HOW THE HECK DO THESE PEOPLE GET HIRED?!

I believe that lots of "new" trainers have been led down the road of money making more than actual fitness. I swear that practically every new trainer that I've run into insists on instructing in "functional training" and have so many using unstable services, concentrating on planks, and totally dismissing some of the "old school" basic lifting and strengthening exercises. Body bars with resistance bands being stepped on (total resistance of about 30lbs) are replacing the barbell and Oly bar. It's a different time now.

A.C.E. Certified Personal Trainer/Group Fitness Instructor
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

One thing you should know about the fitness advice put forth by MANY cross fitters is that usually it is driven by a Paleo (or Paleo inspired) lifestyle. Paleo excludes gluten, dairy, alcohol, and sugar from each day's intake. (Maybe that's why his advice seemed to be QUITE different)?

The reason many people adhere to the pale lifestyle is because they believe gluten, dairy, and sugar wreak havoc on your body (inside and out). They say people have only recently developed gluten and included these foods into their lifestyle and that it's actually not what the human body is used to or needs.

You can decide on your own what you think, but this instructor was spouting advice directly from the Paleo lifestyle. That's why he says no/few apples (or sugar), oatmeal (and bread/pasta), and wants you to get carbs from vegetables. Many people have GREAT success from this diet. I have a body builder friend Mitch that eats 80% paleo and feels MUCH better. Gina, a friend from college lost 11 pounds in one month of doing CrossFit and eating Paleo. This is her blog. http://paleodietlifestyle.com/paleo-diet-food-list/

I live in China and it's verrrrry hard to eat Paleo, but I like the basis on this lifestyle because I LOVE eating whole and unprocessed foods. Plus, dairy makes me break out. Ultimately, they encourage organic, wild (grass-fed) meat, eggs, vegetables, fish, few fruits, few nuts, eggs. You can eat rice, but the biggest part of your diet should be veggies and proteins.

You are correct in saying 1200 is too low for how much you are working out. Not sure what he meant by you are eating too much?! That's a bit out there...

Here's what I recommend reading: http://www.archevore.com/get-started/.

Hope this helps clarify!

One thing you should know about the fitness advice put forth by MANY cross fitters is that usually it is driven by a Paleo (or Paleo inspired) lifestyle. Paleo excludes gluten, dairy, alcohol, and sugar from each day's intake. (Maybe that's why his advice seemed to be QUITE different)?

The reason many people adhere to the pale lifestyle is because they believe gluten, dairy, and sugar wreak havoc on your body (inside and out). They say people have only recently developed gluten and included these foods into their lifestyle and that it's actually not what the human body is used to or needs.

You can decide on your own what you think, but this instructor was spouting advice directly from the Paleo lifestyle. That's why he says no/few apples (or sugar), oatmeal (and bread/pasta), and wants you to get carbs from vegetables. Many people have GREAT success from this diet. I have a body builder friend Mitch that eats 80% paleo and feels MUCH better. Gina, a friend from college lost 11 pounds in one month of doing CrossFit and eating Paleo. This is her blog. http://paleodietlifestyle.com/paleo-diet-food-list/

I live in China and it's verrrrry hard to eat Paleo, but I like the basis on this lifestyle because I LOVE eating whole and unprocessed foods. Plus, dairy makes me break out. Ultimately, they encourage organic, wild (grass-fed) meat, eggs, vegetables, fish, few fruits, few nuts, eggs. You can eat rice, but the biggest part of your diet should be veggies and proteins.

You are correct in saying 1200 is too low for how much you are working out. Not sure what he meant by you are eating too much?! That's a bit out there...

Here's what I recommend reading: http://www.archevore.com/get-started/.

Hope this helps clarify!

I will read that! But yes he said thats how many calories I should eat! I do enjoy the idea of Paleo; however, I don't eat a lot of refined sugars - just a few treats! Especially with my age (I'm in my 20s) with friends and all, I can't realistically think of going Paleo though...However I do try to eat lots of veggies, egg whites, and protein!

I know! The idea of going 100% Paleo is completely impossible. That's why many of my friends eat Paleo 80% of the time. They exclude drinks on the weekends and some weekend meals etc... Sounds like you have a good head on your shoulders. (I'm all about whole foods, but not giving up the things I love, in moderation!)

Personal trainers aren't supposed to give nutritional advise, unless they also became a certified nutritionist. It might be different in other states, but that's what my friend the personal trainer told me when i asked him for nutritional advise.

ANYONE who tells you not to eat fruit is someone to not listen to.

One thing you should know about the fitness advice put forth by MANY cross fitters is that usually it is driven by a Paleo (or Paleo inspired) lifestyle. Paleo excludes gluten, dairy, alcohol, and sugar from each day's intake. (Maybe that's why his advice seemed to be QUITE different)?

The reason many people adhere to the pale lifestyle is because they believe gluten, dairy, and sugar wreak havoc on your body (inside and out). They say people have only recently developed gluten and included these foods into their lifestyle and that it's actually not what the human body is used to or needs.

