Getting clients to eat better/less

[STT816]

Little background about myself. I am a competitive powerlifter/NASM CPT. Personal Training is my full time job. I'm rendering around 70 sessions a month. I feel very comfortable when it comes to training my clients, they see strength progression along with good form when they train with me.

Most if not all of my clients come to me for weight loss/"toning up." I personally track my calories on myfitnesspal every day. I tell them that it is necessary to do so as well and explain the importance of calories. But they simply will not do it. Then they will complain to me that they are not losing any weight. How do you guys go about this? Would you still try to push the calorie counting route or would you go in a more whole foods, x amount of meals a day approach? I really do like the calorie counting because you can be flexible but maybe with these kinds of people flexibility is not such a good thing. I would just like for them to be able to keep up with it instead of being a crash diet.

Do any of you give specific meal plans? Like meal 1: 2 eggs, 1 cup spinach, 1 apple, etc. and so on


Any suggestions are greatly appreciated

[SugarFree1]

Give them a method of logging it and ask to review it with them weekly. This may hold them accountable

[Ronin4help]

This should not be common. You used the term in a plural sense, meaning you are having this issue with multiple clients? There will always be one pain in the ass, but this should not be a systemic problem.

[KyleAaron]

Change has to be step by step. People don't change 10 things at once, they change 10 things by changing 1 at a time. You don't expect them to squat 100kg on day one, you start them with the empty bar, right? Or even less. Likewise, you can't expect them to log all their food on day one.

Several doctors I've trained have told me that on the diabetes ward they have people who have been drinking 8 litres - more than 2 gallons - of coke a day. Coke and lemonade are 10% by weight sugar, so that's 800g of sugar a day. Now, the sort of person who drinks 2 gallons of coke a day isn't using it to wash down their brussels sprouts, there'll be krispy kreme in there, too. So we're talking another 100-200g of sugar a day, easily. A KILO of sugar a day. TWO POUNDS of sugar a day.

Does this person need to calculate their macros? Or do they just need to stop drinking coke? Will they be worse off if they stop drinking coke? No? So let's start with that. Will they stop drinking coke? Probably not. Will they count macros? Certainly not. So let's go for probable failure rather than certain failure. First, stop drinking coke. If they do that for a month, maybe they can do some other things.

Most people don't need to count macros etc. For most people, doing these in order will get them 80% of the way to their goals,

1. if smoking, stop
2. lemonade, stop
3. more fresh fruit
4. more vegetables
5. less junk food - "What counts as junk food?" they'll ask. "Any food where the packet is more colourful than the contents." But note: #3 and #4 will have made #5 happen anyway.
6. less booze
7. more meat, fish and dairy

Most people will be doing one of these 7 already, otherwise they'd be in hospital not in a gym. So if you can get them to do just one of these things each month - and once this new habit is established, go onto the next one - then in six months they are going to look, feel and perform considerably better than before. This won't get them sixpack abs, a sub-3hr marathon, or a 200kg squat. But it will make them look, feel and perform considerably better than they did before, and will get most people 80% of the way from where they are now towards their goals.

A useful website for this kind of thing is habitry.com - http://habitry.com/resources/

[JohnMariettePT]

One thing i would do is sit them down at their next session and say this (nutrition) will do more for your fat loss then lifting. That session no working out, all about finding a plan for them to track their macros.

[Ronin4help]

One thing i would do is sit them down at their next session and say this (nutrition) will do more for your fat loss then lifting. That session no working out, all about finding a plan for them to track their macros.

I can assure you it won't take a full hour to discover they need to stop drinking and snacking at work.

[pondman]

You've got to know the extent of their diet before you can make any recommendations. So it's got to be part of you program. And go after the forest fires first.

It's easier to suggest a modification, than it is to say eat this. If it were me, I'd have everyone eating 3 cans of herring per day, but I'm not sure that would go over well.

[EdgarAllanPoe]

If there was a solid answer we would all know it.

Most general pop fat loss clients are fat because they eat horribly, drink, and their inactive then blame everything but themselves. That's the demographic and that's you're starting point.

Preach the calories, tell them they can't outrun a bad diet. Tell them their strength will go up and they will fill better with weight training but scale weight is a crap shoot if they don't provide you with truthful honest data.

The principles of weight loss, maintenance, and muscle gain are so simple it's just the choice of eating what's needed vs wanted.

You will likely always have issues with clients and food logging. I've had two 270lb+ clients long term over two years. One female logs her food and says she eats 1400 cals a day and I tell her no 270lb person is maintaining weight with 1400 calories a day. The other male client dropped from about 315 to 290 with me but literally eats out three times a day nearly 7 days a week and continues to try to find a way to workout around his eating out 20+ times a week like recently supplementing a fat burner! I've told him the same thing for two years. If he cuts his eating out in half he'd probably get down to atleast 270 from just that one change. He hasn't done it.

Some people simply aren't ready or willing to give up some things.

I just try and be very blunt with what expectations should be and be a straight shooter. I also keep notes of everything I recommend week by week. I usually go over food the last session of the week with everyone.

When people whine about their arm fat or belly fat or whatever it may be, my first response is always "well, have you logged your food"

Gen pop thinks trainers can turn norm people to Abercrombie and Fitch models in four sessions over one month with no dietary changes. You just gotta keep beating them down with reality.

[SerpentHearted]

It's tough.
Include guidelines in the package when they sign up. Make them "guidelines" that people could reasonably be expected to work to, rather than hard n fast rules. Do them correctly... meaning that if someone's got a significant amount of fat/weight to lose, realistically if they have a genuine attempt and come in within reason of an appropriate target, they should see some result.

Include it and list it in the package when they sign up. Not as in "also we throw in a free meal plan" but "you are paying for this because it is valuable and important".

Then.... they're still either gonna do it or they're not gonna do it.
The ones who do it are going to be happy. The ones who don't do it are going to be aware 'I came into this knowing/having been made aware of what was required on my part, and I haven't been doing it therefore I can't complain about lack of results". And in my experience plenty will be happy enough just to train and not get their balls busted about how they should be losing more weight and they need to do the diet stuff properly. IMO if they are happy, we should be happy too.
You'll get the odd one that still complains or comes in clutching at straws like "what if i cut this out, what if i have more protein in the evening and more carbs in the morning" or whatever else... you don't get into it with them other than to ask "how about actually following the plan that you came to me for in the first place?"

For me "not doing the nutrition side" isn't a deal breaker, but not doing it and complaining about a lack of results... that's going to get shut down with either some tact and diplomacy or some straight talk as the situation may require. And asking me "how about this how about that" gets shut RIGHT down immediately.

[BC02]

diet modification isnt the trainers job

[Ronin4help]

diet modification isnt the trainers job

What?!?!