 If a client asked you the question: “What’s the most important thing I should do to lose weight?”, you could bet that “be in a calorie deficit” would be one of your first responses. For good reason too, because fat loss cannot happen unless the body is in an energy deficit. This answer is over-simplified. Working with clients will see a number of things pop up that are preventing them from losing weight and telling them to just make sure they’re in a calorie deficit won’t help the issue. Here are some factors that as a trainer, you need to consider in order to help your client achieve the best weight loss results possible. Client KnowledgeSome clients wouldn’t even know where to start. Many can’t tell you what a calorie is, or where they come from (watch the surprise on clients faces when you tell them alcohol has calories in!). If you tell a client to be in a calorie deficit, and they haven’t got a clue what you’re on about, then it’s safe to presume not much will happen for their weight loss. Education therefore, becomes an important component to your training of your client. Educating them on what foods they’re consuming that are higher in calories, and any potential swaps/meals you’d suggest to them to start trying to help bring their average calorie intake down. AdherenceThis sounds obvious at first. If your client is non-adherent to being in an energy deficit, they won’t lose weight/body fat. I want to break to it down further into two types of adherence:
Type 1: Knowingly Adherent / Non-adherent Knowingly refers to the awareness your client has, whereby they know for sure they’re either being adherent, or non-adherent. You could ask them how they’re week is going and they may tell you that all they’ve eaten is takeaway meals and chocolate, so they’re not surprised their weight has gone up. For these clients, we need to find a method/routine that works for them whereby they can stay adherent even through times where they would normally go off the rails. Type 2: Unknowingly Non-Adherent But what about clients who didn’t realise they weren’t being adherent? (We needn’t worry too much if a client isn’t aware they are being adherent, because they’re getting the job done. But over time it would be good to educate them on what habits of theirs are helping them achieve great results, so they can make those stick). You may experience clients that are trying to eat “healthier than ever” and are still not losing weight/body fat. They may have cut the takeaways, chocolate bars and pick ‘n’ mix in favour of pasta’s, fruits and green smoothies. The client here has seen themselves make better food choices, and expects to get results by virtue of their food quality improving. Without realising (& more than likely not understanding), they could still be overconsuming calories, and therefore not adhering to their energy deficit. Education for these clients into portion control could be a great way helping them build on from their food swaps. Try to help your client be able to choose better quality foods/meals whilst consuming them in quantities that keep them full and within their energy deficit remit. Previous Weight Loss HistoryDuring your consultation with clients you’ll undoubtedly have formed a picture of their past, both training and nutrition. All of their efforts from the past to lose weight, whether they’ve been overweight before or if this is their first real attempt to lose weight. It’s important to know your clients background because it can have implications for their next weight loss effort. It’s been seen in research that individuals who have been previously overweight and lost weight, will have slightly lower metabolic rates compared to someone (who is the same weight) that hasn’t been overweight. So if you calculate a calorie intake for your client that theoretically should have them in a calorie deficit, but you do not see weight/fat loss, your clients history could be important to consider. Clients Stress LevelsStress makes it much harder for your client to stick to a diet for weight loss, and emotional eating can lead to over-consumption of foods that are high in calories, potentially leading to weight gain. (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22254109/) Further, cortisol, a hormone in the human body (often referred to as the stress hormone) increases when you are stressed and results in water retention. This doesn’t actually inhibit your clients ability to lose body fat because if they’re in their deficit, they will. What high levels of cortisol does is potentially mask this fat loss when your client steps on the scale, i.e. your client may weigh the same despite having lost body fat, due to the water being retained whilst stressed. (https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/jws/smi/1998/00000014/00000002/art00765) As a trainer, although you are not a psychologist, you could suggest to your client to find some ways to relax and unwind on a more regular basis. Popular options are meditation, reading, evening baths. Your Clients SleepGetting a good night's sleep regularly is important for normal functioning of the body. With poor sleep, water retention can be affected (by the kidneys this time) and similarly to when cortisol is high your client may be retaining more water and masking the results of their fat loss. Again, you do not need to be an expert in sleep, but being able to offer some advice on how to improve sleep could be a game changer for your client. Things such as trying to set a regular sleep & wake time, staying off devices 1-2 hours before bedtime or even blue-light blocking glasses. KidsMany of our clients have them, and they can’t be ignored. Yes, you’re working specifically with your client for their fat loss goals, but when it comes to dinner time (& many other things, guess who takes priority.
