have you used a personal trainer?

A Personal Trainer will work, but only along with a change in the rest of your lifestyle. I have used trainers and the big change only happened when I changed my diet.

I lost 5 stone over the last 2 years and done the Dublin Marathon last year. Key is a good training regime which you will need a trainer to start you off with and a good diet. I joined weight watchers about 3 months after I started training and the weight just fell of me.

So far so good it has stayed of, but I keep up running regularly and done a half marathon last week.
 
Thanks weejasy77. I know one of my biggest problems is not eating breakfast. Even as a child i could never eat in the morning, i dont eat anything till lunch time and sometimes i'll only have an evening meal. I've tried eating breakfast before cause i know it's good for you, and after i do i just cant function for a few hours i feel ill every time get very bad head aches and stomach aches. Guess my body's just not used to it, but i'm going to force myself to have breakfast tomorrow every if it's just half a slice of toast.

I tried weights before and hurt my back....hense i need to be show how to use them properly. I'm going to try what you suggested with the cross trainer, usually i do 45-60 mins and keep at the same pace. I've started drinking alot more water, before all i would drink is diet coke...i could get throught 12 cans a day easy.

The eating every 3 hours is going to be the hardest thing for me, but i have heard this before and it's meant to work well so i'll try that as well. So if i had breakfast and 7am then i need to eat at 10am then lunch at 1pm then eat again at 4pm and then dinner at 7pm. So for the 10am and 4 pm can it just be like some fruit/yogurt, would that be enough? ( i'm gonna try this for a week before i start with the trainer if i put on weight from eating all this extra stuff i'm gonna coming looking for you lol )


Hey smashbox how are you hunni.

The personaltrainerireland is where i actually found the guy that i'm going to go with.
The fitness together place looks really nice but a bit more expensive, same with the focusfitness. But it's good to know about these just incase the other place doesnt work out. Your google must be better than mine cause when i searched i didn't find either of those other two lol
 
Hey smashbox how are you hunni.

The personaltrainerireland is where i actually found the guy that i'm going to go with.
The fitness together place looks really nice but a bit more expensive, same with the focusfitness. But it's good to know about these just incase the other place doesnt work out. Your google must be better than mine cause when i searched i didn't find either of those other two lol
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Am good :D

Hope it works out for you. If it doesnt, then you'll just have to try another avenue. Good luck x
 
Also second the "grazing" technique - little and often. The guy I did the personal training with explained it more in the way that the body needs say, on average 100 calories per hour, so after 3 hours you should be eating say, 300 calories. Before that I might eat nothing all day and then stuff in 1,000 calories. Body still only needs the 300 cals. (working off reserves all day) so stores the excess.

I am delighted with my progress - back into a size 12. I also cut out the white bread and processed foods, made a huge difference.
 
Sam... Good luck on your new lifestyle anyhow, keep us informed on how it goes. There's some good advice on the fitness and nutrition sections on boards.ie you'll understand better in there how important a weight training programme is in weight loss.
 
samanthajane said:
I know one of my biggest problems is not eating breakfast.
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Oh - me too samanthajane.....and 2 years on I still struggle. I'm ok at weekends when I wake up naturally, but weekdays, when the alarm wakes me, my body just refuses to be hungry until lunch time. But I definitely notice a difference with my weight if I lapse...so I guess that's incentive enough.

Good luck - and enjoy it,
 
I'm coming late to this discussion , but, for what it's worth ..

Last year, I used a personal trainer for a couple of months - 10 sessions. Part of this was at my wife's suggestion - she wanted to pay for some of the sessions as a Christmas present.

The local gym had ads for a few PTs. I chose one on the basis that he had a head of hair and didn't seem as bulked up as the rest of them. I've a subjective distrust of musclebound blokes with shaven heads.

The sessions went well. My primary reason for getting his help was that I was getting stale from doing the same routines. He helped me learn the benefit of using different combinations and the technique for each. He also provided guidance for making decisions about the combination of equipment to use. Finally, he was able to give me one-to-one time in one of the gym studios that had me crawling out of there in rag order.

The sessions, overall, were expensive but, in retrospect, value for money. I've being using the gym far more regularly and efficiently since then.

I believe that the engagement with a personal trainer should be limited. They should be able to leave you self-sufficient after a number of sessions. If they can't do that, then they haven't done a good job. IMHO.
 
