Nutrition Plan Advice - Help Please

“It worked for me” is all that I can contribute. Plus 55 years of observation.

I’m totally cool with “it worked for me” on here and I think it’s the value of the forum - it just needs to come with the context of that’s what we’re doing and we’re all sharing ideas. That’s very different than selling a client nutritional coaching and then asking the Internet what we should do, to your point.

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This is a disaster. Please refer out to a qualified professional.

Please just ignore anything I post.

Why? You have valuable experience and often offer useful and interesting insights.

I do not recognize myself as a professional, neither qualified nor unqualified.

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… which is fine, because you’re not charging people for nutrition plans and then asking anonymous strangers what to do when those plans don’t work.

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When I started lifting weights there was no such thing as a trainer. BTW, I changed my own plates (the greatest benefit of a trainer, IMO.)

Nutritional trainer? I do suppose the masses are nutritional morons. So they need someone to steer them in the right direction. Then the wealth of knowledge is on the internet to everyone. A committed weight trainer shouldn’t need a nutritional trainer for more than one month. But there are some who need someone to “hold their hand.”

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This exact sentiment is what birthed DoggCrapp Training. But at least Dante Trudel never charged people for his training ideas, he just shared them to make the world hyooge. He’s done better than most at that last part too (making the world huge).

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Outside of rare circumstances, training and nutrition are simple and don’t require any special knowledge or professional experience to figure out. But, so are changing the oil in your car and cooking your own meals, and people hire professionals to take care of those tasks all the time.

Can you learn how to play an instrument with out a teacher? Sure. If you hire a teacher, does that mean you need someone to “hold your hand”? Maybe, but I don’t feel like thats my judgement to make.

I’ve worked with a bodybuilding coach in the past, and it taught me things and made the process exciting and enjoyable in a way that training on my own wasn’t. I also coached about 200 people in my time as a personal trainer – some of whom had special circumstances that probably “warranted” the additional assistance I was able to offer, and others who did not. So it goes.

Either way, I have no problem with professionals charging money for their services, and I have no problem with people who aren’t professionals sharing their thoughts, perspectives, and experiences. That said, I do have a problem with people pretending to be professionals and then outsourcing the work to random non-professionals on the internet.

None of that has anything to do with you, of course, which is why my initial comment wasn’t directed at you to begin with. But… here we are. haha

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I totally agree with all of you - the “It worked for me” is totally fine - as long as you aren’t out there charging folks for it. I’ve had too many clients come to me to fix them after working with (paying) random nutrition coaches. It’s the selling expertise piece that doesn’t sit well with me.
This forum, sharing experience and accumulated knowledge over time, this is great! Looking at you @RT_Nomad @throwawayfitness @Andrewgen_Receptors @TrainForPain .
Now, if y’all are selling it on the side, we may need to have a conversation… lol

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This is where we differ. Once people charge for their service they are a professional. Good or bad is always in question. The truth is that the purchasing person is paying for information and guidance. Any place that trainer get get good information is fine with me. I find no fault with the OP seeking advice.

The ability to give guidance has more nuance than just information. Not everyone is capable adequate guidance. Recognizing the causes of the feedback is a little complex.

IMO, there is a wealth of information on this forum. With a some discernment to weed out a few condescending replies, and “not throwing out the baby with the bathwater” much can be gained.

I offer my training and generalized diet services to people I care about all the time. I charge $5 for it because it saves me the time and effort for those who are unwilling to pay $5 for my ~15 years experience in their beginner program.

If they hand over a $5, I give it back to them and then tell them what they need to do. It just shows me whether they actually want to use the advice, or are just listening to me utter words they don’t care about.

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This is an interesting perspective. Imagine you found out that after your last visit, your dentist went on a forum for general dental hygiene enthusiasts (stay with me here, haha) and posted something like:

“guyz I need halp. I tried to giv this guy a filling but now he says his tooth hurts what should I do?”

Would you be more likely, less likely, or just as likely to keep him as your dentist?

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The public has a high level of expectation of excellence in all dentists.

Maybe not a good analogy…

This differs greatly with my zero level of expectation of excellence of certified trainers. I haven’t met one yet, that I thought knew more than me.

For what it’s worth, I understood the intent of you asking this question, and I find a refusal to answer it directly to be an answer in and of itself.

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I think this is a fair expectation generally, but it seems dishonest to generalize this expectation across the public as a whole. It is obvious to me that the people paying personal trainers and other fitness professionals have more than a “zero level of expectation” that they’ll be able to help them.

Answer: I would find another dentist.

So you accept a lame analogy as an adequate argument?

Fair enough point.

My comment is “what I would do.” Probably doesn’t have much significance in the gym world. I have always said most everyone’s IQ drops 50 points when they walk into the weight room.

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I wasn’t arguing. I was asking a question to further understand how you thought. Your answer showed me that you expect personal trainers to be incompetent, so you think it’s okay when they don’t know what they’re doing. I find that to be an odd perspective, but I do understand it now.

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