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When you sign up for a personal trainer, you’ve no doubt got a lot of faith in their ability.

Whether you admire their physique, they come with a mate’s recommendation, or they’re a walking encyclopaedia of physiology, at the cost most PTs command, you’d want to trust their advice.

As most health experts will tell you, weight loss is something like 80 percent diet and 20 percent exercise (or even 90:10, according to others). So it’s not surprising that a lot of PTs add some nutrition pointers to their client’s health plan to help them get results.

These days, there is no shortage of anecdotes about PTs suggesting clients skip meals, go keto, or massively increase their protein consumption.

But Fitness Australia guidelines actually state that personal trainers, unless they have additional nutrition qualifications, are only allowed to provide general advice based on the Australian Dietary Guidelines.

“As soon as they start to become very specific or suggest you cut out a food group, such as diary or grains, that’s beyond their scope,” accredited practising dietitian Simone Austin tells Coach.

“[The eating plan] might be okay for them but it doesn’t mean it’s okay for the client.”

Sure, an extreme eating plan might have you shredding in time for summer, but Austin says dietitians now understand that cutting out food groups or following rigid eating plans can be detrimental to our health long-term.

“If someone were to tell you to cut down your grains, your bowel cancer risk could increase because we need to have those grainy fibres for our bowel to function well and to reduce the risk of bowel cancer,” says Austin, who is a spokesperson for the Dietitians Association of Australia.

“Also, not having enough grainy food might not adequately feed our gut bacteria properly and we know that gut health is very important to weight, mood and disease prevention.”

On top of that, restrictive eating plans can mess with our heads.

“Often [the personal trainer’s] advice is restrictive, and that can set you up for years of dieting, poor body image and a really poor relationship with food,” she says.

If you’re ever cutting out whole food groups, such as grains, dairy or meat, Austin says it’s important you balance out your diet to keep well.

“If they’re saying, ‘Don’t have dairy’, then where are you going to get your calcium and your phosphorous, which are important for our bones?” she points out.

“Plant-based diets are very popular at the moment but then your iron and zinc levels could be at risk if you aren’t getting the right legumes and lentils to replace that.”

Austin also cautions against taking supplement advice from a PT.

“Prescribing supplements is outside their realm, so if they start saying, ‘I think you should take this preworkout‘ or a vitamin and mineral supplement, I would be very cautious,” she says.

“You’d want to check the source, why you would be taking it and how any other medication you are on might react with that. Also, anyone playing organised sport in Australia is bound by the ASADA code [because] if you’re buying something online and it has something illegal in it and is stopped by border protection, you can no longer play your local netball game.”

What to say if your PT gives you diet advice

If your PT is encouraging you to eat more vegetables, cut down on soft drink and go easy on alcohol, then Austin says that’s great.

“They can certainly give you basic, general advice,” she says.

“But if they are becoming very specific, maybe you might jokingly say, ‘Let’s stick to the exercise and I’ll stick with my dietitian or doctor for nutrition advice’.

“You could also say something like, ‘That’s not going to work for me because I’ve got diabetes or high blood pressure or I need more calcium’.”

Austin says that the same goes for dietitians providing specific exercise advice.

“People are always asking me for exercise tips but I say, ‘I can encourage you to be as active as you can and to get movement into your day but it’s outside of my scope to give specific advice’,” she points out.

“I don’t give any more than that because I don’t know if they have got an injury or if it may not be good for them to be doing a certain type of exercise.”

If you do want some dietary advice, Austin suggests seeing an accredited practising dietitian or an accredited sports dietitian for sports performance pointers.

“You’d sit down for 45 minutes or an hour, providing a bit of history about your experience and relationship with food and your medical history so we can be conscious about what we recommend,” she says.

“If your PT hasn’t known about your previous history with food, they could be making your dieting and psychological relationship with food worse rather than better.”

Source: https://coach.nine.com.au/2018/11/14/15/11/personal-trainers-nutrition-advice