In most cases, main chronic diseases’ development is caused by human’s lifestyle. Although a healthy lifestyle does not require considerable efforts, many people, knowing about its importance, cannot change their lifestyle and habits. According to the first population study of health literacy, knowledge and understanding alone are not always sufficient to change behavior and habits in regard to health. A skill to apply information on health promotion and disease prevention in everyday life is also necessary, which is the most difficult for the Russian population, as the study has shown. This implies the need to develop and implement modern approaches which will not only increase awareness but also change behavior based on reliable data to improve health at all stages of life. All these factors have created the background for the appearance of specialists on a healthy lifestyle in modern society, often without basic medical education, and the development of such a direction as «health coaching» — an approach to improving human’s health and well-being by changing habits and lifestyle. Such specialists are becoming increasingly popular in Russia, and there is still no common understanding of their role, the boundaries of their activities are blurred, their training programs in Russia are not standardized and their effectiveness is not studied. The objective of this article is to consider the history and development of professional activities of healthy lifestyle specialists without medical education in the world and in Russia, to discuss its understanding and role in the healthcare system, and to study the effectiveness.