Clients may not want / have the time / have the energy to cook meals for their kids, and then focus on cooking another meal just for them. For those with younger children, their sleep may be affected by being woken up through the night. This, as previously mentioned earlier can affect your client in many ways that can mask weight loss. For your client, you may need to provide them with meal ideas and nutrition tactics that can be used for dinner time that not only get the children fed, but can allow for them to have a good quality meal themself, whilst not wasting extra time cooking a brand new meal, allow them to enjoy their dinner time with their family and keep time-costs low. Having an artillery of easy-to-cook recipes that are family friendly could be a game-changer for your client and their results. Further, to make your clients' lives even easier at times, having meals that require no cooking whatsoever is a perfectly valid tool. Supermarkets will have many ready meal options that can be put in the microwave and be cooked in a short space of time, with little to no effort. Ready meals have had a bad wrap in the past, but with a little bit of research you’ll realise there is an abundance of calorie friendly options out there, so have some of these ready for your clients too.
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Using Low-Carbohydrate Diets for Weight Loss Low carbohydrate diets have been recommended for weight loss all the way back since the 1860s. There continues to be huge debates as to whether they can be the ‘best’ way for our clients to lose weight, with diets such as the Atkins and the Ketogenic being very popular around the world. As it suggests, low-carbohydrate diets work by restricting the consumption of foods containing carbohydrates. Currently there aren't any strict guidelines that define what constitutes a low-carbohydrate diet, but Oh et. al (2020) have provided the following definitions:
Do Low-Carb Diets work for weight loss?It can be hard to argue that low-carbohydrate diets do not work, as we can see in the research that individuals who follow a low-carbohydrate diet can indeed see rapid weight loss in their first 6-12 months of such a diet. The speed of the weight loss can appear fast from the very beginning of a low-carbohydrate diet. When carbohydrates are stored in the body, it results in the retention of water (2-3g of water per 1g of carbohydrate stored). When you deplete the body of its carbohydrate stores (i.e. through a low-carbohydrate diet) you’ll often see large drops in body weight on the scales, and this can be attributed to the losses of water. These early losses in weight can be great for your clients to see, boosting their motivations to continue working hard towards their goals, increasing their chances of longer-term weight loss success. This all sounds great, but what we have seen in the research is that individuals who follow a low-carbohydrate diet do not lose significantly more body fat than those following a diet higher in carbohydrate. Across 12 months the difference in these diets can 1-2 kg, which initially may sound big, but in reality, it’s not. During studies over 6-12 months in length, some research shown total body fat weight losses of ~7kg after 6 months irrespective of whether the diet was low-carbohydrate or low-fat. https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/104/2/324/4564649 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/1900510 Client ConsiderationsWhen it comes to working with your clients, their preferences are going to be key to their success. These results showing no greater differences between low-carb and other dietary tactics begs the question, is it worth being restrictive of a food group?
The complete restriction of one food group may be frustrating for your client as it may mean that they’re now beginning to restrict themselves and not “allow” themselves to consume the foods they love. You may well have seen clients or people in the past who have decided to completely abstain from eating their favorite foods. After a short length of time they end up gorging on copious amounts of the stuff because they just couldn’t handle the restrictive nature. Adherence will be one of the key factors contributing to whether a weight-loss phase is successful or not. As a coach, this will require you to work with your client to figure out their nutritional preferences. If your client is someone who enjoys foods higher in fat and shows little preference for carbohydrate-based foods, then a low-carbohydrate based diet could work well for them. On the flip side, if your client is one that prefers consuming carbohydrate-based foods, then a low-carbohydrate diet may not be the best tactic for them in their weight loss endeavors. Carbohydrates As a coach, you need to understand a fair bit about carbohydrates. You need to understand what they are, how they work, where you can get them from in your diet and when would be good for your clients to be consuming the carbohydrates.
