Is this true?

I don't think you are ever wasting your time working out, regardless of your diet because it is still beneficial to your overall health. Weight loss however occurs mainly in the kitchen so you will not lose weight if you're overeating.

You need to be in a calorie deficit to lose weight. I personally think what you eat makes a difference too. I definitely don't think just because you eat bad (everything in moderation as they say! I have a cheat day once a week), doesn't mean you should skip the gym though. But your trainer is most likely just trying to give you tough love so you are not tempted to slip up.

shay_channet wrote: »

Hi everyone, I was wondering if this held to be true. I had a set back this weekend with eating and I had a trainer tell me the more I eat bad the more I am wasting my time by training so I should just sleep in since I train in the mornings...I know nutrition has a lot to do with weight loss, but what are your opinions on this comment?

If "eat bad" means going 3000 cals over your daily allowance. He's right.
Giving you facts. Not mean

I'm confused. What does one have to do with the other? Training increases your fitness and it does that regardless of how much you eat if you're progressing. It also burns calories, which means some of the damage done by overeating is mitigated (not to be confused with outrunning a fork). What an odd trainer. I suspect they're just frustrated with you because they are unable to get you the results you're paying for (weight loss) because you aren't doing your part. Still, that's an odd thing to say.

Even if you're training purely for the calories and eating horribly, why you're exercising does not negate the benefits of exercise. However, if you expect to lose weight purely through exercise without keeping your calories under control, then you're spinning your wheels. Most activities don't burn enough calories to offset being over by a lot.

ETA: If overeating is something that just happens occasionally then training after an episode is one of the best things you could do. I usually have awesome workouts with tangibly better performance after a high calorie day.

Let me tell you a little story...

When I was fairly new to running, I'd done quite a few 5k and 10k races, and most of them had oranges and bananas and water, maybe Gatorade, at the finish line. A few had donuts. And I always went for a donut, because donuts are awesome! But I do remember the first time I posted about that on MFP, I was chastised for it from someone on my friends' list. Like I was going to reverse months of hard work with that one donut. But I always thought, well, screw it. If eating a donut every now and then is going to keep me from being super-fit, then fine. I won't be super-fit. I'm ok with that.

Around Halloween, a local running store was having a Zombie 5k, with a costume "party" after. Now, most of the races I'd done were a cross section of the general population. Some really good runners, some slow runners, some walkers, some ultra-fit, some... not. This one was all The Ultra-Fit. Serious runners. Single digit body fat runners. Runners who spend $200 on sneakers instead of buying what's on clearance at Kohl's like I'd been doing.

I did the run, escaped most of the zombies, and went back to the store for the party. And ... OMG, the food! Sure, there was some bananas and oranges, but there was donuts, cake, cookies, a candy bar buffet, pizza, wings, soda (diet and regular) and beer! And the serious runners were chowing down on this stuff like you wouldn't believe!

There's room in everyone's life for some indulgences.

It sounds like your trainer is of the Jillian Michael's school of thought that shaming works. Maybe for some, but not for most. A "all or nothing" attitude is what makes most people quit. "Well, I screwed up once. Guess I can't do this." That's bull.

Any PT who says eat clean or GTFO is going to have me doing the latter. What a bro douche.