Personal trainer

November 2, 2016 3:52 PM

My gym is trying to get to work with a personal trainer for 1 month . I nee to lose 40 pounds. Do you think is worth vs going to the gym on my own?? Would I see better results?
posted by barexamfreak to Health & Fitness (9 answers total)

Accountability (outside of to your own personal goals) is tremendously inspiring to an awful lot of people when it comes to fitness and weight loss - think "running buddies" and the like. Even if you get nothing out of personal training other than knowledge of exercises that you might benefit from AND the proper way to do them without unnecessarily raising risk of injury, that's valuable, and alone possibly worth it. I would seriously consider it if it's not a significant financial burden to do so.
posted by Emperor SnooKloze at 4:04 PM on November 2, 2016 [6 favorites]

If you can afford it and find someone who is a good fit personalitywise who will also pay close attention to form/injury prevention, I think it is worth it. It is for me, at least.

I find the added accountability and motivation of small-group personal training really helps me be more reliably active and push myself harder when I'm there AND when I'm not, since I know he's going to ask me what I did in my off-time. I do a lot of stuff that is good for me (weights, interval training, sprints) with a trainer that there is absolutely no way that I would do on my own; if left to my own devices, if I make it to the gym at all I plod along on an elliptical or treadmill. YM(and trainer)MV.
posted by charmedimsure at 4:19 PM on November 2, 2016 [2 favorites]

I definitely think working with a trainer is a better deal than the gym, alone. And every trainer I have ever worked with (and I've worked with about half a dozen over the past 15-20 years) will offer nutrition advice, which is what they all say will do the most to help with losing weight. For me, having the accountability factor is what works. I've had the gym membership and I slack on it. I don't slack on making an appointment with someone and showing up.
posted by lea724 at 4:58 PM on November 2, 2016 [1 favorite]

Focus on losing weight through diet rather than exercise. While moderate activity is encouraged it's best to wait until you reach your goal weight and then get heavy into exercise to gain muscle and improve fitness. Calorie burn is insignificant compared to the extra calories people eat due to increased hunger, which is very frustrating when trying to lose 40 pounds. You will lose some muscle during the weight loss but will easily gain it back later. Apparently the catabolic and anabolic activities shouldn't be done at the same time for maximum benefit. I found going to a trainer really helpful, then tapered off once I felt I learned enough, but if finances weren't an issue I would have kept the trainer.
posted by waving at 5:49 PM on November 2, 2016

My mom is 71 and lost 50lbs in the last year or so. She's tried "everything" - but a trainer she thinks is "cool" and seems to have a crush on has helped with accountability. Lots of years spent on trainers who were basically paid friends and fancy equipment didn't do anything.

Once the weight started coming off, she was hooked. So after 50 years of being about 70lbs overweight, she's now a gym rat.

Find a trainer who works with you AND pushes you. It can work!
posted by crankyrogalsky at 6:50 PM on November 2, 2016 [6 favorites]

There is a marked difference in intensity between when I go to the gym on my own and when I have a session with my trainer. On my own there is a bigger gap between exercises because I'm racking weights and deciding what to do next. With my trainer he will have me do something while he changes the weights or sets up the next exercise. Over the course of an hour it means I get a lot more done.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 7:04 PM on November 2, 2016 [1 favorite]

I have never been able to lose weight in my life, and even though that isn't my goal currently (goal is to get really strong and up my activity to feel more able) I have still lost 40 pounds working with my trainer. I love her and how she challenges me and supports me, and I could not have made the massive changes in my habits that I've made without that accountability. I say, expensive, yes, but completely worth it for me.
posted by fairlynearlyready at 7:54 PM on November 2, 2016

Trainer all the way. I'm 45, spent ten years shuffling around the gym alone and hardly changed a bit; started with a trainer 6 months ago and now I'm basically a ripped rat (well, by my standards but you know what I mean). If you can afford it, get three sessions a week.

Caveat: if you put on good muscle doing this, and feed and hydrate yourself, you may not see much weight loss in a month. It won't be like doing a fad diet type of fast water loss. It can take 5-6 weeks to really see the difference with a trainer, but then you're rocking and your body shape can basically do what you want it to.
posted by Coda Tronca at 2:33 AM on November 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

I've been working with a personal trainer for approximately 5 weeks now and have been very happy that I chose to do so. I'm not going to be able to do this in the long term as my finances don't permit it, but I now feel comfortable doing things like barbell squats, deadlifts, and presses that I didn't really know how to do so before. (My goal in the gym being to develop a lifting routine and build muscle.)

I will say that you should be very upfront with a trainer about your goal and the long-term vision (i.e. is this just a one-month thing?) If you don't anticipate working with the trainer indefinitely, they need to know that so that in the long run you can run your gym program yourself, so to speak.
posted by andrewesque at 7:12 AM on November 3, 2016