Personal trainers are mainly known for performing fitness assessments, establishing wellness goals, creating fitness programs and working with their clients to educate and motivate for a healthy and fit lifestyle. Advanced training and certifications in nutrition have opened up the potential for the personal trainer to expand their services by offering nutrition assessment and counseling.
To offer nutrition assessment consults, it is first necessary to examine the client’s current lifestyle, both in terms of exercise and eating habits to determine a proper baseline. But even with supplemental education and training, examining a client’s current nutrition level can be a sometimes daunting task. There are many questions to be answered. How many calories should the client be consuming each day? What is their current activity level? Are they trying to lose weight, maintain weight or in terms of body builders, gain weight? What are their eating habits? Are they getting all the proper nutrients they need? Are they getting too much of a certain nutrient (sugar, sodium, cholesterol etc)? What is the percentage of macro nutrients they are getting? How can you look at a client and know that they are not getting enough selenium or vitamin A? In most cases it is impossible to tell by looking at a client.
Well, doing nutrition assessment by hand is extremely cumbersome, time consuming, and error prone, but if one has the right tool it is as easy as one, two, three. That tool is as simple as finding the right nutrition assessment software program.
The first step is the trainer to create a food diary form that the client uses to enter their food intake for five to seven days. The second step is for the trainer to enter that information into the program. This step takes about 30-45 minutes in most cases and is very easy to do. Of course the trainer should charge for this nutrition assessment just as they would for a one on one training session.
Once the information is entered, the third step is to view the report that shows nutrient deficits, excesses, calories and macro nutrient percentages, sources of foods to add the proper nutrient levels and more.
Macro Nutrient Pie Chart
Magnesium deficiency and advised foods
Now the trainer has a complete snapshot of the client deficiencies along with recommended source of foods to resolve the issues. This information is reviewed with the client to educate them on how to change their diet intake into a proper and healthy one. The program will advise on the proper amount of calories, generate custom meal plans created by a registered dietitian, and provide a shopping list, recipes and more. No guessing involved.
Adding nutrition assessment consults to your personal training business services can be easy and efficient with the right software program. And at the same time clients can be directed into a healthy eating lifestyle that coincides with their fitness and training programs.