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<p>Completely agree, and so would MY personal trainer, without a moment’s hesitation. As much as I know how important getting enough protein is, and I try, I still doubt I get enough. It’s actually quite difficult for most of us.</p>
<p>To the OP… about ten months ago, my personal trainer was fired from the facility that I belonged to. They replaced him very quickly, and I signed up with the new guy immediately, unfortunately a day before my new trainer got a new location.</p>
<p>I tried the new trainer, and it just did not work out. I was rather miffed because I’d been told he adopted the same training techniques as my previous trainer. He did not, and I was not happy with our sessions. I eventually told him that I felt my loyalties were with my original trainer and now that he had a new location, I was going to go back to him. I also dropped my membership at that club.</p>
<p>I guess what I kept asking myself was, “Why am I giving money to someone who is not giving me what I expect?”</p>
<p>And to me, the routine texting/answering phone calls during a session would be a instant reason to fire someone. There’s no excuse for that, except the occasional emergency. No reason, whatsoever. That’s unprofessional.</p>
<p>I watched a documentary show recently on females competing in “fitness model” contests, sort a much lower key bodybuilding. One of the women they followed said she was always asked how she got that beautiful six pack. She always responds, “abs are made in the kitchen.” Of course strength training is important. But in order to show off those beautiful muscles, one must lose the fat that sits on top of them, and nutrition is key.</p>
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<p>Those people are generally trying to achieve body fat percentages that are not sustainable for very long. They are timing to hit a ultra-lean number at a specific time and then increasing their body fat. It’s probably the exact opposite of what is actually best for real world fitness, where it’s not great to yo-yo up and down.</p>
<p>The problem is that the models set the goal for the average joe and jane, even though neither is attainable without crazy dieting and or anabolic steroids. And, then you got the fashion models who have no body fat and no muscle.</p>
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<p>Most Americans eat too much of everything (except vegetables) – protein, carbohydrate, fat – compared to what they actually use. Hence obesity.</p>
<p>OP, You can eat whatever you are eating now. Nobody can stick to the diet foreign to them for substantial period of time. However, if you want to loose weight, just eat less. I do not like much protein food at all. I would not be forcing myself to have as much as body builder. But if you like it, why not? I love chocolate and consume much more of it on a regular basis than most other people. It does not make me gain or loose. The same goes for honey. It is total consumption of energy vs total use of body energy. Yes, if you cannot exercise or do some physical activity, you better go down on your calorie intake or you weight will go up.<br>
What are you eating is way too complicated, it is NOT the same good from person to person, they even saying that it goes back thousands of years to your personal origin. More protein might be good for some, but not for others. They also say to listen to your body and not eat foods that you personally do not like. Aavoiding processed, prepackaged foods with tons of chemicals in it is a good general rule. I still have an exception to this rule for myself - chocolate. If you restrict yourself too much, then you get depressed, it just not worth it. i bet that you are in better shape than you think though, do not be too hard on yourself.</p>
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<p>This particular show focused on “clean” competition where they were vigorously tested, and didn’t have the muscle mass to even really be suspected of using steroids. But I do agree with you. The amount of discipline needed to attain that body fat percentage would be impossible for most to maintain over time. One of them even said as much after she didn’t place as high as she had hoped. She basically said she had given up too much in terms of quality of life and that she was done.</p>
<p>I worked all day after not sleeping even so much as an hour last night (insomnia sucks), so my brain may not have properly processed your comment. But I do respect the knowledge you have about fitness/nutrition and have enjoyed many of the discussions you have taken part in on the various threads in which these subjects come up.</p>