Athletes I’ve worked with.
Made weight without compromising performance
Lily came to me wanting to move into the under 67.5kg powerlifting class. She had already lost weight herself but wanted to lose the final four kilos without sacrificing her strength or training performance. We structured her nutrition around the demands of her training and competition, then shifted the focus to maintaining her weight while increasing her intake.
Making weight without compromising strength
Lily came to me wanting to move into the under 67.5 kg powerlifting weight class. She had already made progress on her own, but wanted guidance with the final stage of weight loss without compromising her strength or ability to train well.
We spent around two months gradually moving her from 68.5 kg to 64.5 kg, rather than relying on an aggressive approach close to competition.
Once she reached her target, the focus changed.
Instead of continuing to restrict food, we worked on increasing her intake while maintaining her weight and supporting her training. Her intake eventually reached around 2,500 calories per day, giving us a much stronger foundation for the final stages of preparation.
Competition week was planned around performance rather than simply making the number on the scales.
She weighed in at 65.1 kg without a last-minute weight cut, then used a structured carbohydrate strategy before and during competition, including around 500 g carbohydrate the day before and 200 g on competition morning.
She went on to lift 110 kg squat, 80 kg bench, and 125 kg deadlift - and set a new deadlift PB.
The bigger outcome was not simply reaching a lower body weight. Lily was able to make her weight class while maintaining her strength, increase her food intake once she reached her target, and approach competition with a fuelling strategy designed around performance.
The outcome
- Reached the under 67.5 kg weight class without a last-minute weight cut
- Increased intake to around 2,500 calories while maintaining her target weight
- Maintained strength throughout the weight-making phase
- Improved competition-day fuelling and execution
- Set a new deadlift PB at competition
Elite-level nutrition without the hand-holding
Cameron is an elite CrossFit athlete and coach who wanted a more reliable approach to competition nutrition, especially travelling internationally. Over two-plus years we've adapted his fuelling across changing conditions and unpredictable food availability, building his training intake from ~3,000 to 4,000-4,200 calories, with competition days reaching close to 4,800 calories.
From competition planning to complete nutrition autonomy
Cameron is an elite CrossFit athlete and coach who has worked with me since August 2023.
He already had a strong understanding of nutrition when we started. He was not looking for someone to tell him what to eat every day.
What he wanted was more specific: a reliable competition nutrition system and reassurance that his day-to-day fuelling was supporting the level of training he was doing.
International competition made that particularly important.
Travelling for CrossFit competitions meant dealing with different countries, grocery stores, athlete villages, competition venues, weather conditions and food availability. Cameron did not want to arrive at a competition and have to figure out his nutrition from scratch.
We initially worked around competition planning and carbohydrate fuelling, progressively increasing his intake as his training demands required it.
His regular training intake has increased from around 3,000 calories when we started to approximately 4,000-4,200 calories per day.
For competition weekends, we use a more deliberate carbohydrate-loading strategy, with his intake reaching close to 4,800 calories when the workload and fuelling demands call for it.
The interesting part of the coaching has been adapting the strategy to real-world situations.
For international competitions, the underlying plan often stays the same. The work becomes more practical: looking at what is available in local supermarkets, identifying suitable foods around the venue or athlete village, and making adjustments when conditions change.
That has included navigating hot and humid environments, unexpected changes in food availability and even a competition venue where water supply was limited. In that situation, we looked at practical ways to increase fluid intake, including using high-water-content foods such as frozen fruit.
Cameron has also used the same nutrition framework through different training phases.
During his previous off-season, the goal shifted from competition performance to building muscle mass. For an advanced-trained athlete, this is a slow process. We increased food intake and prioritised carbohydrate to support the change in training, which incorporated more muscle-building work alongside CrossFit.
His body weight did not change dramatically, but body-composition assessments showed continued increases in muscle mass.
He is now in another off-season with a similar goal: continue building muscle while maintaining the fitness and performance base required for elite CrossFit.
After more than two years of working together, the nature of the coaching has changed.
Cameron does not need daily hand-holding or a rigid meal plan. He has the knowledge and framework to manage most of his nutrition himself.
Now, when a competition comes up, travel gets complicated, training changes or he wants to sense-check a decision, he runs it past me. That is what the coaching has evolved into: not telling an experienced athlete what to eat, but giving him another layer of expertise when the situation requires it.
