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MyFitnessPal Community

Is this crazy?

nettiklive

I just heard from an acquaintance who is starting to work with a personal trainer at a gym, that they have her on this plan to lose weight and build muscle: no bread, pasta, starches etc, no refined carbs or sugar of any kind except limited fruit, no dairy. No mention of calories. Workout of cardio 5 days a week for an hour, plus circuit strength training three times a week, and extra cardio on those days.

Now, I don't know because I'm not a personal trainer. But from lurking on this site a lot and personal experience, this to me seems like a ridiculously and needlessly punishing routine that is entirely unnecessary, when the same results could probably be achieved with simple calorie counting and a focus on heavy lifting rather than all those hours of cardio (spoken like a former skinny fat cardio queen and now finally starting to see real results with lifting). Not sure why a trainer would choose a program that sounds so difficult to keep up (this is for a young mom of two, too, so time is an issue). Correct me if I'm wrong...

Replies

SparklySarah412

No idea if it works but it sounds bloody awful! There's no way I could stick to a diet that bland.

I'd say putting someone on such a strict diet as that is just setting them up to fail.

cityruss

Just as with any "diet" the results will depend on energy balance.

No matter how you dress it up everything comes down to basic physiological principles of how much energy is consumed vs how much energy is expended.

StealthHealth

There is some lousy PT advice given out but there are also some very good PTs who fail to communicate the details of a plan and the trainee gets the wrong message. I've seen this happen first hand.

Need2Exerc1se

That does seem unnecessarily aggressive and completely unsustainable to me. Or perhaps I should say "for me" as I have no idea what might be sustainable for your friend.

illyich

You're right. Heavy Lifting + Simple Calorie Counting is king.

Nettyb1960

Just depends on how aggressive you want to be. I work with a trainer - my carbs are from rice, beans,quinoa, and potatoes. Sugar is evil - and that includes the fake, real, organic, etc. The cardio sounds like a bit too much!

scoii

To qualify as a nutritionist you need an online course for a few hours.

To give diet advice as a PT you need to read a magazine. He sounds useless but most people trust an 'expert'.

cerise_noir

Need2Exerc1se wrote: »

That does seem unnecessarily aggressive and completely unsustainable to me. Or perhaps I should say "for me" as I have no idea what might be sustainable for your friend.

I was just going to say this.
Calories are king for weight loss.

bmmabe

That sounds like a keto diet. Plenty of people swear by it, but some don't find the results they're looking for. It's used to build weight, but it doesn't always have a focus at the same time on muscle-building. The premise is basically cutting out as many carbs as possible so that the body goes into a ketonic state and starts burning fat instead of carbohydrates. As to its efficacy I can't say...

kendahlj

I like the plan. Except for the no dairy part. She'll lose weight for sure if she sticks to it...

Sued0nim

I am surprised at this

The PT programme, if accurate, sounds awful

The nutrition sounds worse. But maybe she's the type who responds well to fads...with clear demarcations of can and can't eat.

Has she gone from a standing start to this programme or worked up?

Nettyb1960 wrote: »

Just depends on how aggressive you want to be. I work with a trainer - my carbs are from rice, beans,quinoa, and potatoes. Sugar is evil - and that includes the fake, real, organic, etc. The cardio sounds like a bit too much!

Wow. Sugar is a carb. It is not evil. An inanimate object cannot be evil. It is also not bad, it just is. It is also not bad for you, it just is an ingredient, along with other carbs and fats, in many highly calorific and palatable foods, overconsumption of calories leads to weight gain.

alexandriaaymelek

I do this, carbs under 25g. Cardio 6 times a week...

LokiGrrl

That much cardio sounds like hell on earth to me. I'm up to 1-2 miles 2-3 days a week. I want to start strength training but everyone says I need to do the cardio first and lose more fat. Blah.

Seconding that sugar isn't necessarily evil. I think there's too much of it in too many things and I avoid added sugar myself, but that's because it makes me want to eat all of the things.

sijomial

no bread, pasta, starches etc, no refined carbs or sugar of any kind except limited fruit - that's just pointlessly restrictive.

no dairy - completely dumb.

No mention of calories - dumb on an epic scale when the goal is to lose weight.

Workout of cardio 5 days a week for an hour, plus circuit strength training three times a week, and extra cardio on those days - going to help with the weight loss goal due to the high calorie burns but very little help with the goal of building muscle which will require a very small deficit, far more optimal training, good protein intake.

Your friend has hired a really poor trainer I'm afraid.

dmt4641

LokiGrrl wrote: »

That much cardio sounds like hell on earth to me. I'm up to 1-2 miles 2-3 days a week. I want to start strength training but everyone says I need to do the cardio first and lose more fat. Blah.

Seconding that sugar isn't necessarily evil. I think there's too much of it in too many things and I avoid added sugar myself, but that's because it makes me want to eat all of the things.

Who in the world says do cardio first and wait on strength training? Probably not many on MFP. No reason to wait on strength training. If haven't done strength training in a while you may want to start with body weight or machine exercises instead of a barbell but not reason to wait.

cerise_noir

LokiGrrl wrote: »

That much cardio sounds like hell on earth to me. I'm up to 1-2 miles 2-3 days a week. I want to start strength training but everyone says I need to do the cardio first and lose more fat. Blah.

Seconding that sugar isn't necessarily evil. I think there's too much of it in too many things and I avoid added sugar myself, but that's because it makes me want to eat all of the things.

Not true. Start now. @LokiGrrl

TavistockToad

alexandriaaymelek wrote: »

I do this, carbs under 25g. Cardio 6 times a week...

And are you building muscle doing that?

azulvioleta6

That's not too different from what I have to do in order to lose weight...except that I exercise quite a bit more and consume some dairy. I have serious and complex health issues (including a non-functioning pituitary) so it's not really a choice in my case.

There is nothing inherently unhealthy about it, but most people do not NEED to be that restrictive.

charlenekapf

What do you mean non functioning pituitary? i ask because I have very low estrogen and progesterone...no periods for around 5 years despite gaining most of the weight back I lost. they originally suspected hypothalamic amenorrhea because i was so thin when i lost it and exercised a lot. now I'm fat and am active but still no period. wondering what your specific case is if you do not mind sharing?? thanks

azulvioleta6 wrote: »

That's not too different from what I have to do in order to lose weight...except that I exercise quite a bit more and consume some dairy. I have serious and complex health issues (including a non-functioning pituitary) so it's not really a choice in my case.

There is nothing inherently unhealthy about it, but most people do not NEED to be that restrictive.

Ckminnie

She'll get the results she wants. Then she'll gain it all back when she goes back to eating "normally". And she'll have a hopelessly damaged metabolism. AND she'll blame herself for not being disciplined enough to keep the weight off.

arditarose

It's a lot of cardio...it'll help create a big deficit. It's unnecessary. And yes, you can calorie count but some people do well with cutting out carbs. The problem is when they don't understand what cutting out carbs has done with their overall calorie intake, and then they struggle to maintain once they lose.

So yeah. The trainer could have given the client a more moderate amount of cardio, added strength training to preserve lean body mass, and an appropriate calorie goal...but no.