But when it comes to your clients, they don't need to understand all of this. They need to understand what foods they are going to eat and how much of that food should they be eating to get the results they're looking for. Ultimately, clients come to us as trainers because they want results. They don't need to understand the ins and outs of carbohydrates to do that. So, whenever you're communicating towards your clients, you can think science, but you need to make sure that you speak in terms your client will understand. So what are carbohydrates? Carbohydrates are one macronutrient out of the three main ones that we find in our food. The other two being fats and protein. You may hear carbohydrates being spoken about as either one of two types. There are simple carbohydrates and there are complex carbohydrates. The simple carbohydrates are very small sugar molecules. Two of the main ones that you will hear about more frequently are glucose and fructose. The complex carbohydrates are longer chains of simple carbohydrates, typically for storage purposes. Glycogen is the human storage version of glucose. Fibre is a hard to digest complex carbohydrate that we find in our diets. It offers very little energy to our daily energy intake. But it does offer some useful health benefits, such as … Regardless of what type of carbohydrate we consume, the body's goal is to break it down into its smallest form (glucose). Glucose is what the body uses for fuel to create energy for daily activities and exercise execution. The body also uses fat for these things when it's low intensity, but glucose is its preferred form because it's much quicker to metabolize and break down. When we're consuming carbohydrates, if there isn't an urgent need for these glucose molecules, the body can store it for future use. The body can store glucose in the liver (predominantly) and in the muscles as glycogen. So it’s important to understand as a coach, the importance of carbohydrate consumption, and the potential it has for improving your clients performance during exercise, in their pursuit of their goals. Now, what we need to make clear and understand as coaches is that there is no hard and fast rule when it comes to carbohydrates. There are people out there that enjoy and prefer a low carbohydrate diet and can do well on it. Then there are other people that like a higher carbohydrate diet and also reach their goals, whatever they may be. If you look at advice given by the SACN (Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition) in 2015, they suggested, that the general population (i.e. our day to day people that we work with that are not athletes competing in sporting events) will likely consume on average 50% of their diet from carbohydrate. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/445503/SACN_Carbohydrates_and_Health.pdf As trainers, we need to understand that our clients may consume less than or more than 50% when they come to us. It could be due to lack of knowledge, or personal preferences, which we’ll come onto a bit later. Another thing to note, is that percentages do not tell you a lot about how many calories are coming from carbohydrates. Knowing that 1 gram of carbohydrate supplies our body’s with ~ 4 kcal is important when it comes to advising our clients how much carbohydrate they need to consume across every day/week. Once you have an idea of how much your client's going to be consuming, from a total calorie perspective and in respect to their macronutrient breakdown, you need to relay this information to your client in a clear manner. They will want to know what foods contain carbohydrates and how much of them they should eat. Sometimes, this is easier said than done, due to the pre-conceptions that clients may have based around carbohydrates. Clients may fear that carbs will cause them to gain weight instantly, or increase their chances of medical conditions such as diabetes. When educating your clients / telling them what carbohydrates to look into, you will need to have a good idea about the sources of carbohydrate, and why both simple and complex carbohydrates play a role in our day-to-day diets. Some carbohydrates are going to be higher in fibre (the complex carbohydrates) compared to others (the simple carbohydrates). Foods higher in fibre are:
Other carbohydrate sources include:
Now you've been able to explain to your client where they can get their carbohydrate sources from, it's good to have an idea of when a better time could be (because there's no real such thing as good and bad) for your clients to be consuming carbohydrates. We know from the research that post exercise carbohydrate intake can be useful, as the body is more readily prepared to absorb carbohydrates and replenish both the muscle and liver glycogen that's been used during a bout of exercise. There is also research coming out within the realm of Chrononutrition, with the research suggesting that it may be beneficial having carbohydrates earlier in the day, when the body is in a more efficient position to metabolise this carbohydrate. But this isn't to say that having carbohydrates at night-time is going to be negative for your client, but a reduced/limited portion could be more advantageous and their health compared to a large portion. Considerations when working with clients Despite the ins and outs of understanding carbohydrates themselves, one of the most important factors you need to take into account is the preferences of your client. You may have clients that prefer carbohydrate-based foods (they might have a sweet tooth). This could lead to them desiring a slightly higher percentage of their daily intake being carbohydrates compared to their fat intake. On the contrary, you may have a client that prefers fat-based foods. So you may need to reduce your carbohydrate percentage to allow for more fats being consumed during the day. Another very important factor to consider with your clients is their day-to-day routine. What happens at work? When do they work out? Do they work out in the morning, the middle of the day or the evening? Do they have children? What does their home life look like? When is it convenient for them to consume food? In order for them succeed whilst living a busy life, as a coach you need to make the nutrition into something that's enjoyable and easy to follow within their lifestyle. Across working with many clients, you will undoubtedly come across people with varied perceptions and preconceptions of carbohydrates. You may not be able to convince your client straight away that they have to consume carbohydrates, especially if they've got a preconception that carbohydrates are bad for them. So there's going to need to be an education process that goes on within your business for your clients to help them build a better understanding of them, to allow them to then build on their current views and perceptions.  Over the last decade(s), there have been arguments both for and against the importance of meal & nutrient timing. You may have seen it argued that meal timing doesn’t matter at all, as long as you stick to your daily calorie intake, you’ll be ok. I’m sure you’ll also have seen recommendations that people should eat lots of little meals throughout the day, spaced 3 hours apart to maximise protein synthesis. By going to either extreme, you could be missing out on ways to increase your clients' satiety through the day, improve their health, and accelerate them towards their goals, whilst building a routine that fits into their lifestyle. Remember, your client and making their nutrition work according to their lifestyle is the biggest priority. With more recent research papers being published, it could be fair to say that the timing of meals is an important factor in your clients health and results. But some of the more recent research hasn’t purely focused on meal timing in itself, it’s looked into the timing of our meals in accordance to our daily biological body clocks (circadian rhythms). Let me introduce to you this concept: ChrononutritionA relatively ‘new’ term in the field of nutritional science, first developed in 2005. In very general terms, chrononutrition is the area of nutrition that looks into our circadian rhythm and our day-to-day dietary routines. Before we go further, a quick summary of circadian rhythms will prove useful for you as a trainer, so you can really see the effect nutrition can have on your clients body. Circadian rhythms are “are physical, mental, and behavioral changes that follow a daily cycle.” https://www.nigms.nih.gov/education/fact-sheets/Pages/circadian-rhythms.aspx In our brain we have what’s seen as the “master clock” or central rhythm, a biological clock that cycles for about 24 hours (on average it’s 24 hours and 15 minutes). External stimuli can influence this with the main stimuli being light & dark, sleeping & waking and feeding & fasting. You see, we don’t just have one body clock. In fact we have several that control an array of processes within the body, from hormone control to nutrient metabolism. As individuals, if we chronically disrupt the alignment of these body clocks, the risk of suffering adverse health effects is increased. For example misalignment has been shown to increase glucose levels, reduce sleep efficiency and reverse the daily cortisol rhythm. https://science.sciencemag.org/content/354/6315/1008.long https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19255424/ Why does this matter for your clientFeeding is one of the stimuli that can affect some of the internal body clocks, and ultimately play a part in the regulation of these rhythms. Circadian rhythms also impact how well nutrients are metabolised (broken down and used) once they have been consumed. With the data we have available to use at the moment, this means that there could be “better” or “worse” times of the day to be consuming food. Studies have shown a poorer metabolism of food when it is consumed at night time (important consideration if your client is a shift worker), poorer sleep quality and body composition. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15646240/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3227713/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4425165/ The evidence points towards eating earlier in the day, but how early in the day is unclear. But within the first 2-4 hours of waking would be a good place to start for your client. Should your client eat BreakfastNaturally when talking about meal timing, the argument as to whether you should eat or skip breakfast is always going to come up. Clients will tell you that they’ve heard that eating breakfast kick-starts & boosts the metabolism (strictly speaking it doesn’t, much), others will tell you they’ve heard skipping breakfast increases fat burning (strictly speaking, you use fat as a fuel more, but it doesn’t lead to greater fat loss without a calorie deficit). Advantages and potential benefits of consuming a meal earlier in the day include:
Should Your Clients stop or avoid eating at a certain time?Now we’ve spoken about how clients may benefit from having meals, and potentially more of the daily food intake earlier in the day compared to night time, you may wonder whether clients should stop eating by a certain point of the day? As previously mentioned, the thermic effect of food has been seen to be much less when consumed in the latter stages of the day compared to the morning. Consuming large meals in the evening has been linked to increased susceptibility of obesity and other cardiometabolic diseases. This suggests that our clients, where possible, should avoid consuming larger meals in the evening as our bodies don’t metabolise them as well in comparison to when they are consumed in the morning. More recent research is beginning to show that if night time feeding is to occur (again, thinking about our shift workers), it may be wise to choose low-calorie options (~<200kcal) as the negative effects reported with large intakes are not consistently reported with low-calorie intakes. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4425165/ This being said, we know from fasting research that having a feeding window of 8-10 hours can provide many benefits from a health point of view for our clients. (see here for our article on fasting/time-restricted feeding) What Should Your Client Do?Practically, using the information we have available to us so far (I anticipate a lot more to come in the coming years), it could be wise to try and match up your clients' feeding window to their other biological clocks (light-dark & sleep-wake).
Your client should understand that the time of day they choose to eat their meals can have health implications for them, with the potential for more positive ramifications with earlier ingestion of food in the day. If possible clients should try to avoid large night time meals where possible (the odd night time social here and there won’t be too detrimental). If they are going to consume food into the night time, low calorie options (~ 200kcal or below) may be beneficial for avoiding negative health effects (we don’t have lots of data on this currently, but what we do have suggests this is a good idea). Finally, if you clients can eat within a 8-10 hour window, this again, could be beneficial from a health and body composition point of view. What do you need to know - and say - when coaching a vegan client?
VEGAN OR PLANT BASED? Veganism has been on the rise over the past few years, with obvious implications for fitpros. 10 years ago, the chances of you having a vegan client were minimal. These days, it won’t be unusual for you to have fully vegan, part vegan, or “trying it out for a month” vegan clients on your books. Veganism is defined as the elimination of any animal-based products from the diet, this will include honey. Some vegan clients will extend their vegan beliefs to footwear, kit, and apparel (leather being the obvious culprit) You need to be aware that a person’s vegan ethics can affect details of their life that you might not anticipate as a non-vegan coach. The term plant-based eating has gained popularity in recent years. This can mean someone is fully vegan, but it can also refer to someone who prefers to eat plants and legumes when possible. The best approach to understanding your client’s individual approach to veganism? Ask them!  CONSIDERATIONS FOR TRAINING A VEGAN CLIENT.
