Certified Personal Trainer Here! Looking For Help?

jayadams86

Hey Guys! My name is Justin, a certified personal trainer here at a big local gym.

I just wanted to let everyone know after many many days of having a myfitnesspal account I had no idea about these message boards; mainly due to the fact I was only using it on my cell phone.

So, in that case, if anyone has any questions regarding diet, nutrition, or training; please dont be a stranger and feel free to ask me.

Please request me or message me. Looking forward to hearing from everyone!

Much Love,
Justin

kaatielove

Very nice of you to offer your services.. be prepared to have your inbox blown up

jvdx

calorie deficit = fatloss.

tadaaa

hypallage

Thank you for the offer of help

chivalryder

Can we see some credentials?

BeeRobin

Very kind of you to offer. How about a first question. I'm really trying to step up my fitness level but an old knee injury makes for some painful nights. After a workout or walk--ICE? Heat? Ibuprofen?

Sunnysings

So nice of you to offer your services! I'd like to ask how does one go about restarting a walking plan.. I use to walk 3 miles a day5x's a week.. then I had a stent put in due to 95% blockage... That was last August 5th 2011.. and I'm stiill sitting on my (_l_)! I'm scared I suppose and all the meds I'm on make me sooooooooooo tired... I know the words of wisdom... "I don't want it bad enough yet".

AlphamaleBAMF

Hey I'm too cheap to spring for a personal trainer.

Give me some tips, is there anything else I can be doing to lose weight faster?

bigd65

calorie deficit = fatloss.

tadaa

This is awesome,but don't forget spot reducing, my new HRM has a fitness zone, fat burn zone, and spot reduce zone

pa_jorg

I can use all the help I can get, friend request on the way. Thanks for the offer :happy:

LordByproduct

Hi Justin i have a question as i am new to this site. according to the fitness pal thingy i can have 2090 calories a day to be on track to lose 2pounds per week. great. so then i add exercise (2 20-30 minute swim sessions a day) and when i log my exercise it informs me i can have more calories = how many i worked off. do i understand this correctly or am i better off to stick to the original 2090 cals. or can i eat 2090+600 for that day. it just seems counter-intuitive?

vtachycardia

Hi Justin i have a question as i am new to this site. according to the fitness pal thingy i can have 2090 calories a day to be on track to lose 2pounds per week. great. so then i add exercise (2 20-30 minute swim sessions a day) and when i log my exercise it informs me i can have more calories = how many i worked off. do i understand this correctly or am i better off to stick to the original 2090 cals. or can i eat 2090+600 for that day. it just seems counter-intuitive?

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/6556-the-answers-to-the-questions?page=1

check out the stickies, in general diet and weight loss - articles you want to read again (and again)

To the OP, yes what are your qualifications as a personal trainer?

jayadams86

Very nice of you to offer your services.. be prepared to have your inbox blown up

Katie; bring it on!

Credentials:
-Associates Degree in Communications
-Plan to pursue a Bachelor's degree in health/marketing field from Richard Stockton College of New Jersey
-National Academy of Sports Medicine(NASM) CPT
-Work at Island Gym and Fitness(www.islandgym.com)
-Part of the Professional Health and Fitness Provider Network.
-Have read thousands of articles and books on nutrition, supplementation, and fitness.
-Specialize in nutrition
-Owner and president of an online blog that produces health and fitness related topics, recipes, workouts, and so on. (leanlivin.wordpress.com)
-Knowledgeable in marketing
-Personally know professional fitness models and trainers, some whom I interviewed for college projects.
-Currently working on TRX Certification.

jayadams86

Hi Justin i have a question as i am new to this site. according to the fitness pal thingy i can have 2090 calories a day to be on track to lose 2pounds per week. great. so then i add exercise (2 20-30 minute swim sessions a day) and when i log my exercise it informs me i can have more calories = how many i worked off. do i understand this correctly or am i better off to stick to the original 2090 cals. or can i eat 2090+600 for that day. it just seems counter-intuitive?

If your goal is to lose weight/fat; then do not eat the calories back. If it were me; id set my calories on pace to lose a pound a week, than add in the cardio you do now. Or; dont do any cardio. Serious; if your already in a caloric deficit you do not need to be in any more of a deficit from cardio; if you do your body will begin to burn muscle. whats that do? Less muscle you have; slower your metabolism is.

jayadams86

calorie deficit = fatloss.

tadaa

This is awesome,but don't forget spot reducing, my new HRM has a fitness zone, fat burn zone, and spot reduce zone

You cannot spot reduce fat. Fat is dispersed everywhere throughout your body; so your body will decide where it comes from. Simple formula to remember is calories in vs. calories out. Find your maintenance calories; subtract 500 from that number, and hit that every single day.

jayadams86

Hey I'm too cheap to spring for a personal trainer.

