<p>so i’ve been working with a personal trainer for 3 months. My body fat has remained constant at 20% and i’m trying to drop to 10%. </p>
<p>He doesn’t really look at nutrition which i think is the problem. Has anyone hired a trainer before? is it normal for a trainer to take phone calls or text during the session?</p>
<p>Should I switch trainers?? I feel like i’m paying for no results.</p>
<p>10% body fat may not be realistic. That said, if the trainer is texting and taking calls, get a new one. It woukd be nice to have one who will help with nutrition, but you can get great help for free on our Diet and Exercise thread right here on CC. The expertise is quite impressive.</p>
<p>i forgot to mention that i’m a male in my 20s and i’ve read that its realistic or at least thats what trainers tell me. </p>
<p>I’m able to lift more weight and do more situps than when i started with this guy but the body fat % just isn’t dropping!! its been 3 months.</p>
<p>How are you measuring your body fat? Charts, machines, doctor? </p>
<p>The percentage is realistic, but would take more then three months. </p>
<p>What have you done yourself to change diet?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>That would be enough to fire the personal trainer right there. The top strength and conditioning coaches and trainers have stopped doing situps and crunches because of the wear and tear on the spine.</p>
<p>Losing body fat is diet, diet, diet. Start progressively cutting carbs until you are seeing the fat loss you want to. Stop drinking carbs, period. No soda, no fruit juice, no sports drinks. Then, cut the junk carbs – chips, snacks, etc. And, finally start scaling back the bread, cereal, pasta, fries, and so forth. Make sure that you are getting adequate protein. As much as 1 g per pound of body weight per day.</p>
<p>Exercise should be at least three days a week of strength training. If you’ve got some more time, a couple days a week of short high intensity interval conditioning workouts.</p>
<p>[Hierarchy</a> of Fat Loss](<a href=“AlwynCosgrove.com”>AlwynCosgrove.com)</p>
<p>The appropriate amount of protein intake for the regular person is .8 g/kg body weight and for a high intensity athlete can range up to 1.8 g/kg. The above advice puts you in the range if 2.2 g/kg. If you cut carbs and increase protein to these levels you will essentially be replacing carbs (the ideal lifting fuel) with protein for energy burn . . . bad and hard on your kidneys. Yes, cut out most fats and junk carbs, but carbs are the preferred fuel for anaerobic activity (weight lifting and interval sprints) </p>
<p>A trainer should not be taking phone calls and placing texts during your session - you are paying by the minute for his time. However, while most trainers with a reputable national certification (e.g. NSCA, ACSM) will have taken several quarters of nutrition classes it is outside the scope of practice for a personal trainer to give detailed nutritional advice or create eating plans for you. You should consult a licensed nutritionist of a registered dietician for that.<br>
How are you measuring body fat? 3 site skinfold? ultrasound? bioelectrical impedance?
Has you weight changed?
Are you doing cardio?</p>
<p>about the sit ups, we started off with those but have moved away. We’re focusing on planks for core. </p>
<p>I’m mostly using a bioelectrical impedance machine i have at home, it was $30 from walmart, not sure how reliable it is. </p>
<p>My weight hasn’t changed, i’m doing 15min of cardio before the weights and 30min after. I do weights 5 days a week and have 2 rest days. </p>
<p>One red flag that came up was that when we used the site skinfold, he actually got a couple of the areas you’re supposed to measure wrong. they use technical terminology which of course i knew nothing about and only found out when i looked up skinfold last night.</p>
<p>should i warn him before firing him? i have 2 paid sessions left but our understanding is that i pay him every 2 weeks.</p>
<p>Are you seeing him through a gym or health club? Is so, I would discuss your concerns with the training manager or owner. It actually sounds like you may be doing too much with regards to weight training and need to incorporate more cardio. I’ve read research that says you need to do high-intensity cardio at least 15-18 minutes to burn fat. </p>
<p>Have you tried a spin class? What about intervals on the treadmill? 60 seconds at 100%, then 45 at 75% and so on. You should be able to increase the speed 0.3-0.5 mph for each 100% interval, but keep the same speed for your 75% rest.</p>
<p>i’m seeing him through a gym but the gym has no official training. I got this guy’s name from a nearby gym. He pays the membership at my gym and just trains people so he has no affiliation with the gym. This is the most convenient gym for me and it’ll be the case with all the trainers here.</p>
<p>Another ‘problem’ is that he seems to be carrying a lot of fat around his waist unlike the other trainers. I didn’t really see this as a problem at first because in other sports i played, great coaches were not necessarily the best players. Should this be a concern?</p>
<p>My trainer is pretty hands off with regards to cardio and diet. I’ve been doing 15minutes of cardio before and after at about 75-80% of my max heart rate.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Note that I said “up to 1 g per pound of body weight”, as an upper limit. Although, frankly, many athletes go above that, especially if they are looking to build muscle. It is pure baloney that protein has high as 1 g per pound of body weight is hard on the kidneys. There’s no evidence to support that whatsoever, except in individuals who already have severe kidney disease. </p>
