Precision Nutrition Coaching: Frequently Asked Questions

Precision Nutrition Coaching is a 12-month body transformation program that guides you through important—yet sustainable—changes in your eating and lifestyle with help from an expert coach.

To date, we’ve tested it with nearly 100,000 clients, who’ve transformed their bodies and health in amazing ways.

If you’ve tried something before and “failed” — or just can’t stick with it — know that you’re not alone. And it’s not your fault.

After all, self-directed training and nutrition programs fail 98 percent of the time. Not to mention, after many years in the fitness industry, we’ve seen dozens of diet and exercise fads come and go.

That’s why we don’t follow fads. Instead, we teach you doable daily actions that are designed to fit into a busy lifestyle.

We help you bring health and fitness into your life in a way that works for your life and your body.

Bottom line: Precision Nutrition Coaching enables you to make fitness and nutrition a part of your life—without it taking over.

Our program is designed to work on your absolute worst days, not just your best days.

As a result, our clients get results like this:

Precision Nutrition Coaching includes:

• A structured year-long nutrition program to help keep you consistent.

• An expert coach to give you feedback, make adjustments, and help keep you accountable.

• Strategic daily nutrition practices that fit into your lifestyle.

• Expert-designed (yet optional) exercise programs, customized to your skill level, goals, and time available.

• $250,000 in prize money. We stack the deck in your favor and give you something positive to shoot for.

• Guaranteed results. Stick with us for a year, and if you don’t get what you’re looking for, you get a full refund.

We only accept new clients twice per year—and millions of people visit our website during those registration periods. That means we only have the capacity to coach less than 1 percent of the people who express interest in working with us.

Because of that, our programs have historically sold out in a matter of hours. That’s why we encourage people to put their name on the Precision Nutrition Coaching presale list.

By adding your name to that list, we’ll give you the opportunity to register 24 hours before everyone else, increasing your chances of getting a spot.

Plus, you’ll save up to 54% off the cost of the program. It’s our way of rewarding the people who are most willing to commit, because they’ve always proven to be our best clients.

Precision Nutrition Coaching is for women and men who want to get healthier, fitter, and stronger — and stay that way for the rest of their lives.

It’s for people who want to…

• lose weight and body fat
• build physical strength and confidence
• get results that last
• and get off the diet rollercoaster once and for all.

Plus, the program is designed for people with busy schedules.

We work closely with our clients to help them eat well and exercise, no matter what other craziness is going on in their lives.

We provide you with personal accountability, a structured nutritional program to follow, and a coach to help keep you consistent and on-track.

We don’t give you a crazy diet or exercise program to follow; instead, we help you build habits that will get you results that last forever.

Precision Nutrition Coaching is not for figure or fitness models, professional bodybuilders, or high-level athletes training for a particular sport.

It’s also not for people who already have all the accountability they need.

If you rarely struggle with staying consistent with your exercise or eating habits, then we’re not a good choice for you.

Want to lose weight? Eat better? Feel less stressed? Get more sleep?

If you follow our recommendations and stick with us for the full year then yes, you will get results.

If you participate in Precision Nutrition Coaching, do at least 80 percent of what we ask you to do, you’ll end up leaner, stronger, healthier, and happier with your body than you ever thought possible.

You don’t have to get it perfect. But you have to commit to making small, strategic changes in your life.

That’s something no one ever likes to admit about getting in better shape: It takes hard work, time, and determination.

Changing your body isn’t easy, but it is possible. For 15 years we’ve helped thousands of people do all that and more. No other company has that track record, and we’re confident we can help you, too.

Once you make the commitment to get in better shape, we’ll be with you every step of the way. When life pushes you around and difficulties come up, we’ll help you push back.

We’ll stack the deck in your favor and give you every advantage we know of. Over the course of 12 months, you’ll learn everything you need to look, feel, and perform at your best.

That’s our promise.

Absolutely. We guarantee our work — 100% — because it’s the right thing to do.

We’ve helped nearly 100,000 clients people improve their nutrition, bodies, and health over the past 15 years; that makes us the world’s most experienced nutrition coaching team.

Stick with us for a year and follow our recommendations. If you don’t get what you’re looking for at the end of the year, we’ll give you a full refund.

