The Show Up Fitness Podcast

How to Make 30k Extra as a Nutrition Coach

• Chris Hitchko, CEO Show Up Fitness • Season 3 • Episode 280

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Tired of handing out “free nutrition tips” between sets and watching clients treat them like background noise? We break down a simple, professional system to turn nutrition guidance into a paid, high-value service that actually drives results. From pricing to scope to weekly workflows, you’ll hear exactly how to charge with confidence and deliver coaching that clients respect.

We start by challenging the “we’ve always done it this way” mindset that keeps trainers stuck. Then we map a clean offer: $250–$500 per month for structured nutrition coaching that lives outside workouts, with weekly or biweekly check-ins, photo logging, menu reviews, and clear goals. You’ll get the sales script we use after assessments, language to handle “my last coach included it,” and a 30-day measurement challenge that builds awareness fast without trapping clients in lifelong tracking.

The heart of the system is partnership and scope. Instead of being a jack of all trades, bring a registered dietitian onto your team. RDs handle medical nutrition therapy and complex cases; you lead behavior change, accountability, and education. We cover TDEE basics, protein targets, and the real blockers—environment, stress, sleep, and social pressure—so your clients can navigate date nights and office snacks without derailing progress. You’ll also learn how to host small RD Q&As, set clinic-style expectations, and separate services the way dentists and physical therapists do, so clients understand what they’re buying and why it works.

If you’re ready to build a business that delivers better outcomes and adds $1,000 to $5,000 per month without adding more training hours, this playbook shows you how. Subscribe, share this episode with a coach who needs it, and leave a review telling us the first client you’ll pitch paid nutrition coaching to.

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Want to ask us a question? Email info@showupfitness.com with the subject line PODCAST QUESTION to get your question answered live on the show!

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SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to the Show Up Fitness Podcast, where great personal trainers are made. We are changing the fitness industry one qualified trainer at a time with our in-person and online personal training certification. If you want to become an elite personal trainer, head on over to showupfitness.com. Also make sure to check out my book, How to Become a Successful Personal Trainer. Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review. Have a great day and keep showing up. Howdy, y'all. Welcome back to the Show Up Fitness Podcast. Today is day four. Consistency is key. And we're going to talk about how you could be making an additional$30,000 plus per year as a nutrition coach. We're going to get into how you can do it, but first, why you are not doing it. We're going to begin with a little story called The Roast in the Pan. Cutting the ends off the roast story. A young girl is watching her mother prepare a roast for dinner. She notices her mom cuts both ends off the roast before placing it into the pan. The daughter asks, Why did you cut the ends off? Mom said, That's how your grandmother taught me. It makes it cook better. Not satisfied, the daughter goes to the grandma. Granddaughter asks her, Why did you teach mom to cut the ends off the roast? Grandma replies, I learned from my mother. It's just the way we've always done it. Still curious, she asked great grandma and she says, Oh, that, and chuckles. My pan was too small. I had to cut the ends off so it would fit. I think that's a really powerful story. Because if you were a trainer and you ask other trainers, how much money do you make per month off nutrition coaching? That answer is going to be zero. Oh, how do I know? Because I've asked hundreds and thousands of trainers during our seminars, people that have come through our program, that were previously certified, that worked at big box gyms, how many people on your team had an RD? How many made money from nutrition coaching? And no one raises their hand. And what everyone says is I just include it within the programming. That is the same context as the story with cutting off the ends. Just because everyone else is doing it doesn't mean that you should. Why not make an additional 30 plus thousand? And I say plus thousand because there's a lot of wiggle room here. You should be charging 250 to 500 per month for nutrition coaching. The first step is to get a qualified certification. We have our SUFNC. You get to work with an RD, master the fundamentals, how many calories are in a gram of protein, how you look at an ingredients list, what's good, what's not good, what's the whole thing about seed oils, having the science behind the basics and being able to talk to your clients, but most importantly, having an RD on your team. Trainers try to be this jack of all trades. You get a PN certification, you get your corrective exercise certification, and we're seeking more specializations, but we're not charging more and we're not generating revenue from it. So why are we doing that? Because everyone else is. It's also the survivorship bias. I love talking about that. Because if you have 10 trainers who get a basic textbook certification, 12 months later, nine of them are not going to be training. One who succeeded because they look great, or maybe they're confident, or they have connections. Maybe they did get into the book and did an internship and have a degree in kinesiology. But whatever that one did is now fact. That is what you have to do to be like them. So the entry standards to the whole industry is just a clusterfuck. Go on Reddit, go on Facebook, how to become a trainer. Ask people what is the best certification to become a nutrition coach. It's the same process. You're gonna hear precision nutrition. You got to go through NASA them. They have a great bundle right now. BOGO, buy one, get one free. You need a certification that gets you in front of the actual professional. We have Mel. She has our classes every Thursday, 11 o'clock. If you want to sit in one, send me a message. I'll give you the link. We also have them on demand. You get to ask them questions which build your confidence. So during the assessment process, it looks like this. After you assess them appropriately, take them through a great workout. If they have pain, you screen them, do soft tissues, get them out of pain, have a great workout, get them sweating, feeling the areas that they want to improve. You sit them down and you smile and you say, How was that? And they go, Oh my God, that was amazing. I can't believe I did this and you taught me this, blah, blah, blah. So you ask them, how many times do you want to train with me? I'm thinking three, Chris. Awesome. 12 sessions cost 150 per session, 36 cost 140. Which would you prefer? And they say the 140 or the 150. Great. I want to let you know that for the first 30 days, we're going to focus strictly on training and being consistent. Because as you told me in the assessment process, you're frustrated because you haven't gotten results in the past. Or you tried a diet and you lost 15 pounds, but then you gained 20. So I want to focus on being consistent with myself, the professional, guiding you along, motivating you, and being your accountability coach. Get them to show up and be consistent. After that first month, we can then talk about nutrition. I have an RD on my team. It costs$250 per month. It costs$500 per month. Whatever you pitch, just be confident in the delivery. It is an additional service. Do you have any questions? Well, my last coach included it for free. What was your last coach's credentials? I don't know. Let's pull them up. Oh, they have their NASA, their ACE, their ISSA. You realize that they just read a textbook? They didn't have anyone to coach them. They didn't learn hands-on. Did they have an RD on their team? No. They gave you a food plan, which is out of their scope. They told you to eat a thousand calories, which is out of their scope. They told you to take a multivitamin, which is out of your scope as a trainer. The micronutrient suggestions you cannot give to your clients. You cannot go below 1200 calories. You cannot provide a meal plan. We can give coaching and guidance, and I can help you fine-tune and work on your habits and your behaviors. I'll teach you about cognitive behavioral therapy, how to have conversations with yourself instead of just eating everything in sight when you binge. That's the value of working with me. When was the last time you measured your food? Oh, I don't want to measure my food for the rest of my life. I totally get it. Can you commit to 8% of 2026? That's my challenge for you. Can you do that? Yeah, that sounds pretty reasonable. Awesome. 30 days, measure out all of your food. Try to eat at home as much as possible. Send me a photo of everything. The remaining 11 months and the rest of your life, you're not going to have to count because you are now competent. You don't understand what calories are because if you did, you wouldn't be in the situation you're at now. Yes, hormones play a role: genetics, environmental factors, hydration, sleep, stress. It's all part of the body mass equation, which we teach within our certification for nutrition coaching. You master the basics and the fundamentals, and you have conversations with your clients weekly. It's additional because it's outside of your PT sessions. You train them three times Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and then every other week or every week, whatever you want to do. And those are things that we have conversations with with the live calls. You get two per week access to our level two, and you have conversations. I'm thinking about doing this, Chris. Well, let's try that and see how it works. Get into your story, get three people who you can do a discovery call with, talk to them, see what their questions are, and start building your systems. I've met so many coaches who generate three to five thousand dollars per month just from nutrition coaching. That's on top of what they're doing in person for one-on-one. Trainers need more streams of revenue, but we don't have the confidence to ask for the business. So that's why once you get the certification, you're going through the two-month program, we challenge you to reach out to get an RD. I challenge you to get five RDs on your team. The more, the better. And so once a month, they come on a call, just like we do on our live calls, and the clients get to ask them questions. If you have your own gym or if you're at a lifetime or equinox, find an RD in your area, get them a guest pass. When the studio one or two is empty, ask your manager if you can have a little nutrition seminar where you bring in some coffee and some treats from the local area. The RD answers questions for your clients. Access to them is building your confidence because your clients have confidence in you because they've never seen it before. 