5 key differences between a personal trainer and a nutrition coach.

Demonstration:

Visual demonstration is a huge part of coaching in the gym. Eg. demonstrating a position/execution of a movement. As a nutrition coach, that just doesn’t work. “Do what I do” is very different from “eat what I eat”. All too often people think they should eat what someone else eats or what someone else tells them to eat. the problem with this is that that person isn’t you. They don’t have your tastes, needs, nutritional preferences, fiscal constraints, historical experience with food, schedule demands, and plenty more. I can’t stress enough how cookie-cutter “nutritional plans” aren’t just inaccurate, but they’re downright irresponsible. Dieticians are the only people that can and should be giving you or anyone else, food plans. Period. Just as telling someone they should squat exactly as they do is both unnecessary and impractical at best.

Imperatives

Imperatives can be helpful inside the gym (though there’s likely more effective language in general) and harmful in the kitchen. “You should feel this position in your X” or “use just your arms by keeping your ribs tucked”. Imperatives in nutrition coaching sound like “you should only eat X” or “you have to eat Y” or “just eat more X”. Should, have to, must, and, just, are demanding and inherently judgmental language when used in the context of food and food choices. Aim to ask>tell in this situation.

Coach led < client led

Strength training sessions are likely more coach-led, nutrition coaching sessions are almost always client-led. Asking a training client at the start of a session “what do you want to do today” likely isn’t the best use of your time together. Asking a nutrition client, however, “where would you like to start today?” is likely a great way to open the door to their needs. It puts them in the decision/driver seat and you can guide them by offering provoking/challenging questions. Telling them, “we are going to work on vegetables today” isn’t as smart as “the focus of today is our deadlifts”.

Short term intensity OR long term effort

Local intensity for 60 minutes vs moderate effort for 168 hours. You can go at in the gym for that 60 minutes, taking specific intention and hype to the hour. Doing that in a 30 minute nutrition consult won’t help anyone make decisions 6 days from now at breakfast time when they’ve forgotten to go grocery shopping and had 3 hours of sleep.

Feedback

Feedback options are abundant in a training session and require action in the coach’s presence. Feedback options in nutrition coaching are more limited as most of the actions take place 3-6 times per day EVERY DAY. The recipe for success in these 2 very different scenarios involves very different strategies.

Training feedback is direct and conversational. It drives the upcoming action;

“How many more reps do you think you could have done at that weight?”

Nutrition feedback is more exploratory and thoughtful. It evokes reflection on past action to inform future action;

“What if anything would you like to change this week based on what you learned last week?”

Endorphins VS Empowerment

Endorphins are magic in a training scenario, whereas empowerment is the secret weapon to making a difference in nutrition coaching.

Moving gives you endorphins whether you want it to or not, talking about ways to consume more fruit at lunchtime definitely does not. Cultivating an environment for empowerment is key in nutrition coaching. Empowerment comes from skills like reflective listening, highlighting values and behavioral mismatches, allowing for client resistance vs opposing it, promoting self-efficacy and being optimistic, and above all, showing empathy. So many of us think we need someone to tell us what to do and rule with an iron fist when it comes to health and fitness. Truth is, we want what we want in all walks of life; SPACE, TRUST, SUPPORT, and CARE.

To sum up; one thing that is true for BOTH scenarios from both my learning and anecdotal experience is that often times, less is more.

Fewer cues. Fewer words. Fewer tasks. Fewer requests. And A LOT MORE open-ended questions.

If you’re considering hiring either type of coach, know that they’re not mutually exclusive and technique and experience likely matter more than education.