The Gymnast Nutritionist® Podcast
Jun 29, 2026 · 26 min · 8 segments
In honor of 200 episodes of The Gymnast Nutritionist® Podcast, I want to share with you the top 5 things I've learned (especially in recent years working exclusively with gymnasts).
Christina AndersonHostSo number one thing I have learned working with gymnasts is that under fueling is actually a much bigger problem than I thought.
You know, when I first started this, like I knew that the level nine tens and the elites or the level eight, nine tens and elites, right? Like the higher level optional level gymnasts, I knew that they would be under fueled because of the training hours, the intensity, the duration.
And then when they're getting older, you bring in the body image piece and wonky food things.
But I have been most blown away by how under fueled some of our level four fives and sixes have been.
their parents actually don't necessarily think that they're advanced enough to work with us or they're training enough hours to work with us.
And I'm like, Hey, before you make that decision, like let's actually look at their nutrition, right? Like let's look at this together and see if they would be a good fit or not.
And so many of these gymnasts are actually more injured than my older gymnasts.
They've got joint osteochondritis desiccans, which if you don't know what that is, I will link to that episode in the show notes.
We're seeing stress reactions, stress fractures, massive growth faltering and growth issues because of years and years of unintentional under fueling.
But it makes sense because when I think about it through the lens as just a pediatric sports dietitian, there are hundreds of thousands of children out there who struggle with nutrition, right? They struggle with nutrition sometimes from day one, sometimes starting in toddlerhood.
Maybe they get developed with a medical condition like celiac or food allergies that make eating challenging.
Or I also just think there's a lot of confusion around in the parenting space these days about how to feed children.
And in some ways, we've almost kind of swung to the opposite end of the spectrum from what a lot of us were raised in, right? Like a lot of us were raised in the clean plate club, right? Where you were served what you were served, you had to clean your plate, you had to eat all of it.
Because of that, there's a lot of adults, you know, my age and older that have a really dysfunctional relationship with food and their body.
And so a lot of parents, my age and your age, we don't want to push that upon our children, right? We want to help them be intuitive eaters and to listen to their bodies and to eat when they're hungry and stop when they're full.
But what most parents don't realize is that A lot of children, for whatever reason, they are just not going to be intuitively hungry for what they need, right? Maybe they're a low volume eater or a picky eater.
Maybe they are just really anxious or whatever, right? Or maybe they're just really busy and they're just so busy enjoying life and school and their friends that they truly do just forget to eat.
And so then when you add on top of that 12, 15, 20 hours a week of gymnastics, which is, you know, very typical of your level four, five and sixes.
Now they are really under fueled because we're just exacerbating an underlying problem.
And so what feels really good to me is that we have, you know, the the team to support gymnasts at these levels, right? Like, I don't just work with the level eight, nines, 10s and elites or the 10s and elites, right? Like we have lots of clients who who are level three, fours and fives.
and get their nutrition on track and get their parents support before these issues go on longer.
So number one thing I have learned working with gymnasts is that under fueling is actually a much bigger problem than I thought.
You know, when I first started this, like I knew that the level nine tens and the elites or the level eight, nine tens and elites, right? Like the higher level optional level gymnasts, I knew that they would be under fueled because of the training hours, the intensity, the duration.
And then when they're getting older, you bring in the body image piece and wonky food things.
But I have been most blown away by how under fueled some of our level four fives and sixes have been.
their parents actually don't necessarily think that they're advanced enough to work with us or they're training enough hours to work with us.
And I'm like, Hey, before you make that decision, like let's actually look at their nutrition, right? Like let's look at this together and see if they would be a good fit or not.
And so many of these gymnasts are actually more injured than my older gymnasts.
They've got joint osteochondritis desiccans, which if you don't know what that is, I will link to that episode in the show notes.
We're seeing stress reactions, stress fractures, massive growth faltering and growth issues because of years and years of unintentional under fueling.
But it makes sense because when I think about it through the lens as just a pediatric sports dietitian, there are hundreds of thousands of children out there who struggle with nutrition, right? They struggle with nutrition sometimes from day one, sometimes starting in toddlerhood.
Maybe they get developed with a medical condition like celiac or food allergies that make eating challenging.
Or I also just think there's a lot of confusion around in the parenting space these days about how to feed children.
And in some ways, we've almost kind of swung to the opposite end of the spectrum from what a lot of us were raised in, right? Like a lot of us were raised in the clean plate club, right? Where you were served what you were served, you had to clean your plate, you had to eat all of it.
Because of that, there's a lot of adults, you know, my age and older that have a really dysfunctional relationship with food and their body.
And so a lot of parents, my age and your age, we don't want to push that upon our children, right? We want to help them be intuitive eaters and to listen to their bodies and to eat when they're hungry and stop when they're full.
But what most parents don't realize is that A lot of children, for whatever reason, they are just not going to be intuitively hungry for what they need, right? Maybe they're a low volume eater or a picky eater.
Maybe they are just really anxious or whatever, right? Or maybe they're just really busy and they're just so busy enjoying life and school and their friends that they truly do just forget to eat.
And so then when you add on top of that 12, 15, 20 hours a week of gymnastics, which is, you know, very typical of your level four, five and sixes.
Now they are really under fueled because we're just exacerbating an underlying problem.
And so what feels really good to me is that we have, you know, the the team to support gymnasts at these levels, right? Like, I don't just work with the level eight, nines, 10s and elites or the 10s and elites, right? Like we have lots of clients who who are level three, fours and fives.
and get their nutrition on track and get their parents support before these issues go on longer.
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