You can decide on your own what you think, but this instructor was spouting advice directly from the Paleo lifestyle. That's why he says no/few apples (or sugar), oatmeal (and bread/pasta), and wants you to get carbs from vegetables. Many people have GREAT success from this diet. I have a body builder friend Mitch that eats 80% paleo and feels MUCH better. Gina, a friend from college lost 11 pounds in one month of doing CrossFit and eating Paleo. This is her blog. http://paleodietlifestyle.com/paleo-diet-food-list/

I live in China and it's verrrrry hard to eat Paleo, but I like the basis on this lifestyle because I LOVE eating whole and unprocessed foods. Plus, dairy makes me break out. Ultimately, they encourage organic, wild (grass-fed) meat, eggs, vegetables, fish, few fruits, few nuts, eggs. You can eat rice, but the biggest part of your diet should be veggies and proteins.

You are correct in saying 1200 is too low for how much you are working out. Not sure what he meant by you are eating too much?! That's a bit out there...

Here's what I recommend reading: http://www.archevore.com/get-started/.

Hope this helps clarify!

I will read that! But yes he said thats how many calories I should eat! I do enjoy the idea of Paleo; however, I don't eat a lot of refined sugars - just a few treats! Especially with my age (I'm in my 20s) with friends and all, I can't realistically think of going Paleo though...However I do try to eat lots of veggies, egg whites, and protein!

One thing I would love to add is, that I myself train quite a lot ( 5k run 3xweek, 10 mile cycle 4xweek + 6xweek body pump for about an hour) and do not eat any carbs or sugar - I am in ketogenic state (someone explained it well in a post here) and have lots of energy to work out. The first few days (about 3) you feel really rubish when you give up sugars but after a week you have new found energy which is so much better.

The general rule of thumb when it comes to calorie consuption is: If you weight 120 pounds you shouldn't eat less than 1200 calories a day and this for me makes sence, as when you loose weight your calorie intake also goes down.

I just got back on the horse after operation and have lost 16 pounds in three weeks, but the weight isn't everything - measure yourself, take some photos and measure your body fat - when you do all that then you see the real changes that are actually happening to your body.

Hope that will help.

I dont know how many people out of work I've heard say 'oh I think I might go be a trainer'. My friends brother just got hired as a trainer. Guess what his credentials were, he's a mechanic and goes to the gym all the time. How does that qualify him to be trainer.

I dont know how many people out of work I've heard say 'oh I think I might go be a trainer'. My friends brother just got hired as a trainer. Guess what his credentials were, he's a mechanic and goes to the gym all the time. How does that qualify him to be trainer.

There is a difference between trainer and nutritionist!
If your brother's friend is well built (I assume he is, since he goes to the gym all the time) and knows what he is doing why not. Obviously he must know something about trainig if he looks good. And it's not a rocket science if you have done it for a while - you just need some knowlegde about muscle groups and how to use them to achive your goal.

Nutrition on the other hand is way more complicated. More than that, we get different advise from different dietetitians, as we all have to figure out what actually works for us,we just have to try certain things and see if it works for us and if we can keep it up.

If you ask a trainer about nutrition advise their answear will not be reliable - they will tell you what worked for them not what is good for you. You might as well ask about diet advise your car mechanic.

As we all have different goals, we all need different advise.
Trainer will give you workout program desined for your needs.
You wouldn't ask for a fitness program dietetitian, would you? Their advice will be useless and vague, probably more cardio. If you have specific goal in mind - leaner legs, perkier boobs, spankable *kitten* you need specific program from a trainer.

Those are two different professions!

Sorry but I'll disagree here. Just because someone knows how to lift, workout, and get in shape themselves, DOESN'T mean they would be a good trainer.
Almost every "transitional" new trainer I've seen does the same thing when they first start...................they have all their clients do THEIR workout.
Their workout isn't made for many of the clients workouts. Sure there are some basics like squats and rows, but not everyone is going to be able to do pullups, snatches, etc.
I've seen many a trainer like this have the SAME program and train every client with the SAME program whether they be young or old.
Not to mention, many of the lifters only trainers have no concept on training in plyometrics, HIIT, Tabata, etc. because they don't do it themselves. Even without this knowledge, they could get a cert.
While it's not that they can't learn it, lots of "transitional" trainers stick to workouts that they know personally and that's usually not the best program for many clients.

A.C.E. Certified Personal Trainer/Group Fitness Instructor
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

One thing - everything you eat that contains calories will provide your body energy through your body's many metabolic pathways. Glucose is a carbohydrate and central to your body's normal metabolism. Your body is adept at maintaining blood glucose levels because it is the default delivery molecule of energy for most body tissues and required by a few (red + white blood cells, retina cells, some kidney cells, and some neural signaling).

However, even if you eat no carbs, your body can make glucose from many other molecules - proteins, metabolic intermediates, and even the backbone of fatty acids (glycerol) through a process called gluconeogenesis (=making new glucose).

You'd have to be eating virtually no carbs (<20g/ day) in order for your body to start cranking out alternative energy carriers at a greater rate than glucose. Ketogenic diets - the result of low/no carb intake and therefore a general switch by your body to using ketone bodies as the predominant circulating energy carrier - is used to treat epilepsy, components of metabolic syndrome, and some cancers. Even in a ketogenic state (unless it's induced in a person that already has metabolic dysfunction, such as a diabetic), you generate enough glucose through gluconeogenesis to supply the cells that require it.

All this to say: Carbs are not required in the diet because we can synthesize them by our own metabolic reactions. Some fatty acids (essential fatty acids) and amino acids (essential amino acids, found in proteins) are required in our diets because our bodies don't have the enzymes to synthesize the molecules on their our.

Excellent comment...

:happy: