I’d like to introduce you to my friend Vincent Savino. This introduction means a lot because he almost died before I met him. Vincent is from New Bedford, Massachusetts, and has a strong and proud New England accent. A few years ago, he suffered a widowmaker heart attack and was brought back to life thanks to emergency medicine (including, as he calls it, “See Pee Ahh” — as you’ll hear in this inspiring video about his journey).
As he recovered from this life-changing (almost life-ending) event, Vincent became determined not to spend the rest of his years living in constant fear of another heart attack. Nor did he want to become dependent on medications for his survival.
Desperate for answers, Vincent scoured the internet and discovered the life-changing power of nutrition.
Vincent adopted a plant-based lifestyle and soon validated that research for himself. His cholesterol dropped, the damage to his arteries began to reverse, and, to his surprise, he found himself with more energy and mental clarity than he’d experienced in decades.
Vincent felt he had a second chance at life and wanted to share what he’d discovered with others. He knew that heart disease was the leading cause of death on the planet and that most heart attacks could be prevented.
Since then, it’s become Vincent’s mission to help as many people as possible understand the power of nutrition and lifestyle to heal lives and implement positive, health-promoting choices.
What Is Lifestyle Medicine?
A growing body of research is showing us that lifestyle medicine, which features a whole food, plant-based diet, can help prevent not only heart disease but also Alzheimer’s, cancer, type 2 diabetes, stroke, and many other conditions.
And now, the lifestyle medicine revolution is beginning to take off. Since the American Board of Lifestyle Medicine began certification in 2017, more than 10,000 clinicians have been board-certified in lifestyle medicine. Worldwide, clinicians have now been certified in 92 countries.
Rather than relying on prescriptions and procedures to manage disease progression, patients who opt for a lifestyle approach can often largely manage their health, reclaiming control over their destinies.
However, knowing about the power of diet and lifestyle to influence health outcomes presents a new problem for some. Patients fortunate enough to get such sound health advice from a lifestyle-minded healthcare practitioner (or who, like Vincent, stumble across information on their own) may encounter what is called the “knowing-doing gap”: in other words, the disconnect between what someone knows and what they do. That gap can lead to frustration, lack of confidence in making good choices, and even guilt and shame. That’s where coaching comes in.
As more healthcare providers, clinics, and wellness centers adopt lifestyle medicine principles, many practitioners are beginning to integrate coaches into their practices to help patients get lasting results.
Why Is Coaching Helpful?
The truth is, making changes and building habits is hard to do alone. But a lot of research shows how to do it effectively.
Coaches provide the support and guidance people need to make lasting changes while helping their clients set meaningful, realistic goals. They provide structure and help clients not just change for a day but create new habits that can last a lifetime.
Coaching can offer accountability for progress — sort of like “training wheels” until the client learns to balance, pedal, and steer on their own. It also helps clients brainstorm and try different approaches to change, treating them as experiments. So even when a particular attempt doesn’t lead to sustainable success, the client learns, grows, and feels positive about their progress.
In other words, coaching significantly increases the likelihood of long-term commitment to and execution of positive change.
What Is a Nutrition & Lifestyle Coach?
The scope of practice for a coach, particularly a health coach, focuses on guiding clients through behavior change, goal-setting, and accountability rather than prescribing specific dietary plans or treatments.
Food Revolution Network-certified coaches, in particular, specialize in helping people add more whole, unprocessed plant-based foods to their diets, as well as stress less, sleep more, love more, and move more.
Nutrition and lifestyle coaching helps clients explore their motivations, overcome obstacles, and build sustainable habits that align with their wellness goals, typically in areas like diet, exercise, stress management, and overall lifestyle. Coaches use techniques like deep listening, reflecting and reframing, motivational interviewing, and goal tracking to help clients take constructive action.
Being a nutrition and lifestyle coach is about meeting people where they are and empowering them to define and execute their wellness goals in a way that works for them. Coaching offers a space to explore and celebrate a healthier, more sustainable way of eating — one step and one meal at a time.
