Looking to get in shape or lose weight and think you need a personal trainer? Odds are, you might be better suited with a health coach or nutrition coach.

It’s widely accepted that being “healthy” goes far beyond being active at the gym for an hour a week. Personal training can make all the difference for someone that needs the motivation to exercise or needs help with their form, but it can often leave out the full picture.

Nutrition coaches are like facilitators or guides that work with their clients to make lasting changes that they can live with for the rest of their lives. This could be teaching, problem-solving, planning, or troubleshooting.

At the end of the day, both personal training and nutrition coaching work together to improve your overall health. In fact, most personal trainers have begun integrating nutrition coaching in some form with their programs.

But if you’re on the fence and aren’t sure if nutrition coaching is what you’re looking for, here are 5 ways a nutrition coach might be able to help you:

1. Losing weight and changing body composition is often more dependent on eating habits

The effect of exercise is often overestimated. Exercise is, of course, necessary to be healthy but running for 30 minutes on a treadmill does not mean you’re then allowed an all-you-can-eat sushi binge. This is a reason why some people actually gain weight after joining a gym. They feel they’ve “earned” their treats.

If you’re going to lose weight, you’ll likely need to make sacrifices. But sacrifices don’t mean what you might think.

For example, if you love your morning habit of getting a large Frappuccino, you don’t need to cut it out. But maybe you can make subtle tweaks. Maybe get a small. Or even switch to another drink that you would still enjoy.

For losing weight, activity is still important, but it’s sometimes lower on the priority list. Getting control of your habits and making the right food choices should be your number one priority!

2. You exercise a lot but aren’t seeing any changes

This is a common complaint of a lot of gym-goers. “I’m at the gym every night, but I’m getting nowhere!”

While a personal trainer could be the answer to this if your problem is aimless exercise, a lack of progress could be a result of what you’re doing outside of the gym.

Working towards a health goal can sometimes be like driving around without a map. Sure, you might eventually get there, and you’ll be a more experienced driver at the end of it, but you’ll likely be frustrated by how long it took (or even give up halfway).

Nutrition coaching can help you to sort out your eating to work with your exercise—or lack thereof.

3. Your barriers and challenges are psychological

The reason why personal training works for a lot of people is that it makes you accountable to someone.

You have to explain to them why and how you feel unhealthy. And this motivator is often what it takes to make a change.

While personal trainers can sometimes help with the psychological component of not exercising or over-eating, nutrition coaches understand that the biggest limiting factor is your own personal demons and how to work through them.

Sometimes we overeat to deal with stress, anxiety, or depression. Whatever it is, a coach could help you to identify and overcome your challenges and even refer you to an appropriate therapist, if needed.

4. You want your progress to last a lifetime

Unfortunately, there really is no quick fix for being healthy. Jumping on the nearest fad diet to lose 10 lbs. each January could actually be doing more harm than good.

Instead, what people should focus on is modifying their habits into things they can sustain for the rest of their lives.

Diets that cut out the things you love to eat aren’t sustainable. Eventually, you’ll want to eat bread again.

The good news is that you don’t have to cut out the things you love. Unless you love eating a whole stick of butter in one sitting. In that case, yes, cut that out.

But for most of us, eating healthy is relatively easy and something you can do for the rest of your life. We just need to be shown how.

5. You have no idea what you should be eating

It’s never been more convenient to eat. Fast food, microwave dinners, and processed foods are quick, easy, and delicious.

But in our busy modern lives, it’s impossible to not eat a fast-food meal every now and then. Where you’ll fall, though, is when you over-indulge.

If you’re hitting up the drive-thru more than once in a week, it’s likely because you are out of options. And that’s not your fault.

A lack of information about what foods to buy at the grocery store, or how to cook them means you’ll turn to eating foods that are doing little except ending your hunger.

A big part of nutrition coaching is looking at what foods you’ll enjoy—and actually eat—and how to make sure you have healthy options that you’ll actually want to turn to.

It’s easy not to order a pizza when you realize that it’s easier, cheaper, and healthier to eat at home. You just need a little bit of guidance.

Still not sure if nutrition coaching will help you reach your goals? Stop by Guelph Performance and speak to our resident nutrition expert and coach, Lyle. You might learn something new!