Can I trust my Personal Trainer?

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Replies

  • apriltrainer
    apriltrainer Posts: 732 Member
    I'm a personal trainer myself and I would NEVER give caloric advice. That's not my forte. I set up the workouts...recommend they see a nutritionist for their specific caloric needs. As for the pt telling you when to eat...does he have your schedule in mind or his? Are these arbitrary numbers that he just throws up?

    As for me....before I was a pt, when I was trying to lose my baby weight I saw a pt and he had me drinking protein shakes...( i think it was a ploy to make me buy them from him so that he could meet his supplement quota). Needless to say ,I ended up gaining weight.

    What is caloric advice?

    Just telling people how many cals to eat. I would never do that. Everyone is different and that's not what I am trained to do. I know some people here think all personal trainers are up there in league with car salesman, money grubbing lawyers..etc..but this NURSE turned personal trainer(and I could make a heck of a lot more doing nursing) will not just give advice on nutrition because that's not my specialty at all. It would be unethical for me to give such advice on calorie requirements. But if you want my advice during my half hour window where I take my lunch...make an appt. But i'll still recommend seeing a nutritonist!
  • emergencytennis
    emergencytennis Posts: 864 Member
    I'm a personal trainer myself and I would NEVER give caloric advice. That's not my forte. I set up the workouts...recommend they see a nutritionist for their specific caloric needs. As for the pt telling you when to eat...does he have your schedule in mind or his? Are these arbitrary numbers that he just throws up?

    As for me....before I was a pt, when I was trying to lose my baby weight I saw a pt and he had me drinking protein shakes...( i think it was a ploy to make me buy them from him so that he could meet his supplement quota). Needless to say ,I ended up gaining weight.

    What is caloric advice?

    Just telling people how many cals to eat. I would never do that. Everyone is different and that's not what I am trained to do. I know some people here think all personal trainers are up there in league with car salesman, money grubbing lawyers..etc..but this NURSE turned personal trainer(and I could make a heck of a lot more doing nursing) will not just give advice on nutrition because that's not my specialty at all. It would be unethical for me to give such advice on calorie requirements. But if you want my advice during my half hour window where I take my lunch...make an appt.

    It's just I googled "caloric" you see, and it was ambiguous.
  • GauchoMark
    GauchoMark Posts: 1,804 Member
    if you have to ask...

    ...then no.



    Find a trainer that you feel comfortable with or, better yet, do the research on your own and save your money.
  • xMonroeMisfit
    xMonroeMisfit Posts: 411 Member
    in...for 'eat more now' posts....

    ^^^

    All jokes aside though, find a nutritionist for your eating habits and let the trainer train you in the gym. Have an idea of what you want to do and tell him to show you how to do it effectively.

    I hired a trainer just to show me proper form on the lifts I wanted to do. Made his job easier and made it worth the money I was paying since I got exactly what I wanted.
  • mr_rat
    mr_rat Posts: 35 Member
    take his advice with a grain of salt. Meaning, trust but verify. there are a lot of people here that have lived through it and can tell you what worked for them. Even that MAY work for you.

    Personal trainers are $$ motivated. At Lifetime FItness it usually goes like this:

    1) Ask a trainer out on floor ANY question
    2) trainer responds with "I'm busy right now would you like to make an appoinment?"

    appointment is code for - "you are going to pay me $99 an hour in order to talk to me"

    I figure if they have time to stop and schedule an appointment they ought to have time to answer a simple question.

    Bottom line - MAKE FRIENDS! Lots and lots of friends. Pick their brains, chat, ask questions. and READ READ READ. For example - google minimum daily caloric intake while breastfeeding. (just a thought)

    good luck!

    Of course they are motivated by money, it's their job/career/source of income. Why would you expect them to be any different? I'm a software programmer, if someone walks by and asked me for some code, they get charged for it. It isn't any different.
    I am a programmer also. Although I would not give out code, i would offer advice free of charge on how to do it, as long as it didn't take to long. My PT answered questions from me for a month, before i decided to let him create a workout for me. I trusted him and felt that he knew what he doing. I would NEVER work with someone that was just in it for the money. They should enjoy helping people. BY that joy should be willing to answer a few questions and giving a few tips. Otherwise how do you know they are any good. Same goes with programming. It why i'm considered the best in this area I think.
  • FlaxMilk
    FlaxMilk Posts: 3,452 Member
    The biggest part for me would be the no eating before working out. I can't do it. I feel sick to my stomach when I do that, and my workouts are not as good. If it works for you and you want to, ok, but if it doesn't, don't try to stick to something like that as it's not worth it.
  • murphy612
    murphy612 Posts: 734 Member
    :smile: NM
  • littlebee26
    littlebee26 Posts: 116
    I'm a personal trainer with qualifications in nutrition for weight management and in sports nutrition.

    Yours appears to be an idiot.

    In what way?
  • littlebee26
    littlebee26 Posts: 116
    I'm a personal trainer myself and I would NEVER give caloric advice. That's not my forte. I set up the workouts...recommend they see a nutritionist for their specific caloric needs. As for the pt telling you when to eat...does he have your schedule in mind or his? Are these arbitrary numbers that he just throws up?

    As for me....before I was a pt, when I was trying to lose my baby weight I saw a pt and he had me drinking protein shakes...( i think it was a ploy to make me buy them from him so that he could meet his supplement quota). Needless to say ,I ended up gaining weight.

