By DeAnn Rossetti
For more than 10 years, Islander Susan Kleiner has had her sports nutrition business, “High Performance Nutrition,” on Mercer Island. It’s only recently, however, that she’s become known locally as the nutritionist who has set up the “Daylight Dieters” program with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s health and fitness editor, Bob Condor, an old friend who and former health editor of the Chicago Tribune.
Kleiner proposed a test group for a book, an idea the Seattle P-I jumped on.
“I wanted to write a plan to alter body composition, (from fat to muscle) while still feeling great,” she said. “I am finally willing to enter into the diet world with some sanity.”
Kleiner wrote a 50-page booklet for each of the “Daylight Dieters” (a term coined by Bob Condor because the program began when everyone switched from Daylight Savings Time) that is based on the integral notions of “combining” and “timing,” with consumption of carbohydrates, fat and protein at every meal and snack.
Kleiner is well-known nationally for her articles in “Shape Magazine,” “Men’s Fitness,” “Muscle and Fitness,” “Fitness RX” and six books on fitness and nutrition. She is a registered dietitian with a bachelor’s degree in biology, a master’s degree in nutrition and a doctorate in human performance and nutrition.
Her latest book, “Power Food” is a follow up to “Power Eating” which came out in 2001, and has the world’s longest subtitle: “The Guy’s Guide to getting stronger, leaner, smarter, healthier, better looking and better sex through food.”
“It’s not one diet in 10 chapters, it’s 11 chapters and 20 diets,” said Kleiner, who actually prefers to think of her food advice as a “food plan,” instead of a diet, because it’s meant to become a life-long habit, instead of a short-term weight-loss goal.
“Weight loss is not a goal, it’s an outcome. One requirement of anyone who works with me is that they have to exercise regularly,” she said. “Over 50 percent of my clients lead an active lifestyle. For me to take on a client who is not exercising and to tell them that this nutrition program will work is a lie.”
Kleiner, who is now an affiliate faculty in the department of medical history and ethics at the University of Washington, was working on another book, and thought that with the large numbers of programs that are concerned mainly with deprivation or single-food focus, she felt it was time to write a book on her method of getting healthy.
“I didn’t think I could do a book because there’s nothing sexy about my message,” she said. “The diet world has always been very archaic in it’s message of deprivation and little or no science. I am a research scientist, so what I know is all based on science of how the body and moods react to food. By the time clients come to me, they realize that diets don’t work, and are ready for a journey of health that lasts a lifetime.”
After being on faculty at the University of North Carolina, Kleiner was hired to establish the Sarah W. Stedman Center for Nutritional Studies at Duke University. She also worked as an assistant professor teaching nutrition in the department of medicine at Duke.
Kleiner worked with coach Bill Belichick, then of the Cleveland Browns, to set up a sports nutrition plan for the team (as well as the Cleveland Cavaliers basketball team), and once she moved here, became the team nutritionist for the Seattle Super Sonics until the team was sold to Howard Shultz. She’s coached individual Seattle Seahawks players, and has been a popular lecturer at many local venues, including a free nutrition lecture for the Seattle Storm women’s basketball team.
Susan Kleiner will be teaching a series of classes on nutrition and practical ways to develop a total wellness program at the Stroum Jewish Community Center on the following dates, from 7 to 8:30 p.m.:
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