplements and others may not, but there is no rule that you “have to”.

You have to look at your own sitution and think… is the advice aimed at me or not?

Ex, the more active you are the more you can eat. Also if you are trying to build muscle, if you are injured, elderly or trying to lose weight you will need a higher protein intake than someone who is a normal weight and no regular activity.

This also brings me to…. i can’t tell you how much you need to eat/what you need to eat without knowing your situation, your weight/age/lifestyle/goal and your food preferances. I get alot of questions from people asking me how much they need to eat, and i can’t answer that.

Infact i have seen in different groups online that people often ask that question and some people answer with an exact answer, such as 1800kcal or 2200kcal. And sure, those are general guidelines, but you can’t know. Even when you count out exactly you will never *truly* know how much you need to eat or how much you are *actually* eating, as the caulations aren’t exact. And they don’t have to be either.

But the fact is… someone can’t tell you how much you need to eat without knowing more about you and having certain details to help calculate. Just like when someone says, i can’t lose weight or i can’t gain weight or i can’t build muscle…. there is often alot more to it and it is not always as simple as “eat less” or “eat more”, but there can be other factors a PT/nutritionist/health coach needs to know to be able to answer the question correctly.

Sometimes it is easy to forget that not everyone thinks the way i do when it comes to nutrition. .Ex. when i read different nutrition advice i always think… is this advice relevant to me? Is it something i need to consider in my diet and intake? Or is it aimed at people in a different situation than me. Of course not everyone thinks like this, and not everyone has the same nutrition knowledge that i do.

It would be great if there was just a simple way of eating that fit everyone, but it is so individual. So please remember this.

And the same goes for when i post different recovery related food quotes and inspiration. I know that the advice may not be relevant or applicable to everyones situation, but i also know that many who follow me do struggle with disordered eating and that those quotes and advice do help – even if they may not be relevant to everyone.


2 Comments Add yours

  1. Love this! Everyone is different and is at different stages when it comes to health. Thank you for sharing!


  2. carol says:

    Yes, its important to remember that eating is very individual. My partner and I don`t always have the same meal as each other although we make the effort to do something we both like at weekends. We just have different taste preferences and it suits us to do mealtimes like this.
    Thankyou for such an interesting post !


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