99.999999999% do not get paid for nutrition. They include it within their packages. And so what that does is it dilutes the quality of nutrition. Because when you tell a client, eat more protein, here's what's going to happen. They go to In N Out and they get an animal-style burger with bacon. It's not going to get them where they need to be. And so you are not helping your client by providing nutrition information during your rest periods. You're actually doing more harm than good because they don't think it's that important. You sit them down and you go through an assessment process geared strictly towards nutrition, sleep, and stress. And then you give them solutions by meeting with you weekly, sending you photos, accountability, giving them guidance. I've been working with a client for two years. She pays me$250 a month, and she will text maybe once where she's going to dinner, say, Hey, can you look over the menu to see what I should order? I'll go to the website, get the menu, and I'll circle the things that are gonna be best for her. I know what she prefers. I know what she likes to eat. I will tell her this is very calorically dense. Don't have that. I know she likes to drink. So she's gonna have her wine. Don't have this, have that. That's gonna be your best option. Once a month, maybe, and she still finds the value in that and she pays me$250 a month. If you had 20 clients and you push this on them and half of them sign up, that's an additional$2,500 per month,$30,000 per year. And you may be thinking, well, I already have a full book of business giving my clients nutrition information. So how do I start charging them for it? You let them know you're going through the top nutrition certification out there. You're working with RDs, you're bringing one on your team, moving forward in 2026. My nutrition device is gonna be a lot more specific and it's gonna be geared just for you to get your results even faster. And it's gonna cost this. The moral of the story. Just because other trainers do not do this doesn't mean you can't. You may be scared because you're thinking, my clients don't want they're gonna go to Chat GPT. It cannot provide the value that you do. They get full access to you, they can send you photos and menus. You're gonna learn the fundamentals of the TDEEE equation, which is gonna be your BMR, your activity factor, non-activity factor, your thermal effective food and diet-induced thermogenesis. Mastering the basics, which begins with the first law of thermodynamics, energy can neither be created nor destroyed, what a calorie actually is. So you can talk to your clients about this stuff, but it's really the other things are why they're not getting where they want to be. Environmental factors with their hubby. They come home from a long day, they're supposed to barbecue some chicken and grill the asparagus, but instead they got a pizza. How do they handle that situation? It wouldn't be bad to get a psychologist on your team because that would be valuable as well. The focus for success as a personal trainer should be team oriented, not trying to be the jack of all trades. Look at all the jacks of all trades out there going to someone's bio and they have 15 certifications. It shows me that they're not doing that well. And I'm not knocking that trainer, but when you do it the right way, you can have these streams of revenue 60, 30, 10. So you don't have to work 60 hours a week. You can be making more money by doing less, but providing better value for your clients. You are servicing them better and you're helping them get better, more efficient results. Give it a shot. Ask two of your clients to be your beta test. In 2026, I'm gonna start offering nutrition coaching. It's gonna be 250, 350, 500 per month. I'm gonna have an RD on my team. I want you to be my guinea pig and just get into their mind, their lens, the questions that they're asking, the frustrations. So when you give them, you should be having 1800 calories. I'm gonna shoot for 150 grams of protein. And then you see what they do. They don't even follow up with their pictures that they're supposed to send. So that tells me that they're not sticking to the plan. During that sales proposition at the end, the client could be like, Well, can't you just give me the pointers for free within the workouts? Say, no, I can't. If I did that, it would be the same as me writing a program for you and you doing it strictly by yourself. It's not nearly as effective as working with me, where you get access to talk specifically about nutrition. Because here's what you're gonna do. I'm gonna tell you to eat more protein, drink more water, have more fruits and vegetables. And all of a sudden you're gonna start eating French fries for breakfast and you're gonna go get a smoothie for lunch. There's gonna be four tablespoons of almond butter, which is 800 calories, and then you're gonna track, oh, I had a 300 calorie smoothie because it set it on the board. Did you measure that out? Do you know how many calories are in the oils that you're getting at that restaurant you went to? You thought you were being good by having organic mac and cheese. It's not that that's bad. I start off my nutrition consultations by being human. I ask them, what are some of their favorite foods? Then I tell them my favorite foods. I love burritos, I have steak weekly, I drink wine, I love whiskey. Because what that does is it makes the conversations more human. Because what your clients do, trainers today, they give you a 40, 30, 30% breakdown for macros. This is what you got to eat, 1800 calories. And your clients screw up one day and they feel bad and they don't tell you. So they come back and they say, I've been eating 1800 calories training with you. I paid you$1,500 and I gained seven pounds. This is your fault. Why am I gonna work with you as a trainer? So they blame the nutrition side on you and they don't renew. That's why you need to separate them. What happens when you go to a dentist and they do their cleaning? If you have another issue and you need a crown, do they just include that in there? No, it's additional. If you go to a masseuse and you get the lowest level massage, it's 60 minutes, and you say, Hey, can you just put those hot rocks on my back for free because I want it? No, it's an additional service. The industry is very cluttered and there aren't systems that are set throughout that are recognizable, like in physical therapy and the medical side. Once again, maybe that's why we're not respected, is because it's a clusterfuck. You meet with one trainer and they include everything. Another trainer is going to have you bouncing on a bosu ball. The other trainer is going to be all animal flow. Not that those things are wrong, but there's not consistency. So when you set those very, very clear expectations on day one, they're now aware. When you go into the dentist's office and you see all the services that they have, you understand, and it's just part of the process. So you need to set those clear expectations. And I guarantee it, you can be making an additional one, two, five plus thousand dollars per month. It's not going to be easy. You need to master the fundamentals of nutrition, the macros, the micros, what goes into the biopsychosocial aspect of nutrition. It's not as simple as just calories in, calories out, but it kind of is because it is calories in, calories out, but there's other factors that go into it. And then when you have a client that has a metabolic disease or an eating disorder or something that's out of our scope, it's a very easy handoff, and your client respects that. And in your delivery, your confidence is going to be higher because you know you can help your clients get the fastest, most efficient results because you're a qualified coach. Remember, cottage cheese is fucking terrible, and Skittles are the best. Keep showing up.