Continuing with the theme of usual conversations we have with clients, this week I want to talk about the a small misconception people have when it comes to hiring a personal trainer.
In our consultations, we ask everyone "what are your goals?", 80% of the time the answer is "I want to lose weight".
Now, it is very important to understand that strength training once or twice a week, even with a very good personal trainer, will not be enough for you to lose weight, it is a great step, but it is only one piece of the puzzle, all the training without proper nutrition wont take you very far in your fat loss journey. You will be stronger, build muscle, feel better, learn a lot about how to exercise properly and appropriately and likely drop a few pounds of body fat, but it wont be enough. We could easily say YES SURE we can do that in 10 sessions! hire us!, but it would be a lie.
When we say this to clients the answer is usually "oh I know", but the way we eat is so engrained in us, our culture and our beliefs that it is probably the hardest habit to change.
We are social creatures and we've evolved in a way that we socialise around food and meal times. We are surrounded by hyper palatable foods engineered to make us want to eat more. Crisps, desserts, fast foods...and sadly if you don't eat these all you hear is "you are not enjoying life, you are on a diet" when the opposite is true, eating what our body needs to feel and perform its best shouldn't be "a diet" it should just be how we eat to actually enjoy life, for many decades to come, injury and illness free.
So we always try helping clients see this as a major factor in their success, we put the work in the gym, you need to put the work in the kitchen. We give nutrition recommendations with specific calories and protein targets, but we can't control what you do when you leave the gym. However if you follow them you will see results faster.
As we've said many times before you don't have to go all strict from day one, focus on eating more protein, CONSISTENTLY, which is likely a lot more than you are eating, even if you think you eat a lot of it when you have 2 eggs for breakfast (1 large egg only has 6g of protein), "some chicken" for lunch and a tuna salad for dinner, that may be 60g of protein, most people will need over 100g unless you are very petite.
This approach will be slower but it will be sustainable.
So hire a personal trainer with the right mindset and realistic expectations. Aim to learn exercise technique, get strong, build muscle, and then commit to following their advice on nutrition, this will set you up for success, guaranteed!
Until next time!
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