The outcome
- Built a repeatable competition nutrition system for international travel
- Progressed regular training intake from ~3,000 to ~4,000-4,200 calories
- Uses structured carbohydrate loading for high-demand competition weekends
- Successfully adapted fuelling across different countries, climates and food environments
- Increased muscle mass across off-season training phases
- Developed the autonomy to manage day-to-day nutrition independently while using expert guidance when needed
Making weight without compromising fight preparation
Louis is an elite Muay Thai athlete and coach who came to me for help managing the nutrition demands of weight-class competition. Across multiple fight camps, we've balanced high-volume training with the very different demands of fight-week weight cutting, weigh-in recovery and competition-day fuelling.
A nutrition strategy built around the realities of weight-class competition
Louis is an elite Muay Thai athlete and coach who has worked with me across multiple fight camps.
As both an experienced fighter and coach, Louis already understands the demands of training and competition. He came to me for the nutrition side of the equation: how to fuel high-volume training, manage his body weight between fights, execute an appropriate fight-week weight cut, and recover effectively after weigh-in.
For a combat athlete, making weight is not simply a matter of losing body fat. The nutrition strategy changes depending on where the athlete is in the competition cycle.
During normal training, the priority is supporting the work required to train at a high level while keeping his body weight within a manageable range of his competition weight. Louis typically trains 6-8 sessions per week, so maintaining adequate energy and carbohydrate availability is an important part of the strategy.
As a fight approaches, the approach changes.
We progressively manage his body mass during camp so that he is not unnecessarily carrying a large amount of weight into fight week. The final stage then uses a specific, short-term weight-cutting strategy to reach the required weigh-in weight.
For one of his early camps, Louis was sitting around 91 kg approximately six weeks out from an 81 kg fight. We worked to bring his weight down progressively rather than leaving the entire difference for fight week, with approximately 5.5 kg coming off during the initial six weeks before the final weight-cutting phase.
The strategy has also had to adapt to the realities of his career. We have worked around international travel, long-haul flights, changes in work and training schedules, different competition timelines and different weigh-in-to-fight windows.
After weigh-in, the strategy changes again. The focus becomes restoring fluids, electrolytes and carbohydrate and getting food back in without creating unnecessary gastrointestinal issues, particularly when the fight follows the weigh-in relatively quickly.
Across the fights we have worked together, Louis has successfully made his required weights, including 81 kg for Warriors Way and 79.95 kg for MTL14.
He also represented Australia at the 2025 WBC Muay Thai Festival in Verona, Italy, before becoming the 81 kg Garrison Fight Challenge Light Heavyweight Champion in November 2025.
Our coaching relationship has evolved over time.
Louis does not need daily hand-holding. He has developed a strong understanding of his own nutrition and manages much of his day-to-day eating independently. I provide the specialised input when he is preparing for a fight, navigating a weight cut, travelling internationally or needs to sense-check a decision.
The outcome
- Successfully navigated multiple fight camps and weigh-ins
- Reduced the amount of body mass needing to be managed during fight week
- Maintained appropriate fuelling throughout high-volume training
- Developed a clearer understanding of weight cutting and post-weigh-in recovery
- Represented Australia internationally at the 2025 WBC Muay Thai Festival
- Became the 81 kg Garrison Fight Challenge Light Heavyweight Champion
- Developed greater independence in managing nutrition between competitions
The goal is not simply to make weight. It is to manage the weight cut appropriately, restore what needs to be restored after weigh-in, and arrive ready to perform.
Fuelled her first major weightlifting breakthrough
Sarah came to me as a Masters Olympic weightlifter wanting to improve her nutrition without drastic weight loss or weight cutting, while managing long-standing digestive issues that made fuelling around training and competition challenging. We built a practical strategy around her training, recovery, digestion and competition schedule.
From navigating gut issues to a Masters State record
Sarah came to me as a Masters Olympic weightlifter preparing for her first major competition.
Her goal was not to pursue drastic weight loss or a weight cut. She wanted to feel better, train well and improve her nutrition so she could perform at her best on the platform.
One of the challenges was her long-standing digestive issues. She had previously tried approaches such as low FODMAP without finding them particularly useful, so we needed to build a way of eating that supported training without unnecessarily restricting her diet.
We worked around her actual lifestyle, including meals with her partner, training-day routines, work and travel, while building a more consistent approach to fuelling and recovery.
As competition approached, the nutrition became more specific.
We worked through her pre-training and competition-day meals, carbohydrate intake, hydration and practical foods she could take with her. We also rehearsed her competition nutrition before the event, including carbohydrate loading in the days leading in and planning food and caffeine around her lifting schedule.
