Dr Meghan Bentley, Research Fellow

Dr Meghan Bentley

Research Fellow

Meghan is a research fellow in sports nutrition and psychology, and sports nutritionist for GB para-powerlifting. She graduated from Sheffield Hallam University with a BSc (Hons) in Nutrition, Health, and Lifestyles, for which she was awarded the Yakult Award for outstanding academic achievement.

Following this, Meghan completed her MSc in Sport and Exercise Nutrition at Leeds Beckett University, whereby she was awarded the Deans prize for outstanding achievement. She then went on to complete her PhD in partnership with Leeds Beckett University and the English Institute of Sport. Supervised by Professor Sue Backhouse and Dr Laurie Patterson, her PhD used behavioural science to understand the dietary behaviour of elite athletes in order to advance the professional practice of sports and exercise nutritionists.

Meghan is a Practitioner Registrant of the Sport and Exercise Nutrition Register (SENR) and Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA).

Current Teaching

  • Contributes to undergraduate and postgraduate teaching provision
  • Supervises undergraduate and postgraduate research projects
  • Mentors Sport and Exercise Nutrition postgraduate students on the Applied Practice Programme

Research Interests

Meghan is a part the research group, Protecting Sporting Integrity, and Welfare (PROSPER), within the Centre for Human performance at Leeds Beckett University. Her research seeks to address the complexity of athlete dietary behaviour by exploring multiple stakeholder perspectives and adopting an interdisciplinary lens of psychology and sports nutrition. Focusing on implementation, Meghan strives to optimise the culture of high-performance sport through the development of evidence-informed interventions, and in turn, protect athlete heath, wellbeing, and performance. 

Examples of recently funded projects include a partnership with Sport Wales and the Welsh Institute of Performance and Science (WIPS) whereby a behavioural analysis was conducted to inform the development of support services across the athlete pathway. In addition, Meghan and team have received funding from the British Dietitian Association (BDA) to develop a workshop which aims to enhance the understanding and application of behavioural science in sport and exercise nutrition practice.

Dr Meghan Bentley, Research Fellow

Selected Outputs

  • Bentley MRN; Patterson LB; Mitchell N; Backhouse SH (2020) Athlete perspectives on the enablers and barriers to nutritional adherence in high-performance sport. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, pp. 101831-101831.

    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2020.101831

  • Bentley MRN; Mitchell N; Backhouse SH (2020) Sports nutrition interventions : A systematic review of behavioural strategies used to promote dietary behaviour change in athletes. Appetite, 150 pp. 104645-104645.

    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2020.104645

  • Bentley M; Mitchell N; Sutton L; Backhouse SH (2019) Sports nutritionists’ perspectives on enablers and barriers to nutritional adherence in high performance sport: a qualitative analysis informed by the COM-B model and theoretical domains framework. Journal of Sports Sciences, 37 (18), pp. 2075-2085.

    https://doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2019.1620989

  • Bentley M; Backhouse S; Patterson L; Mitchell N (2021) Using behavioural science to design and develop a Sports Nutrition Behavioural Assessment Tool. In: The International Sport and Exercise Nutrition Conference.

  • Backhouse S; Patterson L; Mitchell N; Bentley M (2020) Barriers and Enablers to Nutritional Adherence in High-Performance Sport: Focus on a Preoccupation With Body Composition. In: International Sport and Exercise Nutrition Conference, 15 December 2020 - 17 December 2020.