<p>As for carbs, if the goal is do lose body fat, then eating a high carb diet is a mistake. Unless we are talking endurance cardio (more than an hour non-stop), then there would be no need to worry about eating carbs as “fuel”. A normal diet in the 100 net gram of carbs per day would be a good place for fat loss – although that number could be higher for an active 20 year old, to be sure. In any case, if someone is looking to lose fat, then start by eating less carbs than you are now and see what happens.</p>
<p>Low end newbie:</p>
<p>Your schedule is OK. Five days of weight lifting is probably not gong to give you a lot of benefit over three days, but you are probably doing more comprehensive workouts including core stuff, so that’s OK.</p>
<p>The only thing I would change is to change that 10 to 15 minutes of “cardio” at the end of the workouts to high intensity intervals – alternating between fast and slow, or big incline and low incline, or sprinting/walking, depending on what you are doing. You can also do it with high rate exercises like kettle bell swings, burpees, jumping jacks, jump squats, split squat jumps, and so forth – 30 seconds work alternating with 30 seconds rest. The idea is to drive your heart rate up to the roof and then let it recover, repeat. There is something about this that kicks up metabolism and helps a lot with fat loss.</p>
<p>Once you are already below 20% body fat, I would not expect immediate results – and, for a given individual body type, 10% may be a very extreme goal. In any case, fat loss is diet, diet, diet. Exercise is important, but mostly because it maintains/builds lean muscle which makes the whole metabolism thing more favorable. But, actually losing fat is all diet. Moderate carb, adequate protein, and I wouldn’t go crazy with the low-fat thing. Eating fats, especially good fats like olive oil and fish like salmon is really good for you.</p>
<p>Definitely time to replace the trainer. You are entitled to his undivided attention during a session. I think the polite thing to do is use the two remaining sessions and let him know that you have decided to go in a different direction after that date.
I think you need to consult a nutritionist separately, even once you hire a new trainer.</p>
<p>Im wondering why the goal seems to be reduce body fat rather than increase strength, stamina & flexibility?</p>
<p>How tall are you and what do you weigh? If you want to lose weight, you need to restrict your calorie intake. That will take some getting used to, and you’ll be hungry for a while. Its independent, largely, of your exercise level . I don’t think exercise is going to do much for you until you get it up to the equivalent of say 25-30 miles a week of running.</p>
<p>Its not fun, but if you can get through the first week or so of cutting back your intake, you’ll start to see a difference, and your hunger will diminish.</p>
<p>I’m also a strong believer that if you care about your weight, buy an accurate scale. Craigs list seems to have the detect balance scales routinely available for less than $100. There is no way to control something if you can’t measure it accurately.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the available methods of measuring body fat are of questionable accuracy and, even if they are accurate, they are only useful for detecting long term changes, not day to day, or week to week, or even month to month for someone who is not very overweight.</p>
<p>Scale weight can also be problematic for someone doing strength training and building lean muscle. You could, for example, go down a pants size, look visibly leaner and more “ripped”, and not drop a pound on the scale if you are replacing a pound of fat with a pound of muscle. That is why resistance training is so important if the goal is to “look better”.</p>
<p>yes, the goal is to “look better”</p>
<p>i’m 5ft 7inches and weigh about 150lbs. </p>
<p>I didn’t really mind that my trainer used his phone during the sessions or was sometimes late the bottom line is that its been 3 months and i look pretty much the same and my body fat % and weight have no changed. On the bright side, i am able to lift my weight. </p>
<p>I guess the question now is…how to fire him. I still have 2 sessions left on my current payment. I’m thinking of telling him today so kind of give him a heads up before the sessions are officially complete. any advice here?</p>
<p>Have you paid the guy? If so, share your concerns. Frankly, it sounds like he’s working on strength training with you, as opposed to high-reps, lower weights, which are what lead to fat burn. How many reps do you do and do you alternate sets?</p>
<p>If you haven’t paid, I would lay your needs on the line and see how he responds. (I wouldn’t worry about his physique - some good trainers may not have the perfect body.) </p>
<p>I’m also surprised a gym would allow an unaffiliated person to train another, as it opens them up for some liability.</p>
<p>i’ve paid him for the 2 remaining sessions. I’ve asked him why my body fat % isn’t going down a couple times and basically his response is that it’ll go down soon. Hes been saying this for a month and a half. </p>
<p>He said the first month is just learning the exercises and i can expect results the 2nd month but its been 3 and nothing yet.</p>
<p>IMHO, you’re making this more difficult than it needs to be. You don’t have to be blaming or accusatory. Just say, “I’ve decided to forgo a personal trainer for now.” Will you hire another one and see the previous one perhaps?</p>
<p>yes, i’m thinking of replacing him with another trainer, i haven’t found a replacement yet.</p>