Fit Friday Feature: Amanda Galioto’s Journey From Unhealthy Eating Habits to Leading Nashville’s Fitness Community
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — For Amanda Galioto, fitness has never just been about workouts. It’s about balance, healing and helping others find a healthier relationship with their bodies.
Today, Galioto serves as the lead instructor at Carbon Performance in Nashville, where she coaches strength, conditioning and HYROX training classes. But her path into the fitness world began long before Nashville. It all started the way many find a healthier relationship to his or her bodies.
From Athlete to Fitness Professional
Growing up in Buffalo, New York, Galioto was always active. Sports and performance were a constant presence in her life.
“I was an active child,” Galioto explained. “I played field hockey my whole life and I was a competitive dancer that also started choreographing musicals and dance numbers in college.”
But despite being active, she admits her relationship with food was not healthy during her teenage years and early adulthood.
“I never categorized it as an eating disorder at the time, but I struggled with unhealthy eating habits,” she admitted. “I would limit myself to an insanely small amount of calories.”
Galioto says the time period she grew up in played a role in her eating habits.
“In the early 2000s and late 90s we didn’t have as much information as we do now about healthy and what to do to maintain that.”
Her approach to food became increasingly restrictive and it wasn’t long until she realized it was having an adverse effect to her body.
A Turning Point in College
When Galioto arrived at the University at Buffalo, she realized she needed a different approach.
With organized sports no longer part of her daily routine, she began searching for a new way to stay healthy. “I stopped most of my activities of organized fitness and sports in college and was like, ‘Oh my gosh, what do I do now?’”
She began experimenting with workouts in her dorm gym and researching nutrition and fitness and soon that curiosity reshaped her academic path.
“I even changed my major to exercise science and nutrition going through this shift,” she added.
During that time, Galioto says she began rebuilding a healthier relationship with her body and became thankful she was doing so during a time her body could not handle this way of living anymore.
“I was probably under 100 pounds at one point. I was small, small, small and not healthy,”Galioto admitted. “I came out of it on my own and that’s something that I’m so proud of.”
Helping Others Find Their Way
As her own health improved, the people around her began to notice.
Galioto at Barry’s Bootcamp
“A lot of people started asking, like, ‘Oh, what are you doing? What’s your plan? What’ are your eating habits?’”
Soon she found herself helping fellow students in her college dorm and laying the foundation of a career in fitness forever.
After college, Galioto eventually relocated to Nashville, unsure exactly what her next step would be.
That’s when a friend encouraged her to apply to work at Barry’s Bootcamp, one of Nashville’s first successful group fitness clubs. However, her first class was anything but reassuring.
“I went and took a class and I was like, ‘Hell no, not ready. That was scary. I can’t do that.”
Despite her doubts, she applied and landed the job and worked there for eight years.
“I found community there and I loved it!”
Over time, she realized group fitness was where she thrived most and currently leads rooms of people wanting to find that same energy. “I can say that I’m 100 percent a group fitness girly,” she laughed.
Find her at Carbon Performance (Nations & Franklin)
“It is hands down the best gym in Nashville and I absolutely love it,” she said.
With this major title, she now oversees group training programs and coaches athletes in both strength and conditioning classes.
Carbon Performance is also the only HYROX-affiliated gym in Nashville to train for the rapidly growing global fitness competition.
The training format is designed to combine personal training principles with group motivation. The 12-week program follows a structured strength program that alternates between different muscle groups.
When she’s not leading group fitness at Carbon, Galioto says she is open to taking on one-on-one personal training clients again, both in person and online.
Why Eating Less Can Hurt Your Body
Part of Galioto’s mission today is educating people about nutrition, especially the dangers of extreme calorie restriction.
“When you do eat smaller, your body goes into a starvation mode,” she explained.
She explains that when the body believes food is scarce, it responds by holding onto that food for energy. That can ultimately create long-term health problems if not addressed.
“Your body is like, ‘Okay, we don’t know when we’re going to eat again. So let’s save all of this.’”
Over time, your metabolism can become unstable and create the opposite affects, including holding onto or putting on more weight.
Galioto says misinformation about dieting remains common, especially online.
“Online influencers [without proper education and certifications] will say, ‘Eat more and be fat and unhealthy, or eat less and be skinny.’ But it’s so much more than that.”
Instead, she emphasizes balance.
“You can do both. You can eat super healthy and work out and you can still go out and have a drink. Everything in moderation.”
Fitness Beyond the Gym
Outside the gym, Galioto also works as a model and content creator.
“I am a model and I do part-time acting and freelance work,” she said. She even is signed with an agency called AMAX here in Nashville.
Galioto with her long-distance boyfriend, Reece. He currently lives in Australia, mate!
She has also stepped into the growing world of user-generated content (UGC), partnering with brands online. “In the past year I’ve gotten four brands that are paying me monthly to promote their product or service.”
However, she says authenticity is key. “I never say yes to anybody. I make sure that the brand aligns with me,” she said.
When she’s not coaching classes or posting her insta-worthy pictures online, Galioto enjoys exploring Nashville outdoors with her dogs.
“I have two pups, Duke and Jenny, and we definitely try to get out as much as we can in nature.”
One of her favorite spots is Beaman Park for its path along a beautiful creek in the woods.