Seriously. Every penny. You get to decide if the program was worth it.

Why do we do this? Because we stand behind our work. We know you’ll walk out healthier and happier than ever before.

Bonus: If you do really well, you could even win a bunch of cash at the end too.

I’m John Berardi, Ph.D., co-founder of Precision Nutrition.

I’ve devoted my entire career to making health and fitness something that’s achievable and attainable for every type of person, from every walk of life. (Here’s a bit more about me, if you’re interested.)

At Precision Nutrition, we have a world-class coaching team made up of doctors, exercise specialists, naturopaths, nutritionists and counselors.

We’ve coached and mentored people in nearly 100 countries through our research programs, professional education courses, and personal coaching groups.

Fast Company magazine recently picked Precision Nutrition as one of the Most Innovative Companies in fitness.

Who comes to Precision Nutrition for help?

Thousands of people from all over the world. Companies like Nike and Apple. Professional sports teams like the San Antonio Spurs and dozens of Olympic athletes and their coaches.

Lots of people consider us the world’s leading experts in nutrition coaching. That’s a big responsibility, and we don’t take it lightly.

If you’re wondering what we have in store for you, you can download the men’s and women’s curriculum outlines here:

• Men’s curriculum (PDF)
• Women’s curriculum (PDF)

No, we don’t give out meal plans.

Meal plans and diets aren’t really that useful or sustainable. People often feel like they’re either “on” them or “off” them. They feel like they’ve failed and are beyond hope if they’re not eating perfectly at every meal.

Our approach is completely different: We help you build a set of sustainable habits that will serve you for the rest of your life.

This means you get to choose — with the help of your coach — which foods are best for you, when to eat those foods, and how much to eat of them.

Sure can. This first demo details exactly what you can expect from Precision Nutrition Coaching for Men.

Mentors and coaches have made all the difference in my life. And that’s why I developed the Precision Nutrition Coaching program.

At Precision Nutrition, most of us feel extremely fortunate to have access to mentors and coaches. People who are a little further along the path than we are. People who can help steer us in the direction we need to go.

That’s why we’ve made it our mission to pay it forward. We’re here to help you make meaningful change in your life.

If you take an honest look at your life — and at the lives of the people you most respect and admire — you’ll notice something interesting.

As human beings, we’re rarely ever transformed by reading more books or articles. Or from watching a documentary. Or from taking a class.

Instead, most transformative change happens through a real relationship with another human being — usually a coach or a mentor.

Sure, you can try another diet book or read a few more articles, especially if you love thinking about exercise and nutrition. If you get great results with those tools, we applaud you.

But if you’re having trouble putting what you know into action, Precision Nutrition Coaching might be for you.

I actually get this question a lot. And the answer is no: I don’t hate book or blogs. In fact, I love books. I’ve even written a couple.

But diet and fitness books rarely help us make dramatic, consistent changes in our lives.

Books typically present too much new information at once. They get you all fired up about a “new” way of doing things… which lasts for a few days. Then you’re back to where you were before.

Of course, while most of us think we need to learn everything at once, research shows the exact opposite: When we want to improve ourselves, the only way to do it is to change one thing at a time.

That’s why coaching (being led and guided by someone a little further along the path than you) and social support (being surrounded and encouraged by like-minded people) are so important.

The formula is simple: We deliver coaching, social support, and a process that encourages real change.

And that’s not something you can find in a book.

Yes. We’ve worked with lots of people who are new to exercise and healthy eating.

Remember, we were all beginners at some point. And at Precision Nutrition, we do our best to make sure all beginners work at a pace that’s comfortable for them.

To see for yourself how diverse our clients are, click here to see the men and here for the women that we’ve worked with.

You’ll notice that our clients come in all shapes and sizes, are all ages, and come from all different backgrounds.

Lots of our clients have 5+ years of experience with consistent training and healthy eating. And they still get great results with us. That’s because the interactions they have with their Precision Nutrition coach are tailored to their needs and goals — it’s not a “one size fits all” program.

Oftentimes, people with a lot of experience enjoy handing the reins over to us for a while. We take care of the nutrition and exercise programming so they can focus on improving other parts of their lives.

We’ve even helped hundreds of personal trainers get back in shape. Like Toni. Or Ron.

It’s great that you don’t have a lot of weight to lose. It means you’re starting out with a big advantage.

Of course, lifelong fitness and health is more than losing weight. With Precision Nutrition Coaching you’ll learn how to maintain a healthy (and lean) body for life.

You’ll discover how it feels to be more physically capable, more confident, and stronger — inside, and out.

Plus you’ll develop a new, healthier relationship to food and eating. And that’s something fewer than 5 percent of people know how to do.

Yes. We have custom exercise programming and nutrition habits specifically for people who want to gain muscle. Plus your coach will work with you to help you achieve specific body composition goals.

Of course. We encourage friends, partners, and family members to join together. That immediate social support makes a real difference for many of our clients.

Click here to meet a few couples who had great success with Precision Nutrition Coaching.

We’ve also had fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, sisters and brothers, coworkers, and best friends join together.

Absolutely not. We coach men and women of all ages. We’ve had many winners and finalists who are in their 50s, 60s, and 70s.

To see for yourself how diverse our clients are, click here to see the men and here for the women that we’ve worked with.

The answer depends on a few things.

Want to become a better fitness professional? Then consider doing the Precision Nutrition Certification first. Then, once you’ve graduated from that program, you can consider joining us here.

By first learning the theory (i.e. Certification), and then seeing that theory in action (i.e. Coaching), you’ll get a much richer experience and really see how we tie the two together.

Want to get in better shape yourself? Then consider doing coaching first. You can get started on the Precision Nutrition Certification after you go through the coaching program yourself. This way you’ll get the main benefit you’re after (fitness) while also learning about our applied system. You can go back and learn the theory later.

Check out Toni and Ron’s stories for more information about how Precision Nutrition Coaching can help fitness professionals.

From what I can tell, most people just get lectured all the time about how they look or about how they’ll be stricken by all kinds of terrible diseases and die if they don’t start to eat better.

That kind of hysterical negativity doesn’t motivate most people, regardless of the goal; it just comes off as condescending, annoying and overwhelming.

In our experience, big, inspiring goals are much easier to achieve when something big is at stake.

So that’s why we put up real cash prizes for our clients and give away $250,000—a quarter of a million dollars—every year.

Every single client who participates in Precision Nutrition Coaching—regardless of where they live or what their goals are—is eligible for one of our big prizes.

Precision Nutrition Coaching is designed to make the process of getting in better shape easier and more effective than ever before. So there are only three things you need to know right off the bat:

1. If it doesn’t work, it’s free.

Make a commitment and stick with us for a year. If you don’t get the results you’re looking for after those 12 months, we’ll give your money back. All of it. Every penny. You get to decide if it was worth it. Why do we do this? Because we stand behind our work. And we’re very confident you’ll end up looking and feeling better than ever before.

2. If you work hard and do a good job, you get in the best shape of your life.

Follow our advice, and you will get the body you’re after, plain and simple. That’s what people are looking for: something that truly works. And that’s what we deliver. You walk out in the best shape of your life.

3. And if you do a great job, you get in the best shape of your life AND you can win serious money.

Bonus: If you really kick butt in this, you might even win a bunch of cash at the end too. Which, for example, you could arrange in a big pile in your backyard and swim in it with your newly-fit body. Or you could take a stack of bills from your winnings, and flip through them ever so slowly, letting the sound of Benjamin Franklin lull you to sleep at night.

In the end, even if you don’t end up with prize money, you will end up healthier and fitter than ever before.

And that’s worth the weight you’ll lose in gold.

Well, technically, we don’t require progress photos. They’re completely optional.

The reason we request progress photos is to visually document the changes you’re making while coaching with us.

It’s also important for your coach to see what’s happening so they can help give you better advice when required.

At the end of your coaching experience, if you’re really proud of your transformation and want to be featured as a finalist, we’ll ask for your permission to do so.

But, before that, the pictures will be kept totally private at all times.

Remember, we’re here to help people change their bodies and their lives. Not to embarrass anyone or make them feel ashamed. So you can opt out of the photo process if you want to.

Nonetheless, we really do encourage you to stretch yourself, get out of your comfort zone, and give this method a try.

Just like a few of our most recent clients:

The exclusive presale price: Choose from a one-time payment of $997 USD, or $97 USD per month for 12 months.

