Weight-management is the future of fitness. With the world taking notice that even the Chinese are becoming obese, it’s obvious that educational programs are necessary for safe and permanent weight-loss. And the programs are not only effective, but they also allow you to maximize your time, your revenue per hour, and help many individuals achieve their goals instead of just one client.
The classes should be designed to connect with all 4 types of learning styles using various combinations of experience, reflection, conceptualization, and experimentation. Not all of your participants will remember every word you say so for those participants you may need to give out handouts, provide fake food models so they can visually see portion sizes. Maybe cut out labels from packages so they can physically read a label. Even grocery store tours are very successful. Provide many different sources of learning for your participants and encourage discussion to engrain the objectives you are trying to teach.
The second step is to decide on a learning plan. Outline what you want to teach your participants. I suggest you break the learning curriculum into 8-10 one hour sessions. This allows you to spend a considerable amount of time on your objectives and it gives the participants time to learn and form new behaviors. A brief example of a lesson could be: Review last week’s lesson, Q&A, teach/educate on food labels, discuss obstacles or barriers and set goals for next week.
Analyze your client’s food journals. If need be, you can invest in nutritional analysis software so you can help your clients understand what nutrients they are lacking. Not only can this be a great teaching tool, nutrient analysis gives the client proof and justification for why they are eating a certain way.
And for those of you wondering, yes, you can legally give general nutritional advice. This is well within your scope of practice as a personal trainer. Check with your individual state on what their laws are because they each have their own laws and rules regarding this topic. You can also look into getting a reputable weight management certification to help you with educating your clients and members on healthy weight management. What you cannot do, unless you are a registered or licensed dietitian/nutritionist is give specific advice such as “you can eat this food because it won’t raise your blood pressure.”
Jayson Hunter RD, CSCS is a registered dietitian and fitness professional with over 10 years of experience. To download your FREE copy of Jayson’s special report “33 Tips You Must Know To Create A Profitable Weight Management Program” visit: http://www.weightmanagementexperts.com