There were also periods where life made consistency harder. Work and personal stress affected her sleep, energy and digestion, while training niggles required adjustments to her routine.
The nutrition strategy had to be flexible enough to respond to those changes without losing sight of the bigger goal.
By the time competition arrived, Sarah had practised her fuelling strategy and knew what she was doing on the day. She stepped onto the platform and lifted:
53 kg snatch | 73 kg clean & jerk
She also walked away with a new Masters State record.
The result was not simply about what she ate in the final weeks before competition. It came from building a nutrition strategy she understood and could apply consistently through training, travel, stress and competition preparation.
Sarah reflected afterwards:
“I felt so good going into training each day and in the competition prepared.”
She also highlighted the longer-term value of the coaching: building better habits, learning through education and becoming more confident in her own decision-making.
The outcome
- Improved energy and digestive comfort around training
- Developed a reliable competition-day fuelling strategy
- Built confidence in planning her own nutrition
- Practised carbohydrate loading before competition
- Maintained nutrition consistency through changes in training, stress and travel
- Hit a 53 kg snatch and 73 kg clean & jerk
- Set a new Masters State record
For Sarah, the result was not about following a perfect plan. It was about understanding why her nutrition needed to change, having a strategy she could actually use, and arriving at competition feeling prepared.
From under-fuelling to hitting her HYROX race pace
Cassandra came to me unsure how to fuel her training properly. She was eating around 1,800 calories, felt tired despite sleeping well, and often trained without enough carbohydrate. Over the following weeks, we increased her overall intake and built a more structured approach to carbohydrate timing, pre-training fuel, intra-training nutrition and race preparation.
Learning to fuel for HYROX - without compromising her goals
Cassandra came to me eight weeks out from her first solo HYROX. She had previously competed in doubles, but was unsure how much she should be eating or how to structure her nutrition around training.
She was tracking around 1,800 calories and often felt tired despite getting around eight hours of sleep. Her usual approach to dinner was often meat and vegetables with little carbohydrate, and she did not know how to fuel early-morning sessions when she did not feel like eating.
Our focus was not simply on increasing calories. We built a nutrition strategy around what she was actually doing in training.
We progressively increased her intake, reaching around 2,000-2,200 calories on training days, and introduced more deliberate carbohydrate fuelling around her sessions. She worked towards around 60 g carbohydrate before training, used liquid carbohydrate when early-morning food was not practical, and practised her race fuelling strategy during training.
As her HYROX approached, we also planned her race-specific carbohydrate load, reaching around 350 g carbohydrate, and practised the meals and gel strategy she would use on race day.
Her progress was not just reflected on the scales.
She reported noticeably better energy, her cravings reduced, her digestion improved, and her Zone 2 pace increased. Her HYROX simulation went well enough that her coach was happy with her performance, and she went into race day having already practised her nutrition strategy rather than relying on guesswork.
Her weight moved from 64.4 kg to 63.4 kg in the week before HYROX, while training was being adequately fuelled.
The outcome
- Improved day-to-day energy and training quality
- Increased Zone 2 running pace
- Achieved her target HYROX race pace
- Built a practical understanding of carbohydrate fuelling
- Entered HYROX with a rehearsed race-day nutrition strategy
- Developed the confidence to fuel performance rather than simply restrict food
More fuel. Better training. Leaner without chasing the scales.
Tama contacted me from Thailand while completing a three-month Muay Thai training camp. Although he wasn't preparing to fight, he was training like one - often twice a day, six days a week - and was struggling with fatigue and recovery despite his body composition not changing. We increased his fuelling and structured his nutrition around his training demands.
Fuelling a three-month Muay Thai camp in Thailand
Tama contacted me from Thailand while completing a three-month Muay Thai training camp.
He was not preparing for a fight. He had simply travelled to Thailand to immerse himself in the training, which meant his workload had become significantly higher than his normal routine.
He was training six days a week, often twice a day, with sessions lasting around two hours.
By the time we spoke, the training was taking its toll.
He was struggling with general exhaustion and fatigue, did not feel fully recovered between sessions, and felt that his muscles were flatter and his strength was not as solid as usual. At the same time, he was frustrated that the scales were not reflecting the amount of work he was doing and wanted to improve his body composition.
The solution was not to add more restriction.
We increased his baseline intake to around 3,000 calories per day, with approximately 500 g carbohydrate, while allowing for additional food based on hunger and training demands.