When you take on a vegan client, you’ll need to think about how their vegan diet might impact their training or recovery and how you will need to programme around their food preferences. VEGAN MACRO DIET COACHING For a meat eater, it’s difficult to comprehend how difficult it can be to cleanly hit macros on a plant based diet. The reason is simply. Vegan foods are rarely “one macro” foods. There are very few vegan friendly foods that are purely protein, for example. Tofu, soy beans/edamame, beans, pulses, and legumes are also great sources of protein. But they are inherently bound up with carbohydrate (or less commonly some fat). So it’s not easy for a vegan client to “just bump up protein intake” by 25g a day. Meat eaters could chop a little extra chicken breast onto a salad, or add a few extra egg whites into an omelette. Vegans need to get a bit more strategic. This means vegan clients tend to be more diligent, creative, and happy to seek out variety in their food intake. At least once they have been educated about macros, tracking, and meal prep. HIGHER CARB BY NECESSITY Vegan clients tend to gravitate towards a higher-carb approach, especially if they’ve been eating a vegan diet for many years. Your fat loss clients might need to get more of their carbs from plant sources (fruits, vegetables, root veg, pulses, legumes...) And your maintenance, weight gain, or endurance clients could boost carb intake with pasta, rice and other grains. Vegan protein sources are not always complete (meaning they do not always contain a full balance of essential amino acids). Protein is made of 20 amino acids, some of which are “essential” (they can’t be produced by the body). For this reason, you should work with vegan clients to ensure they get a balanced intake of macros, micros, and amino acids across their day. This will mean smart combinations of foods (nut butter on wholegrain bread, cornbread with bean chili, red bean stew and rice). Other ideas could be a tofu stir-fry with rice noodles, fruit smoothie with soy milk and vegan protein powder, hearty bean casseroles or stews, salads with olives, legumes, and hummus. VEGAN PROTEIN SOURCES - vegan protein powders (soy, hemp, pea, brown rice or a blend) - dairy free milks - nuts, seeds - nut and seed butters - soy beans/edamame - tofu - seitan (made from wheat gluten) - tempeh - beans and legumes - lentils and pulses - quinoa and millet (and other grains to a lesser extent) - sprouted beans - dark leafy greens (and all vegetables to a lesser extent) COACHING A VEGAN CLIENT There are lots of things you need to think about when coaching a vegan client. But - at the same time - there are not so many differences. And you certainly shouldn’t make their veganism a bit deal. Question, but never challenge. Be curious, but never judge. Accept their choices (whether or not you agree!). Get on with your job of improving their health, body composition, strength, and performance. There are no rules about programming for a vegan client. Everyone is an individual, and their veganism is just one more factor in this person’s individuality. If their diet is deficient in key minerals (or calories!) then this is likely to impact strength, performance, or recovery. But you can step-in and advise, improving their nutrition so they can cope with training and recovery. Veganism will not inherently mean a client is weaker, less able to deal with volume or load, or more likely to get injured. But you do need to consider that a vegan client might come to you with nutritional deficiencies (especially if they are a new vegan) Here are some nutrient deficiencies to look out for. SUPPLEMENTS FOR VEGANS Vitamin B12 There are no non-animal sources of B12, so vegans need to supplement with it. B12 is important for cell growth, bone marrow, gastrointestinal health, and nervous system function. Iron Vegan clients can be deficient in heme (one form of iron) as this is found in animal products. Ensure adequate heme and non- heme iron intake for your vegan clients, especially females of menstruating age. Creatine Creatine is a great all-round supplement for strength and power. But it’s mostly found in muscle tissue, so vegans will struggle to get it from diet alone. Carnitine Carnitine is mostly found in meat and milk, so your vegan clients may benefit from supplementing with l-carnitine. For 9 years FitPro Cookbooks has produced vegan recipes on a monthly basis. All my 3 kids are vegan, and while not one now, I was back in 1986+ FitPro Cookbooks has always catered very well for your vegetarian & vegan (as well as the carnivores) You can check out the full range of what we do & how we help YOU by joining the no-strings trial at www.fitprocookbooks.com Protein in the real world… how much is enough for a normal clientIn recent years, personal trainers around the world have turned to one macronutrient in particular, and hailed it as the Michael Jordan of the nutrition world. It can speed up our clients' recovery from training sessions, prevent muscle loss as they diet and age and keep them ‘fuller for longer’ between meals. PROTEIN. In fact, here’s a list of many more benefits of protein intake you may not even have known about:  A pretty powerful macronutrient, i’m sure you’ll agree. Let’s quickly turn to the scientific research in the area. Across the studies, you’ll find recommendations of anywhere from 1.2 grams per kilogram