I take a glass of warm water with the juice of half a lemon - with no sugar or any kind of sweetener - every morning. Even if you don't have a sweet tooth it works on the fat in your diet. I walk for an hour every day and use dumbells - 5kg - a couple of times a week. I like sleeveless things and hate bingo wings so that was my motivation. I greatly admire Michelle Obama's arms but it is so easy to get toned arms - about 12 weeks does the trick. I cut out all bread, have no potatoes, and cut out any kind of cake or sweet things and cut down anything with saturated fats (read the labels). I lost a stone in about 7 months but also trimmed down.
 
I'm late to this discussion to but for what it's worth... a great 'credit crunch' idea is a fitness DVD. Honestly... I bought Davina McCall's DVD last year and it was BRILLIANT - couldn't believe it - showed me how to do the excercises and I lost a half stone/ totally toned up. It cost around E20 I guess... a lot cheaper than a trainer. Running is the best all round excercise but on a cold winter's morning it's a lot easier to go downstairs and work out in front of the TV... for me anyway :)
 
Thanks all for your few tips.

weejasy77 i'm not thanking you just yet lol i'm in bits!!!! This eating 5 times a day is killing me, I feel stuffed all day long. But on the good side after a few weeks of this i wont want to eat anykind of food ever again lol. I actually dread when it comes to having to eat again.

Anyone thats done this "grazing" before please tell me that soon this will stop and my body will get used to it.
 
Well here's my 2 cents worth.

Diets don't work because your body goes into starvation mode when your dieting. when you've lost the weight sand come off the diet, this starvation mode will encourage your body to store as much fat as possible. Hence you'll regain the weight and some more.

My tip is this. Give up taking sugar on your tea and coffee and give up fizzy drinks. Seriously it works. After a while sugar snacks become off putting as they are simply too sweet.

Too curb hunger pangs, how about a load of rice cakes dunked in unsugared tea!
 
UptheDeise said:
My tip is this. Give up taking sugar on your tea and coffee and give up fizzy drinks. Seriously it works.
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It works if you're a sugar fiend. I haven't added sugar to tea or coffee in years and rarely have fizzy drinks.

Which is another good reason for using a personal trainer. They can help tailor solutions that suit you and your preferences.
 
samanthajane said:
I spoke to the one guy that got back to me and i've decided i'm going to go ahead with him. he was very nice on the phone and let me ask lots of questions. He said i wasn't probably eating enough and thats why i wasn't losing weight, ( makes no sense to me ) If it doesn't work then there's no real harm done.

I have my first appoinment on the 8th April... i'll let you all know how i got on.
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I was wondering if you went in the end and how did it go?

Reason I was wondering was I joined bootcamp this week and have to day its brillant.

Really good work out and because there's only 20 of us the instructors can keep an eye on you.

Its €150 for 8 weeks which covers 2 mid week classes and one at the weekend. I'll hardly make all the sat classes but even if I do 2 classes a week this works out at approx €10 a class. Sounds dear but its close to having a personal trainer I'd say and a good bit cheaper then €50. Also being outside is lovely.
 
Hi Sam,

Weejasy has given you the best advice on here. Most people run to lose weight but don't introduce weights so they put the weight back on when they stop running. Do weights Mon, Wed and Fri and HIIT as advised on Tue and Thurs. Eat properly, plenty of veg, half the amount of carbs and double the amount of lean meat. You should be getting at least 1g of protein for every pound you weigh. 5 or 6 small meals a day to include protein in every meal.
When doing weights do compound exercises, maybe two types for your chest, back and legs and one for your shoulders, biceps and triceps. Also have two routines A and B. Alternate these on your weight training days. Don't be afraid to use weights, you won't bulk up as long as you're eating in deficit. To eat in deficit you need to find your BMR (calorific daily needs) and eat about 500 cals below that. It's physically impossible to bulk up if eating in deficit but you will lose fat fast and tone up (get lean) quickly.
Lastly, forget about weighing scales and get your body fat % done, judge yourself by how your look in the mirror and how your clothes fit. Weight watchers etc use scales because they don't promote doing weights as muscle weighs more than fat, so you can get leaner and weigh more but in fact look much slimmer. This doesn't go along with their money making cycle but thats another story.
Websites you might find helpful fitday.com (for keeping track of calories) and fitness.com (weight training section and BMR explained)
If you want to PM an email address I can send you info on diet, weight training and HIIT. I found this info very helpful.
Set yourself goals, keep a food journal and log what exercise you're doing. When something is working keep doing it.

Best of Luck
 
Sustainable weight loss comes from a combination of the kitchen and the steel...

Muscle growth increases your metabolism so you're actually burning calories even while sitting on the couch.

Eliminating bread from your diet is also a positive move...apart from having pretty much zero nutritional value, it helps pile the weight on.
 
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