“I am a runner and I was struggling with iron deficiency, lack of energy and the ability to maintain my pace running for long distances. I was putting in the time and working out hard, but I was not seeing the results. Kate taught me how to eat differently to increase my calorie intake and retain fluids better because I was always dehydrated. Kate took a look at the vitamins and supplements that I was taking and adjusted my daily regimen. Within a couple days of changing my habits, I could see the impact of Kate's recommendations. I was feeling significantly better...I had more energy and felt less tired. In first week, I achieved my best time of the season in the one-mile race. Within a few weeks, I set a new lifetime best in both the mile and the 800m race. My time qualified me for the Illinois IHSA State meet. It was a great way to end my high school career. Kate has great insight and makes things clear and easy to follow. I would highly recommend her services to any athlete who is looking to improve their game.”
Andrew Irvine, 18 y/o Cross Country/Track Athlete, Hinsdale, IL
"Working with Kate for 6+ months, I learned a lot about my body and how to properly fuel to sustain marathon training. Each week we fine tuned a different area, getting us closer to that "optimum." Challenging myself to keep a consistent routine, I was able to elevate my training, running a minute PR in the half marathon this past fall. If you're looking to get to that next level, Kate is your answer!"
Nora Feguson, 27 y/o distance runner, Littleton, CO
"Kate has increased my overall nutritional knowledge and specifically, improved my diet and nutritional intake awareness. As an age grouper tri-athlete, my traditional Spring/Summer training regimen had me unknowingly underhydrated and undernourished due to my self-guided nutritional plans. With Kate’s guidance, we developed specific hydration, protein, and carb intake expectations for morning and evening workouts, and those longer weekend sessions. With her guidance, I have substantially improved my workout effectiveness, stamina, strength, and muscle mass maintenance. "
Bruce went on to run the Capital City Half Marathon in 1:49 PR, finishing first in his age group.
Bruce Biby, 55 y/o age group triathlete,
Wyoming, MI
"Kate: I've been continuing to apply everything I learned from you and it's built the foundation for a really successful year. I went back to get another body composition test this morning (November) and the progress is awesome. When we first connected in March, I was 174 pounds and 16.7% body fat. This morning (8 months later), I was 177 pounds and 10% body fat. It's been fantastic to have thought and intentionality behind how I'm fueling my body and I'm excited to continue improving. I've seen the impacts in my energy, my work, and my mental clarity."
Max Schneider, 31 y/o Recreational Adult Athlete
"I have to say though Kate has changed my life entirely. I’ve never felt this good or had this much body change. Before we started, I was on the verge of a 3rd nasal surgery for polyps and they’re completely gone now, The doctor was speechless and the only thing to change in that time was my diet. I can’t thank Kate enough for what she has taught me and pushed me to do. I’ve had many friends ask me about what I’m doing for workouts because I’m bigger and holding it. Also, guys at work are trying to figure out how I have so much more energy. By the way I live out of the crock pot now (best thing ever)."
Rick Hadlock, 25 y/o triathlete and distance runner, Darien, IL
"Coming into this season(senior year) my PR in the 3200 meter was 11:01 and my PR in the 800 meter was 2:25. From my freshmen to junior year I had only improved 3 seconds in 3200 meter and 2 seconds in my 800 meter. I started seeing Kate about 2 months before outdoor season started. At my first two meets of the outdoor season I PR'd in my 3200, running an 10:46.0, and in my 800 running a 2:19.3. This season has definitely been my breakthrough season. Kate taught me so much and I feel a lot more confident in what I eat and during my workouts and races knowing that I am well fueled. I used to be afraid to eat carbs but now that I know which carbs to eat and when to eat them I feel like I have more energy. This fall I will be going to Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Missouri and will be on their cross country and track teams. I am so happy I started meeting up with Kate before I go to college because I feel like l am so much more prepared. I know I will think about everything she taught me when I choose what to eat in the cafeteria everyday."
Summer Pierson, 17 y/o Cross Country and Distance Track Athlete
"I contacted Kate because I had a hard time putting on and keeping muscle weight. During the summer of working with RDKate, I managed to gain 20-25 pounds of muscle mass. Adding this weight has helped me compete at a higher level while playing hockey. Working with RDKate was a great experience. She helped me stay honest to my nutrition plan, which helped me get the results I wanted."
Joe Kinsella, 18 y/o Jr. Hockey Player
"Kate: Thank you so so much for meeting with me and helping me very much! I don't think I would be able to compete if it wasn't for you. I'm so excited for Mizzou! You helped me so much and I wouldn't be feeling the way I do today without you!"
