As a Certified Sports Nutrition Coach, you will gain a deep understanding of the evidence-based science behind performance nutrition, enabling you to help your athletes and clients achieve a competitive edge and reach their peak performance by fueling their bodies with the right nutrition for their individual needs and goals. This course equips you to provide your clients with the insights they need to make informed decisions that maximize performance, while also enhancing their ability to recover from intense workouts so they can perform at their best during every game, match, or practice. You will explore the advanced science of periodization and nutrient timing to ensure optimal performance and recovery, and gain a thorough understanding of each athlete’s energy and metabolic requirements to deliver the ideal balance of calories and macronutrients. This course carries a CEU value of 1.9 from NASM.
The ability for applying the exam during 1 Year
Athletes of every sport, and at every level of competition, can gain a huge competitive advantage through a dialed-in approach to the nutritional intake designed to meet the increased performance demands of their sport. And as a NASM Certified Sports Nutrition Coach, you’ll learn how to design a personalized nutrition plan to help each and every athlete you work with to fuel their body for maximum recovery and peak performance. This program includes modules on energy and metabolism, performance nutrition strategies, nutrients and hydration, and more. When you choose NASM to become a Certified Sports Nutrition Coach, you’ll get access to:
The NASM Certified Sports Nutrition Coach (CSNC) course outcomes focus on developing expertise in performance nutrition to optimize client performance and recovery through personalized, evidence-based nutrition plans. Key outcomes include understanding metabolism and macronutrients, applying behaviour change strategies for nutrition coaching, conducting client assessments and body composition testing, and becoming equipped to advise clients on fueling strategies, hydration, and supplement use. This certification enables coaches to improve client results, fill jobs like sports nutritionist and weight management consultant, and enhance their marketability in the fitness industry.
Key Knowledge & Skills Gained
Professional Benefits
As one of the most trusted sources of fitness training certifications in the world, NASM is a distinguished name that will stand out to fitness employers. When you choose NASM for your Sports Nutrition Coach certification, you’ll get access to world-class fitness experts, your top choice of gyms to work for, and much more: • Peer-Reviewed Content from Industry Leaders • State-of-the-Art Digital Learning Platform • Programs Designed to Meet Multiple Learning Styles • 35+ Years Of Experience Training Fitness Professionals • 1.5M+ Fitness Professionals Trained • 100+ Countries with NASM Fitness and Coach Professionals
Fitness professionals who should consider becoming an NASM CSNC include: • Nutrition coaches who want to help their clients eat for better health and fitness • Sports coaches who want to help their athletes fuel their bodies to power their best performance • Strength and conditioning coaches who want to gain a systematic approach to deliver superior results to their clients • Weekend warriors and gym enthusiasts who want to unlock their peak performance through smarter nutrition • Personal trainers who want to help their clients perform better and achieve their goals faster
A fitness credential is recommended, but not required, for the Certified Sports Nutrition Coach program. NASM offers a wide variety of nutrition programs that can help to augment and prepare you for this program.
You can complete your Sports Nutrition Coach Certification in as few as 2 weeks. In addition to its interactive multimedia-rich content, learning tools, resources, and comprehensive study-planning guide, you can also receive assistance from NASM experts when questions arise.
Absolutely! You can complete the Sports Nutrition Coach Certification program while also working full-time. The study material is 100% online and self-paced, and can be accessed on a computer, or a mobile device such as a phone or tablet.
The Certified Sports Nutrition Coach final exam is taken online inside your student portal. You'll have 365 days from the date of purchase, to study and complete the exam. This exam features: • 100 multiple-choice questions • 90 minutes to complete • Open-book format • 70% required to pass • 3 test attempts included
Don’t worry! You’ll have 3 attempts to pass the final exam, and you can purchase additional retests.
To maintain your certification, you must submit 1.9 NASM CEUs every two years.
A fitness credential is recommended but is not required for the Sports Nutrition Certification.
Learn to differentiate performance nutrition from general nutrition strategies, and understand the profession of a Sports Nutrition Coach, the skills needed, and the populations they work with.
Understand a Sports Nutrition Coach's scope of practice and professional expectations, and be able to determine when to refer athletes to another professional.
Differentiate evidence-informed practice from evidence-based practice and determine high-quality sources of information.
Learn to identify where athletes exist within the spectrum of athlete types, and understand needs based on physiological, sociological, cultural, and ethical factors.
Explain aerobic and anaerobic metabolism, and be able to describe energy balance and related concepts.
Understand the difference between energy balance and energy availability, and determine fueling requirements for optimal performance.
Learn about the function of protein and establish protein requirements in a dietary program.
Explain the role of carbohydrates for athletes and describe methods for establishing requirements in a dietary program.
Understand the role of fats in sports nutrition and how different sports may rely on fats to a greater extent than others.
Describe recommendations for incorporating micronutrients into an athlete's diet and identify common food sources for essential vitamins and minerals.
Communicate appropriate hydration strategies for during and between training bouts to athletes.
Describe appropriate periodization and nutrient-timing strategies to optimize adaptations to training, enhance recovery, and to ensure optimal performance.
Explain the relationship between body composition, athlete type, and performance, and describe methods for assessing body composition.
Identify the three R’s of recovery and their relevance to performance nutrition, and explain the importance of recuperation for athletes.
Explain the various levels of appropriate support for illness and injury based on severity and determine when client referral is necessary.
Assess the athlete’s need for supplementation using a thorough decision-making process.
Identify pre-appointment data gathering methods to determine athlete’s baseline status and select appropriate nutritional assessment methods specific to an athlete based on pre-appointment data.
Determine appropriate dietary and supplement strategies to optimize fuel supply, fuel stores, and fuel utilization.
Identify barriers to behavior change, specialist diets, and their influence on adaptations to training, recovery, and athletic performance, and apply appropriate levels of coaching.
Evaluate all findings from an athlete's needs analysis and design a nutrition intervention which addresses optimal health and performance goals.
After the completion of the course, you will take an online final exam from the comfort of your own home, or wherever you prefer to take tests. The test is 100, multiple-choice questions. You are allowed to go back and reference the course while taking the exam. The exam is timed and cannot exceed 90 minutes. To pass, you need a score of 70% or higher and you have up to 3 attempts to pass.
