Maria Antipina, PhD
August 7, 2026
Five Questions About Our Approach to Precision Nutrition
01. Why should a nutrition strategy be personalised?
Many of us who take an interest in nutrition will recognise this experience: the more we try to understand what is “good” or “bad” for us, the more conflicting information we encounter. The confusion often becomes even greater when we try to reconcile scientific evidence with our own personal experience.
One evidence-based recommendation may encourage a predominantly plant-based Mediterranean-style diet, while someone on social media describes a deeply unsuccessful experience with vegetarianism and attributes their improved health and stable weight to a carnivore diet. You may read that fruit contains too much sugar, but what about its vitamins, minerals and other beneficial compounds?
And what about fibre? On the one hand, you may already know that certain types of fibre act as prebiotics and can benefit the gut microbiome. On the other hand, you may personally experience gas, abdominal discomfort or bloating after eating raw vegetables, legumes or soy products.
Then there are all the other questions. Should you eat late at night? Is breakfast essential? How much protein do you need, and when should you eat it? What role should dietary fat play? And what if everyone recommends broccoli, but the very thought of it makes you lose your appetite?
Almost every food, nutrient, eating pattern or meal-timing strategy comes with arguments both for and against it, some based on scientific research, others on individual experience.
The good news is that there is more than one pathway towards better health, a stable and manageable weight, and a way of eating that genuinely works for you.
The human body is a complex and dynamic system in which countless processes interact. The effect of a particular food or behaviour therefore depends on the wider context. A banana, for example, may produce a rise in blood glucose. But when eaten after intensive resistance training, much of that glucose may be taken up by the muscles and used to replenish glycogen stores and support recovery. The same food can therefore have a different metabolic significance in different circumstances.
At Fortivion Labs, we look carefully at your current eating pattern, how it relates to your energy, appetite, well-being and weight, as well as your food preferences, physical activity, daily routine and personal goals. We then help you build a personalised nutrition strategy designed to strengthen what is already working, address what is not, and make sense within your individual physiological and everyday context.
02. Is there such a thing as an ideal diet?
The answer is both yes and no. It depends on what we mean by ideal.
There is no single ideal diet that requires everyone to eat the same foods in the same quantities and at the same times. Nutrition does not exist in isolation from the rest of life. The effect of what we eat is shaped by our physiology, genetics, age, sleep, physical activity, stress, environment and many other factors, including changes that may initially appear unrelated to food.
At the same time, what, how and when we eat can have a profound influence on our health, appetite, energy and body weight.
At Fortivion Labs, we consider an ideal eating strategy to be one that optimises the nutritional quality of the diet, provides an appropriate balance of macronutrients and micronutrients, supports hydration, and helps you manage your weight without living in a state of constant hunger.
Most importantly, it should provide comfortable and reliable satiety within your particular context. A theoretically perfect diet has little practical value if it leaves you hungry, makes everyday life unnecessarily difficult or cannot be maintained outside controlled conditions.
03. Should your nutrition strategy change over time?
Yes, in case of major changes in your circumstances.
Pregnancy, perimenopause and menopause can alter nutritional priorities. A professional athlete who retires from competition and moves to lighter recreational training will no longer have the same energy and recovery demands. Serious injury, illness and recovery period that
follows may also affect appetite, activity and nutritional needs.
Other important changes may include periods of intense stress, major alterations in sleep or physical activity, ageing, or the use of specialised medications such as GLP-1 receptor agonists.
These circumstances can change how much energy and nutrition the body requires, how hunger and satiety are experienced, which foods are well tolerated, and what is realistically manageable in everyday life. A personalised nutrition strategy should therefore be treated as a flexible framework, one that can be reviewed and adapted as your physiology, priorities and circumstances change.
For clients using GLP-1 medications prescribed by a medical professional, nutrition coaching may also help address the practical challenges associated with reduced appetite, including maintaining good food quality, adequate protein intake, hydration and regular eating patterns. Medication decisions and the management of side effects remain with the prescribing doctor.
04. Which areas of science inform your work besides nutrition?
Our approach draws on current research in nutrition science, energy metabolism, appetite regulation, body-weight physiology, gut health and the gut–brain axis.
You have probably met people who seem to have a generous appetite while remaining naturally lean and active. You may also know people living with excess weight who report eating very little. These observations can be difficult to understand if we reduce weight management to a simple instruction to “eat less and exercise more.”
Energy balance still matters, but it is influenced by a much wider physiological and psychological system. Understanding how the body obtains, stores and uses energy; how adipose tissue develops and functions; how hunger, satiety and food cravings are regulated; and how the gastrointestinal system communicates with the brain helps us interpret an individual situation more thoughtfully.
This knowledge informs a modern, metabolically aware approach to nutrition, one that considers food quality, nutritional value, appetite and satiety alongside energy intake.
Instead of relying only on restrictive diets, rigid calorie targets or ever-increasing exercise, we help clients explore eating strategies that provide adequate nourishment, support stable energy and make weight management more comfortable and realistic over time. We admit that calories are still relevant, but they are not the only part of the story.
05. What do you ask of clients who work with you?
We just ask for a genuine willingness to explore change and an understanding that reaching a different outcome usually requires something to be done differently.
Depending on your starting point and goals, the changes may be modest: adjusting the composition of a meal, finding more satisfying alternatives, changing when certain foods are eaten, or developing a more practical routine. In other circumstances, the process may involve more substantial changes across eating habits, physical activity, sleep, recovery or everyday organisation.
Our role is not to demand perfection or impose an unfamiliar way of eating upon you. Our mission is to help you understand the options available, choose a strategy that fits your physiology, preferences and real life, and move through the necessary changes with as little unnecessary discomfort as possible.
We use evidence-based nutrition coaching techniques to help you make informed choices, observe what happens and adjust your strategy as you learn more about your own system.
We also welcome clients who already have a personalised nutrition plan prescribed or developed by a registered dietitian, medical nutrition professional or another qualified healthcare practitioner, for example, a therapeutic diet intended to support the management of a particular health condition. If you understand what you have been advised to do but find it difficult to follow the plan consistently, we can help you work through the practical, emotional or behavioural barriers using appropriate techniques from our toolkit. We do not alter clinical recommendations without the involvement of the healthcare professional responsible for your care.
Where emotional barriers, fear, stress or deeply established patterns make change particularly difficult, complementary work using integrative clinical hypnotherapy may also be offered when appropriate.
The aim is to help you build a personalised nutrition framework that you understand, can participate in shaping, and can continue adapting as your life changes.