At 21, I started going to the gym during my lunch break. I quickly fell in love with heavy lifting (and soon after Strongman) and complimented it with big eating. Being very new to lifting, and having very limited nutritional knowledge, I turned to the internet. There is a lot of great advice online, and even more not so great stuff. Unfortunately, the not so great stuff looks like a lot more fun, and so I chose that. Eating a massive excess of calories, lots of protein and not caring where it all came from. 2 years later, I had put on an extra 7 stone (from 12st to 19st) While a lot of it was muscle, I was carrying more bodyfat than I was happy with.

That’s when I decided to look in to nutritionists. I found Alex’s profile on nutritionist-resource.org.uk and had a look. I could see that he had a background in sports nutrition and personal training, not to mention a MSc in Human Nutrition and BSc Sports Science, so I knew he would understand my goals.

When I met Alex, he started by asking what I wanted to achieve. My main concerns were to lose bodyfat while maintaining as much muscle and strength as possible.

He then weighed me, took my measurements and bodyfat %, checked my blood pressure and cholesterol. With my starting point established, Alex asked me to keep a food diary for a few days so he could code me a new plan using foods I liked.

Based on this information, Alex noticed my diet was sporadic and had very little structure. This was the first thing he tackled, the next was ensuring I had enough protein and the correct level of carbs to be able to recover fully for heavy gym sessions. He was also concerned with my lack of fruit and veg, and quickly rectified it.

After 3 weeks with the new plan I had lost about 1 stone, most of which was body fat. The biggest change was in my blood pressure and cholesterol, which were both slightly high, but had now come down to the ideal levels for both.

I was glad that despite the weight loss, my strength had stayed the same, maintaining my 230kg deadlift and actually increasing my bench to 130kg.

I will be using Alex’s advice and expertise going forward, to help me get the best out of my training and recovery. Based on the great results I have had in a short amount of time; I can’t wait to see what his programming can do for me long term.