There are many ways to approach your nutrition to help you achieve athletic success and improve overall health. It’s easy to endlessly dive into new食物趋势, recipes, diets and supplements only to be frustrated and not see any results. Nutrition is a very personalized field, and we’re learning that blindly following someone else’s approach rarely works. The best way to zero in on what may help you progress toward your goals is to get a baseline understanding of your health information so you have a starting point to customize dietary changes suited to your athletic and health goals.
随着营养科学和医学测试的进步，有更多方法可以分析个人健康，但是这三个测试很容易做到，并为您提供了很好的见解。
BLOOD WORK
Getting blood work done is the most effective way to know how your body is currently functioning. It is crucial to go beyond the typical CBC (complete blood count) for usable data. Ask your physician to test for all vitamins, minerals, ferritin, blood glucose, cholesterol profile and endocrine (hormone) markers. Knowing if yourcortisolis elevated, HDL is low, B12 is depleted, etc., is the best and most personalized health information you can gather. This information provides indications of mood, fatigue, energy levels and chronic disease risk. Once you have this data, you will be able to proceed toward your goals in a more targeted way.
粪便测试
您的微生物组显示出与整体健康状况有关的肠道健康。进行凳子分析可以显示您的消化能力（即使表明您可以和无法处理的食物），存在哪些细菌以及它们在做什么，以及您是否患有肠道漏水或其他形式的消化不良和吸收不良和吸收不良。由于限制性饮食，高简单的糖消耗和频繁训练的压力，运动员以高度的GI压力而闻名。对肠道健康世界的研究相对较新，因此这些测试仍在获得有效性和进步。但是，即使在起步阶段，他们也可以提供基本的个性化健康数据。
BODY FAT
BMI测试和规模alone provide insufficient data to base your health and body composition off. BMI, or body mass index, scoring can show standard ranges for how your weight correlates to your height. It is a simple clinical test used to define under- and overweight status but is mostly useless for athletes. The number on the scale can be useful to see how your body fluctuates, understand hydration levels and trends over time.
However, both fail to show the whole picture of body composition by neglecting to breakdown weight into瘦和脂肪组织质量. Body fat testing can provide this insight by understanding how much fat tissue you have. There are several body fat testing methods that are readily available such as the bodpod, caliper measurement and bioelectrical impedance. The bodpod is the most accurate of these and consists of sitting in a small chamber and breathing into a tube for a few minutes. This test is available at many universities, training centers and some physician’s offices for a relatively inexpensive fee. Caliper testing involves someone taking measurements of skinfolds at various points. This test is accurate, but only when repeated several times and completed by a very skilled person as human error can be high. Bioelectrical impedance is a function of handheld devices or advanced scales that is easy to do at home and repeat often. The accuracy might be off by 2–3% compared to the bodpod, but the ability to test often allows you to see instant results and trackable trends.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Respiratory quotient, bone density and metabolic assessments are other ways to glean useful information. However, there are many tests to be skeptical of. Consulting a physician and registered dietitian and doing some of your own research is the best way to select which tests are for you and how to put your test results into action toward meeting your health and performance goals.
