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Chubby Trainers & Nutrionists

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Replies

  • Posts: 2,964 Member
    I would prefer a fit trainer, I know a "chubby" one might be just as or more knowledgable but to me in this situation I would hire only those that look the part.

    I want to be a Personal Trainer some day but I am still too flabby and fat in my opinion to look like I fit the profession, so someday when I am buff I will pursue this career.
  • Posts: 385 Member
    From my personal experience (I worked as a PT and instructor for about 4 years) there were MANY of the fitness professionals who were formerly unfit. As it turns out, the majority of them were some of the best in their field because they understood the struggle and judgment. I've also seen the "beefcake" trainers give out bogus advice and ineffective workouts. That being said, I do agree to a certain degree that you should lead by example in a field such as this one. Because of what I've seen, I'd give the overweight trainer the benefit of the doubt at least once, but admittedly, I'd probably be more skeptical until they proved their knowledge and/or showed proof of their abilities. Let's be honest though: when choosing a teacher of any sort, I usually prefer him or her to be at a level I aspire to be.


    ETA: When I started as a trainer and instructor, I wasn't huge but I was definitely on the chunkier side. I worked out like a beast though throughout the whole thing. It definitely helped me to have the pressure of being expected to look like I knew what I was talking about.
  • Posts: 1,118 Member
    I am torn. Beethoven's late life deafness didn't prevent his accumulation of experience and knowledge from composing beautiful music. My BIL is a personal trainer who gained weight after his lower half was crushed by a car and he was bedridden for 9 months. He has since lost a ton of weight, but he was still knowledgeable when he was heavy.
  • Posts: 1,816 Member
    I'd care more about what kind of advice they give me. Yes, I would rather them look fit, but nobody's perfect.

    And frankly, I've taken some nutrition classes when I was going for an Exercise Science degree and I don't really agree with anything I learned in the class..
  • Posts: 223 Member
    You can talk the talk, but can't walk the walk? Sorry, don't have time for you, and that goes for anyone else who is looking to give me advice on anything with nothing but book smarts.
  • Posts: 90 Member
    i feel like a bad person...but i argree so much with your post it hurts
  • Posts: 192 Member
    This is exactly why, when my doctor suggested I become a trainer, I laughed in her face. Yeah, I've come a long way, but I'm not *there* yet.

    My family/friends tell me this all the time, but I feel I am not there yet. Maybe after I lose my last 25 pounds and tone up a bit more yes.

    I can't say how I feel on this subject though. I know people that are super skinny but eat like crap and never work out. Would you want them as a personal trainer??

    I guess where that leads is I wouldn't care as long as they knew their business. Looks are not always a way to measure fitness.
  • Posts: 313 Member
    I've had two chubby trainers, one was training other people and himself - he'd also obviously been fit in the past (titles, awards, records, photos, newsclippings in his gym) but to be honest in a year I never really changed.

    My second was my ex, he had been really fit when he was a PT, but he quit, met me and got fat. Again I never really changed because of his training.

    My favourite trainer had been fat, his gym had pictures of him fat up in it (haha!) but he was fit! It's funny he was kinda the opposite of my first trainer, he was super fit and into trying all sorts of new things, he was great with diet and the bits a pieces he displayed in his gym weren't of his amazing fitness acheivements but proof that he knew what it was like to be unfit and what it felt like to put in the hard yards. I got AMAZING results with him and although he isn't training anymore what I learnt with him is what has carried me through the 6+kg I've lost without him.

    So for me, if I'm going to find a trainer due to past experience looks will count, even if it's only because I want to know that they're trying new things out on themselves before they try them out on me!
  • Posts: 3,801 Member
    As long as they have the credentials, I could care less about what they look like.
  • Posts: 403 Member
    I wouldn't hire them or take them seriously. No more than I would expect a bride to hire me to do her makeup if I looked a hot mess with mis matched foundation and running eyeliner.

    With all due respect, your profile picture probably won't encourage any bride to hire you to do her makeup. :happy:
  • Posts: 1,082 Member
    Fit trainers and fit nutrionist only.
    if they can not lose the weight , how can they help you?
  • Posts: 4,952 Member
    Now.. that's a good argument. If they're chubby because they don't workout, that's one thing. If they're chubby because they're on the backside of 150 pound weight-loss regiment, that's something else.

    This.
  • I agree. I was sitting in a hospital waiting room a couple of years ago and said hospital had just gone 'for profit' and were having a HUGE PARTY to celebrate the impending loss of lots of nurses' jobs and the deterioration of the standard of care, but I digress, anyway, said party apparently consisted of a lot of very high calorie food and apparently there was the fear of not enough food because while my Mom and I sat there waiting for the results of my Dad's surgery, we watched obese after obese nurse and other hospital staff walk through the door with not one but two ore more plates just piled high with high fat, fried, greasy food. We were hungry and shocked.

    Plus the sheer insensitivity of having the party room in a location where everyone had to walk through laughing and eating and carrying massive amounts of food while family of patients were anxiously awaiting the results of a surgery or other test was shocking. I was mostly struck with that same thought (having smugly lost 78 lbs by exercise and cutting portion size) that it should be a law that you can't be in health care and morbidly obese. Same with a personal trainer. I want to see a success story. Now, of course, I'm not so smug having slowly gained 15 of my hard won loss but at least I didn't go totally Kirstie Alley and gain all 78 plus another 20 back.
  • Posts: 4,952 Member
    ENOUGH OF THE LETS NOT HURT ANYONES FEELING BS

    If your a trainer you should be fit, If your a nutritionist you should be of a normal BMI and size.
    In either case not CHUBBY!