Elly DeTurris, 18 y/o Cross Country/Track Athlete, Naperville, IL; University of Missouri Recruit
"Today I ran the Chicago Marathon. Using what you taught me during my time with you, I was able to shave 6 minutes off my PR and finish with a time of 2:44.04 and in 247th place! I am definitely happy about that! Thanks to your nutrition advice, I can say that I was definitely well prepared and fueled up properly."
Bobby Niska, 22 y/o Marathon Runner, Naperville, IL
"I had been following Kate’s newsletter for a few years and decided to hire her to help me with my imbalanced diet and weight gain but mostly because my workouts were suffering. I loved that Kate could do video calls, so I could have that connection even though I was across the country. Kate helped me with the timing of my meals pre-training, during and post-training as well as planning my meals and snacks. The results were amazing. My mood has changed, and my workouts are now amazing. My weight has gone back down to normal range for me. The most amazing result is that I am sleeping through the night."
-Michele Faul, 55 y/o Triathlete
“RDKate helped me learn what I should be eating to have a well-balanced diet, and when I should eat those things, depending on what kind of workout I was doing that day. She also helped me plan my race day meals so that I would be full and energized without getting cramps or feeling weighed down. It was helpful to know the exact timing for when to eat. Also, Kate helped me think of many new snacks and learn how much water I should be drinking every day. As a result of working with RDKate, I achieved great success with my running during my cross country season and last year's track season.”
From Ryan’s mom, Trish: “From a parent perspective, Kate worked directly with Ryan and listened closely to his concerns and encouraged him to ask questions. As a result, Ryan had "buy-in" to the advice she gave, and he took her advice and plans very seriously. He also saw immediate positive results from the changes to his diet and water intake that Kate recommended. She has built a solid relationship with Ryan and he knows he can trust her advice and go to her with questions. We are looking forward to continuing our relationship with RD Kate during the rest of Ryan's high school running career!”
-Ryan Kredell, 15 y/o distance runner, Geneva High School
“I have always had to deal with “crashing” during strenuous activity. I reached out to Kate for guidance with solving this. Kate helped me identify foods that I enjoy eating which would also serve as proper fuel for my bike rides as well as my regular meals and snacks during the day. She helped me to come up with plans and to learn what to eat and when. I have been riding hard without any of the” crash or bonk” feelings that I was having before. As a result, I have set many new personal records this year and look forward to doing a few races later this summer. Kate is very knowledgeable and super easy to talk to. I can tell that she genuinely cares about me as an athlete.”
-Aaron Stewart, 32 y/o Mountain Biker
"I sought out Kate to help diagnose fatigue and inability to run at my normal paces. Working with Kate and my doctor on my bloodwork we quickly discovered that I was anemic, deficient in some other key nutrients, and making poor decisions on how to fuel my runs. Within ~ 8 weeks of working with Kate I was well on my way to recovery: my bloodwork had improved, I had learned how to hydrate and fuel during my training, and I finished the Boston Marathon faster and feeling much better than I had ~ 6 months before. As a scientist, vegetarian and running nerd, I understood the information out there on nutrition for runners. But I struggled to apply that understanding to accurately troubleshoot my own symptoms. As an objective expert, Kate taught me how to diagnose and apply the best information to my specific needs and goals, which made me a much happier, faster and more sustainable runner!"
-Rose Cory, 47 y/o Marathoner, Ann Arbor
"I started working with RDKate Sports Nutrition for the sole purpose of gaining weight. I never would have expected learn so much about my body and how to maintain it, all while achieving my original goal of building 10 pounds of lean muscle! I would recommend RDKate Sports Nutrition to every Athlete!"
-Vinny Rugai, 17 y/o football player, Chicago, IL
"Working with Kate was super beneficial for me. After having my first baby, I was eager to get back into my workout routine and focus my eating to aide my baby weight loss. Kate helped me meal plan for weight loss, while also recognizing my calorie and nutrition needs as a breastfeeding mother of an infant. I've always been conscious of nutrition and eating well, but Kate opened my eyes to many great new things. She provided me with meal support, meal planning tips, website recommendations, healthy snacking tips, and an overall plan for weight loss and nutrition. As a busy new mom, I now feel in control of my eating and planning, thanks to all of her advice and knowledge. I'm well on my way to shedding baby weight and feel energized and overall healthy. Thanks Kate!"
