Nutrition Coach vs Behavior Change Coach

How do you know if you need a nutrition coach vs behavior change coach?

 

Hi, my name is Lily. I’m the director of training and coach development at Body Brain Alliance, and I also have quite a few years of behavior change experience. 

 

Today I want to talk about the difference between an evidence-based nutrition coach and a behavior change coach so that you can figure out what is the best resource for you and your goals.

 

Prefer to learn on video? Watch here: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=451rmHi6OqM&feature=youtu.be

What Does an Evidence-Based Nutrition Coach Do?

 

First, let’s talk about what an evidence-based nutrition coach does. It’s important to keep in mind that I started out with evidence-based.

 

Unfortunately, the field of nutrition and even exercise is widely unregulated. 

So you may find a lot of people calling themselves nutrition coaches, but they are not following an evidence-based approach. Meaning that they have science and they have evidence and they have appropriate research to back up some of the claims as well as the guidance and advice they give to the public.

Scope of Practice for Nutrition Coaches

It’s also really important that someone who is giving advice and nutrition is evidence-based so that we’re staying within the appropriate scope of practice to best help people. So someone who is a certified nutritionist who’s also evidence-based, knows that they cannot diagnose or treat any kind of condition related to nutrition. 

 

They also are not permitted to give specific meal plans telling you exactly what to eat. They’re not consulting on things like food allergies and they aren’t legally able to order any kinds of labs or testing. All of these things would fall under the realm of a dietician. Dieticians are the only ones that are able to provide advice and guidance on anything that is related to medical nutrition therapy.

What Nutrition Coaches Can Do

So back to a certified nutritionist who is evidence-based… A certified nutritionist is able to provide you insight on things related specifically to nutrition. So they have education and insight on macronutrients, micronutrients, they can assist with body composition goals as a result of dietary changes. 

 

They’re able to assist you with calorie levels depending on what your goal is. Things like reverse dieting, their niche is very specific in nutrition. If you have very specific related nutrition goals, then a nutrition coach can be great for you.

 

What is a Behavior Change Coach?

 

So now let’s talk about what a behavior change coach is. A behavior change coach takes a little bit of a step back and a broader view on how they approach clients and client changes. 

 

So as a behavior change, coach myself, I have the knowledge and expertise to assist clients with general nutrition changes, exercise, stress management, thought patterns, and overall cognitive ability… So that they can improve their adherence to their goals, advance their behaviors and actions towards their ultimate goal, and ultimately see success in the things that they want to achieve.

Approach of a Behavior Change Coach

If a client comes to me specifically for something like fat loss, because I have a background as well in nutrition, I could go into the specifics that a nutrition coach does. However, if I was taking the stance of just a behavior change coach, we would talk about general nutrition guidelines.  

 

Understand what the client’s goal is, long-term, and be able to understand what are some of those obstacles, making a plan to overcome that. Working collaboratively so that the behaviors around nutrition are able to be accomplished so that their ultimate goal can be reached with behavior change.

Limitations of Behavior Change Coaching

Coaching alone, we’re not typically talking about calories. We’re not talking about specific micronutrients or macronutrients or tracking and things like that because that would fall under the specific advice of a nutrition coach. 

 

It is important to keep in mind that just having a behavior change coach background does not automatically need that they have any additional nutrition insight other than the basic foundation and understanding. 

 

So it is important that if you are working with a behavior change coach and you want to improve your nutrition, that you are also seeking that same person to have additional credentials.

 

Which Coach Do You Need?

Overall, there is no better option. It really depends on what your goal is. So here are some questions to maybe ask yourself so that you can determine what’s going to be the best working with a behavior change coach or working with a certified nutrition coach.

When to Consider a Nutrition Coach

• • Do you have specific fat loss or body composition goals?

• • Do you feel like you need to know exactly what foods to stock up in your house?

• • Do you feel like you need to know how many calories you need to be eating or what your macronutrient breakdown should be?

• • Do you feel like all of your other behaviors and habits are going really well and you really just need assistance specifically on the area of nutrition?

In this case, a certified nutritionist can be very helpful for you.

When to Consider a Behavior Change Coach

On the other hand:

• • Do you feel like you could improve your nutrition in ways that are directly related to your everyday behaviors?

• • Do you feel like you know what to eat? You know what healthy eating looks like for you, but you just can’t quite follow through with some of those habits and behaviors that are really important to you?

• • You feel like you struggle with following through with meal prep and understanding what that system or routine should look like for you?

• • You struggle when you’re eating out and that social pressure environment and what you should be choosing?

• • You feel like you use food as a coping mechanism and can benefit from utilizing other general strategies for stress management?

• • You want to be able to effectively manage your thought patterns and emotion when those feelings come up related to your nutrition?

• • You want to be able to reduce decision fatigue related to your nutrition choices and overall you want to learn different ways that these behaviors can flood and transition into other areas of life. So that you are stepping into that future version of you who is not only embodying better nutrition, but also seeing progress in those other areas of life?

If the second one sounds like something you can benefit from, then a behavior change coach would be a lot more impactful and effective for your goals.

 

Conclusion

 

We would love to hear from you. Have you worked with a nutrition coach before? Have you worked with a behavior change coach before? What was different about it? How was your experience? What helped you more?

 

Let us know below in the comments so that we can further assist you in helping you make the best decision and resource for yourself. 

 

Thank you for reading, see you in the next one!