Well trained? They often offer lots of nutrition advice, but some fitness trainers lack the expertise to back it up

ASK AROUND AND YOU'RE BOUND to hear a few wacky (or even horror) stories. There was, for instance, the trainer who told his client that drinking anything with bubbles would make her fat. And the one who insisted that her client take handfuls of supplements if she hoped to truly get in shape. More serious was the trainer who attributed her client's bloating and abdominal pain to excessive fiber, when the discomfort was actually caused by undiagnosed ovarian cancer. Then there was the one who failed to recognize an eating disorder in a client prone to overzealous dieting.

Fitness trainers seem like the perfect people to help you fine-tune your eating. After all, they're practically experts on the mechanics of the human body, they can energize and motivate you when you're exhausted and ready to throw in the towel, and they look good enough to be walking advertisements for the fitness industry. But are they really equipped to dish out nutrition advice? Some trainers may be, but as the aforementioned stories suggest, most of them are not.

"Women at the gym often seek nutritional advice from trainers because of availability--when they're in the gym working out, there's somebody right there who seems knowledgeable about fitness," says Mark A. Merrick, PhD, director of athletic training at Ohio State University in Columbus. "But clients often make the mistake of believing that because someone has expertise in one aspect of fitness, they're well-informed about others, too."

Some trainers actually do have a solid background in nutrition, but just because they are certified to be an exercise professional doesn't mean they've had extensive nutrition education. There are literally hundreds of fitness accreditation organizations, some considerably more discriminating than others. The top-tier certifying bodies, the Indianapolis-based American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) among them, generally require that their trainers hold an undergraduate associate's degree in the health sciences. Others are less demanding, requiring that their trainers rely simply on home study or online courses.

But either way, these programs may not provide sufficient training when it comes to nutrition counseling, according to Bob Seebohar, MS, RD, a certified strength and conditioning specialist who was a personal trainer and head coach for six years before becoming a registered dietitian. "Some of the accrediting bodies have subspecialties such as sports nutrition or basic nutrition certification. But even these don't adequately prepare trainers for the types of nutrition questions they're going to encounter on the gym floor."

And many certifying bodies agree. The American Council on Exercise (ACE) tells its trainers straight out that clients who require anything more than run-of-the-mill nutrition education should be referred to a registered dietitian.

"If trainers are providing basic information, like the food guide pyramid or the government's dietary guidelines, that's fine," says the Littleton, Colorado-based Seebohar. "Once they start to offer weight loss or sports nutrition counseling, they're crossing the line."

GETTING THE WHOLE PICTURE

Most sports nutrition experts agree that there are definite drawbacks to seeking advice from trainers who don't have a college or graduate nutrition degree. For one, they lack the training to conduct a comprehensive dietary assessment that includes a client's medical history, medication and supplement use, in-depth evaluation of diet history and current eating patterns, and a body-composition appraisal. "Without this information, fitness instructors don't have a clear and complete picture of the individual," says Lisa Dorfman, MS, RD, a sports nutritionist with the University of Miami Department of Athletics. Ideally, that training provides the fundamentals to identify and work with nutrition-related conditions or dietary constraints, such as eating disorders, nutrient deficiencies, food allergies or vegetarianism.

It also includes the background to help manage underlying conditions that have nutritional ramifications, like diabetes, osteoporosis risk or hormonal irregularities, such as polycystic ovarian syndrome. "You've got to be knowledgeable enough and have sufficient experience to know how to put this information to work," says Dorfman. "That means setting flexible, realistic goals so that clients can make lifelong changes--not just quick fixes."

While trainers may not be experts in the dietetic arena, many of them can empower their clients to improve their food choices. How? By encouraging that client to learn more by referring her to a highly trained nutrition professional. Says Seebohar, "When a trainer makes the referral to a sports nutrition expert, it really shows she cares enough to step out of her boundaries and say, 'I can't handle that, but I'll find you someone who can.'"

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