of bodyweight per day (1.2 g/kg/d) up to (& beyond) 3.3 g/kg/d. Better yet, the research shows that there aren’t many negative effects in the short- or medium- term of having protein intakes that high. Therefore, should every trainer get their clients to consume as much protein as possible, because nothing bad could happen? Absolutely not. This is the part where you now separate yourself from the pack and become better than the rest. We cannot deny that the research into protein is great, and promising for all of the benefits we’d love to see in clients. But the research doesn’t take into account one EXTREMELY important thing: The people they study are NOT our clients. Now, the average client - works 8am - 6pm, ‘wants to lose weight and be more toned’, whilst exercising 2-4 times a week. If you can make that happen for your client, you’ve won. The truth is, your client (more than likely), couldn’t care less how many grams of protein they have per day. They just want to be told what they can eat to reach their goals. [Pro tip… they won’t be eating 3.3 g/kg/day, ESPECIALLY when in an energy deficit] So here’s where you can start with your client First, meet them where they are at (because if you don’t and you just give them a target of 3-4 x their current intake, you’ll be setting them up for failure, they’ll feel like a failure, and they’ll wonder what’s the point) Find out how much protein they’re having already. You can get them to track their foods for a couple of days via an app such as MyFitnessPal, or get them to send you photographs of every meal they have for 3 days. These aren’t foolproof of course, but they’ll at least give you a rough idea at the very least. With this information, you can calculate their estimated protein intake per day. For example your 70 kg female is eating 60 grams of protein per day. 60 (grams) divided by 70 (kg) = 0.86 g/kg/day. 0.86 g/kg/day is lower than the recommended 1.2 - 3.3 g/kg/day. So yes, your client will need to increase their protein. But seeing something lower than 1.2 g/kg/d doesn’t mean you have to hit the panic button straight away and have a meltdown. Now, the next task is to fit an improved protein intake into their daily routine, without changing too much at once. One thing at a time makes the transition smoother, and much easier for your client. If your client is creative in the kitchen, you can offer suggestions to the types of foods they can purchase from the supermarkets that are higher in protein (some examples are below for you).    For clients that aren’t so creative in the kitchen, and love to follow recipes, then supplying them with easy-to-follow, great tasting recipes (like the one below) can be a game-changer for them!  Providing your clients are adhering to their energy deficit (ideally through a combination of their resistance/cardiovascular training & their nutrition), then they’ll be on their road to results. If this routine means your client is now happy with their lifestyle and the results they are getting. Fantastic news - you can start to focus on other aspects of their training, nutrition or lifestyle to keep their journey fun, inspiring and habitual. You don’t NEED to be looking for new ways to bump their protein intakes up, just because it’s not much higher than 1.2 g/kg/day. Your client is HAPPY, and GETTING RESULTS. That’s what they pay you for. Of course, if your client still isn’t quite happy with their routine, and wants to increase their protein intake - then help them do that until they are. Work with them over time to change their habits to get to a point where everything seems easy and automatic, and they don’t have to think about how much protein they’re having every day. Nobody wants to have to track every meal, every day, for the rest of their lives. If you’re a trainer who is looking to take their nutrition service to the next level, providing their clients with hundreds of great-tasting, easy-to-follow recipes that are high in protein then you may want to consider Fit Pro Cookbooks As a trainer, you’ve probably heard about fasting before. Essentially, it’s a period of time where you restrict your energy intake to very-low, or even no intake, alternated with periods of time where you allow energy intake. The more popular (almost trendy) fasting strategies you’ll see are:
 Generally, these diets are given to their clients by trainers as ways to accelerate weight-loss by restricting energy intake for a number of days per week, or for a number of hours per day (within a 24-hour cycle). Before we go on, you must understand there is nothing magical about fasting from a weight loss perspective. It should come as no surprise to you as a trainer, that getting your client to restrict their energy intake, and get them into an energy deficit will contribute to successful weight/fat loss. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7021351/pdf/0660117.pdf (2020) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6836017/pdf/nutrients-11-02442.pdf (2019) But this isn’t to say it couldn’t be a fantastic protocol to build into your client’s lifestyle to help them achieve amazing results. So let’s dig into whether fasting could be a great fit for your client, and how you could implement it. Why Would You Consider Using Fasting with Your Client? |
AuthorKaren Nadkarni Ruffle Archives
January 2021
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