After a decade of being a very successful personal trainer in Sevenoaks. I've helped thousands of people lose weight, get fit and find peak health with my award-winning personal training service. During this time I've trained a multitude of people. From the new mum to the elderly with brain damage. Even though their needs are very different a good trainer will treat each person totally different. There's no cookie-cutter approach The one thing in common however is their outcome. Their strive to become the best version of themselves possible. A good personal trainer will be able to give you the tools, guidance and support you need to succeed.
This week I am going to briefly give you 5 reasons why you should hire a highly experienced personal trainer. Today starting with reason 1.
1) This reason is the MOST overlooked by potential clients that I consult with.
Determine REALISTIC goals.
How many times have you started a health and fitness goal with overly promised results? I bet a lot. Ever been sucked in by "lose a stone in a month" or "detox with this special drink".
A good honest personal trainer will explain to you how fat loss works. They will demonstrate how much energy you need to expend and consume for you to lose a certain amount of fat in a certain amount of time. In my personal experience, most clients that I initially consult with overestimate how much weight they want to lose in a very short period of time. Unfortunately, they've been fooled by snake oil salesman and their unsustainable products such as shakes, pills and juice diets.
Let me give you an example of this. Let's use the average female. You're BMR (Basel Metabolic Rate) will be around 1400 Calories. Your BMR is simply how many calories your body needs to burn when you are sudate ie laying or sitting for the whole day. Most people move around their house, do some chores, go shopping and work at a desk for the rest of the day, this burns an additional 400-600 calories this is known as NEAT (non-exercise activity. You add up your BMR with NEAT and that equals your overall energy needs for the day so let's just say 2000 calories in this example.
To maintain good energy levels for exercise and day-to-day life you shouldn't be eating less than 1400 calories. This is still rather low. That's a 600-calorie deficit so you burn 600 calories a day.
Now let's say you do a moderate 1-hour workout EVERY DAY, this will burn an average of 500 calories. You take 500 away from 1400 which equates to 900 calories remaining from the original 2000. So therefore over the day, you would have burned 1100 calories of energy.
Here's the kicker, it takes 3500 calories to burn 1lb of fat. Therefore on the above example for you to lose just 1lb of pure fat (not water or muscle) it will take you 3 1/2 days. In one week that's 2lb of fat.
Now I don't know about you I don't have time or even want to exercise EVERY DAY and I don't even have kids. And how about days where you go over your calories. Which you will, such as weekends, birthdays, Christmas the list goes on. How about days where the kids have kept you up all night?
The 2lb a week example is now looking totally unachievable. I'm not saying it's not possible and there will be people that can achieve it. However, for the majority of people with general life commitments, it's just not even possible.
So now you know exactly what it takes to reduce your body fat, you can see it's pretty simple but not very easy. Hence why the average person is now verging on obesity.
If you are sold something too good to be true it probably is. The next time you see someone selling pills powders or potions (or even Keto) saying lose a stone in a week. You've got to understand a few things. Most (70%) of the weight you will be losing will be water, glycogen or even worse muscle. And when you stop your body will simply put that weight back on. Sound familiar? Let alone how incredibly unhealthy these products/diets are.
You're probably now thinking that fat loss (not weight loss) is impossible. No, it's not. You just need to have realistic goals adapted to your lifestyle. The weight didn't come on overnight or a week or not even a month. It's taken years for you to be in the condition you are in now. So you cannot expect miracles overnight. When people expect miracles and don't achieve it they quit and the situation gets worse. This is one of the reasons why I hate the so-called "health and fitness" industry.
So a good trainer will be honest with you. They'll assess every aspect of your life and set realistic goals for you to achieve. If a trainer is promising more than 2lb of fat loss a week then you know two things you've leant from today. It's not going to be sustainable for the long term or they simply selling you a false promise to take your money.
It's sad but it's true. And like I said at the beginning. Your trainer must be honest with you. They must inspire, motivate and support you but they must not give you false hope.
On that note, I am pleased to say my diary has finally opened up for Sevenoaks.
Availability:
Monday 10.30am
Tuesday 11.30am & 7pm
Wednesday 8am
Thursday 6.30, 7.30, 10.30am
I offer a totally free 45-minute consultation where we assess your goals and design a fantastic program.
If you are interested in how I can help you finally achieve your health and fitness goals click here and check out my website.
Daniel Welstead - Award-Winning Personal Trainer in Sevenoaks and Featured on the BBC