Have you ever wondered whether your DNA could play a part in your health and fitness success?  Everybody’s genetics are so different, so it makes total sense that knowing more about your genetics can help us discover more about ourselves. Like which diet is the most optimal for our body, which forms of exercise are most beneficial, and even if we’re prone to being celiac and lactose intolerant.

Fortunately, the science is there, and I’ve been given the opportunity to test it, with some very interesting and intriguing results! I’m so excited I’m able to share them with you!

About a month ago, I posted this image on Instagram as I was going to be sending off my DNA swab that day. The company that I did it with is called Bespoke Diet and Fitness.

More about Bespoke Diet and Fitness (from their website)

Bespoke Diet and Fitness is a movement to better-fitdiet and fitness treatments to the individual.

In collaboration with DNAfit (www.dnafit.com); headquartered in the UK: BD&F leverages best-in-class bioinformatics, a dedicated team comprising of experts in human genetics, nutrigenomics as well as sports science.

BD&F tailors your unique genomic information to create a personalized nutrition and conditioning program to maximize your genetic potential. Testing is performed in compliance with the highest international standards.

BD&F DNAFit kits offer simple DNA swab tests for health, fitness and diet. We help identify your genetic predisposition for sporting or fitness profile, ideal diet and personal nutrition needs based entirely on genetics. The tailor made DNAFit analysis reports allows you to optimize your training, maximizing your time spent at the gym exercising, and achieve your best possible results.

How It Works

Its really easy to do. They send you a collection kit, and you swab a cotton tip in your mouth, then place in the container provided. Then you mail it off with the return address. Easy as that. Then simply wait for your results to be emailed to you. Mine took just over a month.

What Do You Find Out?

You find out a lot! Here’s what the report includes:

– Whether your body responds to endurance or power exercise better
– Optimal diet type
– Injury risk
– Recovery speed
– V02 max response
– Carbohydrate sensitivity
– Saturated fat sensitivity
– Lactose intolerance
– Coceliac predisposition
– Alcohol sensitivity
– Caffeine sensitivity
– Salt sensitivity
– Antioxidant needs
– Omega 3 needs
– Vitamin B & D needs
– Detoxification ability
– Cruciferous vegetable need

What Else Do You Find Out?

In addition to all that, you also get a 4 week shopping list and meal plan based on your recommended diet, a fully detailed fitness and diet report, plus a handy infographic which acts as a great summary, and a genotype analysis (more of the technical jargon).

Here’s a sample of what you’d get in the meal plan…lots of breakfast, lunch & dinner recipes with nutritional info included.

What It Doesn’t Tell You

It tells you a lot of things, but I thought it would be a good idea to tell you what it doesn’t tell you (in case you thought it might).  It doesn’t tell you how many calories you should be eating in a day. But, based on the meal plan it will give you the optimal ratios in the diet plan. According to their information, people either fall into the diet recommendation of Mediterranean, Low Carb or Low Fat. It also doesn’t tell you which diseases you could be more likely to get eg. heart disease, cancer, diabetes etc.

My Results

The easiest way to tell you about my results is by showing you my info-graphic. Its harder to read as it was a PDF and the max image size I can include doesn’t make it fully readable, but I’ll summarize below.

I should note that I consider myself to be very in tune with my body. This is simply over many years of having food intolerance issues and training in many various styles. Having said that, some results were surprising to me, and others were not.

I’ll start left to right:

Power 20%, Endurance 80%. Basically this says that most of my training should focus more on endurance exercise. Eg. running, spinning, other long distance activities where your heart rate is up for longer amounts of time. Power activities would include weight lifting, sprinting. It said that its still a good idea to still incorporate both into my routine. I’m not all that surprised by this. I do find that I sweat the most and get the best workout from endurance activities. This is a main reason why I incorporate cardio activities in my weight training routines rather than having them purely strength based. Naturally, I gain strength very very slowly. So this result makes sense to me.

V02 Max Response. Medium. Honestly, I’ve never calculated my V02 Max number before so I wouldn’t know whether this number is what I thought or not. In the guide it shows you how to calculate that number. I will probably do that at some point.

Injury Risk. Medium. I feel this is pretty accurate, as I don’t get injured super easily.

Recovery Speed. Fast. I find I do recover pretty quickly, that’s probably why I respond well to interval style training.

Optimal Diet Type. Mediterranean. Out of the three options, I would say it would be between this and low carb. Although I do feel my best with moderate carbs. The mediterranean meal plan has a focus in omega 3 oils, fish and complex carbs.

