Listen to the podcast here: Here

Guest: Pratik Patel, MS, RD, CSSD, CSCS. Former NFL coach – nutrition, S&C, has helped 1000+ athletes improve. Pratik has been working as a dietician and a strength coach for 11 years.

• What type of clients does Pratik coach?

-It’s a mix.

-Professional athletes in their off season

-Handful of young high school athletes.

-The Non-athletic population (People who just want to stay fit)

• The misconceptions in minds of people

-As coaches we are constantly fighting with evidence based knowledge, we don’t ask people to do things as other people did or said, there has to be research about it.

-New clients who enroll want results fast, whatever gets marketed by the media/news, everyone will jump on board, nobody wants to learn what they need to address in their own lives.

-There’s no one diet, one exercise, one drink, one pill that will solve your health problems, it’s an accumulation of things and habits over time.

• What can be done to push the fitness revolution more?

-Youngsters should be educated about the basics on nutrition and fitness, if they get interested then the upcoming generation will be healthy and fit and that will be the beginning of revolution.

-What we need is an environment of well being.

-The knowledge of nutrition and fitness shouldn’t just be limited to a hobby, parents should support their children when they want to pursue a career in coaching people about fitness and nutrition. 

-There’s nothing wrong with the Indian public they’ve huge potential. But the absurd misconceptions need to be bashed.

• What’s wrong?

-The people in the USA and other countries get attracted to new fad diets very easily but it’s the opposite in India, in India we stick to the old regime and are too stubborn on it.

-The Indian diet is high in carbohydrates and less in protein coupled with very less physical activity, which causes micronutrient deficiencies.

-People are very scared of supplements.

• What creates a major awareness in fitness field:

-Before and after pictures of people help others to be self aware about their own physique.

-Making people believe that they too can achieve a physique if they follow a certain diet and workout regime.