Certified Fitness Nutrition Specialist™ (CFNS) training, built by Exercise & Nutrition Works, gives personal trainers, coaches, and wellness professionals a CEU-accredited certification, a licensed nutrition software platform, and an optional coaching upgrade, so they can add a paid, custom nutrition service to an existing training or coaching business.
Key Takeaways
- The CFNS course costs $495 and carries CEUs recognized by NASM (1.9), AFAA (15), NCCPT (1), and ISSA (20).
- DIY students have 90 days to finish; the Silver Coaching Program removes that deadline for $39.95.
- What Works® Custom Nutrition Software licenses run from monthly to five-year terms, with no per-client charges.
- The Body Composition Calipers + Measuring Tape kit costs $19.95 and includes calipers, a MyoTape, and body fat charts.
- Exercise & Nutrition Works, Inc. has held CEU-provider approval from NASM, AFAA, ISSA, and NCCPT since 2003.
What should nutrition business training actually include?
Nutrition business training for coaches should give you three things at once: a recognized credential, a system for delivering plans to clients, and a defined path to charge for the work. Without all three, you end up with a certificate but no service to sell.
A lot of nutrition add-ons stop at the certificate. You study, you pass an exam, and then you're left to build the client-facing side yourself, spreadsheets, PDFs, a way to track results, from scratch. The CFNS course was built to close that gap. It bundles the CEU-accredited coursework with a licensed custom nutrition software platform so the certification and the delivery tool arrive together, not as two separate purchases you have to piece together later.
You can review the full course details directly, including the CEU breakdown and what's bundled into the $495 price.
How the CFNS course adds a paid nutrition component
The CFNS course is self-paced and fully online, with no prerequisites and access 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. That matters if you're running client sessions during the day and studying at night. Coursework requirements must be submitted within 90 days of enrollment, and the average student finishes in 4 to 6 weeks. With the Silver Coaching Program, some students complete the requirements in as little as 5 hours.
Every student gets a customizable software license, the Crystal Ball Assessment Tool (CBAT) as a downloadable quick-reference guide, and a personalized welcome call. Certification is lifetime, so there's no recurring renewal fee tied to keeping the credential itself.
If you'd rather move through the material entirely on your own schedule, the DIY home-study path lays out exactly what that self-guided route looks like before you enroll.
Silver Coaching Program vs. the standard DIY path
If you want structure and a firm deadline pushed off your plate, the Silver Coaching Program is the faster route. If you're comfortable working independently within the standard timeline, the DIY path costs nothing extra beyond the $495 course fee.
| DIY Path | Silver Coaching Program | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Included in $495 course fee | $39.95 |
| Deadline | 90 days to submit requirements | Unlimited time to finish |
| Coaching | Self-guided | Weekly 15-minute laser coaching sessions with CEO Lucho Crisalle |
| Resubmissions | Standard pass/fail assessment | Unlimited resubmissions and retakes |
The coaching sessions are short by design, 15 minutes, once a week, aimed at unsticking a specific question rather than re-teaching the whole course.
What Works® Custom Nutrition Software: the delivery engine
What Works® Custom Nutrition Software is the web-based platform that turns your CFNS certification into a service clients can actually use. It runs entirely in the browser, so there's nothing to install on your end or your client's end.
Inside the platform, you can add or hide meals, foods, supplements, and exercises, build custom food categories, and create nutrition plan templates you reuse across clients. Client folders are unlimited, and reports export as branded PDFs with your own logo rather than ours. There's no per-client charge layered on top of your license, which matters once you're running more than a handful of clients at a time.
Which license term fits a growing coaching business?
License terms run monthly, or fixed at one, two, three, four, or five years, plus annual, zig-zag, and embedded custom plans for larger operations. A shorter term suits someone testing a nutrition add-on with a small client list; a multi-year license suits a coach ready to build nutrition into the core offer.
Customization upgrades on top of the base license include an added logo, custom categories, embedded website integration, an employer dashboard, competitor meal plans, carb cycling templates, and expanded reporting. You can read more about what's included in the certification and software bundle before choosing a license length.
Do earnings claims in nutrition business training hold up?
Be skeptical of any nutrition business training that promises a specific income figure without explaining how it's calculated. The Federal Trade Commission states that an earnings claim for a business opportunity should reflect what a typical participant is likely to earn, not a best-case example.
That guidance exists because inflated income promises have led to real enforcement action. In July 2024, the Federal Trade Commission charged Arise Virtual Solutions with marketing a business opportunity using misleading earnings claims and without the disclosures required under the FTC's Business Opportunity Rule. It's a reasonable standard to apply to any program you're evaluating: ask what you're actually getting, in coursework, software, and support hours, rather than what you're told you might make. We describe the CFNS course in exactly those terms above: a $495 course fee, defined CEUs, a software license, and an optional $39.95 coaching upgrade, so you can weigh the offer on what's included rather than on a projected income number.
Extra tools that support a custom nutrition service
Two smaller items round out a coaching business built around nutrition:
- Body Composition Calipers + Measuring Tape ($19.95): includes dual spring calibrated calipers, a MyoTape, an instructional PDF on where and how to pinch, and body fat charts for male and female clients. It's a low-cost way to add a measurable data point to your first client session.
- Crystal Ball Assessment Tool (CBAT): a downloadable quick-reference guide, included as a bonus with the CFNS course, used to assess which nutrition philosophies and workout types are most effective for a given client.
Monetize Your Nutrition Knowledge live event
The Monetize Your Nutrition Knowledge virtual event carries a refundable $100 reservation deposit. General admission is valued at $197, and VIP access runs as high as $997. Students enrolled in the CFNS course attend as a course bonus, using that same refundable $100 deposit as their reservation rather than paying the general admission or VIP price. The event covers advanced business scaling tools for nutrition professionals who've already got their certification and software in place.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a nutrition degree before enrolling in the CFNS course?
No. The CFNS course has no prerequisites. It's built for personal trainers, coaches, registered nurses, and other fitness or wellness professionals who want to add a nutrition component without a prior nutrition credential.
Can I use the software without buying a multi-year license?
Yes. What Works® Custom Nutrition Software offers a monthly recurring license alongside the one-year through five-year fixed terms, so you can start month to month and move to a longer license once your nutrition client base is established.
Is the Silver Coaching Program required to get certified?
No. The Silver Coaching Program is an optional upgrade priced at $39.95. Without it, you complete the standard pass/fail assessment and submit requirements within 90 days on your own; with it, you get weekly coaching calls, unlimited retakes, and no fixed deadline.
Does the CEU accreditation expire?
The certification itself is lifetime once earned. Exercise & Nutrition Works, Inc. has held CEU-provider recognition from NASM, AFAA, ISSA, and NCCPT since 2003, and that approval currently extends through 2026.
If you're weighing which license length, coaching option, or add-on tool fits how you already run your coaching business, send your question or situation through the enquiry form below this article and we'll help you figure out where the CFNS course fits.
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