Anti-Diet Sports Nutrition: How Performance Thrives When Restriction Ends
As conversations around sports nutrition continue to evolve, one theme has become increasingly important: moving away from restrictive dieting and toward an anti-diet, health-first approach.
With Eating Disorder Awareness Month taking place in February, it’s an ideal time to re-examine how we support athletes, not only in reaching their performance goals, but also in protecting their long-term physical and mental well-being.
What does an Anti-Diet Approach Mean?
Generally, the anti-diet approach focuses on fueling enough, eating intuitively, and tailoring nutrition to the individual without focusing on shrinking their body. Instead of emphasizing calorie deficits, it encourages athletes to meet their energy needs so they can train well, recover well, and stay healthy throughout the season.
Research shows that restrictive dieting can drain energy, slow recovery, and increase injury risk. When athletes constantly under-eat, their bodies simply don’t have the resources needed for adaptation. On the other hand, eating in line with hunger cues and performance needs supports steady energy, stronger recovery, and a more positive relationship with food.
In practice, that can mean shifting away from calorie counting and toward nutrient-focused eating: prioritizing carbohydrates for energy, protein for recovery, and fats for hormones and long-term health. It’s about giving the body what it needs, not seeing how little you can get by on.
How Restriction Shows Up in Athletes
What do you need to look out for in your athletes? Unfortunately, restriction isn’t always loud or obvious. It can be physical, mental, or emotional. All forms can interfere with performance and health.
1. Mental Restriction
Mental restriction often presents as a dichomoty, in extreme black-and-white ways of thinking about food. It includes rigid food rules. It includes thoughts like “I shouldn’t eat that,” “I need to cut carbs,” or “I can only eat at these times.” It can manifest ask describing foods with moralizing language, like good/bad, healthy/unhealthy, superfood/toxic, with very little room for the grey area, or nuance.
These internal rules often stem from perfectionism, sport culture, fear-mongering or misinformation. Over time, they create anxiety around eating and can push an athlete toward disordered patterns.
2. Physical Restriction
Physical restriction is physically staying away from, or removing specific foods or food groups without need or relevance. It involves intentionally eating less than the body needs, sometimes in pursuit of a particular look, or in the name of health. This is especially common in sports where leanness is emphasized, such as endurance running, dance, or gymnastics. Physical restriction can lead to fatigue, poor recovery, decreased bone density, and menstrual disturbances.
3. Emotional Restriction
Emotional restriction happens when guilt, shame, or fear influence food choices. It can also happen when a person struggles to experience or cope with difficult situations or emotions, and more often than not turn towards food to cope. An athlete may feel “bad” for eating certain foods, or worry that eating more will harm their goals. This emotional distance can lead to inconsistent eating patterns and a higher risk of anxiety or depression.
These types of restriction often overlap. When they do, the risk of nutrient deficiencies, low energy availability, and clinical eating disorders increases.
Struggling with mental, physical or emotional restriction? I can help!
Performance Thrives With Adequate Fuel
Athletes with adequate energy availability consistently perform better. They adapt more effectively to training, recover faster, and maintain stronger immune and hormonal function. In contrast, low energy availability (LEA) increases the risk of RED-S, which affects everything from bone health to mood to metabolic rate.
It’s common for athletes to assume that being lighter will make them faster or stronger. But the evidence is clear: consistent fueling improves strength, stamina, and overall performance far more reliably than weight manipulation. When athletes eat enough, their bodies respond better to training, plain and simple.
Why Education Matters
Understanding nutrition helps athletes make informed choices and reduces confusion caused by myths, trends, or pressure from peers. Educational programs can cover:
how much fuel is needed day-to-day
what balanced plates look like for different training loads
hydration strategies before, during, and after training
how to listen to hunger cues while still supporting performance
how to build meals when time or resources are limited
When sports dietitians, trainers, and mental health professionals collaborate, athletes get clear, aligned messages. This team-based approach helps normalize fueling and decreases stigma around eating enough.
Creating Supportive Team Environments
Team culture has a major influence on how athletes relate to food. Coaches and staff play an important role in shifting conversations away from body size and toward performance, recovery, and well-being.
Supportive environments include:
avoiding comments about weight or appearance
encouraging athletes to communicate openly about their fueling needs
using language that frames food as fuel, not a reward or restriction
incorporating team education days or cooking sessions
modeling balanced, flexible eating as adults in leadership roles
These small changes help athletes feel safer, more confident, and more connected—both to their sport and to their bodies.
Final Thoughts
Transitioning to an anti-diet sports nutrition approach supports athletes both in the moment and for years to come. By focusing on adequate fuel, intuitive eating, and individualized guidance, not restriction, athletes are better equipped to train, recover, and thrive.
As we recognize Eating Disorder Awareness Month, it’s worth asking: How can we help athletes feel strong, supported, and well-fueled? The answer lies in prioritizing nourishment over numbers and performance over appearance.
When restriction ends, athletes finally have the freedom, and the energy, to reach their full potential.
Hope this helped!
Maria Tanielian
Registered Dietitian/Nutritionniste
IOC Diploma in Sports Nutrition
ODNQ # 7223, CDBC # 2815, SDA # 949, CDO #16856
Studies Worth Reading With An Open Mind
Arthur-Cameselle, J. and Quatromoni, P. (2011). Factors related to the onset of eating disorders reported by female collegiate athletes. The Sport Psychologist, 25(1), 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1123/tsp.25.1.1
Arthur-Cameselle, J. and Quatromoni, P. (2014). A qualitative analysis of female collegiate athletes’ eating disorder recovery experiences. The Sport Psychologist, 28(4), 334-346. https://doi.org/10.1123/tsp.2013-0079
Coelho, C., Oliveira, D., Branco, C., Gomes, A., Conceição, E., Machado, P., … & Gonçalves, S. (2025). The mediating role of self-criticism in the relationship between coaches’ leadership styles and disordered eating in athletes. Nutrients, 17(3), 427. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu17030427
Gastrich, M., Quick, V., Bachmann, G., & Moriarty, A. (2020). Nutritional risks among female athletes. Journal of Women S Health, 29(5), 693-702. https://doi.org/10.1089/jwh.2019.8180
Giel, K., Hermann‐Werner, A., Mayer, J., Diehl, K., Schneider, S., Thiel, A., … & Zipfel, S. (2016). Eating disorder pathology in elite adolescent athletes. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 49(6), 553-562. https://doi.org/10.1002/eat.22511
Katcher, J., Suminski, R., & Pacanowski, C. (2022). Impact of an intuitive eating intervention on disordered eating risk factors in female-identifying undergraduates: a randomized waitlist-controlled trial. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(19), 12049. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191912049
Thomson, J. and Almstedt, H. (2025). Intuitive eating and the female athlete triad in collegiate runners. Nutrients, 17(14), 2337. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu17142337