    The times were decided based on my schedule (work breaks etc). Will keep in mind what you are saying about gaining weight on protein shakes. Thanks
  • jzammetti
    jzammetti Posts: 1,956 Member
    the only thing i would suggest is that you ask him to teach you compound lifts - deadlifts, squats, over head press, chin up, pull up, bench press, etc - the trainers in my gym never have their clients bench pressing, deadlifting, or squatting and I can not for the life of me figure out why ...

    I completely agree. Maybe read New Rules of Lifting for Women which has a lot of great information for a beginner - and bring that knowledge with you to your sessions.
  • littlebee26
    littlebee26 Posts: 116
    Save your money. You already know what you need to know. MFP, Scooby, new lifting rules. Why would you pay for stuff you already know? If you need someone to shout "Cmon two more" at you then call your mother. Or, I am available for shouting at very reasonable rates.

    Definitely not hiring him to shout at me haha! I hired him because if there is one thing I lack when it comes to working out it is consistency. And that is largely due to not getting the results I a want. Having a personal trainer will mean that I am answerable to someone if I have a bad week. It will also mean that if I am not getting the results I want I will have someone there who is an expert and therefore likely to be able to help me make the necessary changes to progress. I'm not saying that having a personal trainer will guarantee better results, but its worth a try.
  • DawnieB1977
    DawnieB1977 Posts: 4,248 Member
    I have a PT, and now I only have about 10lbs to lose, and he suggests 1600 calories a day. In my sessions with him we do mainly weights and perhaps 10 mins of cardio. He has me doing free weights, dead lifts, squats, lunges, planks, kettlebells, etc. I also do a mix of cardio and weights when I do solo gym sessions, plus I do a lot of classes.

    I'm not sure what nutrition training he has, so I'll try out things he suggests, but I don't take it as gospel. He recommended a cheat meal, so long as I ate perfectly all week, so not even a single biscuit, and I tried that for about 2 months but didn't notice a significant difference so now I just eat healthily with the occasional treat.

    Some people seem to think their personal trainer is god and they should do everything they say. What works for one person may not work for everyone....
  • HappyStack
    HappyStack Posts: 802 Member
    Not meaning to get too personal, but are you breastfeeding (with a 4mo. old)? because you really do not need to be on such a large calorie deficit, and doing so while breastfeeding could be a problem.

    Even without that, I believe that 1200 is too low. Even if it's only to lose a stone. You are roughly 10lbs lighter than I am, at the same height, and I eat around 1700 per day. I lose weight just fine. Any exercise I do makes up an even greater calorie deficit.

    You can find caloric equations online to work out what your intake should be and then reduce that number by about 10-20% of itself to find a sensible calorie deficit to start working from. If you aren't losing a steady 1lb or so per week after a fortnight or so, then lower a little more.

    Just using an arbitrary number is counterproductive, it gives you no real understanding of how your body will best utilize the calories you're giving it.
  • littlebee26
    littlebee26 Posts: 116
    Not meaning to get too personal, but are you breastfeeding (with a 4mo. old)? because you really do not need to be on such a large calorie deficit, and doing so while breastfeeding could be a problem.

    Even without that, I believe that 1200 is too low. Even if it's only to lose a stone. You are roughly 10lbs lighter than I am, at the same height, and I eat around 1700 per day. I lose weight just fine. Any exercise I do makes up an even greater calorie deficit.

    You can find caloric equations online to work out what your intake should be and then reduce that number by about 10-20% of itself to find a sensible calorie deficit to start working from. If you aren't losing a steady 1lb or so per week after a fortnight or so, then lower a little more.

    Just using an arbitrary number is counterproductive, it gives you no real understanding of how your body will best utilize the calories you're giving it.

    I'm not breastfeeding at the moment (I breastfed for the first month) but I will definitely take your advice on board in relation to looking at possibly upping my calorie intake.
  • leebesstoad
    leebesstoad Posts: 1,186 Member
    I listen to my PT and would trust him on diet and nutrition, but we've been together 3 years, he's become one of my best friends. I'm going to his wedding in the fall, and he's a Type 1 diabetic so he's sort of had to learn a lot about nutrition his entire life. We have an agreement. I tell him what I want to work on and then we do what he thinks we need to do. :)

    1200 calories to lose 14 pounds in 10 weeks? What's the rush? Let's do some math, shall we. Let's assume you burn only 200 calories in each of the 3 workouts each week with your trainer for 10 weeks. That means he is guessing you're TDEE (absent the training) is about 1815 calories to lose the 14 pounds in 10 weeks. So why not stretch it out to 20 weeks, then you could be on 1500 calories a day and get there without the stress. Remember, weight loss is nothing more than simple math: burn more calories than you take in. It's doing it that is the hard part.

    Another question: is he selling you the protein shake? If the answer is yes, I would be very, VERY suspicious.

    To me, the number seems too low for you, too aggressive for someone trying to lose such a small amount of weight, someone with a newborn which can be tiring in and of itself (which I bet keeps your TDEE up to begin with). But this is something you need to consider yourself and not necessarily the opinion of anonymous voices on the internet too. Our opinions aren't necessarily any better than the trainer's is. But just a different point of view for you to consider.
  • MyChocolateDiet
    MyChocolateDiet Posts: 22,281 Member
    TL;DR

    If you're paying him you better trust him. If you don't trust him, better not pay him. Save the money for another trainer. Simple.
  • redhead1910
    redhead1910 Posts: 304 Member
    Personal trainers are not nutritionists. I only use my trainer to make sure I keep proper form when I am lifting and to teach me new routines. See a dietician or a nutritionist for food advice.
  • littlebee26
    littlebee26 Posts: 116
    I'm a personal trainer with qualifications in nutrition for weight management and in sports nutrition.

    Yours appears to be an idiot.

    Ha Ha Ha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    ????????

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