Varying nutritional strategies

A growing trend that I see across the fitness industry is trainers and coaches stating that a certain type of nutritional approach should never be used for reasons x,y,z. You often hear coaches saying things such as the below. 

Meal plans: A trainer should not give you a meal plan because they are too restrictive, offer no flexibility, and don’t teach the client anything about making good choices. 

Tracking calories / macros: You should not track calorie as it is too obsessive, cant be done all of the time and can lead to eating disorders 

Intuitive eating: You should not give someone vague recommendations because they need specifics in order to know what they are doing to achieve optimal results 

Habit based nutrition coaching: This is far to simple and is going to take too long to see any significant changes 

And on and on and on. 

The truth is, all of the above statements are true in some cases and false in others. We have helped people achieve amazing results using all of the above methods. In our opinion, it is a huge mistake as a coach to stick religiously to one form of nutrition based coaching, and disregard all others. As is the case with exercise, everyones nutritional requirements are going to be different but more importantly than that, everyones psychology and relationship with food is different, and these things can change over time. What works exceptionally well with some people, just won’t work with others, and vice versa. That is why we have a full 60 minute nutritional consultation with all of our new clients to take the time to discuss their nutritional history, what makes them tick and to come up with a plan together that we feel is best suited to their individual needs and preferences.