Spoon feeding vs educating clients

In my opinion, educating clients on the “why” they are using certain methods rather than just telling them what to do is equally as important to their long term success/adherence, as the actual mechanics of the training and nutrition components.

In my opinion creating nutrition plans via macro nutrients/calorie and fibre guidelines is a far superior method for educating clients than a plan stating eat “x” food at this time every day. Example meal plans are great too within a framework of macro nutrients and calories but without teaching clients how to interchange foods to meet their macro nutrient and calorie targets, they will not be able to have long term success.

Here are a few examples below where the typical meal plan fails in the real world:

-What if the client is away for a business trip and food “x” isn’t available… they are clueless.
-What if the client is away for the weekend and again food “x” isn’t available….they are clueless again.
-What if the client is having a meal out and food “x” isn’t available….they are clueless yet again.

Without having structure and teaching clients the basic nutrition fundamentals e.g. calories/macro nutrients etc. They will not sustain long term success because they will associate their results with certain foods. This is why a lot of dieters fail to stop using body by vi/herbalife etc.

Tracking macro nutrients and calories appears obsessive to the outsider but it becomes a habit with time and practice.

Here is a very kind email I received this morning from one my online clients Marcus Lainton, which I think emphasises my points above. It is amazing feeling to have clients achieve their goals, yet they can still have flexibility within their lives because they understand how the process works. They don’t feel a slave to certain foods, they can have variety and still achieve their goals within a calorie/macro nutrient framework.

“Cheers mate, really appreciate the feedback. I feel so much better than last year, doesn’t feel as much as a ‘stress’ this time round, I’m still able to socialise with friends and reach my goals. It’s more a lifestyle for me now, rather than a restriction which is great for me because I love cooking and food. This is all thanks to you mate, I’ve learned so much from working with you, before I was a healthy person but I really had to try hard and stick at it, whereas now it is just my everyday life. I enjoy my training a lot more because I’m not constantly worrying about my nutrition all the time.”