There’s more than one “Caitlin Holmes” in the world, so let’s be specific: this article focuses on
Caitlin Holmes, MS, CNS®a clinical nutritionist and science-minded coach who’s become a familiar voice
in the climbing community. If you’ve ever listened to a climbing podcast and thought, “Wow, someone finally explained
nutrition without turning it into a morality play about almond butter,” you’ve probably brushed up against her work.
Caitlin’s public mission is refreshingly human: she emphasizes how you feel in your body, not just how you look,
and she frames nutrition as a long-game skill for health, performance, and confidencenot a short-term punishment plan.
In a sport where people love numbers (grades, hangboard edges, send ratios) and sometimes try to turn their bodies into
a spreadsheet, that approach is… honestly, kind of radical.
Who Is Caitlin Holmes (MS, CNS®)?
Caitlin Holmes describes herself as a nutritionist focused on long-term health and performance, with an emphasis on
positive body image and self-confidence. She lists a Master of Science in Human Nutrition & Functional Medicine
(University of Western States, Portland, OR) and a Bachelor of Science in Conservation Biology & Ecology
(Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ). She also notes completing 1,000 supervised clinical hours and a rigorous
exam to earn the Certified Nutrition Specialist (CNS®) credential, plus ongoing continuing education to maintain it.
Outside of 1:1 work, she shows up where climbers actually are: in podcast episodes, practical resources, and
athlete-oriented conversations. She’s a co-host of The Average Climber Podcast, which bills itself as training and
nutrition info for everyday climbersserved with “goofy antics” on the side (the best delivery method for honest advice,
if you ask me).
Why Climbers Keep Listening to Her
Nutrition content online has a talent for becoming either (1) vague (“eat clean!”) or (2) aggressively specific (“eat 37.2 grams of carbs
at 6:14 p.m., or your mitochondria will file a complaint”). Climbers don’t need more noise; they need translation.
Caitlin’s niche is translating evidence-based sports nutrition into the messy reality of:
- Training days that start strong and end with you eating whatever fits in the car.
- Long crag days where you forget you’re hungry until your mood becomes… geological.
- Performance goals that can quietly morph into body-image pressure if you’re not careful.
- Outdoor culture where “dirtbag” is a compliment and dinner is sometimes “three granola bars and vibes.”
The point isn’t to turn climbing into a food obsession. The point is to make nutrition supportive enough that you can forget about it
during the moment that matterswhen you’re on the wall thinking about feet, not feelings.
Her Big Theme: Performance Nutrition Without Diet Culture
In climbing conversations, “body composition” can become a loaded phrase. Caitlin has discussed body composition as a topic that’s often
confused with weight lossand why that confusion can be polarizing for athletes. A helpful takeaway (and one that deserves repeating):
improving body composition does not automatically mean pursuing weight loss, and “lighter” is not a universal performance shortcut.
This matters because climbing is a weight-sensitive sport and a skill sport. Strength-to-weight ratio is real. So is
technique, power, finger health, energy availability, sleep, and the fact that you can’t “optimize” yourself into a new tendon.
In other words: you can’t spreadsheet your way out of biology.
The “Throw BMI Out the Window” Energy
A recurring idea in athlete nutrition education is that simple population metrics don’t always map cleanly onto performance or health for individuals.
Athletes can have bodies that look “healthy” by one number and still be underfueled, low-energy, or injury-prone. Conversely, an athlete can have a
body that doesn’t match a narrow aesthetic and still be powerful, resilient, and thriving. If your plan depends on a single number, your plan is brittle.
(Climbers: you already know how brittle things snap.)
The Science Foundation (Without the Boring Part)
Caitlin’s athlete-first messaging lines up with major sports nutrition guidance: performance, recovery, and adaptation are supported by adequate energy,
thoughtful macronutrients, hydration, and sensible supplementation choiceswhen supplements are even needed. In sports nutrition consensus statements,
“optimal nutrition” is consistently tied to better performance and recovery, not to extreme restriction.
And there’s a particularly important concept for climbers and other weight-sensitive or high-volume athletes:
energy availabilitybasically, whether you’re eating enough to cover both training and basic body functions.
When energy availability gets too low for too long, health and performance can suffer in wide-ranging ways.
Low Energy Availability and RED-S: The Quiet Performance Killer
“Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport” (RED-S) is a framework used in sports medicine to describe the consequences of chronic low energy availability.
