Key Information on a Sports Nutritionist Salary (UK)

If you want to know what to expect from a sports nutritionist salary in the UK, and how you can earn as much as possible, look no further!

We’ll run through the sports nutritionist job and salary expectations as well as ways you can boost your income, covering: 

• What is the Average Salary of a Sports Nutritionist?
• Sports Nutritionist Salary Range for Private vs Public Sector
• What is the Salary of a Sports Nutrition Based on How They Work?
• Location Will Affect a Sports and Fitness Nutritionist Salary
• You Can Get a Sports Nutrition Specialist Salary with Additional Qualifications

Before we start, one of the best ways to boost your sports nutritionist salary is to gain the best level 4 nutrition course. 

We’ll cover these later in the article but for now you can download our free course prospects to find out more.

What is the Average Salary of a Sports Nutritionist?

First things first, you’re probably wondering ‘what is the salary of a sports nutritionist on average?’

The best place to look for averages is sites such Indeed and Glassdoor who can give you a rough estimate of the sports nutritionist salary range.

As you can see sites like these calculate the base pay based on the sports nutritionist salary declared by people in the industry:

According to Glassdoor the certified sports nutritionist salary ranges from £31,000 to £54,000 per year, depending on different factors such as experience and location.

However, these factors are not made explicit and there aren’t enough reported salaries to see the ratio of people along this salary range.

As you can see from this average nutritionist salary from Indeed, the figure is very different:

There’s only a general salary for working in nutrition and no sports nutrition salary specifically.

They also show that there’s only a small amount of people who have declared their wages: 

Only 110 salaries have been reported so this figure is only an average of those that have been declared.

This is why it can be difficult to determine an average sports nutritionist salary because often this average is usually based on a small pool of people.

A sports nutritionist salary can also be affected by a huge range of factors that these averages don’t necessarily take into account.

For instance, the salary of a sports nutritionist in the UK in these averages doesn’t take into account different ways of working or where you are in your career. 

There’s also different roles within the sports nutrition industry and so some of these averages won’t necessarily contain a sports nutrition consultant salary or a professional sports teams nutritionist salary.

We’ll look at some of the other factors that can affect a sports nutritionist salary throughout this article but these numbers can be a good starting point to give you an idea of the upper and lower end of the average salary of a sports nutritionist.  

Sports Nutritionist Salary Range for Private vs Public Sector

Now we’ll look at the difference between the figures for a private and public sports nutritionist salary. 

Public Sector Sports Nutritionist Salary

So, what is the salary of a sports nutritionist in different positions? If you want to become a sports nutritionist, you can either work in the private or public sector. A sports nutritionist job and its salary will vary in each depending on the role and the experience.  

If you want to work for the public sector this means working for publicly funded institutions or government controlled enterprises. 

Some of the setting you could work in that fall into this category include: 

• Universities
• Schools
• Nursing homes
• Hospitals

The main difference between public and private sector roles is whether you become a nutritionist with or without a degree. 

These public sector roles will often ask you to have at least an undergraduate degree, especially roles within the NHS.

As you can see, plenty of these roles will expect you to be registered with the Association for Nutrition:

As shown here, you have to complete an AfN approved degree programme to be able to register and this will mean you can apply for public sector roles.

If you’re registered with AfN this means you can give yourself the legally protected title of ‘dietitian’.

A sports nutritionist salary can be higher in some of these roles because of the official registration, but in general private roles will be higher paid.  

It’s also generally rarer for public sector positions to be specifically sports or performance nutrition. 

It’s more common for these roles to be related to a particular medical condition, working as part of a rehabilitation programme.  

This is why it can be difficult to determine a sports nutritionist average salary working in the public sector because the title is often less specific. 

To give you an idea, here’s an entry level position that falls under the right title:

As you can see, the proposed salary is quite low because it’s a part time position with a pro rata salary.

