Research

Mixed

Higher adherence to sports nutrition guidelines, measured by the Athlete Diet Index (ADI), is associated with lower fat mass in professional athletes.

For professional athletes, eating according to sports nutrition guidelines (high ADI score) is linked to having the lowest body fat. For non-professionals, this link is weaker. If you are serious about body composition, aligning your diet with established sports nutrition standards is a key lever, especially if you have access to professional guidance.

ModerateQualifiesMEDIUM confidence
Specifically, professional athletes with high ADI scores had the lowest FM values.
Elaheh Dehghani et al. · Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition · 2025

Why this rating

Cross-sectional design limits causal inference, though the interaction effect is statistically significant.

Source

Comparison of athlete diet index and body composition between professional and non-professional athletes: a comparative cross-sectional study

Elaheh Dehghani et al. · Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition · 2025

DOI 10.1080/15502783.2025.2533497

cross_sectional · n=183Cited 2×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

This is one finding among thousands. Every one is graded and traced to its source, so you can see what the evidence actually supports. Browse the research →