Can Personal Trainers Help You Lose Fat?
I just got back from the gym this morning and I can’t help but feel a little sorry for all the people who are spending boat loads of cash on personal trainers, but look the same day in and day out.
I workout around 7:30am-8am most weekday mornings, and at this hour the gym is mostly populated by personal trainers with their clients. Me and my training partner are two of the only people there who aren’t accompanied by a trainer from the gym.
Between our sets I just scan the room and check out what each trainer is doing with their clients and this is when the problem with the ‘fitness’ industry becomes evident.
The people who are working with trainers are almost always overweight, and clearly their goal is to lose weight, so they hire a trainer hoping that they can exercise the weight away. But you and I both know this is highly unlikely. (there is good scientific evidence to back this up too, but thats for another day)
The trainers have these people doing all kinds of elaborate cross training routines and making them do workouts worthy of a football conditioning camp. But all of this is a vain attempt to force more calorie burning in their strictly defined one hour training session.
I don’t care how hard you work in that one hour, there is no chance these people are ever going to experience any real change in their body weight or body fat levels unless they make a big change in their eating habits as well.
And that is the trick to all of this. Losing weight is essentially free! Actually it’s better than free, you should end up saving more money because you’ll be consuming less food.
So as you lose weight your bank account should actually grow. <– this unfortunately doesn’t happen with the multitudes of people who waste money on personal trainers hoping to exercise away their excess body fat.
Instead these people end up spending hundreds or thousands of dollars and don’t lose a pound.
The bottom line is weight loss comes from a change in your eating habits, namely eating less food.
Exercise is obviously good for your overall health and you should be active every day, but don’t expect weight loss results from exercise alone.
Anyone who has experienced real weight loss can attest to this. I’m just wondering what all the personal trainers will do when more people figure this out.
John
12 Responses to “Can Personal Trainers Help You Lose Fat?”
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October 21st, 2009 at 12:53 pm
Th problem with those personal trainers is that they are there more for themself. The money honey..
And yes, only the change of eatinghabit and life style will help overweighted people
October 21st, 2009 at 1:28 pm
Hallelujah and Amen.
Guess what? Personal Trainers can talk til they are blue in the face about how you can’t out-train a bad diet, but in the end they aren’t able to be at their client’s house and slap their hands away from that bowl of chips every time they reach for it. THAT ONE is 100% up to the client, and most either don’t have the resolve, or flat out don’t believe us when we repeat ourselves ad nauseum, and instead choose to believe that working out gives them carte blanche to eat as much as they damn well please.
… just sayin’…
October 21st, 2009 at 11:31 pm
I go to the gym 3 to 5 times per week and I watch the personal trainers put people through their work out, heavy people. I have seen 2 people return to work out at the gym once their training is done. I had 30 minutes with a trainer for free when I joined after which they tried to charge me 2 arms, 2 legs and a head to pay them to wreck my knees. I told the gal that I was not to do any lunges because my knees were bad and she just said I had to do them a different way so I tried it. Worst thing I ever did, that was in March and my knees are still trying to recover. I didn’t have any problems working out until then. The only thing they told me about losing weight was that I couldn’t eat at fast food restaurants and that was it. I tell everyone if they are heavy not to let them force them to do anything that puts pressure on their knees. Heavy people have knee problems already and what they put them through makes it worse. That’s probably why they never come back and they never lose weight. One woman who comes often to work with her trainer told me she hasn’t lost any weight. She’s not really heavy either, just a little over weight.
October 22nd, 2009 at 7:41 am
Hahahahahaha I used to be one of those personal trainers. Fresh out of a PT school and telling people to weight train with me cos every pound of muscle would increase their daily calorie expediture by 100 calories (don’t hate me that was what was in our manuals).
I had to stop once I educated myself and realised that the only results people got were in fitness and strength gains and my clients didn’t really care too much about those things, just the number on the scale.
If I could do it again, before a weekly or bi weekly session I would make my clients fast for 24 hours before the workout and weigh them each week and watch the numbers go down.
October 22nd, 2009 at 1:06 pm
Joel,
You and me both buddy. Back in my younger and much more naive days I told clients all the same BS. More than anything they were just lonely and wanted someone to hang out with.
Personal training is such a bizarre profession because you really are dealing with a major personal issue with these people.
JB
October 22nd, 2009 at 9:33 pm
I agree with girlwithnoname. Personal trainers can only do their part when you’re with them. When you go home or are confronted with temptation, it’s up to you to be strong and stick with your regimen.
October 25th, 2009 at 4:21 am
John,
after 1 month of AI Burn Workout i moved to a waist to height ratio of 50.3%
This means that on monday i will start my build and burn workout?
October 25th, 2009 at 2:21 pm
Yup you can make the transition for sure. Be aware that the new workout you’re moving into has 2 days of interval training added that you put in wherever you can fit during the week.
JB
October 25th, 2009 at 10:01 pm
Hi John,
This is a bit off topic, but I have read comments on your blog where you state that there isnt really an issue to fast three times a week for 24 hour periods besides scheduling. In terms of minimum requirments for protein (for ex. as stated in how much protein), could 3, 24 hour fasts cause someone to fall short on these requirements and possibly lose some muscle even while folliwing a well designed workout program – lifitng 3 times a week?
October 26th, 2009 at 11:44 am
Ryan,
There is evidence that people eating as little as 25 grams of protein per day can still gain muscle. So there is no reason that I can tell why 3 fasts per week would cause you to lose muscle. Also there isn’t really muscle “loss’ as much as there is ‘shrinking’. The muscle tissue is always there, just not as bloated so to speak.
Also it wouldn’t be very difficult to get your protein requirement even with 3 fasts per week.
I’d also assume that 3 fasts per week isn’t something you want to do forever, but even if it is, there is more than enough opportunity to eat enough protein between your fasts. I wouldn’t worry about it at all.
Keep in mind that most people in industrialized countries already eat at or above the protein range we recommend for muscle building.
JB
October 26th, 2009 at 2:54 pm
Thanks for the response,
No I’m definately not planning on fasting 3 times a week forever. I’ve tried it a couple of times with great fat loss results. I was concerned as I was eating on average less than 70 grams of protein per day (about 410 grams (estimated guess -give or take 100g maybe haha) over 7 days when i fasted 3 times in a week) , but not really concerned anymore. I wil just try to get more protein between fasts, and if not, I’ll try not to worry about it as long as I’m lifting.
October 26th, 2009 at 4:53 pm
Ryan,
I’m right there with you, I’m currently cutting down and I still have twinges of protein guilt. It’s unbelievable that it still affects us so much.
There is really no chance that you are ‘losing muscle’. If you need more proof then take your measurements (arms, shoulders, legs etc), as well as a log of your strength in the gym. If both of these are staying relatively constant then that is another way to confirm to yourself that you’re doing ok. (might as well if it’ll help get rid of your protein guilt)
JB