In contrast, many health coaches don’t actually know all that much about whole food, plant-based nutrition. Dietitians and nutritionists (who have different standing and credentials) have formal training in nutrition science. They can provide personalized nutrition advice, create therapeutic meal plans, and address medical conditions through diet. However, they may not know much about how to help their clients put advice into action.
This is the difference between designing a treatment plan and helping a person to make lasting habit changes. For some people, it can be the difference between knowing what to do and doing what they know.
Coaching is an orientation and a profession. Some dietitians, nutritionists, nurses, doctors, and other healthcare professionals also train as coaches to better serve and support their patients.
Where Do Nutrition & Lifestyle Coaches Work?
Most coaches work with clients one-on-one or in small groups, helping them make personalized changes to their diet and lifestyle. While many people are drawn to becoming entrepreneurs and starting their own coaching business, it’s important to recognize that there are other ways to make a meaningful impact.
For some, the stability, collaboration, and structure of working on a team or within an organization are incredibly appealing. Finding employment in a clinic, wellness center, or other health-focused setting offers the chance to leverage professional skills in a supportive environment surrounded by like-minded colleagues.
This path lets individuals focus on their passion for helping others without the added pressure of running a business. Some coaches work in doctors’ offices, hospitals, or wellness centers, while others serve as consultants in health food stores. Some coaches become in-house experts at gyms, spas, and yoga studios or work as wellness consultants in corporate settings.
Some channel their passion into cooking, working as chefs or recipe developers for private clients, meal-prep services, or plant-based restaurants. And some create online programs, while others speak at events and lead workshops.
Nutrition and lifestyle coaches also make their mark as bloggers or social media influencers, spreading the message of plant-based living and whole-person well-being worldwide.
How Much Money Do Coaches Earn?
Given the wide variety of ways coaches can work, the short and wildly unsatisfactory answer to how much nutrition and lifestyle coaches can make is: it depends. Health and wellness coaches (a category that includes nutrition and lifestyle coaches) can earn a wide range of incomes depending on their experience, qualifications, niche, who they decide to work for, and how they structure their business.
But let’s look at some averages. As of October 1, 2024, Salary.com reported that the average annual salary for a health and wellness coach employed by a larger U.S. organization ranged from $52,991 to $81,266.
Working as an employed health coach can offer the advantage of a steady income, providing financial security and stability, along with benefits like health insurance, training opportunities, and an existing client base — all valuable resources that support growth.
It also frees coaches from the challenges of running a business, such as marketing costs and billing. However, fixed salaries offer less room for quick income growth, and the employer often sets the schedule and methodologies, reducing the flexibility and autonomy many coaches thrive on.
Additionally, following a company’s coaching approach can sometimes restrict a coach’s ability to offer the deeply personalized, creative guidance that makes this work so fulfilling. Yet, within these constraints, coaches can still make a meaningful impact. The key is finding an environment where you can bring your passion to life.
Entrepreneurial Health Coaching
Entrepreneurial-minded coaches who pursue private coaching can enjoy tremendous flexibility and autonomy. This setup lets them set personal schedules, choose the right clients, and tailor coaching methods.
Earning potential is also uncapped as an entrepreneur. Coaches can expand their impact and income through personalized sessions, group workshops, digital products, books, and online courses. They can also pursue opportunities like public speaking, consulting for corporate wellness programs, and partnerships. Success on this path depends on business sense and the ability to build and market a personal brand, which can open doors and drive growth.
However, this path comes with challenges, including inconsistent income in the early stages, managing all aspects of a business (from marketing to accounting), and the ongoing effort to acquire clients. The rewards come from the freedom to innovate, serve others, and meaningfully scale impact and earnings.
Challenges Coaches Face and the Training to Tackle Them
I wish that nutrition and lifestyle coaching was as easy as handing clients a meal plan or shopping list and saying, “Do that!”
Of course, coaches would not be needed if making change were that easy. In fact, clients present many obstacles for us to overcome.
Common challenges include resistance to changing long-established habits, confusion from nutritional misinformation, emotional eating patterns, and societal pressures that oppose adopting a healthier, plant-predominant lifestyle.
