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Macro coach - holy expensive! Worth it?

Ohwhynot

I'm desperate to find my spark/push/motivation to lose this weight I've put back on and thought it would be worth looking into having a macro coach. ...until I found out that it's more expensive to have a coach for a few months that a deluxe gym membership for a year. For those of you who have had coaching, was it worth the expense? I really need someone to slap the food out of my hands. Maybe I can pay someone to do that...

Replies

WinoGelato

I've never heard of a macro coach, what do they purport to do, that you can't do for free on this website, IIFYM.com, or others?

kommodevaran

If you want to pay someone to slap food out of your hands, there's sure going to be someone willing to take the job. You don't need that, though. If you just adjust your thinking into "eating enough, but not too much, is okay" (or words to that effect), you'll lose and maintain weight pretty effortlessly. And for free, too.

cavia

I've known people who've used such a service and it worked for them and my jaw dropped when they told me the cost. If you need that accountability it might be worth it. From my observations, they'll have you eating single ingredient foods, weighed out on the scale and either logging or sending them screenshots of your meals. I lost 50lbs doing just that for free (unless you count the $20 scale).

Ohwhynot

I mostly agree with what everyone is saying - which is why I'm wondering if it's worth the cost. I lost 50 lbs with just MFP before but I lost my will to keep going and gained it all back. I do need someone to be accountable to because, in the end, I personally just go - meh, this pizza will put me way over my calories but we'll just make up for it tomorrow... I think I just need to hire the food slapper.

Ohwhynot

WinoGelato wrote: »

I've never heard of a macro coach, what do they purport to do, that you can't do for free on this website, IIFYM.com, or others?

Basically, they give you custom goals and workouts, check in with you once a week to help keep you on track. They're like diet babysitters.

SezxyStef

Ohwhynot wrote: »

WinoGelato wrote: »

I've never heard of a macro coach, what do they purport to do, that you can't do for free on this website, IIFYM.com, or others?

Basically, they give you custom goals and workouts, check in with you once a week to help keep you on track. They're like diet babysitters.

Yup this...

I think it's a fancy name for a weight loss coach to be honest.

I wouldn't pay much for one...I would prefer a more rounded approach.

Ohwhynot

THIS is why I come here, people. Sometimes I not only need the food slapped out of my hand, but my credit card also.

Thank you for the discussion.

MegaMooseEsq

I get the desire for accountability though - I actually have a paid membership here because it was how I incentivized myself to actually use the site when I started logging way back in July 2016. Sometimes putting money where your mouth is can help, but sometimes it’s just way too much money! I’m sure you can figure out something reasonable that works for you.

psuLemon

Ohwhynot wrote: »

I'm desperate to find my spark/push/motivation to lose this weight I've put back on and thought it would be worth looking into having a macro coach. ...until I found out that it's more expensive to have a coach for a few months that a deluxe gym membership for a year. For those of you who have had coaching, was it worth the expense? I really need someone to slap the food out of my hands. Maybe I can pay someone to do that...

If you don't mind online support, I'd look at avatar nutrition. Very customizable and gets a lot of good feedback.

Lounmoun

Ohwhynot wrote: »

I mostly agree with what everyone is saying - which is why I'm wondering if it's worth the cost. I lost 50 lbs with just MFP before but I lost my will to keep going and gained it all back. I do need someone to be accountable to because, in the end, I personally just go - meh, this pizza will put me way over my calories but we'll just make up for it tomorrow... I think I just need to hire the food slapper.

Ohwhynot wrote: »

WinoGelato wrote: »

I've never heard of a macro coach, what do they purport to do, that you can't do for free on this website, IIFYM.com, or others?

Basically, they give you custom goals and workouts, check in with you once a week to help keep you on track. They're like diet babysitters.

So you lost 50 lbs on your own but found it hard to sustain. Are you going to pay a diet babysitter or food slapper for the rest of your life?
At some point you are going to have to learn to manage either having smaller portions of pizza, lower calorie pizza or abstaining from pizza on your own. You know how to lose weight. It sounds like you fizzle out over maintaining.

Maybe put the money into therapy instead. I'm not saying that to be mean. I think there is something you may need help working out mentally or emotionally and a therapist might be better person to acheive long term changes than a macro coach.

