The demand for qualified sports dietitians and nutritionists is rapidly expanding as more high schools, colleges, professional teams and individual pro athletes incorporate nutrition into their training programs. The need is so great, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics now offers board certification in sports dietetics.
Depending on your timetable, you can take the more formal route to becoming a registered dietitian, or take workshops or online courses to add sports nutrition consulting to a personal trainer or fitness instructor business.
Practitioner Julie Burns has used her training to land clients like the Chicago Blackhawks, Bears, White Sox and Bulls, as well as individual elite athletes from around the globe. Former Baylor University tennis player, Page Love uses her credentials to write for magazines, consult athletes on the ATP and WTA tennis tours, work with teams like the Atlanta Braves and speak at sports conferences.
Multiple responsibilities
Sports nutritionists and dietitians work with athletes in a variety of ways. They review and assess an athlete's current eating habits and create healthier diets based on training and game-day needs.
"You need to know what's in different foods and how they affect the body," said Burns, owner of SportFuel sports Nutrition in Western Springs. Burns has expanded her knowledge base to include exercise physiology and an understanding of the power of natural foods like sweet potatoes and coconut water.
"Many athletes don't realize what a strong performance edge food is until they meet with a sports dietitian and get on a correct diet," she says.
While certified nutritionists can help local weekend warriors improve their diets, registered dietitians who have specific training in sports nutrition land the big professional clients. The road to a career as an elite sports nutritionist begins with a college degree in nutrition, followed by a nine-month internship, then certification as a registered dietitian nutritionist.
"After you earn your degree, ask to be put into the sport nutrition rotation during your internship," recommends Love, owner of Nutrifit Sport Therapy in Atlanta. "Many larger universities have sports dieticians on staff, and you can do your internship at or near your school."
Burns recommends taking continuing education courses once you graduate to increase your chance of working with pro athletes and teams.
"I get tons of calls and emails from people saying, 'I want to be a sports nutritionist. I want to work with athletes,'" she said. "I tell them to go get your certification as a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist, then supplement that by learning about exercise physiology, holistic eating, organics and functional nutrition. If I didn't have RDN credentials, I would not have gotten my foot in the door with professional teams and athletes, but you need to expand on that."
If you can‿t commit to a four-year degree, you can earn an associate‿s degree and become a dietetic technician. If even that‿s too much, you can earn nutrition certification online or through seminars or workshops. These nutritionists are far less trained and regulated than dietitians, but many personal trainers and fitness instructors add nutrition to their skill-set. Trainers are limited by dietetics licensure laws, however, as to what individual nutrition guidelines and menus they can give clients, said Love.
Dietitians and nutritionists earned median pay of $53,250 in 2010, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.* Registered dietitians nutritionists earn much more than certified nutritionists, with the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics reporting 2009 salaries of RDNs with five years or less experience at approximately $51,000 to $62,000, while RDNs with management and business practices earning incomes of $85,000 to $88,000.
To learn more about a career in dietetics, visit the website of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, headquartered in Chicago, at www.eatright.org.