Frequently Asked Questions About Health Coaches
Questions about health coaches
What is a health coach?
A health coach is someone who provides you information so you can set health goals for yourself and supports you in reaching those goals through diet and lifestyle changes. A health coach helps you make healthy and sustainable behavior changes. In many states a health coach cannot legally create custom meal plans for you unless they are also a registered dietitian. They can provide example meal plans that you can customize for yourself.
Presently in the US anyone can call themselves a health coach, whether or not they have a certification. If you are hiring a health coach, look for someone with a certification. That way you know they have had at least some training in nutrition and other aspects of a healthy lifestyle.
What is a wellness coach?
This is the same thing as a health coach.
What is a primal health coach?
A primal health coach is a health coach who specializes in the Primal lifestyle. Primal is a branded version of a Paleo lifestyle. Keto is Paleo with a more restricted diet.
Primal (or Paleo) includes lifestyle elements such as: focusing the diet on whole foods, moving more throughout the day, getting adequate (not too much or too little) exercise, getting proper amounts of sleep, spending time in nature, and remembering to play.
Health coach vs nutritionist
Many US states and other countries do not recognize a role of nutritionist, so anyone can call themselves a nutritionist. In other places, a nutritionist is someone who has studied nutrition (typically with a college degree in nutrition or community nutrition). Usually someone calling themselves a nutritionist has a least a strong interest in nutrition. Someone certifying as a health or wellness coach has studied at least some nutrition. It is possible that a nutritionist has not studied other lifestyle aspects of health.
Health coach vs registered dietitian
A registered dietitian is a food and nutrition expert. A registered dietitian has a college degree in nutrition or dietetics and has passed a state licensing exam. Registered dietitian’s are considered to be health care professionals and can create custom meal plans for you.
Health coach vs wellness coach
These are the same thing.
Health coach vs personal trainer
Both a health coach and a personal trainer study all aspects of a healthy life. In general, a health coach is more focused on diet and lifestyle changes while a personal trainer is more focused on exercise and conditioning of your body. When looking for either a health coach or personal trainer, find someone with certification to be sure they have actually studied what they are coaching.
Health coach vs life coach
A health coach is focused on helping you reach health or wellness goals to achieve the health that you want. While a life coach may also do that, a life coach helps you reach any personal and professional goals that you set to achieve the life you want. These are often personal projects or life transitions (like finding a new job).
Questions about being coached
What does a health coach do?
A health coach listens, encourages, provides information, celebrates your successes, helps you reset goals that were too challenging, and holds you accountable for doing the things you said you were going to do to reach your health goals. A health coach could be like your conscience, mother, cheerleader, coach, or mentor. Different health coaches have different styles, so you want to find someone who will be most useful to you, which is not necessarily the same thing as the person you are most comfortable with. You are making change in your life so a health coach should challenge you to make that change.
A health coach provides information, keeps track of your health goals, helps you set well defined tasks, and holds you accountable for completing those tasks.
How does health coaching work?
How health coaching works depends on the kind of package or contract you sign up for. You might choose private one-on-one coaching, group coaching, challenges, or classes. There may be other kinds of coaching sessions that a particular coach offers.
You can expect that your coach will provide information or send you links to online information or other resources. Your coach will prompt you to answer a lot of questions. This could be through an interview, a quiz, or a list of questions you answer privately. These questions are intended to guide you to determining what you want to achieve.
You can expect your coach to recommend that you talk with your primary health care professional, especially if you are under treatment for any health conditions. While changes in diet and lifestyle are overall healthy, they can impact the effect of various medications and supplements, so dosages may need to be adjusted over time.
As your health coach gets to know you, they will learn when you are not challenging yourself enough or when you are trying to do too much. They can help you adjust your daily tasks and activities to help you reach your health goals in a way that works for you.