Physical exercise has vast benefits for your health. Not only physically, but mentally too. Whilst exercise is great, what’s overlooked is the benefits nutrition can bring to your personal training programme.
With over 2/3 of the UK population being either obese or overweight, nutrition is more important than ever.
Nearly every study in existence, has shown exercise alone is not a good tool to help someone lose body fat.
The most efficient tool, we have to help people lose body-fat, is through dietary adjustments.
Therefore in this blog we will look at how adding an extra focus onto your clients nutrition, can benefit your personal training.
Fat loss is best achieved through nutrition
Whilst exercising can burn some calories here and there, that isn’t the purpose of exercise.
The real purpose of exercise is for many other benefits.
Benefits which include:
- Muscle retention
- Improves cognitive functioning
- Muscle Building
- Osteoporosis prevention
- Strengthening bones
- Reduces depressive symptoms
- Improves mental wellbeing
Whilst you could burn 100 calories on the treadmill for 20 minutes, evidence shows it’s easier to just not eat a packet of crisps for example.
Many studies show that exercise alone, is not enough for weight loss. Exercise needs to be combined with diet for it to be effective. (1)
Adds an extra feature to your business
Having features to add to your business, can put you above others.
Whilst yes features are important, every extra feature needs to come with a benefit.
For instance saying:
“I also offer nutrition coaching”
Isn’t enough.
To you that may sound great, but to a potential client, it’s meaningless.
Yet, if you said:
“I also offer nutrition coaching, so you can get results even when you’re not in the gym with me”
This then shows, you’re more than just someone who makes their clients sweaty and counts reps.
There are many personal trainers around these days, what is it about you, which makes you stand out?
More likely to get results
Personal training is a results based business.
You can have the most fancy spreadsheets and marketing funnels, but at the end of the day your clients come to you, because they want a result.
Though it’s not the case for everyone, there’s a likely chance most of your clients will come to you because they want to lose body-fat.
They may say to tone up, become fitter and feel more confident, but nine times out of ten, this means weight loss.
As discussed earlier, exercise is great.
With exercise your client may improve their cholesterol levels and reduce their risk of CHD.
But unfortunately, if they don’t get the result they initially wanted (fat loss), in their eyes, they haven’t got their moneys worth.
Therefore, if you combine your training knowledge and expertise, with a dietary system (within your scope) for them to follow, which will allows them to sustainably lower their calorie intake, you will improve their health and get them the fat loss they initially came to you for.
Nutrition and exercise go hand in hand
Both exercise and diet work well hand in hand.
Not only physically, but mentally too.
For instance, when a client adheres to both positive behaviours, they are more likely to see them through.
For instance if they hit their nutrition goals, which you will have set out.
They will be more likely to be motivated to do the best they can in their gym sessions with you.
Also, if they are doing great in their sessions, they are more likely to want to make sure they hit their nutrition goals with you.
So what happens is, you are creating a positive feedback loop for your client.
It doesn’t need to just end with nutrition and the gym. You could also get them to hit a step goal every day.
Though 10,000 is recommended, getting them to to just achieve more than they usually do is enough.
Conclusion
As you can see there are many ways incorporating nutrition into your personal training can improve your business and get your clients better results.
It’s very important to state as a personal trainer, this does not give you the ability to give out prescribed meal plans, only Dieticians can and this will be for clinically ill patients.
This is something mentioned in a previous blog about the scope of practice personal trainers have with regards to nutrition.
As a personal trainer, you can give you out advice based on the UK national Eatwell guidelines
Below are some links to some nutrition sources, which will be helpful when helping your clients out with their nutrition.
If you want to upskill, with a level 4 nationally recognised nutrition qualification. Here at Norfolk Health and Fitness, we will soon be offering a Nutrition course.
Written by Joshua Forster
