Can you leave sports nutrition advice to AI?

I recently heard someone say, “Of course I can paint my house myself, but I'd rather do it properly.” That statement stuck with me. Because it precisely touches on something I see happening more and more: athletes who get their nutritional advice from an AI tool, blindly accept it, and then think they're doing a good job.

I understand the appeal. ChatGPT or another AI will give a detailed answer to any nutrition question within ten seconds. The text reads smoothly, the tone sounds expert, and it looks professional. But there's a big difference between an answer that sounds good and advice that is good for you.

What AI actually does

An AI model is not a sports nutritionist. It is a highly advanced system that learns, based on vast amounts of text, which words and sentences logically follow each other. It recognises patterns and generates answers that are statistically plausible. That is impressive, but it is not knowledge. And it is certainly not understanding.

If you ask an AI what you should eat before a marathon, you'll get an answer based on what's generally written about marathon nutrition. The average of the internet, you could say. That might sound useful, but sports nutrition is precisely a field where the average means very little. Because every body is different.

⚠ Warning: AI does not know your training load, your sleep rhythm, your stress level, your digestion, your diet, your goals. It provides a generic answer to a personal question. That is the core of the problem.

The dangerous side effect: persuasive nonsense

What makes AI particularly risky in the context of dietary advice is how confident it sounds. It expresses no doubt. There is no disclaimer. The text flows smoothly and sometimes even uses scientific-sounding claims that, upon closer inspection, are incorrect, outdated, or have been taken entirely out of context.

Imagine someone asks an AI: “What should I eat as a vegetarian endurance athlete who also does strength training?” An answer comes back. Perhaps even a reasonable answer. But the AI doesn't ask any follow-up questions. It doesn't know if that person is 25 or 55. It doesn't know if they have a sensitive digestion. It doesn't know if they've had an undiagnosed Vitamin B12 deficiency for years. It doesn't know that their largest meal is structurally eaten late in the evening because the work schedule dictates it. All these factors are crucial for good nutritional advice. And AI misses them all. In short: an AI gives a statistically average answer. But you are not average. And average advice yields average performance. In the best-case scenario…

Asking better questions helps, but you need to know what to ask.

Now, there is a valid nuance. You can indeed get AI to provide better answers by making your questions more specific. Instead of “what should I eat for a marathon?”, you can draft a much more detailed prompt: your weight, your training schedule, your diet, your goals, your recovery pattern. The more you tell the AI, the more relevant the answer can become.

But here lies the crux of the matter, and it is often overlooked: to ask the right questions, you must already know a considerable amount. You need to know which factors matter in sports nutrition. You need to understand why sleep is relevant for muscle recovery, why training timing says something about your carbohydrate needs, and why your sport has different demands than someone else's. Only when you know this can you formulate a prompt that truly achieves results.

And let's be honest: most recreational and amateur athletes don't have that background knowledge. And that's not a bad thing at all. It's not their job either. They simply want to train, perform, and enjoy their sport. They don't need to build up their own knowledge of what's going on in terms of nutrition. That's exactly where a sports nutrition expert makes a difference: they ask the right questions, recognise what's relevant for *your* situation, and translate that into an approach that works.

Why You Need a Sports Nutritionist

A sports nutrition expert does something AI cannot: have a real conversation. Ask follow-up questions. Listen. Make connections that don't fit into a prompt. Recognise when fatigue isn’t solved by more carbohydrates, but by better iron levels. Know when an athlete doesn’t need to eat more, but differently. Understand how training, recovery, nutrition, and daily life interact. And translate that into an approach that works for that specific individual.

That is expertise. Built up through study, through experience, and in my case, also through years of experimenting myself as an athlete with what works and what doesn't: during marathons, ultramarathons, in the weight room and on the mat. That combination of theory and practice cannot be replaced by an algorithm.

Furthermore, the science surrounding sports nutrition is constantly evolving. New insights regarding timing, sleep, gut health, and supplements require an expert to monitor them, critically assess them, and apply them to the right individual. AI, on the other hand, recycles existing information without knowing if it is still current, relevant, or proven.

To be fair, I use AI too.

I would be disingenuous if I said I'm avoiding AI entirely. I do use it, but in a very specific way. Not for content. Not for advice. But for quickly setting up a text, structuring an initial draft, or smoothly articulating an idea.

After that, I always carry out a thorough quality improvement. Everything I publish (blogs, advice, masterclass content) is tested against my knowledge and experience in sports nutrition. I correct, supplement, deepen, and adapt where necessary. AI speeds up my workflow. But the quality, accuracy, and relevance? Those come from me.

That is precisely how you use AI responsibly: as a tool in the hands of someone who knows what they are doing. Not as a replacement for that knowledge.

My advice to you as an athlete

Feel free to use AI as a starting point for general orientation. But never take its advice blindly when it comes to nutrition that affects your performance, recovery, or health. Always ask yourself: is this advice based on my situation, or is this just the average answer to my question?

If you truly want to progress, perform, recover, and optimally nourish your body, then you deserve advice that is tailored to you. Advice where someone asks probing questions, thinks along with you, and translates science into your daily life. That's what a sports nutrition expert does. And that's something no AI can give you.

Returning to that statement about painting a house. You can do it yourself. But if you want to do it well, you hire a professional. AI can speed up the work, but without craftsmanship behind that tool, you'll end up with a shoddy wall that might look acceptable from afar, but is disappointing up close. The same applies to your sports nutrition. Feel free to use AI to guide you, but for advice that really works, there's no substitute for someone who understands the craft.

Would you like advice that is tailored to you?

Book then a Intake Interview (€35) with me and my diary. Within an hour, you'll know where you stand.