Muscleflex79

Ohwhynot wrote: »

WinoGelato wrote: »

I've never heard of a macro coach, what do they purport to do, that you can't do for free on this website, IIFYM.com, or others?

Basically, they give you custom goals and workouts, check in with you once a week to help keep you on track. They're like diet babysitters.

you realize the "custom goals" and "custom workouts" they are giving you are likely not all that customized. I've seen people pay for this before and I just don't get it - like others have said, you can get most of the stuff (i.e. macros, workouts) online for free. If you need to pay for the babysitter part of it, like someone said above - you'd have to be willing to pay for the rest of your life and that seems crazy too.

ninerbuff

Lol, they'll likely give you some advice like: "Here's what you should shoot for for macro ratios 50/30/20". And that's like really basic info you can find just about anywhere.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

deannalfisher

how much are you talking? I personally use eat to perform - i think its about $30 a month - i get reviewed weekly and my macros tweaked as needed - I bought a lifetime membership about 6 months ago which means i never have to pay again but for me its worth it

Ohwhynot

deannalfisher wrote: »

how much are you talking? I personally use eat to perform - i think its about $30 a month - i get reviewed weekly and my macros tweaked as needed - I bought a lifetime membership about 6 months ago which means i never have to pay again but for me its worth it

a lot... 4 times that for diet and fitness coaching.

Ohwhynot

Lounmoun wrote: »

So you lost 50 lbs on your own but found it hard to sustain. Are you going to pay a diet babysitter or food slapper for the rest of your life?

I haven't ruled that out yet.

Ohwhynot

ninerbuff wrote: »

Lol, they'll likely give you some advice like: "Here's what you should shoot for for macro ratios 50/30/20". And that's like really basic info you can find just about anywhere.

That's what I'm afraid of. I have macros that I plugged in from a couple different calculators so I'm not sure what I could get that's super different.

jemhh

I lost 52 lbs on my own and used a coaching service this year. It pretty much set my macros/calories and checked in with me once per week. I don't use it now but it was helpful for me during a rough time and I don't regret using it.

Fuzzipeg

I know this may seem silly. Do you by any chance have a photograph of yourself which you do not like? When you were at your highest weight. Could you perhaps put a copy on your fridge door? You would see it each time you go to the fridge, might be the incentive to help to keep you on track and/or keep to perfect portion sizes. May be balance it with one of you, you really like, at a weight when you felt comfortable. (It probably would not be a good idea, unless you live alone, and remember to put it back when expected friends leave) It would be easier on the pocket. All the very best.

WinoGelato

Ohwhynot wrote: »

I mostly agree with what everyone is saying - which is why I'm wondering if it's worth the cost. I lost 50 lbs with just MFP before but I lost my will to keep going and gained it all back. I do need someone to be accountable to because, in the end, I personally just go - meh, this pizza will put me way over my calories but we'll just make up for it tomorrow... I think I just need to hire the food slapper.

At the end of the day, unless you are going to pay someone to slap food out of your hand for ever, you have to learn how to be accountable to yourself, and by yourself. I agree with @Lounmoun , it sounds like maintenance is what you struggle with. Common advice is to lose weight in a way that will make it easy to transition to maintenance, so that you don't cut things out temporarily that you don't plan to abstain from forever - you learn how to moderate your intake of pizza, fit it into your daily or weekly goals, so that you can still enjoy pizza while losing weight and while maintaining.

A lot of people find great success with doing a series of challenges here on MFP, or with building a group of like minded friends for support and accountability. Other tactics like prelogging can be another method that helps with determining how to fit foods into your plan, so you hopefully avoid that "oh well, I already ate it, might as well scrap the whole day/week/month" that some people struggle with.

quiksylver296

I have a coach (powerlifting trainer) and he sets my macros for me as part of my training. But I didn't hire him for the macro part, I hired him for the powerlifting training. I think he's worth it. I would not think he was worth it if it was just for the macros part.

deannalfisher

Ohwhynot wrote: »

deannalfisher wrote: »

how much are you talking? I personally use eat to perform - i think its about $30 a month - i get reviewed weekly and my macros tweaked as needed - I bought a lifetime membership about 6 months ago which means i never have to pay again but for me its worth it

a lot... 4 times that for diet and fitness coaching.

