Firstly, let’s start with a note of warning. Personal trainers and fitness instructors are not qualified or covered by insurance to write food plans for clients, and no amount of CPD’s will allow you to do this, no matter what other providers may tell you. Only qualified and registered Nutritionists are allowed to do this, and being a Nutritionist is legally protected. As a personal trainer, the qualification and additional CPDs can only allow you to offer the client advice, and that advice will normally be based around the diet that the client already has, although example plans, and meal ideas can be used as advice as well.
Now, this blog could end up longer than War and Peace, so I will attempt to keep it as succinct as possible. I am going to break the most important parts down into three sections that are needed to analyse a client’s nutritional intake, and the advice given based on it:
· Health
· Preferences
· Goals
These would all be gathered via a food diary (in the real world I would get a 3 day, and at least one day has to be a weekend, this is due to the amount of time a 7 day food diary takes to go through), and also in the consultation, where the trainer can ask follow up questions to get more information from the client.
Health:
As I often stress to all learners, you are first and foremost a health professional and every client’s health should always be the first thing looked at. Questions that should be asked here are things such as:
Is the client eating enough based on their BMR?
Is the client taking in enough macronutrients?
Is the client taking in enough micronutrients?
Is the client drinking enough water?
Is the food they are eating of good quality?
Once the trainer has gained the basic YES/NO answers to these, the trainer will have a far better idea of the nutritional health of the client.
BMR is the client’s basal metabolic rate, and is simply the basic amount of calories the client needs per day at rest (so not including any activity). If the client eats considerably under this amount, it can lead to issues with their health, cognitive function and ability to perform activity. When working out the calorie intake for a client, you would need to take their BMR and daily activity into consideration, luckily there are freely available free websites that you can do this without having to do any equations yourself.
Macronutrients are nutrients that the human body requires in large amount to function properly. These are classified as Protein, Fats and Carbohydrates, and each have different functions within the body, such as repairing tissue and energy production.
Micronutrients are nutrients that the body needs in considerably smaller amounts than micronutrients but are still required for the body to function at its full ability.
Water is self-explanatory, however the PT must take into consideration the recommended minimum amount of water intake as well as the size of the client.
Food quality is another aspect we must look at with the client as not all foods are created equal, for example a homemade Aberdeen Angus burger will be of higher nutritional quality than a burger purchased from a fast-food establishment. Another aspect that must be considered here is the client’s education of food preparation as well as their finances, as making food requires education on how to do that, and largely speaking, healthier food tends to be more expensive to buy.
Preferences:
This is an aspect of nutrition normally underestimated by trainers; however, it is exceptionally important as putting it simply, clients will not eat, or stick to, food they do not like. This sounds straight forwarded but its importance is something that cannot be underestimated, as nutrition is one of the main parts of health and fitness that a large number of client’s struggle with, and if they do not like the healthy food you are advising them to eat, they will not stick by it. This is another place the food diary can be useful, as this will show you the preferred types of foods the client likes to eat, and the trainers advice can be based around that.
Another aspect that must be considered here is the client’s financial status. This obviously can be an awkward discussion to have with the client, and will likely not be something the trainer bluntly asks outright, but can be something either hinted at or discovered during the consultation. It might be that the best thing for the client is to eat nothing but organic foods, made from fresh ingredients and made from scratch, however this might be something that the client may not be able to afford at all, if not daily.
The client’s education about preparing food is something that also must be considered. It may be that the client does not know how to actually cook food from scratch and prepped. This is a matter that must be handled with care as to not offend the client, and could also be the result of something deeper such as a disability like autism, or their upbringing where they didn’t not have an adult available to teach them this.
Also the client’s available time is another thing to consider here, do they have time to fresh prepare food every day, or is batch prepping for the week a better option for them.
Goals:
The last of our points from above to consider is the client’s goals. This is the point that is most considered by PT’s and rightfully so as it is important and will shape the advice that the trainer gives them. This can on average, be broken down into two categories:
Weight loss
Muscle gain
For weight loss, the trainer will likely put the client into some form of calorie deficit going by the energy balance equation and using the clients calculated BMR and activity levels, however other aspects must also be considered such as protein intake, meal timings, meal size, etc. The size of the calorie deficit must be analysed to ensure that the client is not left hungry, or it is having a detrimental effect on their health or muscle and bone density.
Muscle gain will largely have a trainer advise a calorie surplus with a high protein intake, but once again other considerations must be taken into consideration.
This is a very simplified breakdown, as most people who want to lose weight will want to keep muscle mass, and in which case there is research showing that simply putting a client into a calorie deficit may not be the best way for them to lose body fat while retaining, or even gaining muscle. This involves a mix of specifically prescribed cardio along with resistance work along with the correct nutrition advice. It also depends on how much weight the client may need/want to lose, as the advice for a morbidly obese client would likely not be the same for a client that only has a couple of kg to lose.
In conclusion:
Nutrition is something that can often separate a standard to from a good coach, and unfortunately is an aspect often either overlooked or treated lazily by sending the same advice and sample food plans to all clients. A trainer must remember that this is an area that most people will struggle with due to many reasons such as availably of bad food, lack of education, money, and other reasons, and therefore must be taken potentially more seriously than the in gym work, as the old saying goes, fitness is 20% gym and 80% nutrition.