Learn about sports nutrition to fuel athletes and sporting teams’ performance or boost your own ability in sport.  This sports nutrition course will help you to understand how to enhance the performance of amateur and elite athletes through supplementation and diet.

Nutritional requirements vary according to the individual and type of sporting or athletic pursuit. In this online sports nutrition course, you will understand sports nutrition from both a holistic and scientific perspective.

The Certificate Sports Nutrition is a unique online course that will develop your knowledge and understanding of sports nutrition, food for fitness, the role of supplements in sport and the critical relationship between performance, individual health and diet.

This professional development course will also explore the fundamentals of human and sports nutrition, understand energy output, the competition diet, and the importance of fluids. You will also discover the athlete’s body composition, weight management techniques and training for size.

In this sports nutrition course, you will gain foundation knowledge and skills to explore a role in the sports nutrition industry or improve your own sporting performance!

Learning Outcomes

Outcomes achieved by undertaking a sports nutrition course include:

• Human nutrition and sport
• Energy production in the body
• Energy is utilisation in the body
• Characteristics and design of a successful training diet
• Design a diet for an athlete
• Design an athletic diet for the days leading up to, during and after a competition
• The importance of fluids in an athletic diet
• Body composition of an athlete
• Methods of measuring body composition
• Techniques for weight reduction and body fat control
• Approaches to increase muscle mass
• Assess the use of sports supplements
• Essential nutrients
• Importance of carbohydrates, proteins and fats in the human diet
• ATP conversion to energy in the human body
• Aerobic and anaerobic respiration
• Contracting muscles and ATP
• Sources of ATP in the body
• Energy sources used in the body during exercise
• Fitness tests and parameters
• Gluconeogenesis, RQ, VO2 max, TDEE
• nutritional needs of an athlete and the dietary needs of members of the general population
• signs of dehydration in an athlete
• ways of determining the % of body fat present.
• Body composition to sporting performance for a sport.
• Health risks of being overweight?
• Effects of one of the nutritional ergogenic aid
• Meal planning for athletes

And more!

What Does a Sports Nutritionist Do?

A sports dietician provides people and teams with nutrition counselling and education to enhance their athletic performance.

The role of sports nutritionist can be based onsite at a training facility, in private practice or can be mobile during travel for competitive and recreational sporting events.

Primary Responsibility of a Sports Nutritionist

• Counselling individuals and groups on daily nutrition for performance and health
• Translating current scientific research into practical recommendations
• Tracking and documenting outcomes of nutritional services
• Act as a nutrition resource for coaches, trainers and parents
• Provide sports nutrition guidance for health and wellness programs, athletic teams and community groups
• Maintain professional competency and skills required for professional practice

Skills and Abilities of a Sports Nutritionist

A sports nutritionist will need outstanding communication skills to engage with a variety of individuals and teams. The following is a list of commonly sought skills of a nutritionist working in the sporting industry.

• Excellent communication, presentation, and counselling skills
• Ability to accurately measure height, and body weight, body composition
• Accurately assess and evaluate energy balance
• Knowledge of eating disorders and disordered eating signs and symptoms
• Comprehensive knowledge and application of medical nutrition therapy, including interviewing and education techniques
• Self-motivation
• Ability to work independently
• Excellent time management, organisational, and record-keeping skills
• Knowledge of complementary medicine, ergogenic aids, and nutritional supplements, including herbal supplements
• Competence with nutrient analysis, word processing, and presentation software.
• Knowledge of measurements of resting metabolic rate, energy expenditure, VO2max, and lactate threshold
• Knowledge of food service quality and safety procedures

Designing a Training Diet

How do elite athletes fuel their fitness? When you undertake a sports nutrition course, you will discover how food consumed contributes to athletic performance. However, it comes down to balancing “the big three” – carbohydrates, proteins, and fats on a basic level!

All three are crucial to achieving optimum training results, whether you’re a high-school competitive sprinter, weekend warrior marathon runner or an Olympic athlete.

Carbohydrates – a vital energy source because they provide fuel for the brain and muscles

Proteins – an important nutrient in the development and muscle build-up

Fats – contain essential fatty acids, which are crucial in small amounts due to their high energy density

Depending on the type of sport and level of athletic competition, a combination of carbohydrates, proteins and fats is key to delivering the energy required to power performance.

Diet of Champions

Olympic swimmer Cate Campbell’s daily diet plan from morning until night!

6 am Pre-training snack: a bowl of Uncle Toby’s muesli.
8.30 am Post-training: protein shake

9 am Second breakfast: 2 eggs on toast.
Noon Lunch: usually a salad with lots of veggies (beans, capsicum, broccoli), apple, dried cranberries, walnuts and some kind of protein, usually either chicken or beef.
3 pm Pre-training snack: Usually some toast or a bowl of Uncle Toby’s oats, or some yoghurt and a piece of fruit. Plus, acoffee with a biscuit.
6 pm Post-training: Protein shake
6.45 pm Dinner: Something simple that includes meat, veggies and carbs.

What do you eat on competition day? Bland, simple foods; plain pasta or rice with salt, white bread with butter, or cereal. Whatever I can keep down.

Why is Hydration Important in Sports Performance?

Did you know the human body is 50 per cent water? If your body isn’t getting enough liquid, it cannot make use of the nutrition you consume.

If you wait until you’re thirsty to drink – it’s too late. You’re most likely already dehydrated.

A hydration calculator helps determine the right amount of water required to avoid muscle cramps and fatigue during exercise.

If you’re interested in our sports nutrition course, you may also like the Certificate of Sports Psychology and Certificate of Sports Coaching online courses.

Learn how to fuel the fitness and performance of everyone from the elite athlete to the weekend warrior with a sports nutrition course, such as our Certificate of Sports Nutrition.