How To Talk To Clients About Nutrition

Working out and nutrition go hand-in-hand and no matter your distribution of clients, questions about food and what they should be doing will inevitably arise. You do not have to be certified to have a rational conversation with a client about their nutrition. In fact, just by being a Personal Trainer, chances are you are vastly more informed than the traditional client.

As a Personal Trainer, you should know the basics of general nutrition: how much protein a client should be eating, a normal “expected” range of calories for the individual, and the general idea that people should be moving away from processed foods and more towards whole, natural foods.

1. Protein requirements: a client should be shooting for 0.6-0.8g/lb of bodyweight. If they have a good amount of muscle mass, or in a calorie deficit, they can cruise up to 1g, but anything above that is overkill and not necessary. I find that if someone is really invested in the gym, they are typically overeating protein, and those who are new are typically under eating.
2. For women, the expected range of calories is between 1800-2300. For men, it is 2800-3100. As a Trainer, your purview is not to dictate calorie ranges, pass that off to your in-house nutritionist. However, it is important to understand and be able to have a conversation with your client that they may not be eating enough food overall to work towards their goals. A very common scenario that I have seen is someone in extreme restriction who is looking to lose weight.
3. One way Trainers can help their clients overall nutritionally is to encourage them to move towards whole, natural foods. Having discussions around that and giving suggestions for ways to replace processed foods is vastly important to the client.

These are all basic concepts, and on the outset may seem simple and easy to implement, however the traditional client doesn’t think about food like a trainer would. They are busy and distracted with life, kids, work, family drama, emotions, the list goes on and on… and simply asking someone to pay attention to their food can add a tremendous amount of stress to their already crazy plate.

I encourage trainers to have discussions about food with their clients and work to fix what they can. If it gets beyond the trainer’s knowledge base or if someone wants to work in-depth on their food, pass them off to your nutrition Coach. If you don’t have a nutrition Coach that works at your gym, be sure to locate someone that you trust in which you can pass clients off to.

Andrew Herman is an ISSA certified Personal Trainer, PN1 certified nutrition Coach and Professional Natural Bodybuilder. Owner of Iron Legion Scarbrough, he works with all types of clients to better their relationship with health and fitness, by empowering clients through strength training and through common sense approaches to nutrition.