Mistakes Successful Nutrition Coaches Avoid And You Should Too

Making healthy eating seem difficult

Many nutrition coaches tend to take extreme routes in order for their clients to achieve their fitness objectives. For instance, they may ask certain clients to stop dieting while recommending others to cut meat, sugar, dairy, gluten, carbs, etc.

A nutrition coach must understand that as soon as they say 'no' to specific diets, the clients' minds will wander over their craving for that food. This may lead to them questioning whether they will be able to sustain your nutrition program.

As a nutrition coach, you will taste success when you understand that small steps go a long way here. It's not about gaining or losing weight immediately but about long-term sustainable nutrition practices. Suggest mindful eating habits to your clients and educate them about portion control and other practices that promote a healthy lifestyle.

Information overdose

A nutrition coach, dietitian, or personal trainer has abundant knowledge to share with the world! What the professional finds intriguing may not feel the same to the client. If you provide too much information to a client in a short time, they may feel overwhelmed and therefore discouraged, despite your intention of empowering them.

To deliver an effective nutrition program, break down your discussion with your clients, explaining to them about the macronutrients, food groups and their selection, calorie intake, frequency of certain meals, etc.

Also, explain to them that it will take time and determination to achieve their health goals. Many of your clients will be dealing with body insecurities. Make sure you are sensitive towards them and use the correct set of words to make them understand the nutrition plan, importance of willpower, and how they need to be strong mentally to follow a new routine. 

Not being valuable enough in your nutrition coaching 

Assisting people with their nutrition is an important component of helping them achieve their health and fitness objectives. Their diet is what keeps their bodies going during a workout and throughout the day. Many fitness professionals underestimate the value of the advice they may provide to improve and speed up results.

As a nutrition coach, it's important to explain the value of nutrition coaching in addition to fitness training. By doing so, you can help your clients avoid making the mistake of thinking that one service is more important than the other. Instead, show them how overall health coaching can benefit them far more.

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Benefits of Combining Exercise and Nutrition Coaching

Just like how a healthy diet complements one's exercising efforts, Personal Training and Nutrition coaching can go hand in hand if done correctly. Giving your clients macro expertise can benefit both parties.

Dietitians or Nutrition coaches are often the first places many people turn to for dietary guidance, but many certified personal trainers who also have nutrition information and knowledge do not offer nutrition coaching because of a lack of time on their hands and their priority on exercise coaching. If you are a personal trainer who wants to offer nutritional guidance but simply does not have the time to make elaborate meal plans, you can provide nutrition services and guided meal plans to your clients with new-age personal training software like FitBudd.

Combining nutrition and exercise coaching is a great way to keep track of your clients' lifestyles and also increase your market share. You'll be able to offer more services because they appeal to audiences, which means you can grow at a faster rate.

So combining nutrition and exercise coaching results in three important outcomes:

• First, it improves the physical success of your clients, leading to happier and more satisfied clients (and, therefore, higher retention figures).
• Secondly, it allows you to expand your market share and boost client acquisition, enabling you to expand your fitness and nutrition business.
• Third, when integrated with the appropriate tools and technology, it will improve the client experience. FitBudd can help you combine exercise and nutrition counseling in a way that is both time-effective and business-efficient.
  

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3 Challenges A Nutrition Coach Faces When Working With New Clients

1. Clients are resistant towards changing certain eating habits

Initially, a client may come to you for assistance with utmost zeal and enthusiasm. They may even expect you to say things like "eat less sugar". They may feel confident about changing their lifestyle. But the truth is, no one knows exactly what advice like this means in practice.

For someone who relies heavily on packaged food, such a shift in meal plans may be very hard, to a point that it breaks their initial confidence.

Food is personal, and sometimes a client can get defensive about their diet. 

“Why is this a problem? This isn’t unhealthy.”

It's hard to convince someone that something they're doing isn't working, especially if it involves a change in lifestyle. Even worse than the argument itself is when you have no idea how or why your client has been able to make progress.

Again, the key is to start with small changes that can be easily made. As a health coach, you need to provide guidance to your client on ways that can help them switch to healthier options without making it seem difficult or sacrificial. Understand every individual's behavior patterns and how you can shape them through meal plans built specifically for them.

2. Clients have difficulty sticking to long-term nutritional changes

Psychologists, behavioral economists, and nutritionists are just a few of the professionals looking to solve this problem. In fact it was Dr. Thaler who won the 2017 Nobel prize in economics for his work on nudging people towards long term goals using small habit changes such as changing a person's environment. His studies have shown that accomplishing these mini-goals, and making them stick as a habit, will gradually lead to an increase in activity over time.

For example, some personal trainers suggest starting with one pushup a day or simply lacing up your running shoes without even going for a run.

As a nutritionist, you need to find ways to help clients stick to their meal plans for a longer duration. You can introduce diets that are healthy but also made with ingredients they like to consume. It's also recommended you provide multiple options for a meal so that clients can choose themselves instead of feeling that they have been restricted. Apply your nutrition expertise here and make it fun for your clients!

3. Identifying and ensuring consistency

Is your client following the diet you have planned for them? You may get a better idea of how well they are doing if it includes daily food logs.

Food journals have been shown to help with weight loss and provide nutritionists an opportunity to study their clients' behaviors. 

Mindless eating isn't just a problem for people with extra pounds. It can happen to anyone, any time! The best way you could prevent this is by working closely with your clients and getting them set up on acquiring accurate dietary intake data regularly so that their habits don’t falter before they even start seeing results from the efforts put forth.

With FitBudd, data tracking becomes an effortless experience. The simple interface of the App helps clients put in their daily diet without any confusion. The software calculates the required calories or macros automatically, which you, as their nutrition coach, can track through your Trainer Portal whenever you want.