Nutritional Specialist Certification

[Curls4dGirls]

Any thoughts on the best nutritional specialist certification?

[YellowJacket]

Register Dietician. They dont have them around here, but you can take an 8 moth course is a lot of places (if you are and RD) and get an additional certification which allows you to do Performance Nutrition. The only way to obtain a RD cert. is with a 4 year college degree however.

[Curls4dGirls]

Register Dietician. They dont have them around here, but you can take an 8 moth course is a lot of places (if you are and RD) and get an additional certification which allows you to do Performance Nutrition. The only way to obtain a RD cert. is with a 4 year college degree however.

thx YJ ... follow-up question. Say you don't have a college degree, but want to learn in-depth nutrition information. Any thoughts on a course/certification? I'm thinking there might be something similiar to a personal trainer certification, but for nutrition.

[Shibby]

There are similar certs, but that does not allow you to call yourself a nutritionist/dietician. The one I did was pretty basic knowledge tha I got just to make my profile look better as a trainer. It was a "fitness" nutrtion cert, but just covered anything you pretty much already know. So in my opinion it was pretty useless. Sure it made my profile look a little better, but I'm still not allowed to give nutritional advice to clients.

[YellowJacket]

Yea, to be able to give nutrition advice AND have your ass covered, you must get the RD, otherwise, its your risk.

[Curls4dGirls]

shibby / YJ ... thx for the replies.

Just so I'm clear:

If you are a certified personal trainer, but aren't a RD, you can't develop a diet plan for your clients?

[Shibby]

I can't remeber the specifics, but you could be sued out your ass if something happened to them.

[bigpetefox]

I may have lucked out, I always set up eating plans for clients and the only thing that happens is they lose weight.. ;)

I have the ISSA Sports Nutrition Specialist certification.. Pretty easy to get, the test was abit harder than the CPT, it's common sense stuff with abit of by-the-book type things as well.. One day I'll get the chance to study, so I can have 50 letter after my name like YJ.. :D

[YellowJacket]

I may have lucked out, I always set up eating plans for clients and the only thing that happens is they lose weight.. ;)

Well, youre not the average, weekend warrior PT either Pete....

I have the ISSA Sports Nutrition Specialist certification.. Pretty easy to get, the test was abit harder than the CPT, it's common sense stuff with abit of by-the-book type things as well.. One day I'll get the chance to study, so I can have 50 letter after my name like YJ.. :D

And Ill spend more time in the gym so I can have the guns of a...say.....Petefox... :nerdnew:

[YellowJacket]

shibby / YJ ... thx for the replies.

Just so I'm clear:

If you are a certified personal trainer, but aren't a RD, you can't develop a diet plan for your clients?

Sure you can, but a certification sort of covers your ass. For example, if you have a diabetic client and you put them on a diet and it involves a dangerous amount of sugar and something happens, they go into shock, or whatever, look out..... and get yourself a good lawyer.

[coffee-guy]

Just so I'm clear:

If you are a certified personal trainer, but aren't a RD, you can't develop a diet plan for your clients?

The best rule of thumb is to recommend a diet plan that has already been made up by another group etc. You should be able to access pre-made diet plans and supplement them to your clients based on body composition and planned excercise routines. All the while your ass is covered because you make it the clients decision to use someone else's diet (you didn't create the diet and you only gave the client "options"). You never composed the diet nor did you mandate to the client that they follow it. If the client wants a certain diet plan you give them the choice of 3-4 that they can look over and choose from. Once they have made the decision for themselves you should be in the clear (the client therefore has to take into account all health risks etc - diabetes etc).

If anyone knows this to be incorrect, please let me know...

[edvedr]

There are similar certs, but that does not allow you to call yourself a nutritionist/dietician. The one I did was pretty basic knowledge tha I got just to make my profile look better as a trainer. It was a "fitness" nutrtion cert, but just covered anything you pretty much already know. So in my opinion it was pretty useless. Sure it made my profile look a little better, but I'm still not allowed to give nutritional advice to clients.

was that something you took at a college?

[Shibby]

Nope

[edvedr]

Nope

care to say where?

[Shibby]

A place called the Cooper Institute in Dallas.