What Does a Nutrition Coach Do?

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Maybe you’ve heard the term “nutrition coach”—or been given the recommendation to find one—but you’re unclear about what this role entails. Is it the same as a dietitian, or a health coach?

Whether you’re searching for a nutrition coach or are interested in making this your career, it’s important to know what a nutrition coach actually does on a day-to-day basis. Nutrition coaching is a specific niche of the larger health and wellness education market. According to Precedence Research, the “health coach” market is expected to hit nearly $30 billion by 2032. Keep reading to explore what the job entails, how it differs from other related professions, and the education you might need to make it your career path.

Are Nutrition Coaches, Nutritionists, and Registered Dietitians the Same?

To those with little to no background knowledge in the field, the terms “nutrition coach,” “nutritionist,” and “dietitian” might sound interchangeable. But each role focuses on particular outcomes and includes different educational requirements.

• Nutrition coaches, sometimes called health coaches, are focused on educating their clients about making smarter and healthier food choices that might improve overall wellness. They work with clients from the general population who are not seeking treatment for particular medical conditions. There are no specific academic or professional requirements for nutrition coaches, and they may hold any number of certifications or degrees from various training programs.
• Nutritionists can help address specific health issues by focusing on food choices. When it comes to education requirements, this varies by state. They may range from not having any background education at all, or they may be certified through the Board for Certification of Nutrition Specialists which requires a master’s or doctoral degree, passing exams, and many hours of supervised practice.
• Registered Dietitians can do all of these tasks, and can also help treat injury, illness, and disease. They may also provide specific services, such as supporting those who struggle with eating disorders. However, they must meet specific academic requirements outlined by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics—including at least a Master’s degree and supervised internship—and they must pass an exam in order to be credentialed and licensed (specific requirements vary by state).

What Does a Nutrition Coach Do to Help Their Clients?

Nutrition coaches promote clients taking personal responsibility for their health and well-being, by focusing on wellness from a holistic standpoint, which includes the body, mind, and spirit. While nutrition coaches don’t treat disease, they empower clients with the knowledge they might need to make the best food choices for their distinct situations. Here are some of the key responsibilities a nutrition coach has in service of their clients.

Personalized Nutrition Planning and Guidance

Nutrition coaches teach clients about the basic principles of nutrition, but they base their approach on the client’s needs or interests. This may include lessons on optimal macronutrient and micronutrient intake, appropriate portion sizes, food group classifications, and how to read food packaging labels. They might also provide specific strategies that could promote healthy, sustainable weight loss or optimal physical performance. Once a client has tried out some of the suggestions, the coach may help adapt or personalize the plan based on feedback from the client. They may also help answer questions and clear up misconceptions and myths about nutrition.

Behavioral Coaching

In many cases, a client’s challenges with nutrition may have to do with habits around eating and cooking or lifestyle factors like physical activity or social connection. A nutrition coach may help clients create new eating habits and strategies to support their nutrition goals. This may include encouraging the client to modify their eating schedule, developing new cooking and shopping habits, or creating a supportive mindset about eating and food.

Accountability and Support

If you’ve ever tried to change a habit, you likely know that it can be challenging to establish new routines. Nutrition coaches provide accountability support for their clients who are trying to make new habits stick. Sometimes, just knowing that someone will follow up with you about the new commitment you made to yourself is enough motivation to follow through.

Longevity and Healthy Aging

Many people seek help from health and nutrition coaches to age gracefully. In recent decades, researchers are learning more and more about the impact of nutrition and lifestyle on how we age. A nutrition coach can help you develop a diet and lifestyle plan that is designed to help you stay healthy and age well.

Types of Nutrition Coaching

Not everyone who is looking for a nutrition coach has the same needs or goals. Some people want to lose weight, while others might be concerned about getting enough nutrition or making healthier choices. Nutrition coaches can pursue various specialties that may offer access to a wide array of clients with different interests.

Help Clients With Weight Loss

One of the most common reasons people decide to work with a nutrition coach is to lose weight. According to the CDC, more than 40% of adults in the U.S. have obesity.

Scores of people may set out on a weight loss journey only to wind up feeling defeated because they can’t seem to succeed.

There are myriad fad diets that promise fast results, but they rarely help in the long term. Nutrition coaches can help clients find the right personalized combination of calories, macro and micronutrients, eating habits, and physical activity to help them not only lose weight but create lifelong healthy eating habits.

Assist Athletes With Performance Goals

Athletes are naturally concerned with the relationship between food and body—specifically, what they eat and how it might impact their physical performance. With a host of health-related misinformation prevalent today, athletes might find it difficult to determine what they should be doing to improve their performance. This is where “sports” nutrition coaches can step in.

