Sports Nutrition Certification?

Nutrition
1

Hi T-Nation subscribers!

I have recently graduated from college with a B.S. in Human Nutrition and Food; in which the vast majority of my course work emphasized medical nutrition therapy. Since graduating, I thought it would be in my best interest to further my versatility and become a certified Sports Nutritionist. Does anyone have any recommendations as to which organization(s) are more universally recognized and considered to be the gold standard for this certification?

Thanks for your help in advance!
MetabolicMegan

2

The answer would depend heavily on what route you expect to go with your career and clientele.

For instance if you were going to work with the general public almost any certification will do. The majority of people will glance at your certification and not give it a 2nd thought. In this situation I would check with local employers to see what is generally accepted unless you are going to run your own business.

If you will work closely with medical professionals then the ACSM might be worth checking out.

Lastly, if you want to work with college or pro/semi-pro athletes I would recommend the NSCA cert or something similar.

Also, it might be worth mentioning that you will get some strong opinions with a question like this as some people have invested a lot of time and money in their certs. No one wants to think they made a mistake so they will defend their decision fiercely.

3

Haha i was actually just about to open a similar thread about this since i’m graduating from nutrition & food science this july as well.

To get the sports nutrition certification do you only need to pass an exam or have to do further studying like post grad?

Also i always thought you need to be more of a registered dietitian rather than a nutritionist to be more interactive/consulting with people?

4

[quote]MetabolicMegan wrote:
Hi T-Nation subscribers!

I have recently graduated from college with a B.S. in Human Nutrition and Food; in which the vast majority of my course work emphasized medical nutrition therapy. Since graduating, I thought it would be in my best interest to further my versatility and become a certified Sports Nutritionist. Does anyone have any recommendations as to which organization(s) are more universally recognized and considered to be the gold standard for this certification?

Thanks for your help in advance!
MetabolicMegan
[/quote]

Are you an RD? If not, are you gonna take the internship and test. If you do, you can get the CSSD (certified sports nutrition dietitian). If you don’t, I recommend CISSN considering you have the qualifications for the test.

Actually, in most cases you don’t need ANY certification to be a sports nutritionist!

5

I have been thinking about getting a degree in this field and was just curious of which direction I should take? To become a dietitian do you get the b.s. in nutrition and then take the appropriate exam? Also any other advie you guys like to give i would really appreciate it thanks.

6

[quote]zeb2520 wrote:
I have been thinking about getting a degree in this field and was just curious of which direction I should take? To become a dietitian do you get the b.s. in nutrition and then take the appropriate exam? Also any other advie you guys like to give i would really appreciate it thanks.
[/quote]

Yes, BS in nutrition, then 6 to 9 month dietetic internship, then take the test.

7

Im a strength and conditioning coach, just looking to beef up my resume a bit with a nutrition cert.

Im looking at either Precision Nutrition or ISSN.

Any input?