However, locum work as a nutritionist means you can charge by the hour and these are often more lucrative positions:

As we mentioned earlier, a lot of the roles have different names so it’s worth remembering that when you’re looking for public sector positions. Some of them will have a different title but fulfil the same tasks with individual clients. 

Salary of a Sports Nutritionist in the Private Sector 

So, what is the salary for a sports nutritionist in the UK, working in the private sector? 

Some of the options for places you can work within the private sector include:

• Boutique gyms
• Private personal training studios
• Holistic health centres 
• Private practices dedicated to sports nutrition 

Also it’s in areas such as these that you can earn a professional sports team's nutritionist salary, working for athletes and teams who have a much higher budget to spend on advancing the team or individual sports person. 

The potential sports nutrition career salary of working for yourself in the private sector, as opposed to for a company or team specifically, is one of the most lucrative options.   

Technically you can have an uncapped sports nutritionist salary if you’re working privately because, if you’re self-employed, you can set your own rates and the amount of clients depends on how you design your schedule. 

You can choose a way of designing packages and payments that suit you and a way that maximises your sports nutritionist salary. 

For example, Clara Roxanne has a bulk payment option with additional follow up appointments:

As you can see, you can afford to charge a lump sum for these and encourage clients to follow up with further appointments to check their progress. 

The more experience you have and the further along in your career you are, the more you can charge for these packages. 

You’d only have to sell 22 of these packages a month, without any follow-up appointments, to have a professional sports nutritionist salary of £40,000 a year! 

This is why if you’re wondering ‘what is the salary of a sports nutritionist and who earns the highest?’ The answer is that, more often than not, these private and self-employed positions can be the highest paid.

If you’re finding this article helpful, check out some of our others about roles within fitness and nutrition:

• 8 Best Personal Training Courses Compared
• How to Become a Nutrition Coach 
• What’s the Difference Between a Nutritionist and Dietitian?

What is the Salary of a Sports Nutritionist Based on Who They Work for?

As we’ve already mentioned, another factor that will affect a sports nutritionist salary in the UK is where and how you work.

Some of the most lucrative private sector positions include becoming a nutritionist for a sports team or athlete.

A sports nutritionist salary for professional teams tends to be higher as they have a higher budget and you’ll be contributing directly to important competitions and successes for the team or athlete. 

Professional sports teams nutritionist salary amounts will vary, like all positions, based on experience and the calibre of the team, athlete or organisation you work for. 

There are internships available with some of these teams or organisations but they’re often lower paid as they’re at internship rates and are designed to provide people with industry experience.

It can often be hard to determine a sports nutritionist salary for professional teams internships too as they’re not always declared:

Once you’ve gained some experience and you’re further into your career with these positions, the professional sports teams nutritionist salary can be really high.

As you can see below, you can earn the upper end of a sports nutritionist salary through organisations such as English Institute of Sport:

Some of the positions available might even be part time and you can combine them with other roles to earn a higher sports nutritionist salary.

This position with Leeds United, for example, is only part time but has a pro rata amount of £33,000 so is still quite high:

All of these positions are often higher paid because of the requirements and bigger expectations of applications.

For instance, the vast majority of sports nutritionist positions with professional teams of this calibre will expect you to have at least an undergraduate degree and registration with Association for Nutrition. 

So, as you can see, having more experience and working for a bigger team can be one of the most advanced sports nutritionist jobs and the salary reflects that, but it’s something much harder to obtain!

Another option is working for university teams which fall under the public sector roles we mentioned earlier. 

Though this position isn’t the highest salary of a sports nutritionist in the UK it’s a great way to get some experience and develop some of the essential skills for more lucrative positions. 

Location Will Affect a Sports and Fitness Nutritionist Salary

Though there’s different levels and titles for nutrition and fitness careers, one of the biggest influences on a sports nutrition career salary within the UK is location.  

This doesn’t just differ from place to place in the country but also the kind of place you live or have your services based on the demographic and population. 

