I'm a personal trainer but my clients don't lose weight

[spleencoffin]

Not all my clients need or want to lose weight but those that do, despite getting fitter and stronger, aren't losing the weight they want to.

Yet they stick with me because they are progressing in other ways. I suppose I don't do the whole before and after photo advertising and although I encourage and advise on healthy eating I don't base my values just around weight loss

If you lost weight with a personal trainer what motivated you to eat less? Did they take measurements, weigh you, do a diet plan?

If you're not a qualified nutritionist their weight is not what you should focus on. I have a PT, weights and strength focus, he wouldn't dare give me advice on weight loss because it's not his field of expertise. He's heavily evidence based. Honestly if you're asking this question here, you need to consider further training to understand what your role is in relation to clients, and how to signpost them to relevant safe professionals who can guide them.

If you're a qualified PT then you must know, surely, that training alone is very unlikely to lead to significant weight loss? Weight loss from exercise alone would mean A LOT of exercise, on a daily basis.

If your clients are coming to you because they want to lose weight, then you have to work with them on a diet plan, as well as the exercise.

Are you establishing with them what their objectives are of training with you, when you start? I'd be really cross if I was spending my money with you, hoping to lose weight, and then you can't deliver that for me!

Clearly different PTs have different styles, and suit different clients.
I'm a physio and we have a similar dilemma - how to motivate people to change a lifestyle, and how to measure treatment progress with something like pain or loss of function being the problem.

We use Outcome Measures OM. These are questionnaires that all health initiatives use. For example a Roland Morris questionnaire is often used with low back pain. It's a series of yes/no questions about back pain e.g. ' My back hurts almost all the time'. We expect the number of yes's to drop.
Does your industry have OMs?
I would be interested in a PT to get me going on weights exercises, but run from a 30push ups for being late type. Not do I want a new mate. I'd want a PT who was knowledgeable, humorous, calm - more Jillian Michaels.

I am very qualified and knowledgeable in strength and conditioning and fitness. I get great fitness results. I am firm but not shouty and I lean more towards an empathetic approach

I've never had a client not stick with me after the first block and most my clients have been with me long term.

I'm not a nutritionist although I can advise on calorie targets and healthy choices. I'm a big believer in upping your Protein for example.

One of my clients clearly kids herself. Says she eats healthy, counts calories etc but is still obese. She has however improved her core strength and fitness. I tried to be firmer and explain she can't be in a calorie deficit if she isn't losing weight. I am frustrated but I sense she would leave if I pushed it too far.

It can be deeply psychological and it's all fair and we'll expecting a trainer to deliver weight loss results but some people are in denial and have deep seated issues

I don't expect a PT to advise on nutrition. Most of them have had little/no training in this. And I have left PTs who have tried to enforce unsustainable diets as part of their 'package'. If it's something that interests you, I'd suggest doing an additional qualification in nutrition.

I did the same thing. After training I ate more because I was hungrier. I failed to change my diet. I didn't lose any weight, just looked toned. Weighing definitely helps. I'm finally losing weight through eating less e.g. portion sizes and intermittent fasting.

My PT asked if I wanted measurements etc and I didn't. I had internal motivation to lose weight and she helped me with the exercise part of it. If I had wanted diet advice I wouldn't have wanted it from a PT really anyway.

If my goal was to increase strength but i wasn't fussed about weight loss I would expect my programme to focus on heavy weight low reps, minimal cardio.

If my goal was to increase overall fitness I would expect lower weight, higher reps and a higher cardio mix.

Both I would expect a degree of nutritional advice although not necessarily full blown meal plans/structured diet.

If my goal was losing weight I would expect my programme to include more focus on diet, helping me track calories and macros and advice about how to make sure I was in a calorie deficit.

Any good PT worth their salt would have a conversation with each prospective new client before they sign up about what their goals and expectations are and whether the PT is able to provide that service and offer a suitable programme. There a nothing wrong with turning away clients if you cannot fulfil their needs or their expectations don't fit your business model.

But I don't see how giving people fitness advice cannot go hand in hand with nutritional advice and there's no way I would ever use a PT who didn't have that knowledge.

Honestly I think you're failing your clients by allowing them to sign up with you knowing you don't have the full breadth of knowledge and skills to meet their needs.

If you either can't or don't want to be able to offer tailored programmes designed to help clients lose weight (and there's nothing wrong with having business model) your shouldn't be accepting clients who have weight loss as part of their goal and you should be honest with them about that up front.

Gosh OP I think there is some very harsh comments on here. Motivation, lifestyle and obesity are emerging sciences and not simple at all. Clearly you do not want to lose clients. You are benefitting your clients. You are engaging with reflective practice on MN, which is not the safest forum.

I wanted to lose weight and as other have said, at the outset we discussed what my goals and motivations were. We did photos and measurements which were a good motivator. I track my food and broadly follow the Blood sugar diet/Michael Mosley books, which work for me.

Last year was monumentally crap for me, for a variety of reasons, and whilst I still had PT sessions all year, my food wasn't great and I put weight on. But I'm now back to having more focus and motivation, exercise and food-wise and the weight is dropping back off. I wanted a PT to show me how to work out, and to support me, and be honest with me. I defo didn't want anyone barking in my face. The approach I have suits me.