Nutrition coaches who specialize in sports nutrition are uniquely qualified to examine an individual athlete and determine where they need the most support from a nutrition perspective. They might take into account the athlete’s current state of health and performance, future goals, age, body composition, and various facets of the sport, including impact, intensity, duration, and more. Then they can help create nutritional strategies that may properly fuel them—making optimizations along the way based on changes in their training routine or competition schedule. Just be sure to review your coach’s qualifications and references before making a long-term commitment.

Support Pre- and Post-Natal Wellness

For individuals who are pregnant, trying to conceive, or have recently given birth, a nutrition coach specializing in pre- and post-natal nutrition can help foster their overall wellness—as well as the health of their baby. Some come to nutrition coaches to find the right nutritional plan for each trimester of pregnancy. Others may have weight loss-related goals after having a baby. And those who are breastfeeding might simply be looking for guidance on what they should be consuming for both their and their infant’s optimal health.

Pregnancy might change hormone levels, caloric needs, vitamin and mineral requirements, and more—topics that pre- and postnatal nutrition coaches can make recommendations about. Again, review the nutrition coach’s education and credentials to help ensure you’re working with someone credible.

Help With Specialty Diets

If you’re someone with food sensitivities, or who has had a specific regimen by your doctor, a nutrition coach may be able to help you make these suggested changes. Changing your diet can be difficult and confusing, especially if you’re experiencing a health challenge. You may also feel annoyed or resentful about needing to make changes at all. Nutrition coaches are trained to support clients with these kinds of issues.

Longevity and Healthy Aging

Many people are interested in doing all they can to age well. Research in recent decades about so-called “Blue Zones” —places where a high percentage of people live to be 90 or 100— has confirmed that a healthy diet and lifestyle are correlated with long life. Nutrition coaches can help clients interested in healthy aging create a nutrition and lifestyle plan.

How Does a Nutrition Coach Work With Clients?

Though each nutrition coach will develop their own specific methods for supporting their clients, there are some common approaches for supporting clients. In most cases, nutrition coaches work the following ways with clients.

Initial Assessments

At a client’s first visit, the coach assesses the client’s goals, current skills, current diet, any pre-existing health challenges, and anything else that will help them create an appropriate plan. The coach may use intake forms, a client interview, or other methods to gather important information to help customize the plan. The coach will help the client come up with action steps to work on as homework in their day-to-day life.

Ongoing Sessions

Once the initial assessment has been completed, the coach will meet with the client at regularly scheduled sessions, often weekly, bimonthly, or monthly. At these coaching sessions, the coach will check in about the homework assignments, and see if the plan needs to be adjusted. The client likely has questions, and the nutrition coach will answer any and all questions, and support the client in choosing new action steps.

Providing Tools and Resources

A client may need extra support with their action steps. The nutrition coach’s job is to provide the resources the client needs to succeed. This may include things like providing tracking tools, help with apps, recommending books, videos, or articles, or providing training in skills, like how to read a nutrition label, or how to cook a dish.

Coaching Support Outside of Sessions

In between sessions, clients often have questions and need clarification. A nutrition coach will usually offer email or text support between sessions to make sure clients have all the help they need to keep going with their homework.

Group Nutrition Coaching

Some nutrition coaches work with clients in groups. They may offer independent classes or work in health clinics or doctors’ offices. Not only does this method help the coach support more people and therefore make more of a difference for more clients, but it’s also been shown to be better for the clients. The US Surgeon General has recently claimed that community and connection are an essential factor for health. When people meet to focus on health goals together, they do better than people working on their health in isolation.

Nutrition Coaching Requires Thorough Training

As the science behind nutrition becomes more accessible to the mainstream, many clients seek out nutrition coaches to teach them about making healthy choices in their day-to-day lives. While a nutrition coach doesn’t necessarily require a specific type of degree like a Registered Dietitian does, they absolutely need the know-how to educate and empower their clients—which usually comes with thorough training.

Explore how a degree or diploma in Holistic Nutrition and Wellness from an accredited institution like Escoffier can help build specialized knowledge about health-supporting ingredients—equipping graduates with the skills and credibility they may need to thrive in the field.*

INTERESTED IN LEARNING MORE ABOUT FOOD AND NUTRITION? READ THESE NEXT:

• What Is Holistic Nutrition and Wellness?
• What Does a Holistic Health Practitioner Do?
• How to Start a Career in Holistic Health

*Information may not reflect every student’s experience. Results and outcomes may be based on several factors, such as geographical region or previous experience.

This article was originally published on December 9, 2021, and has since been updated.