Is this common in gyms?

sarah42012

Hey everyone,

I'm starting the gym for the first time in an attempt to put on muscle, increase strength/fitness and get healthy overall.

I know that a big part of achieving this will be changing my diet. My diet is awful, I could go until 3pm only having a can of coke and a bag of crisps. Its like I don't notice I'm hungry until I'm ravenous. I lose weight really quick partly due to this and my job, I'm always on my feet in my workplace.

What I was wondering is if my gym instructor will do a personalised nutrition plan with me? I don't want to hit the treadmill and keep losing weight, you know?
Do gyms do that kind of thing? Or do I have to go to a nutritionist?

karl_m

Most instructors can guide you in what foods you will be good for you/should be eaten. It will most likely be a list of food to buy instead of actual meals, you'll have to figure out meals for yourself, but the information can easily be found online.

Hope this helps.:)

Zombienosh

yeah, suppose it depends on the gym but most "personal trainers" will give you a bit of advice on diet. Diet will be more important than the workout.

karl_m

Zombienosh wrote: »

yeah, suppose it depends on the gym but most "personal trainers" will give you a bit of advice on diet. Diet will be more important than the workout.

Totally agree, you can loose weight and tone up a little with little exercise, but will never achieve the body you want with exercise and a crap diet, sadly, diet is where most fall down.

Denerick

To be honest, don't rely on the guys in the gym. They try their best and all but the only person you should rely on is yourself. Food nutrition isn't rocket science (Though they try to tell you that) Its pretty basic stuff. Your body is an engine, feed it with the correct sort of foods. Operate on a calorie deficit if you want to lose weight, calorie surplus if you want to bulk up. Don't get caught up in how many brazil nuts your need to eat a month or the correct kind of coconut oil you should use in your elite brand muesli, that sort of thinking creates apathy and leads people to give up.

Hailhail1967

^^^ very true I think. Most people working in gyms and personal trainers are not nutritionists and so will often give generalised advice.

Most people know exactly what they should or should not be eating, its often a case of just not knowing how to get into the habit. I fins the key is just preparing atuff in advance for when i get tired/lazy.

I find with my clients the bits of nutrition they like the best is my personal experiences, things like where there is good value products etc etc available. So even talking to people in general can be a great help for some people.

Mellor

sarah42012 wrote: »

What I was wondering is if my gym instructor will do a personalised nutrition plan with me? I don't want to hit the treadmill and keep losing weight, you know?
Do gyms do that kind of thing? Or do I have to go to a nutritionist?

I've always disliked the phrase personal nutrition plan. Yeah its personal to my weight and activity, but a good diet for me is no different to a good diet for for somebody else the same weight and activity levels.

The information is all here in the stickies.
Work out your calories.
Work out your protein goal.
Divide in into 4-6 (meals).
Make up those meals from food you like.
Bingo. Personal nutrition plan.

WHIP IT!

Mellor wrote: »

I've always disliked the phrase personal nutrition plan. Yeah its personal to my weight and activity, but a good diet for me is no different to a good diet for for somebody else the same weight and activity levels.

The information is all here in the stickies.
Work out your calories.
Work out your protein goal.
Divide in into 4-6 (meals).
Make up those meals from food you like.
Bingo. Personal nutrition plan.

As Mellor said, everything you need to know about nutrition is broken down here in the Stickies... Let your new PT worry about getting you in shape and you worry about the Nutrition side of it yourself with plenty of help from the aforementioned Stickies...

karl_m

WHIP IT! wrote: »

As Mellor said, everything you need to know about nutrition is broken down here in the Stickies... Let your new PT worry about getting you in shape and you worry about the Nutrition side of it yourself with plenty of help from the aforementioned Stickies...

You just want to make sure you're not meeting you calorie requirements with junk, your favourite foods aren't necessarily good.

RandolphEsq

Eat lots of fruit and vegetables, and drink lots of water as a basis. Just don't eat too much rubbish on top of that. Like someone said above, it's not rocket science. It's all about self-control and discipline.

sarah42012

Hey everyone,

Thanks so much for all the advice, I really appreciate it

I guess I'm just gonna have to do a proper weekly food plan, instead of just snacking on the go.

Thanks again

BOHtox

How many grams of protein should you take a day? 5ft 11, 74 kilos, trying to gain muscle. Same situation, I have a terrible diet, mightn't eat breakfast, have a chicken roll at lunch and then wouldn't eat again till dinner. Then a meal or two before I go to bed, not straight before just in between dinner and bed.

karl_m

BOHtox wrote: »

How many grams of protein should you take a day? 5ft 11, 74 kilos, trying to gain muscle. Same situation, I have a terrible diet, mightn't eat breakfast, have a chicken roll at lunch and then wouldn't eat again till dinner. Then a meal or two before I go to bed, not straight before just in between dinner and bed.

Well off the bat, fix your eating regime, eat at least 5 even meals a day, if lets say you're on 2000 calories a day, eating 5 meals of 400 calories, get my rift?

On protein, if building muscle, an easy rule of thumb is to take the weight you want to be, lets say 75 kilos, and eat about twice as much in protein, so around 150g.

I'm no expert though, just a guy that reads the stickies here.

Captain Chaos

karl_m wrote: »

Well off the bat, fix your eating regime, eat at least 5 even meals a day, if lets say you're on 2000 calories a day, eating 5 meals of 400 calories, get my rift?

You don't need to do 5 or even 4 meals a day. That's old skool myth. You can have your 2000 cals over 2 meals if you want. Makes no difference at the end of the day. Just eat clean and eat more cals than you burn per day to add mass, simple.

I'd have a small lunch and than a big meal in the evening and that's me for the day. Sometimes if I've no time for lunch I just have one big 2,800 cal meal per day. Same thing, different way of doing it.

Personally I wouldn't have time to have 4-5 meals per day even if they were pre preped.

karl_m

Captain Chaos wrote: »

You don't need to do 5 or even 4 meals a day. That's old skool myth. You can have your 2000 cals over 2 meals if you want. Makes no difference at the end of the day. Just eat clean and eat more cals than you burn per day to add mass, simple.

I'd have a small lunch and than a big meal in the evening and that's me for the day. Sometimes if I've no time for lunch I just have one big 2,800 cal meal per day. Same thing, different way of doing it.

Personally I wouldn't have time to have 4-5 meals per day even if they were pre preped.

That wouldn't work for me, as I get very hungry during the day, I tried three meals a day and was snacking at night, the 5 meals is more to keep you less peckish and less likely to snack during the day as I would feel I haven't eaten enough imo, but 2 works for you so that's a success.

Denerick

I get by on four meals: breakfast, elevenses, lunch and dinner. They're all rather modest. Not hard to do either.

karl_m

Denerick wrote: »

I get by on four meals: breakfast, elevenses, lunch and dinner. They're all rather modest. Not hard to do either.

That seems to be what most get by on, I have a tendency to snack so I eat more meals and regularly to avoid that, seems to work for me, and I always find the time.