Using NutriAdmin as a Certified Personal Trainer

4 mins to read.

“It’s not a bloated software with a million features, but a more streamlined, well-organized software”

After interviewing nutritional therapists it’s time we tackle the fitness field with Marc Perry, founder and CEO of BuiltLean, a certified personal trainer who is “on a mission to help busy men with demanding careers reclaim their health and vitality, and achieve a lean & strong body”. Through Perry’s testimony, we will show you how NutriAdmin is used as a meal planning software for fitness professionals.

Could you tell us a little bit about your background? How did you become a certified personal trainer?

I started my career on Wall Street. Within just a few months, I ended up gaining 30+ pounds of fat. I gained so much weight because I was eating like when I was an athlete – I played lacrosse at Yale – even though I was a desk jockey.
I also started experiencing bad low back problems. When I saw 200 pounds on the scale, I knew I needed to make a change. I applied the research skills I honed as a financial analyst to learn as much about body transformation as I could. I eventually dramatically transformed my body.
I decided to make the bold decision to leave my finance career to share what I had learned with other overstressed and overweight men with demanding careers. I started a private personal training practice in NYC and a fitness blog on the side called BuiltLean. BuiltLean has now grown to 1 million visitors per month and we have happy customers in over 80 countries.

What areas of nutrition do you specialize in – what kinds of services do you provide via your brand BuiltLean?

We offer a 12-week transformation program designed for men who have demanding careers that requires just 3 short workouts a week for 30-minutes each. As part of that program, we also have an eating plan comprised of simple recipes made from whole foods. Some of our customers want more customized help, so we offer a custom meal plan service, which is where NutriAdmin comes in.

How long have you been training and educating clients to help them achieve their nutrition goals?

10 years.

How long have your company been using NutriAdmin for?

6-months.

Do you find the food database provides enough options for you to create effective meal plans for your clients?

All the meal options we use in NutriAdmin are 100% customized, we upload them ourselves.

Do you use NutriAdmin’s questionnaires with clients prior to a session? What kind of information do your clients fill in before meeting you?

Yes, the questionnaire is a key part of the custom meal plan service. We must collect as much information as possible while not making the questionnaire burdensome.
The questionnaire is split into a handful of sections:

Personal details
Body stats
Lifestyle + Exercise
Medications & Supplement
Allergies & Food Preferences
Eating Habits
Goals

The idea is to get a comprehensive understand of our clients’ goals, lifestyle, exercise, and eating habits.

What are the advantages of sending a questionnaire with NutriAdmin, as opposed to using paper forms, emails, or other alternatives?

I think it looks professional when it comes from the system. It’s also much faster and easier using NutriAdmin vs. crafting an email each time.

What process do you follow for creating new recipes in NutriAdmin?

We create the recipes in an excel file, then upload them with a photo to NutriAdmin. That’s really it. We have a spreadsheet that shows each meal type broken out by category so it’s easy for us to see what meals we should add. For example, we have egg options for breakfast or sandwich options for lunch.

How did you manage recipes before using NutriAdmin and what are the main advantages of the process you follow now?

We managed them using excel or an online portal. Now, it’s easier for us to create custom meal plan reports with NutriAdmin, send questionnaires, and manage the custom meal plan creation process. So it cuts down on time and helps us create a professional product.

We don’t really recommend specific diets. We have a whole foods eating philosophy, in that we like clients to eat foods that are mostly unprocessed and in their natural states as much as possible. In general, we tend to recommend something along the lines of a 40/30/30 split between protein, carbs, and fat but that can definitely vary. The common themes are whole foods and relatively higher protein because they help so much with controlling hunger.

Do you follow a set format with meal plans? How do you save time by using pre-set templates in NutriAdmin?

Uploading the ingredients and being able to see quickly how many calories is in the meal is a big time saver. We used to have to rely on calorie counting websites or apps. NutriAdmin allows us to create a meal that is a specific number of calories faster than we used to. We do not follow a set format, but our food images tend to be the same size.

Have you had to contact technical support at NutriAdmin much? How was the service received whenever you had a technical issue or question?

Excellent. The team is very responsive.

I would tell them to use it and keep it simple. That’s the power of the software is that it’s simple and easy to use. NutriAdmin works great as a personal trainer software, at least for me.

Do you use regularly any other NutriAdmin features or tools we might have not mentioned? Or want to make any other comments about the software?

I think the software is well designed and easy to use. That’s what originally attracted me to it. It’s well organized and has just want we need to create custom meal plans. It’s not a bloated software with a million features, but a more streamlined, well-organized software, which I appreciate.

Learn more about Marc Perry’s work at BuiltLean.com

Check out how meal planning works on NutriAdmin following this link.
Do you know how the advanced recipe management works in NutriAdmin? Check it out here.
Learn about the best apps for personal trainers with our in-depth, honest guide.