    END OF DISCUSSION.

    original poster if you cant tell I could not agree more :-)


    BMI don't mean jack ****. Maybe you mean BF%?
  • Posts: 4,952 Member
    and i do NOT agree that " knowledge is knowledge." knowledge needs experience. i wouldn't go to a heart surgeon who said he "knew" everything but had never performed!! same reason i don't f**k virgins. :)

    Which is how come you will instead go to a trainer who has been a skinny minnie her whole life and can gorge herself on cake and pizza every day and still be tiny?
  • Posts: 438 Member


    BMI don't mean jack ****. Maybe you mean BF%?

    No I meant BMI its a very rare occasion that you would be over your BMI and within the correct stats for BF% etc. If your a heavy lifter its reasonable i suppose. But the BMI is set as a guidline i realize not everyone fits into this and there are excpetions but generally speaking "most" should fit in this category. I would expect a nutristionist to fit into this generalization if they are going to tell me what to eat! All that aside I get you pointing that out as many ppl think weight is everything which its not you can be skinny and still be fat body fat should be most ppls main concern. Muuuuwaahhhh~!
  • Posts: 2,198 Member
    I think our friend the Gorilla has set up something of a straw man. If it didn't bother him, why is it a question?
    Um... I actually said that... second paragraph... "And, I'm not sure exactly why, but this phenomenon bothers me greatly, and has for a while."
  • Posts: 3,908 Member
    and i do NOT agree that " knowledge is knowledge." knowledge needs experience. i wouldn't go to a heart surgeon who said he "knew" everything but had never performed!! same reason i don't f**k virgins. :)

    This is an excellent example. Most people's arguments against a chubby trainer follows the same line that they wouldn't have a surgeon that hadn't perform heart surgery on themselves, despite their accomplished track record and achievements in their field.
  • Posts: 1,849 Member
    Um... I actually said that... second paragraph... " And, I'm not sure exactly why, but this phenomenon bothers me greatly, and has for a while.

    Don't you hate it when you have to repeat yourself.....repeatedly? :grumble:
  • Posts: 231 Member
    if they are in the higher end of there healthy body weight scale then that would be just fine and dandy to me. If there out right over weight and or obese and not working on there own body goals to get healthy then hell no. I'm working out hard and I hate it when fatter people than me who aren't working hard to change the health for the better give me advice on things I should try, so why would I pay for that.
  • Posts: 2,198 Member

    No I meant BMI its a very rare occasion that you would be over your BMI and within the correct stats for BF% etc. If your a heavy lifter its reasonable i suppose. But the BMI is set as a guidline i realize not everyone fits into this and there are excpetions but generally speaking "most" should fit in this category. I would expect a nutristionist to fit into this generalization if they are going to tell me what to eat! All that aside I get you pointing that out as many ppl think weight is everything which its not you can be skinny and still be fat body fat should be most ppls main concern. Muuuuwaahhhh~!
    Funny side-note... according to the BMI scale, I am morbidly obese. True story.
  • Posts: 1,098 Member

    according to the BMI scale, I am morbidly obese. True story.

    I know
  • Posts: 2,923 Member
    I guess having a fat nutritionist wold rub me the wrong way.

    But there are fat personal trainers who know their ****. They're manly enough to value strength over being skinny.........
  • Posts: 2,198 Member

    I know
    I thought you were getting blown in a hurricane or something.
  • Posts: 1,098 Member
    I thought you were getting blown in a hurricane or something.

    Not this time..
    Awe, you were worried about me. There might be a heart deep inside somewhere afterall.
  • Posts: 2,198 Member
    Not this time..
    Awe, you were worried about me. There might be a heart deep inside somewhere afterall.
    That's not funny.
  • Posts: 1,098 Member
    That's not funny.

    Dont worry, its well below the fat ( based on the BMI scale)
  • Posts: 2,198 Member
    Dont worry, its well below the fat ( based on the BMI scale)
    I know, right? I should really start working-out more.
  • Posts: 370 Member
    Yes it bothers me. I can't take them seriously. You can't teach what you don't know. In order for someone to take me seriously in anything I do, I need to know my **** and be able to back myself up 100%. If you aren't fit and you are yelling at your student (or whatever) do get their *kitten* moving, how can any take you credible?
  • Posts: 1,238 Member
    at my work I have a 5'6, 300# female doctor, you know what advice I would take from her? Not a damn thing. If she was a little chubby I'd be fine with it but once you land in morbidly obese you're input is null and void to me. That being said I expect my trainer to be in great shape, their job is to show me how to be in great shape so I do not think this is a horrible request. If your mechanic says he can't make it into work because his car is broken down do you continue to go to him? If your child's teacher sends home a note saying ' you're child needs a gooder grasp of the english language', do you ask them what they mean? If your babysitter asks you if you have seen their kid around today do you let them watch yours? Get all defensive on weight all you want but it isn't unreasonable to want an in shape trainer
This discussion has been closed.