- Kara Owen, 29 y/o New mom and Athlete, Naperville
"I never considered myself an athlete, let alone a ‘performance’ athlete. I found running later in life, and could easily run a half marathon without much thought about food or fuel. I thought I could eat a breakfast, and do what I knew—run and ‘deal with it’.
It was midway through my training that I couldn’t pass 13 miles without almost breaking into tears. My focus was off and I couldn’t bear my long runs. Kate made me feel comfortable and welcome to share as soon as I met her. Her reassurance that what I was experiencing was normal *and* could be improved with small tweaks gave me so much hope. As she guided me through each step in the process (fueling during the run, before the run, hydration), my performance, and more importantly, my love for running returned.
Kate truly cares about the full ‘you’ when she’s with you and guides you through the entire experience. She’s positive, fun, and passionate about all of her clients, regardless of their stage in their journey. Not only did I finish my first marathon, I crushed my goal! Now, we’re working to maintaining a healthy, fun, active life for me and I can’t thank her enough for transforming my outlook on health and taking care of myself."
Later addition to this testimonial after running the Bayshore Marathon:
"When you said “control what you can control”, I knew I could control how well I fueled and hydrated and stuck to our plan. Having a tried and true nutrition plan helped me to work on the mental game. I was so well fueled that I may try my hand at an Ultra Marathon! I couldn’t do it without your guidance, knowledge and support. I now have the building blocks and feel like nothing is out of reach."
-Erin Lipsey 36 y/o endurance athlete,
Grand Ledge, MI
"I followed your plans for pre-race and race fueling and hydration for the Chicago Marathon. I ran two 1:36 half marathons back to back giving me a 3:12 PR. Basically ran it consistently every mile.
I finished the race completely fine and happy. I could have kept running, felt fine the rest of the day and Monday was hardly sore
at all. Thanks again for your help this past year, I’ll be going to Boston again!"
-John Lewis, 50 y/o distance runner, Naperville, IL
"Working with RDKate Sports Nutrition has been a blast from start to finish. This has exceeded every expectation I had for race planning, nutrition counseling, diets to build muscle, and developing healthy eating habits. Every meeting I had was valuable and I left learning a great deal of information. My dietitian was extremely clear, concise, and always ensured that I fully understood what we talked about. She was truly instrumental in helping me create a diet that not only catered to things I liked, but always offered great suggestions of things I may not have ever considered. I have struggled to gain weight and muscle for my entire life. When I started with her I had a goal of gaining 20lbs of weight with the majority ideally being muscle. This was always a stretch goal to me, but with Coach Kate it became a reality fast. Over 6 months we were able to watch my body transform and ultimately gain muscle evenly and throughout my entire body. I've seen tremendous gains in that time in strength and muscle that I honestly did not think was possible. After 6 months I can say I gained 22lbs on her plans, and have never felt better. The plans we developed will help me continue on to push my goals and excel in various ways I truly never thought were possible in such a short time. I highly recommend her, and will absolutely be referring her to all friends and family as she has proven to be an invaluable resource."
-Nick Pilzner, 29 y/o endurance athlete, Livonia, MI
"Kate took me past counting calories. I learned to focus on the 'macros' to fuel both my training and recovery. I learned to incorporate more variety and more 'real' food into my on course fueling. It was amazing that after just a few weeks of implementing Kate's advice, I was seeing dramatic performance improvement in my daily training and in my first sprint tri of the season, I PR'd the run! I continue to lose about 1 lb per week and have broken through a couple of mental plateaus and am well on my way down to levels I haven't seen in decades. As an older athlete I have realized that I could no longer 'run from the fork' and that I needed help to redesign my eating plans. Today I have lost over 30# and am 10# lower than my last IM weight. After working with Kate, I then raced my first 70.3 in 4 years (only 3rd 70.3 ever). I followed my racing nutrition plan closely and pulled of a huge PR of 6:39:52 - down from 7:36:52 in 2011! I had hoped to break 7 hours and secretly wanted to break 6:45. I was blown away with a 6:39. My training and preparation for these events was nearly identical, expect for the nutritional component. So all in all, I attribute my improvement to the things I learned from Kate! I think every age grouper can benefit from Kate's advice. I only wish I had learned that 20 years ago. With Kate's help I am well on my way to setting a PR at IM Florida. Thanks RDKate!"