Carbohydrate Sensitivity. Medium. I’d say this is pretty accurate. I do eat a fair amount of carbs, but I do have to watch I don’t eat too many as my blood sugar tends to spike.

Fat Sensitivity. Low. I do know that my body LOVES good fats. I eat them in moderate amounts, and I find ample fat in my diet helps my hormones, skin, nails and my brain! I’ve done low fat diets and they left me feeling cold all the time, lost my menstrual cycle, and simply wasn’t satiated when eating without those important fats.

Lactose Intolerance. Intolerant. This, I definitely knew. I’d had dairy issues since I was a teen. I can get away with some dairy, as long as its low lactose or no lactose. To date, I’m ok with whey protein as its lactose free, and greek yogurt as its low lactose, same goes for butter. I can also eat small amounts of cheddar cheese and goat cheese, but I never eat those daily. Once a week or so.

Celiac Predisposition. Low. I was surprised by this, considering I eat a gluten free diet. But, I was tested for celiac disease when I was younger and it was negative. In general, eating gluten makes me feel very tired immediately after, and I do get bloated. So I’d definitely say I’m more intolerant than celiac. But, that could also be if I’m eating wheat and dairy together. So maybe its more of the dairy issue. Given this result, I’m going to try adding in a bit of wheat to see how I feel. I happen to love ezekiel bread so I’d like to give that another go!

Alcohol Sensitivity. High. Not surprised by this one either as I’m very sensitive to alcohol. I’ve never been a big drinker. I’m also a cheap drunk (ha!) and generally it leaves me feeling very tired.

Caffeine Sensitivity. Slow. In this report, slow means you’re sensitive to caffeine as it takes a while to leave your blood stream. This is totally accurate for me. I can’t drink more than 1 cup of coffee a day or my stomach feels inside out. I’m also one of those people that can’t have caffeine after 1pm or it will affect my sleep that night.

Salt Sensitivity. Raised. Oh goodness yes, if I eat too much salt I get so bloated and retain water like crazy. I’ve watched my sodium intake for years. Eating a mostly whole food diet this hasn’t been a problem for me. I notice it when I eat out though…which is when I tend to get bloated.

Antioxidant Need. Normal. Apparently my body is doing ok in that department and I don’t need additional antioxidants. Yay!

Omega 3 Need. Raised. I need more omega 3. I’ll up my dose in my supplements and eat salmon more often.

Vitamin B Need. Normal. So I’m doing ok there!

Vitamin D Need. Raised. I do supplement with Vitamin D, but perhaps I need more. Living in Canada and in Vancouver we get very little sun in winter. So that makes sense!

Cruciferous Vegetable Need. Normal. I love my broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage. So according to this I’m good!

Detoxification Ability. Fast. Great news for me. I do find I bounce back fairly quickly. Even after eating badly a couple days, once I’m back on track, after a couple days I’m feeling good again.

Would I Recommend It?

If you are looking for some concrete answers and you’re willing to take the advice, then most definitely its worth it. I think it would be a great start for someone just starting on their health and fitness journey and are looking for guidance. It would also be great for someone that has tried various diets and training programs but haven’t had much success even sticking with it diligently. Hardcore athletes could also benefit from the results as well, as in competitive athletes (marathon runners come to mind). If your V02 max results are an important part of your training.

Its not cheap to do (it costs $449), but it does include a full meal plan and grocery shopping list, which makes it even more valuable. There are other DNA kits out there, but they are all around the same price (from what I found on Google). If you feel like you don’t know much about your body or you’re struggling reaching your goals then its a great option that can provide guidance.

I did receive the test at no cost, to provide a review. I probably wouldn’t purchase this myself, since as mentioned, I’m already really in tune with my body, and I so many of the answers I wasn’t surprised by, and I wouldn’t use their meal plan as I’m knowledgeable in nutrition already, and I’m not a hardcore athlete. But, depending on the person, (and if you can afford it) I would recommend it to others.

Where To Get It

If you’re in Canada, you can order directly from Bespoke Diet and Fitness.

If you’re in the US, you’ll want to order from their partner, DNAFit. *On the DNAFit USA site, you can buy the diet and fitness kits separately.

I hope that helps, if you have any questions, I’d be happy to answer them below.

 

Disclaimer: I was provided the product to use for review purposes. I was not compensated to write a favorable review. My thoughts and opinions are my own.