We then worked on the practical side of fuelling: getting enough carbohydrate around his sessions, improving post-training recovery, increasing electrolytes to account for the hot conditions and sweat losses, and making his overall intake easier to sustain across two-a-day training.
The response was quick. A few days after increasing his intake, Tama messaged:
“Upping calories have definitely helped.”
Over the following weeks, his training became more consistent and he reported feeling significantly better.
By October, his scale weight had still not changed. His body composition had. As Tama put it:
“Scales haven’t changed but I’m a lot leaner, so it’s been a night and day difference since we spoke.”
The outcome
- Improved energy and recovery during a demanding training camp
- More consistent training across two-a-day sessions
- Improved strength and muscle fullness
- Became noticeably leaner without a reduction in scale weight
- Built a fuelling strategy that matched his actual training demands
The important change was not simply that Tama ate more. His nutrition finally reflected the amount of work he was asking his body to do.
Better fuelling for marathon training without giving up weight-loss goal
Read Kyle’s full story →Kyle came to me wanting to lose weight while continuing to train well for a marathon. He was eating plenty of carbohydrate, but his meals were poorly balanced - very light earlier in the day, followed by large carbohydrate-heavy dinners with relatively little protein, fruit or vegetables. We restructured his nutrition around his training demands, improving meal balance and recovery while building specific strategies for long runs, carbohydrate loading and race-day fuelling.
Losing 3 kg while properly fuelling marathon training
Kyle came to me while training for a marathon with two goals: lose weight while continuing to perform well in training, and learn how to fuel properly for his upcoming race.
He was already eating a lot of carbohydrate. In fact, carbohydrate was often the focus of his meals, particularly dinner. He could eat a very large serving of pasta and still feel that eating more carbohydrate was the answer.
The problem was not that he was eating carbohydrate.
His overall diet was poorly balanced.
Breakfast and lunch were often very light, while dinner could be extremely large and heavily carbohydrate-based. His meals were also relatively low in protein, and he was eating very little fruit or vegetables.
At the same time, he was doing long Sunday runs and often felt the effects early in the following week. He was training for a marathon, but his nutrition was not consistently supporting recovery from that training.
We did not simply cut his carbohydrate intake because he wanted to lose weight.
Instead, we worked on how his overall intake was distributed across the day and matched to his training demands.
We built more balanced meals with appropriate amounts of protein and carbohydrate, increased his intake of fruit and vegetables, and moved more of his carbohydrate intake toward the sessions that actually required it.
The aim was to create a sustainable energy deficit while still giving him enough fuel to train and recover.
Over the course of his marathon preparation, he lost 3 kg while continuing to train for the race.
The changes were not just reflected on the scales.
He reported recovering better after his long runs and noticed that his interval sessions were improving. His sleep quality also improved, and midway through the process he mentioned that he had more energy and looked sharper in the mornings.
As his marathon approached, the focus became more specific.
We increased his carbohydrate intake during a higher-training period, then adjusted it again as his training tapered. We trialled gels during long runs rather than leaving race-day fuelling to chance, and developed a two-day carbohydrate-loading plan and race-day nutrition strategy based on what he had practised in training.
By race week, he had lost 3 kg, but we were no longer trying to push weight loss. The priority had shifted to arriving at the start line well fuelled and prepared to perform.
We also planned his carbohydrate loading in practical terms, including meals and options for when eating large amounts of carbohydrate was difficult. His race-day plan was prepared in advance rather than improvised on the morning.
After the marathon, he lost a further 3 kg, bringing his total weight change across the coaching period to 6 kg.
The outcome
- Lost 3 kg during marathon preparation before race day
- Lost a further 3 kg after the marathon
- Improved recovery following long runs
- Improved pace during interval sessions
- More consistent energy through the work week
- Improved sleep quality
- Improved overall meal balance and protein intake
- Increased fruit and vegetable intake
- Developed and practised a marathon carbohydrate and gel strategy
- Completed a structured two-day carbohydrate load and race-day nutrition plan
Client testimonial
“I saw Vinu to assist with a diet aimed at weight loss while complementing my marathon training, preparation and recovery. She was very knowledgeable and made the process very simple for me to follow. The meal plan was very straightforward to use and the meals themselves were easy to prepare and cook making it much easier to fit into my lifestyle. I was able to lose the weight I wanted and saw great results with my running.” - Kyle
The important part of Kyle’s result was not the weight loss. It was learning how to use carbohydrate strategically, build more balanced meals, and change his nutrition as the demands of marathon training changed.