Why do people need a personal weight loss coach? Every fitness coach knows that if you want to lose weight, you need to burn more calories than you take in. But according to Dr. Katan and Dr. Ludwig who recently published an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA, January 6, 2010—Vol 3030, No. 1), weight change is self-limiting. They calculated that if you eat an extra cookie every day, your weight gain will level off at about 6 pounds, even if you continue to eat the extra cookie. That sounds great! Go ahead and eat that cookie and don’t worry about hiring a fitness coach or a personal weight loss coach.

A Personal Weight Loss Coach Knows that a Cookie Can Set a Precedent

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The reason why people need either a personal weight loss coach or a fitness coach is that the converse is also true. If you stop eating that cookie, you will initially lose weight. But as the size of your body decreases, it needs less fuel or calories to function. In addition, weight loss causes changes in hormones which make the body conserve energy. This is why most people gain more weight than they initially lost after they stop exercising or go off their diet.

Can a Fitness Coach Stop the Inevitable Weight Gain of Growing Older?

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So according to Dr. Katan and Dr. Ludwig’s model, why bother with a fitness coach or personal weight loss coach? It seems pointless. The average young adult gains about 1 or 2 pounds every year. By middle age, the damage is done.

A Fitness Coach Also Wants to Know What’s In Your Head

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But there are people who lose weight and even keep it off. How is that possible? One of the most important things that a fitness coach or personal weight loss coach can do is to help people realize that diet and exercise are not enough to ensure long-term weight loss. It’s not just about calories; it’s also about the psycho-social aspects. It’s about people’s beliefs and language patterns around food, and their peer group’s influence.

Calories are Only One Concern of the Personal Weight Loss Coach

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More important than counting calories, measuring food, and measuring how long we exercise; we need to restructure our beliefs about the purpose of food. As a fitness coach or personal weight loss coach, you have a responsibility to take on the larger problem. This means going after the core issues instead of skimming the surface.

Colette Seymann JTS Advisors
Bi-Designated Strategy and Accountability Coach

Technorati Tags: Fitness Coach, Personal Weight Loss Coach

To be a fitness coach or personal weight loss coach, you must help your clients set goals. As a fitness coach, you are always helping your clients improve their health. One way to help your clients with their health is to become their personal weight loss coach. A common reason people get a personal weight loss coach is to look or feel better. They came to you as a fitness coach because they want to improve their health, and weight loss is one way to achieve that goal. When your clients look to you as their fitness coach and want to find ways to lose their weight, there are two things you can do as their personal weight loss coach to help your clients on the path to set goals they can reach.

As A Fitness Coach; Your Job Is To Help Your Clients Decide EXACTLY What They Want And Write It Down

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As a personal weight loss coach, have your client decide exactly what they want. How do you do that? Help them to be as specific as they can. If they say, “I want to lose weight,” and you helped them lose one pound, would you be a good fitness coach? Of course not, because losing one pound isn’t what they really want. In order to find out what it is they really want, have your client choose a specific goal. This can be as easy as identifying a target weight. For example, if their goal is to weigh 185 pounds and they now weigh 228 pounds, their goal is to lose 43 pounds.

Personal Weight Loss Coach Tip: Make Sure Your Client’s Weight Loss Goal Is Measurable

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For a goal to be a goal, it must be written down. Once your personal weight loss coach client has written the goal down, look at the goal to see if it is measurable. What I mean by “measurable” is that you, as their fitness coach, will have a way to know when they have accomplished their goal. In our example, your client’s goal is to weigh 185 pounds, or to lose 43 pounds. It is measurable, so you can monitor it. This is the only way to know whether you’re getting the result for your client.

If your fitness coach client’s goal is not measurable, then go back and rewrite it until it clearly measurable. In order to be successful as a personal weight loss coach, helping your client write goals that you both can track progress with will help to stay motivated and celebrate successes.

Kris Thompson
JTS Advisors Strategy Coach

Technorati Tags: Fitness Coach, Personal Weight Loss Coach