This is the lowest price we’ve ever offered!

Note: This discount is only for people on the presale list; the general public pays either $1799 USD up front, or $179 USD per month for 12 months.

We offer this discount to people who sign up for the presale list for one reason: the people who are most eager and willing to take action are usually our best clients. That’s why we reward them with a discount and a chance to register a full 24 hours before everyone else.

Not on the presale list yet? Add your name here.

When it comes to food, most clients actually end up saving money on their grocery bills.

This is because they make more informed, careful decisions, eat out less, and spend fewer dollars on processed novelty foods, replacing them with whole, delicious natural foods.

As for supplements, we may recommend a few health-oriented products, based on your unique needs and goals. However, these are completely optional.

Nope, you don’t have to join a gym to be successful with Precision Nutrition Coaching.

All the exercise programs can be performed at a gym or at home.

Of course. We work with clients in over 100 countries. No matter where you live, we can help.

Here’s just a sample of some of the countries where our clients live:

• USA
• Canada
• United Kingdom
• Australia
• India
• France
• Denmark
• Sweden
• Germany
• South Africa
• Finland
• Norway
• Japan
• Mexico
• Brazil
• China

Check out one of our women’s winners from the UK:

Of course. Keep doing what you love.

That’s the whole point of Precision Nutrition Coaching—to learn how to eat and exercise in a way that works for you.

Health and fitness should be fun, freeing and sustainable. It’s about helping you live a fuller life. So yes, if anything, the program will help you do more of the things you love.

Once you get started, your coach will work with you to structure things in a way that works for your lifestyle.

Yes, if you want to continue with both, that’ll work.

In fact, I think with Precision Nutrition Coaching AND your in-person coach, you’ll be unstoppable.

Once you sign up, just let your coach know that you’re working with a local trainer and we’ll make sure to integrate the two.

Yes.

We all go through injuries, so I understand where you’re coming from. In fact, here’s my own personal story with injury.

With Precision Nutrition Coaching, we can tailor certain exercises to help fit your needs.

Once you’ve signed up, you’ll simply work with your coach to find some easy and effective alternatives.

Yep, we’d love to work with you. The nutrition habits your coach will guide you through are easily customizable.

All you have to do is let your coach know what your dietary preferences/restrictions are and they’ll help you out.

We open registration on Wednesday, July 18th. And there won’t be another one until January 2019.

To get an early bird chance at registration, we strongly recommend that you sign up for the presale list.

Precision Nutrition Coaching lasts for 12 months. Based on our continued research, we’ve found a full year to be the most effective time period for building the habits necessary for lifelong health and fitness.

Our coaching team is committed to helping you make a life-changing transformation. That’s why we have everyone commit to the program for 12 months.

Yes.

Since we only open our coaching program twice per year—and since we can only accept less than 1 percent of people who express interest in working with us—we tend to sell out in a matter of hours.

A couple years ago we weren’t totally prepared for how quickly it would happen. Back then, Precision Nutrition Coaching was called “Lean Eating”. And we literally had our website crash due to the overwhelming amount of people trying to get in at once.

This is a note from a couple years ago. We sold out in 30 minutes and had our website crash from the traffic.

Nowadays we continue to have a lot of people visit our website… and we continue to accept a limited amount of clients.

The only difference is that we now prepare our computer servers to deal with the sudden rush of people trying to get a spot. (We learned that the hard way.)

To get an early bird chance at registration, we strongly recommend that you sign up for the presale list.

We’ll send you a special link 24 hours before the general public, increasing your chances of getting a spot.

The feedback on the coaching has been overwhelmingly positive.

Here are a couple stories to check out.

First, here’s Lisa’s story, which is definitely worth watching:

We like to reward people who are eager to get started. That’s why we offer a special discount for people who sign up for the presale list.

The regular price for the Precision Nutrition Coaching Program is $1799 USD up front (or $179 USD per month for 12 months).

However, if you sign up for the presale list, you can join for $997 USD up front. Or $97 USD per month for 12 months.

This is the lowest price we’ve ever offered!

To learn more, add your name to the presale list.

Once you’re on the list, we’ll follow-up with more information, including how to connect with our team if you have further questions.