@spleencoffin

I am very qualified and knowledgeable in strength and conditioning and fitness. I get great fitness results. I am firm but not shouty and I lean more towards an empathetic approach

I've never had a client not stick with me after the first block and most my clients have been with me long term.

I'm not a nutritionist although I can advise on calorie targets and healthy choices. I'm a big believer in upping your Protein for example.

One of my clients clearly kids herself. Says she eats healthy, counts calories etc but is still obese. She has however improved her core strength and fitness. I tried to be firmer and explain she can't be in a calorie deficit if she isn't losing weight. I am frustrated but I sense she would leave if I pushed it too far.

I think you sound great. Ultimately, she is benefitting greatly from the exercise she does with you and she will know what she needs to do diet wise. It’s just really, really hard.

I trained with a PT for years and I was really strong and felt great. I still struggled with the diet side of things but that was on me. I absolutely did not want my PT to talk about diet because even just the hint of restriction screwed up my thinking. I needed to approach diet very softly softly while at the gym I needed the firmness. I think they are best kept separated.

What does your client want to achieve though @spleencoffin? If she's come to you to lose weight, then you are really not doing your job properly if a) you're not helping her and b) you're more concerned about losing her as a client if you "push it too far"

If she wants to lose weight, and you don't have the appropriate knowledge or training, then you shouldn't be her PT.

She may, though, just be happy with the fitness and toning - but do you actually know this? Have you discussed it with her?

Following

You need to get them to accept that they need to eat less calories. Not just askbowledge it, but accept it.

For me, once id accepted that, diet changes were easy. I didnt need before/after pictures, measurements etc etc.

I've been training with a PT in small group sessions for years. I've never lost any weight because I eat too much rubbish and like a glass of wine in the evenings.

But I'm strong and fit and that's why I train.

You could give me all the nutritional advice in the world and I'd still eat chocolate and drink wine.

The only thing that would make me change my eating habits was if my PT threatened to ditch me from his gym.

I lost 24lb in the first 12 weeks of working with my PT and 100lb overall. It was calorie tracking combined with a decent HR monitor that made me lose weight. The resistance training made it stay off. So if they want to lose fat they need to get into calorie deficit. If they won't track calories then they can try a magic thinking plan like keto, paleo, vegan, whatever. If they won't do that they need self acceptance or therapy.

Your job is not to advise them about their diet. You can refer them to dieticians or nutritionists. You can even suggest that they speak to their GP about referrals. Your job is to motivate them to exercise, and show them how to do it in a safe manner so that they don’t injure themselves or exacerbate medical conditions. You can always work WITH dieticians, etc, but that still doesn’t mean you will ever truly be able to change what your clients put in their mouths. That comes back to the motivation to ENJOY exercise. You need to inspire them by challenging them with new routines to improve their self-confidence, etc. Ultimately, people need to reprogram the whole concept of food being a reward or a treat and learn to think of it a wonderful fuel that makes them feel good and gives them the energy they need to live a happy, healthy life.

They haven’t changed their diet

They need to change their diet and calorie count to the dot.

Muscle weighs more than fat, but it sounds like they are still carrying too much fat?

One of my clients clearly kids herself. Says she eats healthy, counts calories etc but is still obese. She has however improved her core strength and fitness. I tried to be firmer and explain she can't be in a calorie deficit if she isn't losing weight. I am frustrated but I sense she would leave if I pushed it too far.

This is where you might be at the limits of your expertise.

There are many reasons why someone might not be loosing weight even thought they are careful with their diet. Hormones are usually a BIG culprit ( thyroid, female hormones, peri menopause etc etc).
Stress is another big trigger.
And of course the obvious blood sugar regulation (id hope this is something you are talking about with your client).

So if you have a client who exercise, says they are careful etc… maybe what they need is a trained nutritionist to complement your work instead than them not telling the truth/kidding themselves.

Btw this thread is really sad to read because of the prevalent idea that if women don’t loose weight it’s because they are actually not dieting well enough, Aka restricting themselves etc….

It’s especially sad the read that the automatic reactions is to say that those women are lying/kidding themselves/not really wanting to loose weight etc…
Why automatically think it’s a failure from women rather than one of the other myriade if reasons that could explain nit loosing weight??

Fwiw, I would nit expect a PT to help me loose weight. I’d expect that from a nutritionist who specialises in loosing weight.

I’m expecting a PT to teach me how to train/exercise etc… correctly. That would explain why those women are staying with you even though they are not loosing weight.

One of the reason why women come to see PT ‘to loose weight’ is because a lot of people associate increased exercise with loosing weight. Which might or might not happen without the nutritional side.
But there is this hope that by doing more, it will do the trick iyswim

@WildfirePonie

They need to change their diet and calorie count to the dot.

Muscle weighs more than fat, but it sounds like they are still carrying too much fat?

@WildfirePonie

Muscle doesn't weigh more than fat!

A pound of muscle = a pound of fat.

It's the density that's different.