Capital cities often have a higher cost of living which is reflected in a living wage that is often higher than in the rest of the country. 

The cost of the services themselves are also higher to reflect the more expensive cost of space and travel around the city. 

For example, this package from Endurance Academy in the North East includes what you’d expect with a set price and additional services as optional add ons, like the ones we showed before:

When we look at a similar service in London, though, like this from Caroline Farrel, we can see the difference in price between locations:

The services are similar but there’s two diary analysis appointments included in the first option in the North East, one acting as a follow up.

Caroline is charging additionally for any follow ups and so the same service equates to £110 more than Endurance Academy!

This will, of course, also be based on qualifications and other factors (which we’ll cover shortly) but this gives you an idea of how much more you can charge in capital cities. 

You will also have a higher sports nutritionist salary in a city generally because you will be able to source more clients and have higher demand.

The fact that rural areas are less densely populated is reflected in the amount of clients you’d be able to source and the sports nutritionist wage as a result. 

You Can Get a Sports Nutrition Specialist Salary with Additional Qualifications

Finally, one of the best things you can do to boost your sports nutrition career, and your salary, is to get additional fitness qualifications.

This is an option for both those interested in gaining the best vocational qualifications as well as those who want to offer more than just what their degree allows them to do.

For instance, those interested in becoming a nutrition coach to sell nutritional packages online can do with a vocational level 4 nutrition course. 

Both people with this qualification and those with a degree in nutrition will be able to then take further personal trainer courses. This will allow you to offer a holistic health and fitness approach for your clients.  

Completing courses such as a personal training diploma will allow you to offer a wider variety of services as well as a more holistic approach to your clients.

We’ll look at this in more detail now. 

What is the Salary of a Sports Nutritionist with a PT Diploma?

If you become a personal trainer alongside nutritional services, however, you can offer both services or a combination of the two and potentially earn much more than even a dietitian! 

Being able to offer a combination of these services will mean you can offer both an exercise programme and nutritional advice or diet plans to better help your clients achieve their goals. 

A programme this in-depth and varied will be much more successful for your clients as well as more lucrative for you! 

For example, according to Glassdoor the same figures we looked at earlier for a personal trainer salary are as follows:

The average, as you can see, is also high as well as the upper end of the salaries declared being around the same as the upper limits of sports nutrition. 

So, if you combine these two services, you could be earning a huge amount of money and opportunities to boost your salary. 

Your sports nutritionist salary will be based on double the service and so you can potentially earn twice as much as you would just offering one! 

This is why you should become a personal trainer because rather than people going to a nutritionist and a fitness professional separately, you’ll be able to offer everything they need.

Looking at some of the packages offered by people with a combination of a sports nutrition course and personal training qualifications, you can see how much more you’ll be able to afford to charge. 

For example, let’s look at Ben Malton who’s a qualified personal trainer with vocational nutrition qualifications:

This has allowed him to create a wide variety of different, more expensive packages to boost his sports nutritionist salary and give his clients plenty of options:

As you can see, offering both of these services means you can offer longer term packages for higher sums of money. 

Having more regular contact with your clients also means you have more opportunity to upsell to them too and develop rapport which will lead to further sales and a higher sports nutritionist salary!

In order to become qualified you’ll need a PT diploma which combines a level 2 fitness instructor course and a level 3 in personal training.

These courses combine the qualifications needed to teach fitness classes as well as working with clients one-on-one with a personalised exercise programme. 

So, as you can see, you can work in several different ways and combinations of personal training services and sports nutrition.

No matter what that is, a sports nutritionist salary that combines an exercise plan as well as attention to diet will be much higher because of your increased expertise and more detailed help!

Before You Go!

That concludes our article on a sports nutritionist salary in the UK and the things you can do to boost it!

You can find out about all of our personal trainer courses here and more about how they can help increase your salary.  

You can also download our course prospectus for free for details of all of the courses!