Give me some tips, is there anything else I can be doing to lose weight faster?

Id have to know what your currently doing in order to lose the weight you want to lose; than I can offer additional tactics for weight to come off. Thanks.

lilgemforgets

i just posted this on a board but then saw your offer of advice......
Sat 08/04/12 09:00 PM

Well i weighed myself on my home scales and according to them i have lost 6lb in the last 2 weeks. However i also weighed myself at the gym to get my body fat % two weeks ago and also today (again to compare body fat %) and in the same period of time they say i only lost 1lb. So i am at a loss of what to do, it seems a big difference in two sets of scales and now i dont know whether i should be pleased with myself or pushing myself harder. Any ideas?

jayadams86

i just posted this on a board but then saw your offer of advice......
Sat 08/04/12 09:00 PM

Well i weighed myself on my home scales and according to them i have lost 6lb in the last 2 weeks. However i also weighed myself at the gym to get my body fat % two weeks ago and also today (again to compare body fat %) and in the same period of time they say i only lost 1lb. So i am at a loss of what to do, it seems a big difference in two sets of scales and now i dont know whether i should be pleased with myself or pushing myself harder. Any ideas?

Whats your program look like? Water weight can be a huge factor here. The key to losing weight is to always be consistent with your efforts; day in and day out. And the scale will eventually go down whether its a week for few weeks.

lilgemforgets

i just posted this on a board but then saw your offer of advice......
Sat 08/04/12 09:00 PM

Well i weighed myself on my home scales and according to them i have lost 6lb in the last 2 weeks. However i also weighed myself at the gym to get my body fat % two weeks ago and also today (again to compare body fat %) and in the same period of time they say i only lost 1lb. So i am at a loss of what to do, it seems a big difference in two sets of scales and now i dont know whether i should be pleased with myself or pushing myself harder. Any ideas?

Whats your program look like? Water weight can be a huge factor here. The key to losing weight is to always be consistent with your efforts; day in and day out. And the scale will eventually go down whether its a week for few weeks.

I_love_frogs

Question for you...I have a personal trainer, and he is adamant that I only do no more than 70 mins of exercise a day...str or cardio or combined. Why would that be? He never actually said WHY its bad, just that I shouldn't....

jawheb

Is it okay to be over on protein everyday? I'm
usually over. Does it have any negative effects?

lilgemforgets

Sorry MFP wouldnt let me quote there! My current routine is -

-Gym (i use cross trainer mainly for 20 - 30 mins and then bike or treadmill for 10 min) and then fixed weight machienes for about 15 mins (usually do 2 sets of 15 reps) i do this about 3 times a week
- Running / jogging - i try to run about 3 times a week, at the moment it is for about 30 mins but i am working on improving this!
- walking - i also walk the dog on our usual route (about 2.5 miles) everyday.

I hope this is ok, i have tried to talk to the gym instructors about it but they are rubbish, they dont give me any advice,i even had to ask a fellow gym user how to use the machines when i started as wasn't even given an induction!

drusilla126

I'm confused on protein powder. I don't need anything super heavy duty. I work out at Curves and it's not like I want to be on the cover of Muscle & Fitness but I want to fuel my muscles properly. I've deduced that whey is the way (wow that wasn't intended lol) to go for me as I don't like the taste of soy.

But now the question is what is best?

I saw things like Myofusion Probiotic, Muscle Milk, Isoflex, Isonatural. Lean Whey, and Precision All Natural.

Which one is best? I'm more interested in performance than taste but taste isn't unimportant. Is stuff that says isolate better?

sefrank

Question for you...I have a personal trainer, and he is adamant that I only do no more than 70 mins of exercise a day...str or cardio or combined. Why would that be? He never actually said WHY its bad, just that I shouldn't....

I know you were addressing this question to Justin but my aunt is a personal trainer and she has me doing more than 70mins of exercise a day multiple days a week and she herself does more than that a day on most days. So I'm not sure where your trainer is getting that information from.

Afterblue

I don't need any advice (yet) but wanted to say "what an nice bloke" to make such an offer.

