Interview with Pittsburgh Steelers Dietitian: Leslie J. Bonci

    Since this is the first week of football season I figured what better way to kick it off than an interview with a well renowned sports dietitian. I decided to reach out to Leslie J. Bonci, who just so happens to be the sports dietitian for my favorite football team- THE PITTSBURGH STEELERS!!!

    Not only is Leslie the sports Dietitian for the Pittsburgh Steelers but the Pirates, Penguins, Milwaukee Brewers, Pittsburgh ballet theater and the University of Pittsburgh Athletics Department. She is also very involved in the NCAA, WNBA and member of the United States Olympics committee's sports nutrition network. Among her many accomplishments Leslie has also written books such as: Sport Dietitian for Coaches, Human Kinetics 2009 and Co-author: Run Your Butt Off, Rodale 2011. Leslie is still very active in the American Dietetic Association and somehow still finds time to run in marathons.

I am very interested in pursuing a career in sports dietetics and Leslie is the epitome of everything I want to be. A special thanks to her participation in this interview.

Me: What drove you to the field of dietetics?

Leslie:My undergrad degree is in Bio psychology. I pursued a master's in public health- took a nutrition course and was HOOKED and knew I wanted to get into the dietetics field.

Me: Why did you decide to pursue sports nutrition?

Leslie: My first dietetics job was in Wheeling at the Wheeling Hospital Wellness Center which had a wonderful on-site exercise facility for patients and provided a lot of opportunities to do active programming so the seed was planted and when I moved back to Pittsburgh, I approached the University of Pittsburgh Department of Athletics about working with the athletes and they said YES!

Me: How did you become involved with the Pittsburgh sports organization and how long have you been with them?

Leslie: This is my 18th year with the Steelers, When the Athletic Trainer and Strength coach were hired by Coach Cowher they asked if he would be open to having a nutrition consultant and they cam to me through an athletic trainer at Pitt, The athletic training staff and strength staff were also my contacts for working with the Pirates and Pens as well as Pitt: 7th year with the Pirates, 3rd year with the Pens, 20th year with Pitt, 12th year with the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre.

Me:What is the biggest challenge that you face working with athletes?

Leslie: Biggest challenge- time considerations for them, eating is not always a priority, they want results overnight, many of them are culinary challenged and do not know or care to know how to do their own food preparation, and for the student athletes, the need to juggle classes, practice, social life and eating, and of course drug, alcohol and supplement issues are big for all athletes.

Me:What is the difference between diets for a football player, baseball player and hockey player?
Leslie: Football the biggest difference is that they are so HUGE so their calorie needs can be quite high, that being said, the quality of the diet is important and varies by position. Baseball calorie requirements are less and my focus is getting them to eat more regularly and shift away from the energy drinks and choose food more and hockey calorie requirements are enormous as well as the challenge of maintaining optimal energy levels through the regular season and into the playoffs

Me: The Steelers are known for monstrous defensive players like Troy Polamalu, James Harrison and Lamarr Woodley. How does their diet contribute to their game?

Leslie: Yes our Steel Curtain is amazing and is a mix of both speed and strength so for these guys to be able to deliver the hit, they have to get to the player and that means not carrying extra baggage. So we work very closely on optimizing the diet to provide the power and speed within a calorie cap

Me: Does a professional athletes diet change during off-season?

Leslie: Not all professional athletes work out to the same degree of intensity in the off season, and if their expenditure declines and intake remains stable they typically gain weight so we work hard on modifying the intake to match the output

Me: Are there any particular meals that the Pittsburgh Steelers eat before games?

Leslie: We offer all types of pregame foods: smoothies, eggs, steak, grilled chicken, cereal, French Toast, waffles, fruit, salad, and pasta. I want my players to eat what feels comfortable to them but I stress the importance of eating something before games to optimize performance

Me: What is something you have learned about yourself while working with professional athletes?

Leslie: I have learned that I can be as tough as they are ( maybe not physically, but I can hold my own) I have become more assertive, more persistent, and also believe in being fairly compensated for the service I provide although I don't think a signing bonus is in the cards!

Me:What advice do you suggest for aspiring athletes?

Leslie: Advice for aspiring athletes? Keep on training- eat well to train well, consider fueling and hydration your internal equipment and practice, practice, practice

Me: Do you have any advice for aspiring dietitians?

Leslie: Advice for aspiring dietitians: Try every aspect of this field, you never know where your passions might be. Do love food, talk about it, cook it. Learn how to laugh at yourself and be open to critique, To me LESS is MORE< I would rather provide less info in a way that it resonates than leave my athletes drowning in concepts. Most of all SMILE and HAVE FUN!