Once you’ve learned, practiced, and mastered a few key techniques, you can help people overcome these obstacles through skillful coaching. A couple of these techniques include deep listening — which builds trust by making clients feel understood, validated, and supported — and motivational interviewing — which helps clients tap into their reasons for change and empowers them to experiment with and commit to new habits.
Staying informed through continued education allows coaches to address client misconceptions with confidence and up-to-date knowledge, guiding them toward sustainable, healthier choices. That’s why it’s key that nutrition and lifestyle coaches are well-educated, not just in coaching techniques but in all the pillars of lifestyle medicine.
Coaches need to master the science of plant-based nutrition, health-promoting lifestyle science, and effective coaching techniques to help clients make lasting changes that improve their health outcomes.
Gaining solid nutrition and lifestyle education can build the expertise and credibility needed to confidently guide clients on their health-promoting journey.
Food Revolution Network’s Nutrition & Lifestyle Coaching Certificate
Recognizing the need to support our plant-forward community with the science of behavior change, Food Revolution Network launched its Plant-Based Coaching Certificate in 2023.
The program aimed to empower a compassionate community of leaders with the nutritional knowledge, coaching skills, and impact strategies needed to support healthy, ethical, and sustainable transformation for clients, communities, and the planet.
What began as the Plant-Based Coaching Certificate in 2023 has evolved, informed directly by feedback from our own graduates, into the Nutrition & Lifestyle Coaching Certificate. The science of food remains the foundation, and we also recognize that true transformation rarely stops at the plate. That’s why this program now extends into the other pillars of lifestyle medicine science that shape lasting health: movement, sleep, stress, and connection.
To learn more about Food Revolution Network’s approach to coaching and see how our training compares with other programs in the field, we invite you to visit our webpage. There you’ll find what makes us different and what our graduates have to say about it.
Learn about Food Revolution Network’s Nutrition & Lifestyle Coaching Certificate here.
Food Revolution Network’s certification covers more than just the science of plant-based diets, lifestyle science, and practical coaching techniques. It also teaches effective strategies for real-world impact through entrepreneurship, employment, or community engagement.
In other words, Food Revolution Network equips coaches to thrive as changemakers.
Other Coaching Resources
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Food Revolution Network is not the only game in town. Other great plant-forward nutrition programs exist (though they don’t offer training in coaching or marketing).
- T. Colin Campbell’s Plant-Based Nutrition Certificate
- AFPA Plant-Based Nutrition Specialist Certification
- Physicians Committee’s Food for Life Training Course
There are also many health coaching programs that aren’t particularly plant-based. Some do, and some don’t, include business and marketing training.
Here are three of the most popular ones:
Coaching Standards to Consider
While you can earn a certification in nutrition and lifestyle coaching from Food Revolution Network, no official governing body grants you the title of a “qualified” nutrition and lifestyle coach. That means you have the freedom to shape your path.
The National Board of Health & Wellness Coaches (NBHWC) is a premier certifying body that sets health and wellness coaching standards in the U.S. It approves training programs that qualify students to sit for the National Board Certification Exam.
NBHWC-certified coaches may have access to expanded employment opportunities in healthcare settings and, in some contexts, the potential for their services to be reimbursed by insurance. Many Food Revolution Network-certified plant-based and nutrition & lifestyle coaches go on to earn NBHWC certification. Graduates of Food Revolution Network’s Coaching Certificate programs have exclusive access to a fast-track pathway and a tuition discount through Food Revolution Network’s partnership with an NBHWC-approved program provider.
Finding the Right Niche
Many coaches initially want to be leaders in their community and help friends and family make positive, science-backed changes for better health outcomes. Many coaches quickly branch out for greater impact and earning power. Every coach’s journey is different, so finding a niche that resonates with your passion and skills is important.
Going beyond nutrition education and considering real-world applications may help identify who you want to serve and how you want to do so. Like Vincent, some coaches might even consider their personal health challenges inspiring.
Food Revolution Network-certified coach Adrienne Davis found her niche when she guided her husband through a 30-day plant-based experiment that helped him reverse his diabetes and change his life for the better. She now works with people in her community who have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, sharing the message that diet can fix what pills can only manage and giving them tools and skills to nurse themselves back to health. You might say her coaching niche found her!
