An elite female rugby player ate better, learned more, and decreased body fat levels with MealLogger-based nutrition counseling, according to an article published in the Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness. The results led the authors to conclude that dynamic digital nutrition platforms like MealLogger “may be of benefit to the performance nutritionist to increase nutrition knowledge and body composition in team sport players.”
Recognizing the benefits of smartphone technology for improving dietary compliance in clinical settings, a team of UK-based researchers set out to explore the effects of digital nutrition counseling tools in an athletic context. They understood that the capacity of sports dietitians to support their team can be limited by time and resource constraints, and aimed to overcome these hurdles using MealLogger. Such tools, they wrote, “may offer a cost-effective and novel method of maintaining better communication between athletes and practitioners at times of the season when such interactions may be limited.”
The researchers enrolled two elite female Rugby Union players in the study. One player connected with a performance nutritionist via MealLogger, and the other, acting as the control, was not given access to MealLogger, but still received a one-to-one nutrition counseling session and biweekly emails. After logging about three meals and two drinks per day during the two-month intervention, the researchers found that the athlete receiving MealLogger-based nutrition counseling increased her total calorie intake by 9% (versus a 3% increase in the control), her carbohydrate intake by 7% (versus a 9% decrease in the control), and her protein intake by 29% (versus a 6% decrease in the control), while her fat intake remained unchanged (versus a 23% increase in the control). These dietary changes translated into a 16% reduction in body fat skinfolds (versus a 0.3% increase in the control). Measures of nutrition knowledge also increased more in the MealLogger-based intervention than in the control condition, and “the player strongly agreed that they found using the nutrition application technology helpful, that the support helped improve their nutrition knowledge, aided their thoughts around their nutrition for performance and that they found the application easy to use.”
The authors concluded that the MealLogger-based intervention “facilitated a greater level of interaction between practitioner and player” and “has shown positive results in relation to enhanced dietary practices, increased nutrition knowledge and improved body composition.”
References:
Curtis C, Russell M, Ranchordas MK. Enhancing dietary practices, general nutrition knowledge and body composition of a female International Rugby Union player incorporating smartphone application technology.
J Sports Med Phys Fitness. 2018;58(3):366-368. doi:10.23736/S0022-4707.17.07623-X
Curtis C, Russell M, Ranchordas MK. Enhancing dietary practices, general nutrition knowledge and body composition of a female International Rugby Union player: A case study incorporating smartphone application technology.