Leslie Bonci, MPH,RD,CSSD,LDN
Director of Sports Nutrition
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
Sports Dietitian:
University of Pittsburgh Department of Athletics
Pittsburgh Steelers
Pittsburgh Pirates
Pittsburgh Penguins
Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre
Milwaukee Brewers
Consultant to:
NCAA
WNBA
Author:
Sport Dietitian for Coaches, Human Kinetics 2009
Co-author: Run Your Butt Off, Rodale 2011

Survery of Construction Workers

     This past Summer I spent working on a local construction site in Queens. While doing so I noticed one very disturbing thing: most construction workers seemed out of shape and very unhealthy. Although  I am no doctor after seeing their meal portions, choices and weight my diagnosis didn't seem too inaccurate. So I decided to take a survey and find out if my prediction was an accurate one.

      First I figured out what I wanted to test and that is if construction workers are overweight. My hypothesis was that they will be overweight because they don't have access to the healthier foods and are predominately smokers.

      Next I came  up with the surveys. The questionnaire was very short consisting of four questions: age, height, weight and smoker or non-smoker. They were short because the longer the survey, the less the participants. With this information I could calculate their Body Mass Index (BMI).

According to the Center for Disease Control website cdc.gov:

"Body Mass Index (BMI) is a number calculated from a person's weight and height. BMI provides a reliable indicator of body fatness for most people and is used to screen for weight categories that may lead to health problems."

**Below is the BMI chart provided by the Center for Disease and Control website at http://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/assessing/bmi/adult_bmi/index.html

BMI	Weight Status
Below 18.5	Underweight
18.5 – 24.9	Normal
25.0 – 29.9	Overweight
30.0 and Above	Obese

     My next task consisted of getting participants. In order to encourage people to be honest and participate I made the survey anonymous. I decided to survey only men because they were not enough women. And I was ready to begin, the results are as follows:

Sample size: 150 Men

Underweight: 0%
Normal: 15%
Overweight: 52%
Obese: 33%
Smokers: 21%
Non-Smokers: 79%

The Average man was:
-42 years old
-5'10
- 202 lbs.
- BMI of 29= overweight

     The ages varied from 21 years old to 69 years old. Not only was the average man considered overweight, but one point away from being obese. This is a very scary statistic, considering that a combined 85% of the participants were overweight or obese.

    Although most of my hypothesis proved true, the one thing that I was wrong about was the smoking. Only 21% of the participants were smokers. This could be for a few reasons:

1) The job site was a non-smoking one that could have encouraged people to quit
2) They might have quit on their own because of how educated we are about tobacco and it's affects
3) They were lying

    Originally I thought that smoking would influence the average man to be overweight but after seeing the results realized that it might have had the opposite affect. Cigarettes are a known appetite suppressant and after quitting have a tendency to trigger weight gain. My theory is that some of the men in my survey were previous smokers and gained weight as an after affect. Either way I was satisfied with that statistic and hope it continues to decrease.
 
    One flaw I found in my study was that there were some exceptions to the BMI rules. There were a few participants who were very muscular and in shape but were categorized as overweight or obese. Although they are apart of those categories they are not considered to have the same health risks as someone who is not physically active.

   In conclusion I am very much concerned about construction workers weight, food portions, and choices and believe that their inaccessibility to healthier foods only promotes those choices. I even found myself giving into those bacon, egg and cheese cravings from time to time because of the convenience. So job related accidents are not the only concerns that the government should have for construction workers but their nutritional lifestyle at the workplace as well.

In my study the average man was :
- 42 years old
- 5'10
- 202 lbs.
- BMI of 29= overweight!

   
     The ages of participants varied from 21 years old to 69 years old. The average man in my study was not only overweight but 1 point away from being obese. This experiment confirmed most of what I had thought from the very beginning.

Contrary to my hypothesis I did find that only 21% were smokers, the other 79% were not. This could be for a few reasons:
1) It was a non-smoking site so that might have encouraged people to quit
2) They quit on their own because of how educated we are about smoking and its affects
or
3) They lied

    After collecting my data and going over the results I realized that cigarettes are known to suppress your appetite so this  may be the reason that some people were overweight. They might have been previous smokers who quit not too long ago or because of the job site and gained the weight as an after affect. Either way although my hypothesis proved true, smoking was not nearly as prevalent as I thought it to be.

     The only flaw that I found in the survey was that certain people who were very built and in shape were actually considered obese because it is a height to weight ratio. For those people because they are very physically active they are not considered to be at the same health risk as the other participants.

First Post!

Dietitian Ambition is a blog created to document the fun things I learn while studying dietetics and nutrition. I want to apply the things I learn to everyday life to prove that a healthier lifestyle isnt the chore that people think it is. From workouts, experiments, tips, recipes and more I plan on making dietetics as fun for you as it is for me!