It’s not just about one body system; it can affect hormones, bone health, immunity, mood, and performance. In real life, it may look like
persistent fatigue, stalled progress, frequent injuries, disrupted recovery, or feeling like training is getting harder while you’re getting… grumpier.
(Grumpiness is not an official diagnostic criterion, but it’s a strong vibe.)
The most important practical point: underfueling can masquerade as a “motivation problem.”
If you’re trying to train consistently but your body is running on fumes, the solution isn’t more willpowerit’s more support.
A Practical Fueling Framework for Climbers
Let’s turn the “what” into “how,” without turning your life into a meal-prep reality show.
Here’s a climber-friendly framework that matches how sports nutrition is typically applied in practice:
1) Start with Enough Food (Yes, That’s a Strategy)
Many climbers accidentally eat like “normal people” while training like athletes. The gap shows up as low energy, poor sleep,
slower recovery, and cravings that feel like your body is sending a search party for carbohydrates.
Step one is simply acknowledging: if training volume rises, intake usually needs to rise too.
2) Carbs: Not a Personality Flaw
Climbing demands power, repeated efforts, and long sessionsaka a lot of work that can benefit from carbohydrate availability.
Carbs aren’t “cheat codes”; they’re fuel. If you notice you bonk halfway through sessions, get shaky on long approaches, or feel
mentally foggy at the end of a crag day, it’s worth checking whether carbs are showing up consistently.
Practical examples that don’t require a kitchen renovation:
- Pre-session: toast + eggs, oatmeal, yogurt + granola, or a bagel you eat in the parking lot like a champion.
- During long sessions: fruit, pretzels, trail mix, sandwiches, or sports chews if that’s your thing.
- Post-session: a meal with carbs + protein (rice bowl, burrito, pasta, hearty sandwich) to support recovery.
3) Protein: Recovery’s Best Friend
Protein supports muscle repair and adaptation. For climbers, it’s also part of maintaining strength while training hard.
The “secret” is consistency: most people do better spreading protein across the day rather than trying to fix everything with
one heroic dinner.
4) Fats and Fiber: The Long-Game Support Crew
Healthy fats support hormones and overall health, and fiber supports gut health and steady energy. The balance matters:
if you add lots of fiber right before climbing, your stomach may file a formal complaint. Timing is your friend.
5) Hydration and Electrolytes: Boring, Effective, Underrated
Hydration affects performance and perception of effort. If you’re training in heat, at altitude, or for long sessions,
electrolytes can helpespecially if you’re a salty sweater. The goal is not perfection; it’s avoiding the “why do I feel like a
crumpled receipt” stage of dehydration.
Supplements: What Caitlin’s Audience Usually Wants to Know
The supplement world is a carnival: bright labels, big promises, and at least one product that sounds like it was invented
by a sci-fi villain. Evidence-based guidance tends to be more cautious. Federal health resources emphasize that many performance
supplements have mixed evidence, potential risks, and quality-control issuesespecially with multi-ingredient blends.
The practical approach most credible sports nutrition pros use looks like this:
- Food first (because it works and you can’t out-supplement underfueling).
- Targeted supplements only when there’s a clear reason (e.g., clinician-identified deficiency or a well-supported performance use).
- Quality and safety checks (third-party testing, avoiding sketchy blends, and being cautious with stimulants).
If you’re an athlete, especially a teen athlete, the safest move is to talk with a qualified clinician or sports nutrition professional before
adding supplementsparticularly anything marketed as a “fat burner,” “test booster,” or “extreme pre-workout.” Your nervous system deserves peace.
What It’s Like Working With a Sports Nutritionist Like Caitlin Holmes
If you’ve never worked with a nutrition professional, here’s what many athletes find surprising: it’s rarely about “perfect eating.”
It’s usually about patterns.
- Patterns of underfueling (skipping breakfast, forgetting lunch, “saving” calories for dinner).
- Patterns of low energy availability (high training + low intake + high stress + poor sleep).
- Patterns of rigid rules that create anxiety and backfire.
- Patterns of timing (not eating around training, then wondering why recovery feels slow).
A good coaching process tends to include education, a plan that fits your schedule, and adjustments based on feedback.
Not “eat like this forever,” but “let’s test what supports you, then keep what works.”
Specific Examples: How Fueling Changes a Climbing Week
Here are a few realistic “before and after” style examples (not as commandmentsjust as illustrations of what often helps).
Example 1: The After-Work Boulderer Who Always Bonks
Before: Coffee, light lunch, then a hard session. By the last hour, fingers feel weak, mood tanks, and “one more try” becomes “one more nap.”
