Does anyone have a Personal Trainer?

I have had a few trainers. The one I have now is amazing and I feel like I couldn't do it without her sometimes (she asserts differently, but still...).

If you feel you want help with your exercise, trainers can be awesome. Just remember to ask them about their credentials and experience. Some of them are degreed from accredited universities in various physical-fitness related fields. Some of them walked into a gym one day, filled out an application, then went through a sloppy 40 hour crash course in training. I fired my first ever trainer. I will not make that mistake again.

That being said, if you're looking for help in the kitchen, the person you want is a dietitian. (Read not a nutritionist). Some trainers are dietitians, and some aren't, but this seems to be a higher priority for you to look for first.

Dietitians will have some sort of accredited degree and will be able to help you work around your tastes and any medical conditions or dietary mandates you live with (e.g. diabetes, PCOS, lack of gallbladder, etc...). Anyone can call themselves a nutritionist without needing any certification or experience, so be cautious.

I have a personal trainer and I absolutely love having him. Hiring him was the best decision I've made for myself. I was making zero progress, losing no weight and just kind of flailing about in the gym. I think he has given me a great set of skills where I can be successful in life.

He looks at my food logs and gives me tips but I don't always 100% listen to what he says on that side of things. He is only a personal trainer and his views on nutrition are really only his personal views and things he believes. Not that he is totally wrong about stuff, he just isn't a registered dietitian. A personal trainer can give you a good idea, but as others have said, a dietitian is the better one for choosing meals. However, just doing your own research and browsing the forums and asking advice of others can be good enough for that too.

Some trainers will go over diets with you. You may want to join a program that focuses more on diets than exercise, like Weight Watchers.

Generally, you want to get your food from the outside walls of the grocery store, where everything is fresh; not the inside aisles where everything is boxed and canned. Stay with lean meats, fresh vegetables, nuts and cheeses; eat fruits and carbs in moderation - Bread and pasta shouldn't be the base of all of your meals. Most of your meals should be lean meats and a side of vegetables. Salads (with light dressing) is an easy thing to eat a lot of in plenty of varieties (greek salad, chicken salad, steak salad, etc.)...Stay away from anything high in sugar. If you're googling recipes, stay away from recipes that are based in bread and pasta. Go for the recipes that are more focused on lean meats (chicken, turkey, fish, lean beef) and vegetable ingredients.

If your main goal is weight loss, the main thing that matters is calorie counting. The only way to lose weight is to be under your daily maintenance level that MFP should have provided to you based on the information you put in. No matter what you eat, you can't lose weight if you go over that limit, and you can't gain weight if you stay under it.

What helps a lot is getting a food scale and measuring your food as you put meals together. It is tedious for a while, but after a while you won't need to measure things as much because you'l know off-hand what the measurements are. Many people underestimate the amount of butter or salad dressing they are using by 100+ calories every time, making their food logs way off.