You can hear Adrienne’s inspiring story in her own words here:
The Best Time to Become a Plant-Based Coach
I love the saying, “The best time to plant a tree was 30 years ago, and the second best time is now.”
This sentiment is also true when it comes to becoming a nutrition and lifestyle coach. For decades, the medical establishment more or less ignored lifestyle and diet. But now, lifestyle and diet are finally gaining serious recognition as front-line tools for prevention and treatment.
Health coaches are becoming more essential than ever as people seek to control their well-being and lower healthcare costs. In fact, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicted 6% growth in jobs for health educators, including health and wellness coaches, between 2025 and 2035 — faster than the average growth for all occupations.
This rise is driven by growing awareness that we can actively shape our health. Many people are turning to health coaches for guidance on their path to vibrant living.
How mainstream is this going? Even The New York Times emphasized the importance of health coaches in their article “We Could All Use a Health Coach,” illustrating just how vital this role has become in today’s wellness landscape.
And health coaching will become even more vital in the coming decades. One reason for this is the predicted shortage of physicians in the U.S. According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, the shortfall could approach 86,000 physicians by 2036. This would leave patients waiting weeks or even months for appointments. Many would argue that excessive waiting is already happening!
That’s partly because primary healthcare providers are experiencing burnout at record rates. According to surveys in Medscape’s Physician Burnout & Depression Report 2024, up to 49% of doctors experienced burnout in 2024.
Nutrition and lifestyle coaches are emerging as a vital solution to an overburdened healthcare system facing practitioner burnout, doctor shortages, and long waits for routine and specialized care.
Coaches can help reduce the burden on healthcare providers by helping clients adopt healthy diets, improving overall wellness, and managing chronic conditions like heart disease and type 2 diabetes.
With healthcare costs driven by preventable lifestyle diseases, these coaches can play a crucial role in helping people reclaim their health, reducing the need for frequent medical interventions, and ultimately relieving pressure on an overtaxed healthcare system.
The Big Picture
As more people become concerned about the environmental impact of their food choices, the shift toward plant-predominant eating is accelerating. This trend is driven by increasing consumer awareness of the connection between diet and environmental health, pushing more people to reduce meat consumption and seek plant-based alternatives and guidance.
There’s a saying that we need to think globally and act locally. You can’t get a lot more global in impact or more local in action than the food on your plate.
Being the Change
If you’re passionate about influencing policies and fostering systemic shifts toward a more plant-forward world, you may sometimes feel frustrated. It can be so hard to get people to listen and take action.
But there’s a lot you can do, and having coaching skills and certification can greatly expand your options for effective advocacy. Whether you’re passionate about impacting your local community or scaling your efforts globally, you can advocate for policy changes that promote healthier, more sustainable food systems.
And you can help reverse the chronic disease epidemic.
The ripple effect of your efforts can drive lasting change from local neighborhoods to larger societal movements.
Whether or not you become a coach, there are many ways that you can help people shift towards healthier diet and lifestyle choices. And when you do, you’re also promoting a healthier and more sustainable future for all of us.
Tell us in the comments:
- Do you ever find yourself “preaching” or “teaching” the people around you about healthy eating?
- Have you ever struggled to make changes to your diet? What was that like?
- Have you considered learning how to coach people to make meaningful and lasting changes to their diets and lifestyles?
Featured Image: iStock.com/EyeEm Mobile GmbH
I share what I do w/o preaching. Bringing plant-based dishes to social events sparks conversation with inquisitive minded friends.
Changes came in stages over many years…
1) no red meat + 2) no chicken + 3) no gluten + 4) sugar detox + 5) no sugar/substitutes + 6) no animal/dairy + 7) no highly processed + 8) rarely a restaurant. Each change stuck, building on the previous. Rather than overwhelming, they proved quite revealing.
Learning to coach shows up in my thoughts often.
I am working out my health challenges; better food choices. I find myself preaching to others. However learning addition skills as plant- based health training, not only help me, It will equip me with tools to help others.