Questions to Ask a Health Coach
Health coaching is a largely unregulated field, so a title on a website tells you very little. These 20 questions cover training, scope, what they sell, how they work alongside your doctor, and what a programme really costs before you commit to one.
20 questions, each with the reason to ask it · includes a conversation guide
The questions
Open any question to see why it works.
- 1
What does a health coach do in your practice that a doctor or a dietitian does not?
The strongest answers describe behaviour change: habits, follow-through, planning around a life that is already full. Weaker answers describe diagnosing and treating, which is a description of a job they are not licensed to do.
- 2
What training do you have, and who accredits it?
Programmes range from multi-year credentials with a board exam to weekend certificates bought online. Ask for the name of the certifying body rather than the school, then look it up yourself before the next call.
- 3
What are you not allowed to do?
A coach who knows their scope will say it out loud: no diagnosing, no prescribing, no treating disease, and in many places no individualised medical nutrition therapy. A coach who cannot name a single limit is the risk in this whole conversation.
- 4
Have you worked with people in a situation close to mine?
Ask for the shape of the case rather than names: same condition, same age, same obstacle. Someone whose clients are all training for marathons may have little to offer if you are managing fatigue or a new diagnosis.
- 5
Will you communicate with my doctor, and how?
Coordination is the difference between a coach who fits into your care and one who runs parallel to it. Expect them to mention a release form, and note it if they dismiss the question or speak poorly of your clinicians.
- 6
Do you sell supplements, shakes, tests or programmes, and do you earn from them?
Product revenue changes what gets recommended. Ask directly whether income comes from sales, referral commissions, or a multi-level company, and ask what happens if you decline every product they suggest.
- 7
Do you order or interpret lab tests?
Some coaches build a plan around panels that are not standard clinical tests and are not read by a clinician. Ask which tests, who interprets the results, and what happens if something on them looks abnormal.
- 8
What does a programme look like: how many sessions, over what period?
Behaviour change is measured in months, so a package of three sessions is a consultation rather than a programme. Ask what the shortest and longest engagements have looked like and why each one ended.
- 9
What happens in a typical session?
You are listening for structure: a review of the week, one or two adjustments, and a specific plan before you hang up. Sessions that are mostly education or mostly encouragement tend to feel good and change little.
- 10
What do you expect from me between sessions?
Tracking, food logs, step counts and check-in messages all take time you have to actually have. Find out the real weekly load before you agree, because most programmes fail in the gap between appointments rather than in them.
- 11
What do you do when I do not follow through?
This is the question that reveals the method. Good answers involve shrinking the task and finding out what got in the way; poor answers involve accountability language that turns into being told off by someone you are paying.
- 12
How do you measure progress, and does that involve weighing me?
Some clients want the scale and some are harmed by it. A coach who can also track sleep, energy, strength, consistency or bloodwork from your own doctor has more than one way to show a month was not wasted.
- 13
What is your approach to food, and do you cut out whole categories?
Ask which foods they typically remove and for how long. Broad elimination is easy to sell because it produces fast early results and is hard to sustain, so ask what the plan is for putting things back.
- 14
What training do you have in disordered eating, and what do you do if it comes up?
Tracking, restriction and weigh-ins can worsen an eating disorder. The answer you want includes screening at intake and a named clinician they refer to, not a statement that it has never come up.
- 15
What is the full cost, and what is included in it?
Get the total for the whole programme, not the monthly figure, and ask what sits outside it: tests, supplements, extra sessions, an app subscription. Ask whether the price changes if you renew.
- 16
Can I pause or stop partway, and what happens to the money?
Long prepaid packages with no exit are common. Ask what happens if you get ill, travel for work, or simply decide in week three that this is not working, and ask for that answer in writing.
- 17
How do you handle messages between sessions?
Unlimited messaging sounds generous and is often the first thing to slip. Ask about response times, what is in scope for a message, and what they do when someone messages about a symptom rather than a habit.
- 18
What kind of client do you turn down or refer out?
A coach with real limits can describe the person they say no to: an active eating disorder, an unmanaged medical condition, someone who wants a diagnosis. Never having made a referral is not a sign of skill.
- 19
What does it look like when we are finished?
Ask what the end of the relationship is meant to look like, and what you will be able to do without them. A programme with no described endpoint is a subscription, which is fine if you know that going in.
- 20
Tell me about a client who did not get what they wanted.
Every coach has these, and the ones who can talk about them without blaming the client are worth more than the ones with only testimonials. Listen for what they changed in their own practice afterwards.
Choosing a health coach
Practical guidance for the conversation itself.
Before the consultation call
Before the consultation call
- 1Write down the one change you actually want, in a sentence, so you can test whether their programme aims at it.
- 2List your current diagnoses, medications and anything your doctor has told you to avoid, and be ready to say it early.
- 3Decide your budget for the whole engagement rather than per month, since most packages are sold monthly and run for six.
- 4Note how many hours a week you genuinely have for logging, cooking and appointments.
- 5Check whether the credential they list has a certifying body you can look up independently.
Where coaching ends
Where coaching ends
Coaching is not medical care
A coach works on habits and follow-through. Diagnosis, medication changes and treatment of a condition belong with your clinicians, and anything you hear in coaching that contradicts them is a reason to go back and ask rather than a reason to switch.
Watch the direction of travel
Advice to stop a medication, skip an appointment, or replace a clinical test with a private panel sits outside the scope of coaching regardless of how it is phrased. Take it to your doctor rather than acting on it.
Keep one clinician in the loop
Telling your own doctor that you have hired a coach, and what the plan involves, keeps both sides of your care in the same room. It also gives you someone to check the plan against.
Warning signs
Warning signs
- Cannot name a single thing outside their scope
- Income depends on selling you supplements or a starter kit
- Promises a specific weight or a specific timeline before knowing anything about you
- Discourages you from talking to your doctor, or speaks about clinicians with contempt
- Sells a long prepaid package with no way out, and pressure to sign today
- Has no answer for what happens if signs of an eating disorder appear