Melissa Hoffman - World Ironman Kona Competitor

Melissa Hoffman joined PLT Nutrition initially with the goal of fat/weight loss. This is a challenging process for someone with her HIGH level of endurance training and requires a slow delicate process.

During her LIVE video Meet & Greet call she discussed her goals with her PLT Coach and that she was training for a 70.3 Half Ironman so they agreed a plan focused on a minimal deficit to allow for slow and controlled progress whist also supporting her Ironman training.

Just prior to her plan starting she heard the AMAZING news that she has qualified for the World Ironman Championship in Kona so met with her PLT Coach and they revised her plan.
Melissa's plan was immediately adapted to focus on performance and fueling her training and competition

Initially Melissa tracked her food to get an understanding of where she was currently eating, how the balance of her macros and her total calories.
It seems her protein intake was excellent and Melissa focused on hydration; hydration being key for any athlete as it can significantly improve performance when correct or degrade performance when its not.

Melissa's carb intake was a focus of her weekly plan and frequently her PLT Coach revised her daily intake to support each training session and each weeks training schedule.

An excellent pre-race and race day nutrition plan ensured success for Melissa and she managed to avoid any of her historical gut issues.

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It was a big weekend for Melissa and she performed excellently and should feel incredibly proud of herself.

Since completing her World Ironman she has extended her deal with PLT Nutrition to focus on a 50km trail race in November and a duathlon shortly afterwards!

Melissa herself had this to say of her race and her experience:

"Big shout out to my coach for helping me get to the start line of the Ironman World Championships in Kona! I had been lurking on the FB site for awhile and finally decided I needed to take control of my health and weight. I had put on weight during Covid and while caring for a family member and with that lost a lot of my fitness.

While I continued training and racing I wasn’t performing at my best. And definitely didn’t feel my best. So I signed up and was fortunately paired with and awesome PLT Coach who was an athlete herself! This was amazing as she didn’t call me crazy when I told her my weight and health goals and by the way I was training for a half Ironman and Ironman during that initial 3 months! we agreed that with the training schedule our goal should be to get a better understanding and control of what I was taking in or not taking in and maximize that knowledge to prepare for the race. We would focus on weight loss after the race!

So I started tracking and with my PLT Coach's weekly updates found I needed to cut back on fats and focus on healthy carbs (my protein intake was in line). Initially tracking my water helped make sure I stayed hydrated during the non training times. We adjusted carbs regularly depending on my race/ training schedule. Honestly I have been racing over 22 years and never have I had a better understanding of how to fuel for performance.

Pre-race and race day nutrition was spot on! Felt great and never had any stomach issues. ( a big accomplishment). The knowledge I’ve gained so far while great for racing is more important for my every day well being. I’ll be signing up to continue my journey with PLT and work on that weight loss goal (after the 50k trail run and swim run in the next few weeks) .

Picture is from a post ride snack in the Kona lava fields - a fav hack from the FB page to use cottage cheese with my tuna!"