-Dan Cox, 60 y/o traveling professional & age-grouper Ironman; Naperville, IL
Laura D'Angelo, 20 year old college sprinter, worked with Kate for 4 months. She originally came to Kate with unmanageable symptoms of IBS that were curbing her ability to participate in college track. After first helping her use the low FODMAP diet/food challenge to better manage her IBS, Kate turned the attention to Laura's body composition goals. Laura had gained some unwanted weight in an effort to follow a gluten-free diet that she believed was necessary for her IBS (note: after the FODMAP challenge, Laura discovered she did not need to cut out gluten). Between June 6th and July 23rd, 2015, with her commitment to her RDKate eating plan, Laura dropped 3.2% body fat. Although her weight on the scale was IDENTICAL both testing times, she dropped 4.2 pounds of body fat and gained 2.2 pounds of muscle in just 6.5 weeks. Wow!
"When I took my son to see Kate he was 16 years old and on his high school’s Cross Country and Swimming teams. Because of his genetic makeup, he has always been on the slim side and bordered on being underweight. When he lost 6 pounds in one week I became very concerned about his health. So, I had him evaluated by a nutritionist, Kate (Murtha) Davis. I personally am not an athlete and do not push my body to the physical extremes that my son does. But Katie is an athlete and she completely understood my son’s view point. She was able to evaluate his questions and concerns and give him useful eating/drinking techniques that help him maintain his weight and have the stamina to complete his competitions. She also helped my husband and I understand some of my son’s concern and explained and what was happening to my son’s body before, during, and after a competition. Our family considers our time with Kate as invaluable. Based on our experience, we referred my sister-in-law as well"
Connie Clark, Satisfied Parent, Michigan
"After running several half marathons, I finally got up the courage to complete my first marathon. About one month into training, the race unfortunately got cancelled due to COVID. I decided to continue training anyways and build my own marathon course but knew I would need additional help to properly fuel myself on race day in the absence of aid stations. I worked with Kate for three months to discuss adapting daily intake based on the training schedule, pre-run fueling, recovery strategies, hydration, vitamin intake, and long run/race day planning. She met me where I was in terms of my knowledge level and fitness goals as well as provided information in bite-sized chunks to make the changes sustainable.
Thanks to Kate I successfully finished my first marathon with a smile on my face! I’m incredibly thankful for the lifetime of knowledge that will keep me healthy and active. "
-Kelli Schneider 30 y/o distance runner,
Marina Del Rey, CA
"Kate helped me vastly expand my knowledge of proper fueling not only for competition, but especially on the recovery front. In running, recovery from everyday sessions is essential to building towards the future and cutting down time. I look forward to taking this knowledge and expanding not only the quality of my diet, but also hoping to increase the variety in order to give my body the food it is. I can't thank Kate enough for all the tips and little tricks that will help me achieve my goals and rise to the next level."
-Joe Jaster 20 y/o Collegiate cross country and track runner,
Michigan
"I originally started working with Kate to lose weight while staying active. After I lost almost 10 pounds without sacrificing my training, we shifted our focus to improving my running and biking. With Kate's help, I was able to dramatically improve my endurance and strength thanks to the nutrition strategies we worked on. I started running duathlons and found a new sport that I loved. Kate helped me achieve multiple different goals and always had spot-on advice and guidance. I loved working with her!"
-Alyssa Laystrom, Endurance athlete
"I was referred to RDKate by my primary care physician with the goal of improving my iron and ferritin levels. My nutrition coach was great to work with throughout the entire process. She provided me with an abundance of information and tools on how to eat during different parts of my training cycles. By our last session, my iron and ferritin levels were back to normal. I recommend RDKate to help meet your nutrition goals!"
-Darren Sweet, 32 y/o Marathoner, Wyoming, Michigan
"This weekend I competed in the Marji Gesick 100 mtb race that RDKate Sports Nutrition helped me prepare for. Well, this year, I finished! I wanted to say thank you for all you equipped me with. I nailed my race day strategy this year that you taught me and I know it was a huge part of my success. So thank you for being part of my team that helped me get across the finish line!"
-Zach Nachazel, 33 y/o Ultra Mountain Biker
"I reached out to RDKate Sports Nutrition upon the request of MSU Sports Medicine after getting a stress fracture in my knee. This was to see if there were any nutrition gaps and what could help me with the healing process and prevention of future injuries. What I was able to accomplish with my dietitian was a thorough, but easy plan to help heal the injury. I also figured out if I needed more or less of certain vitamins to get a proper balance, and received a great plan to strengthen and prevent injury in the future, including through the winter months."
-Krysta Koenigsknecht, 33 y/o
FREE STUFF!
Are you confused about what you should eat before exercise so you will arrive fueled but without stomach distress? Click here to receive, "What to Eat Before Exercise," a FREE guide from RDKate.