whoa...yeah wayyy overpriced...i know triathletes who pay that for their macros coaches - i can't afford it but can't say anything bad about ETP if you want to check them out

psuLemon

deannalfisher wrote: »

Ohwhynot wrote: »

deannalfisher wrote: »

how much are you talking? I personally use eat to perform - i think its about $30 a month - i get reviewed weekly and my macros tweaked as needed - I bought a lifetime membership about 6 months ago which means i never have to pay again but for me its worth it

a lot... 4 times that for diet and fitness coaching.

whoa...yeah wayyy overpriced...i know triathletes who pay that for their macros coaches - i can't afford it but can't say anything bad about ETP if you want to check them out

Also a good option. At least sidesteel provides a good amount of personal engagement.

bebeisfit

What about paying the money to yourself? Have you heard of healthy wage? You sign up for a specific # of months, dollars per month and a weight loss goal. I'm doing 6 months, $25/month and a goal of 22 lbs. but you can do more or less and if you make the weight loss goal, you get all the money plus some. You can make additional money if you sign up friends.

cs2thecox

quiksylver296 wrote: »

I have a coach (powerlifting trainer) and he sets my macros for me as part of my training. But I didn't hire him for the macro part, I hired him for the powerlifting training. I think he's worth it. I would not think he was worth it if it was just for the macros part.

Similar, my PT sets my macros and is also a friend on here so he has access to my diary.
Occasionally I'll get a little email about my food intake...

I find that knowing he has access to my food diary helps me stick to what I'm meant to be doing. By and large. For the most part. Unless, you know, there's free cake. Or cheese. Or wine...
But I make sure to do my best to log everything. The good, the bad and the ugly. Then I at least know where to point the finger when I'm complaining about why I haven't lost the last bit of back fat!

ritzvin

Not sure how useful that would be (unless they are literally following you around slapping food out of your hands). Plenty of freely available equations to tell you how much protein & fat you should make sure to get, and you'll be the one cooking and weighing and logging the food. I can maybe see it for highly competitive athletes, where it might be custom tailored per one's individual performance and competition schedule, but otherwise, I doubt it would be particularly customized.

deannalfisher

psuLemon wrote: »

deannalfisher wrote: »

Ohwhynot wrote: »

deannalfisher wrote: »

how much are you talking? I personally use eat to perform - i think its about $30 a month - i get reviewed weekly and my macros tweaked as needed - I bought a lifetime membership about 6 months ago which means i never have to pay again but for me its worth it

a lot... 4 times that for diet and fitness coaching.

whoa...yeah wayyy overpriced...i know triathletes who pay that for their macros coaches - i can't afford it but can't say anything bad about ETP if you want to check them out

Also a good option. At least sidesteel provides a good amount of personal engagement.

i realized how little my last post made sense re-reading it...

whoa...yeah wayyy overpriced...i know triathletes who pay that for their macros coaches - i can't afford it

HOWEVER, I do use and continue to use ETP and can't say anything bad about them if you want to check them out - should not post pre-coffee apparently

Psychgrrl

kommodevaran wrote: »

If you want to pay someone to slap food out of your hands, there's sure going to be someone willing to take the job.

OMG--I will! I am a hella good slapper!

Ohwhynot

bebeisfit wrote: »

What about paying the money to yourself? Have you heard of healthy wage? You sign up for a specific # of months, dollars per month and a weight loss goal. I'm doing 6 months, $25/month and a goal of 22 lbs. but you can do more or less and if you make the weight loss goal, you get all the money plus some. You can make additional money if you sign up friends.

I haven't heard of that. That's pretty cool!

Ohwhynot

Psychgrrl wrote: »

kommodevaran wrote: »

If you want to pay someone to slap food out of your hands, there's sure going to be someone willing to take the job.

OMG--I will! I am a hella good slapper!

YOU'RE HIRED!

Evamutt

We all need help in different areas, mostly our thinking. How long did it take you to lose the wt? I've been on here for yr & half & found my new habits have become habits, as I don't WANT to go back to how I was eating. Also, I struggled through having smaller portions of things I loved & didn't want to give up but used to eat a lot of at one sitting, sometime I failed but kept pushing thru. Now a days, if I have too much sodium, fat or just extra food,(as I did some at other ppl's house) I feel sick to my stomach. There must be some other way to get accountability help without paying lots of $$, some good ideas on here