Hello, I’m Lourdes Carpio Mañas, a nutritionist and dietitian with a degree in Human Nutrition and Dietetics from the University of Granada.
My interest in nutrition and physical activity has led me to focus my training on sports nutrition and body composition, as I regard nutrition as an essential component in supporting training, improving sporting performance and achieving physical goals in a healthy way.
I am a Level 1 ISAK anthropometrist and have completed a course in advanced sports nutrition at the Barça Innovation Hub. I have also completed the official Master’s degree programme in ‘Nutrition for Physical Activity and Sport’ at the Catholic University of Murcia.
Professionally, I have worked with people with a variety of goals, particularly in the areas of fat loss, muscle gain, improving body composition and developing healthy eating habits.
However, what really gives my profession meaning is the opportunity to help people achieve their goals and to support them throughout this process. For me, nutrition is not just about reaching a certain weight or following specific dietary guidelines, but about learning to eat in a way that is healthy, sustainable, flexible and compatible with each individual’s lifestyle.
That is why I believe it is particularly important to work towards ensuring that every client can develop a healthy relationship with food, learn the tools that enable them to make independent decisions, and achieve changes that they can maintain in the long term – without resorting to unnecessary restrictions or diets that do not fit their reality or their lifestyle.
My approach is based on a personalised strategy grounded in scientific evidence, taking into account each individual’s goals, needs, preferences, level of physical activity and lifestyle.
I firmly believe that training and nutrition must go hand in hand. That is why my aim is to complement the work done in training with a personalised nutrition strategy that enables you to make progress, improve your health and, above all, enjoy the process.
Interview with Lourdes, conducted by Jaime Olarte:
1. These days, there are thousands of dietary tips to be found online. What is the most common mistake people make when trying to eat healthily?
The most common misconception is the assumption that eating healthily means following very strict rules or cutting out certain foods altogether. On social media, we constantly come across posts that demonise certain foods or promise quick results, even though healthy eating is actually based on balance, not perfection.
Many people make radical changes to their diet from one day to the next and try to do ‘everything perfectly’. This often leads to frustration and causes them to give up quickly without having achieved anything. I prefer to teach my patients that small changes, maintained over the long term, are far more effective than an extreme diet lasting just a few weeks. The best diet is one that you can stick to in the long run without it being a struggle.
2. Many people believe that you have to starve yourself to lose weight. Is that a myth or is it true? What would you say to those who have already tried many diets without success?
That’s a myth. To lose body fat, you need to create a calorie deficit, but that doesn’t mean you have to starve yourself. If someone is constantly hungry, they’re actually more likely to give up on their plan, develop an anxiety about food, or put the weight back on because they can’t stick to it.
To those who have already tried many diets, I would say that the problem probably wasn’t with them, but with the method or dietary strategy they followed. Whilst very restrictive diets often work in the short term, they fail because they don’t teach you how to eat properly and cannot be sustained in the long run.
The aim should not be to go on a diet for a few weeks, but to develop habits that can be maintained for the rest of your life. Sustainable weight loss requires a personalised approach, nutritional advice and patience.
3. In Switzerland, there is a wide range of healthy food available, but life can also be very hectic. How can you improve your diet without spending hours in the kitchen?
Eating well doesn’t mean cooking elaborate meals every day. Planning is one of the best ways to make it easier. If you set aside an hour or two a week to prepare some staple foods such as vegetables, rice, pulses or protein, it makes meal preparation much easier for the rest of the week.
There are also quick and healthy options such as frozen vegetables, ready-to-eat salads, tinned fish, cooked pulses or natural yoghurt. This means you can prepare a complete and balanced meal in just a few minutes. The key is to keep things simple and to understand that a healthy diet must be adapted to each individual’s lifestyle – and not the other way round. This way, you can stick to your meal plan and achieve the results you want.
4. In your view, as a specialist in sports nutrition, what are the differences between a diet aimed at looking good and one aimed at feeling good and performing better both physically and mentally?
Although these two goals often go hand in hand, they are not always one and the same. Eating solely with an aesthetic goal in mind can lead to unnecessary restrictions, a fear of certain foods, or even an unhealthy relationship with food.
If, on the other hand, the aim is to feel good and improve sporting performance, diet becomes a means of having more energy, recovering better from training, sleeping better, maintaining a healthy hormonal balance in women, and preventing injuries. Performance does not depend solely on training; a balanced diet also improves concentration, mood and the ability to cope with everyday life. For me, physical appearance should be a consequence of looking after one’s health, not the sole objective.
5. If you could change just one dietary habit among the population, which one would you choose, and why would this have such a significant impact on health?
I would try to dissuade people from looking for quick fixes and encourage them to develop sustainable habits for the long term. We live in a society that craves instant results, and this leads to many people going from one diet to the next for years on end without achieving anything at all.
If we can help someone learn to plan their meals, cook simply, listen to their hunger and fullness cues, and enjoy a varied diet without feeling guilty, we achieve benefits that go far beyond body weight: better cardiovascular health, a lower risk of chronic non-communicable diseases, more energy and a healthier relationship with food. And this will lead to improved body composition.
6. Which patient’s case has had the greatest impact on you professionally, and what did you learn from that experience?
One of the cases that had the greatest impact on me was that of a person who came to my practice after years of following very restrictive diets. She had lost weight on several occasions, but kept putting it back on, and what worried her most was the overwhelming sense of failure she felt.
As the process went on, we stopped focusing exclusively on the scales and began to work on habits, organisation, nutritional education and a healthier relationship with food. Over time, not only did her body composition improve, but so too did her self-confidence, her quality of life and the calmness with which she approached mealtimes.
This case reminded me that my work as a nutritionist goes far beyond simply drawing up a meal plan. We support people through a process of change and help them to regain their self-confidence and develop habits that they can maintain for the rest of their lives.
7. Imagine someone reads this interview and decides to start looking after themselves as early as tomorrow. What first step would you recommend they take to increase their chances of success?
I would advise you not to try to turn your whole life upside down in a single day. Choosing just one habit and sticking to it for several weeks is usually much more effective than trying to change everything at once. Changes should be made gradually.
Start, for example, by planning your meals for the week, including a portion of vegetables with both lunch and dinner, drinking more water, or going for a walk every day to increase your physical activity or NEAT. Once this habit has become part of your routine, it’s time to introduce the next one.
Looking after yourself doesn’t mean doing everything perfectly, but being consistent. Great results are usually the sum of many small decisions that are repeated day after day.