After: A pre-session snack with carbs + protein (like yogurt + granola, or a turkey sandwich), plus something easy during longer sessions.
Result: more consistent power and better session quality.
Example 2: The Weekend Cragger With the Mystery Headache
Before: Big breakfast, then “I’m not hungry” until 3 p.m., then snacks, then a headache on the drive home.
After: Regular small intakes (fruit, pretzels, jerky, sandwiches) and attention to fluids/electrolytes.
Result: steadier energy and fewer “why does sunlight feel loud?” moments.
Example 3: The Athlete Who Thinks They Need to Get Lighter to Get Better
Before: Restriction attempts. Training feels harder. Recovery worsens. Injuries creep in. Performance stagnates.
After: Shift focus to adequate fueling, strength development, sleep, and skill practicewhile supporting body image and mental well-being.
Result: better consistency, fewer setbacks, and a healthier relationship with training.
If you take only one thing from these examples, let it be this: the body you train with is not your enemy. It’s your teammate.
Treat it like one.
Experiences Related to Caitlin Holmes (About )
People who follow Caitlin Holmes’s work often describe a similar “wait… that’s allowed?” momentbecause her style tends to un-knot the tension that
athletes carry around food. The first experience many climbers report is relief: nutrition stops being a moral scoreboard and starts being a toolkit.
Instead of “good” foods and “bad” foods, the conversation becomes “What helps me feel stable?” and “What supports my training today?”
A common story goes like this: someone starts a training block, tries to be “disciplined,” and accidentally underfuels. At first, it feels fine.
Then they notice their warm-ups feel heavier, they’re more sore than expected, and their cravings show up like an uninvited guest who somehow knows
the Wi-Fi password. When they finally add consistent fuelespecially around sessionsthe change isn’t magical fireworks. It’s more like turning the
lights on in a room. They stop dragging. They start finishing sessions with something left in the tank. They feel more predictable, which is
a deeply underrated performance enhancement.
Another frequent experience is discovering that “healthy” can be too vague to be useful. Climbers often say they were eating “pretty healthy” but still
felt offbecause “healthy” doesn’t automatically mean “enough,” and it doesn’t automatically mean “well-timed.” Adding a simple pre-session snack can
feel almost suspiciously easy, like you’re cheating. (“You mean I can eat a bagel and climb better? Surely this is illegal.”) But the body tends to be
annoyingly honest: when it gets consistent energy, it performs more consistently.
Many athletes also describe a mindset shift around treats. In climbing culture, people bounce between “I eat whatever” and “I must optimize everything.”
Caitlin’s styleechoed in the climbing podcast spaceoften normalizes sweets as just food, not a character flaw. The lived experience here is subtle but
powerful: when you stop labeling foods as forbidden, you usually stop feeling haunted by them. Treats can become part of a balanced pattern instead of a
weekend plot twist. And yes, that tends to make training easier, because guilt is a terrible recovery tool.
For some climbers, the biggest experience is learning to listen to early warning signsfatigue, frequent injury, poor recovery, mood swingsand treating
them as information rather than personal failure. They start connecting dots: low energy availability, not “laziness,” can be the reason training feels
like wading through wet sand. They also learn that chasing “lighter is better” can backfire, especially when it compromises health or relationship with
food. The climbers who thrive long-term often aren’t the ones who can suffer the most; they’re the ones who can support themselves the best.
Finally, people often describe a confidence boost that has nothing to do with aesthetics. When fueling is steady, training becomes more consistent.
When training is consistent, progress feels more real. And when progress feels real, you stop negotiating with yourself every session. The experience is
less “new body” and more “new trust”: trust that your body will show up, trust that food is allowed to help, and trust that you can pursue goals without
turning your life into a punishment plan. That’s the kind of “nutrition win” that lasts longer than any trend.
Conclusion
Caitlin Holmes’s appeal isn’t that she invented a secret macro formula for sending V10. It’s that she helps athletes step out of confusion and into
clarityusing evidence-based nutrition, practical strategy, and a deeply human emphasis on feeling better, recovering better, and performing better.
For climbers, that often means a simple but game-changing realization: fueling is not a distraction from training. Fueling is part of training.
If you’re trying to improve performance, support recovery, or rebuild a calmer relationship with food, the best next step is usually not “more rules.”
It’s more understandingof your body, your training demands, and what sustainable support actually looks like.