With the amount of info floating around, the more people to give objective, knowledgeable advice, the better, I say.

smilesalot1969

Hey Justin great of you to offer to help i guess my question is how do i know what i should be doing since two different trainers have told me different things? My first trainer told me lift heavy, low reps and no more than 20 mins cardio. My present one tells me lift lower, more reps and then do decent cardio after to burn fat. which is right? i need to drop 17lb which im barely budging but also seriously tone up

cyndispot

Wow what a kind offer! I'm trying to break through a plateu right now...and I'm not really sure what to do. I've been at this weight for like 6 weeks. I exercise like about 45 min to an hour 5 or 6 6 time a week. My food has been not great for the past week cuz to be honest I got frustrated and ate a little crappy. but my question is do I keep doing what I was doing, eat more, eat less, exercise more or less...what can help me break a plateau...or do I just ride the wave and let my body sort it out. (I will mention that I have lost 65 lbs since late Jan, so I wondered if my body was just taking a break, but then I think 6 weeks...even I can't vacation that long!) Thanks for any help advice you can / are able to give.

Sidesteal

Hi Justin i have a question as i am new to this site. according to the fitness pal thingy i can have 2090 calories a day to be on track to lose 2pounds per week. great. so then i add exercise (2 20-30 minute swim sessions a day) and when i log my exercise it informs me i can have more calories = how many i worked off. do i understand this correctly or am i better off to stick to the original 2090 cals. or can i eat 2090+600 for that day. it just seems counter-intuitive?

If your goal is to lose weight/fat; then do not eat the calories back

Justin,

You should be made aware that MFP calculates deficit without exercise and then it expects you to eat the exercise calories back. In theory, someone eating exercise calories back would end up at TDEE - whatever deficit they set. For example, someone setting a 1lb/week loss eating back ALL exercise calories, would end up at (TDEE - 3500) for the week.

Your telling them to not eat exercise calories back is causing them to create a massive calorie deficit. I understand why you're recommending it, because external TDEE methods such as Katsch-McArdle/etc assume an exercise-inclusive model. MFP does not. You should know this for future reference.

(Aside: Most exercise calorie outputs are overstated so even in MFP land, I don't typically recommend eating back all exercise calories)

jayadams86

Question for you...I have a personal trainer, and he is adamant that I only do no more than 70 mins of exercise a day...str or cardio or combined. Why would that be? He never actually said WHY its bad, just that I shouldn't....

Are you kidding me? First thing you need to do is fire your trainer; serious. Anyone who says to limit exercise is an absolute joke. Do athletes limit their practice? Or do they do as much as they possibly can to be the greatest at their craft?

Theres so much bull**** going around on "how to lose this" "do this" "dont do this" when people forget the basics; work out. Thats it. Whether its 20 minutes or 2 hours. The key tho is to give EVERYTHING you have. You don't mope around; you don't converse; you give blood, sweat, and tears to achieve anything you want. Look at our ancestors. Did people in ancient times limit their exercise to 70 minutes? No; they moved ALL DAY LONG.

jayadams86

Hi Justin i have a question as i am new to this site. according to the fitness pal thingy i can have 2090 calories a day to be on track to lose 2pounds per week. great. so then i add exercise (2 20-30 minute swim sessions a day) and when i log my exercise it informs me i can have more calories = how many i worked off. do i understand this correctly or am i better off to stick to the original 2090 cals. or can i eat 2090+600 for that day. it just seems counter-intuitive?

If your goal is to lose weight/fat; then do not eat the calories back

Justin,

You should be made aware that MFP calculates deficit without exercise and then it expects you to eat the exercise calories back. In theory, someone eating exercise calories back would end up at TDEE - whatever deficit they set. For example, someone setting a 1lb/week loss eating back ALL exercise calories, would end up at TDEE - 3500 for the week.

Your telling them to not eat exercise calories back is causing them to create a massive calorie deficit. I understand why you're recommending it, because external TDEE methods such as Katsch-McArdle/etc assume an exercise-inclusive model. MFP does not. You should know this for future reference.

(Aside: Most exercise calorie outputs are overstated so even in MFP land, I don't typically recommend eating back all exercise calories)

Thanks bro; will do. Easiest way to know if your in a deficit with MFP is to set your caloric goal at maintenance level(lose 0 lbs per week) and make sure theyre under it for that day.

jayadams86

Hey Justin great of you to offer to help i guess my question is how do i know what i should be doing since two different trainers have told me different things? My first trainer told me lift heavy, low reps and no more than 20 mins cardio. My present one tells me lift lower, more reps and then do decent cardio after to burn fat. which is right? i need to drop 17lb which im barely budging but also seriously tone up

You do both. Seriously. There isnt one program to see results. The body is alwys trying to reach homeostasis, it doesnt like change or adaptation. But, if we want to see the best results possible; we HAVE to make it adapt. The metabolic benefits are great, the results are great. Its muscle confusion; why such programs like P90X are so successful.