How to Become
a Certified Nutrition Coach

Transform Your Clients’ Relationship to Food Through Evidence-based Nutrition Science

Interested in Becoming a Certified Nutrition Coach?

The way we eat has a huge impact on the way we feel and how well we perform—both in the gym and in life. That’s why becoming a Certified Nutrition Coach is one of the most powerful ways to start impacting people’s lives in a profound way.

As a Certified Nutrition Coach, you’ll help your clients to cut through the noise and confusion caused by all the fad diets out there, and lead them to start making smarter nutrition choices that support their health and fitness goals. It’s an incredibly rewarding career track that will have you feeling good about your impact on the world.

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How to become a Certified Nutrition Coach

step 1

Commit to Pursuing Your Passion

The most important thing to know about becoming a Certified Nutrition Coach is this: You can do it!

Nutrition serves as the foundation for our health and the fuel for our performance. As a Certified Nutrition Coach, you’ll help to change people’s lives by guiding them to become the best version of themselves. Best of all, the only thing you need to get started is a passion for health & nutrition and the dedication to make it happen.

step 2

Realize the Importance of Nutrition

While the importance of nutrition sometimes goes under the radar, the truth is that fitness and nutrition go hand-in-hand. Without the proper diet in place, your clients may never reach their most ambitious goals.

That’s why the knowledge you’ll gain as a Certified Nutrition Coach is so crucial. You’ll gain the skills needed to guide your clients toward making smarter diet decisions, forging a better relationship with food, and creating the healthy habits they’ll need to create long-lasting change.

A female and male nutritionist making smoothies in a kitchen

step 3

Enroll Today & Get Certified in Just 4 Weeks

Now you’re ready to get started! Simply enroll in the Certified Nutrition Coach program, or choose one of our bundles to save money on a more comprehensive health and fitness education.

With a Certified Nutrition Coach credential from NASM, you’ll be powering your career forward with the most recognizable and respected fitness certification in the industry. There’s a reason we’ve been the top choice with fitness pros for more than 30 years: because we prepare you with the knowledge and skills you need to start your fitness career off right and maximize your earning potential and your impact.

Certified Nutrition Coach FAQS

As one of the most trusted sources of fitness training certifications in the world, NASM is a distinguished name that will stand out to fitness employers. Joining the NASM community grants you access to a job guarantee program for select programs, your top choice of gyms to work for, access to world-class fitness experts, and much more.

• Peer-Reviewed Content from the Brightest Minds in the Industry
• State-of-the-Art Digital Learning Platform
• Programs Designed to Meet Multiple Learning Styles
• 35+ Years Of Experience Training Fitness Professionals
• 1.5M+ Professionals Trained
• 100+ Countries with NASM and Coach Professionals
• Partnerships with Fitness Facilities, Professional Sports, and Academic Institutions

You can complete your Certified Nutrition Coach Certification in as few as 4 weeks. In addition to its interactive multimedia-rich content, learning tools, resources, and comprehensive study-planning guide, you can also receive assistance from NASM experts when questions arise.

Absolutely! You can complete the NASM Certified Nutrition Coach program while also working full-time. The study material is 100% online and self-paced, and can be accessed on a computer, or a mobile device such as a phone or tablet.

NASM CNC is approved for Continuing Education Units (CEUs) by the following organizations:

1.9 CEUs
15 CEUs
3.0 CECs
10 CIMPSA Endorsed CPD Points
10 Learning Hours

A Nutritionist is different from a Nutrition Coach. With the foundational knowledge you’ll gain as a Certified Nutrition Coach, you’ll have the expertise needed to help clients make smarter nutrition choices and create sustainable change in their lives.

When you sign up to become a Certified Nutrition Coach through NASM, you’ll learn how to assess your client’s nutritional needs and ensure they’re met through three unique yet equally important modules:

• Nutrition Science: From proteins to fats, energy balance to counting macros, get a comprehensive look at the scope of your practice as a nutrition leader.

• Behavior Change: Learn how to use motivation and communication to enhance the psychology behind how we eat.

• Nutrition Coaching: Put everything together to create a personalized course of action for your clients. Whether it’s weight loss or weight gain, bulking up or maintaining where they’re at, you now have the keys to nutritional success.

A Certified Nutrition Coach (CNC) works with a more general clientele to develop strategies that address issues like obesity, body composition, aging, and lifestyle approaches to disease management.

A Certified Sports Nutrition Coach (CSNC) digs a little deeper, working specifically with athletes to educate and provide coaching around performance nutrition within sports.

While these two roles differ in the audience they serve, they do work hand in hand to provide a well-rounded understanding of nutrition. To that end, our CNC program sets down an effective foundation in nutrition to build from, helping through a fundamental understanding of how to serve clients’ nutrition needs.

From there, our CSNC program takes what you learn throughout CNC and builds upon it to target a specific client base to focus on strategies that impact performance and recovery.

The final exam is administered online within your student portal. There are 100 multiple-choice questions and you'll have 90 minutes to complete it. A score of 70% or better is required to pass.

You have 365 days from the date of purchase to complete your final exam. If you need an extension or a retest, you can purchase one by calling Member Services at 1-800-460-6276.

You will have 3 attempts to pass your final exam. If needed, you can purchase additional retests by calling Member Services at 1-800-460-6276.

Renewal of the Certified Nutrition Coach (CNC) is required every two years through completion of the CNC Renewal Exam. The CNC Renewal Exam will offer three exam attempts and will have an enrollment duration of 365 days. The CNC Renewal Exam will recertify the credential for another two years from the new completion date.