10 Tips on How to Help Clients with Healthy Weight Loss

There’s an excess of health and fitness information available today. The abundance of info can make it challenging for clients to understand how to accomplish realistic, sustainable weight loss and weight management.

Weight loss, and more specifically fat loss, is one of the most common goals for personal training clients. So, you must help your clients navigate what’s true, effective, and healthy so they can lose weight and also keep it off long-term.

Here are 10 tips you can implement right now to help your clients lose weight in a healthy manner.

10 Tips on How to Help Clients with Healthy Weight Loss

Nutrition and physical activity are important elements of healthy, successful weight loss. As we navigate these 10 tips, keep in mind, it’s important to understand your scope of practice as a personal trainer so you know what you can and can’t do. Properly educate yourself to ensure you have the skillsets to help your clients and the boundaries to identify when you need to refer clients to other professionals (registered dietician, psychologist, etc.).

1. Keep it Simple

As a fitness professional, it’s common to want to overshare knowledge in an effort to help your clients succeed. However, too much info and too many changes at once can be overwhelming.

If you’re encouraging your clients to increase their sleep, drink more water, workout five times a week, meal prep, and minimize refined sugar all at once, they will likely struggle. Pick one or two healthy behaviors to implement and progress from there.

2. Individualize Programming

There isn’t one magic workout or fad diet that works for everyone.

Bodies are unique, each individual has their own nutrition needs, emotions, habits, etc. So, when helping clients navigate their programming and pitfalls, it’s important to remember their exercise and nutrition plan should be specific to their body, limitations, lifestyle, and weight loss goal.

3. Set Realistic Goals

If a client has experienced a series of dramatic weight loss attempts, they may not have an accurate perception of what healthy weight loss, realistic time frames, and success look like. Gradual weight loss, over time, is typically one of the healthiest ways to keep weight gain at bay (1).

So, it will be up to you, as the weight loss coach and fitness professional, to help them set and understand SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-bound) that will contribute to weight loss they can maintain.

4. Calories Count

A calorie deficit is essential for weight loss. However, it is important clients understand what a healthy calorie deficit and healthy weight loss look like. Experts recommend a healthy weight loss of 1-2 pounds per week (1). Because one pound of fat equals 3,500 calories, this means there should be a daily deficit of around 500 to 1,000 calories. Eating fewer calories doesn’t have to be extreme.

5. Get Active

A combination of proper nutrition and exercise is one of the best strategies for healthy weight loss. Movement burns calories and makes it easier to reach a calorie deficit. If your client is striving for a deficit of 500 calories each day, they can increase their physical activity to burn an extra 250 calories and decrease their caloric intake by 250 calories. The two modifications help them reach their 500-calorie deficit without drastically cutting calories or overdoing their workout. Over time those changes will make a difference in your client’s weight.

6. Unravel Myths

There are a variety of trends and fads that have led to false narratives about what the body needs for successful weight loss.

For example, the idea that fat-free foods, long steady-state cardio, and low-calorie diets are going to develop the body they desire isn’t accurate. You have the knowledge to help reframe your client’s mindset to support their long-term success. Be intentional about educating your clients on healthy eating, the importance of fat, the value in building muscle, and the keys to fueling the body properly, etc. This can help them develop the instincts to question the info they come across and start identifying between fact and fiction.

7. Consistency is Key

One bad meal doesn’t make a person fat. One great workout doesn’t make a person skinny. Sustainable weight loss comes from changes in daily nutrition, eating habits, and routine exercise. In addition to sticking to their workouts, you can challenge them to be consistent with:

• Taking the stairs, walking on their lunch break, or parking further away in the parking lot.

• Simple, intentional eating habits like drinking water before meals, eating from a smaller plate, and chewing slowly.

It’s the daily habits that will make a difference. Help them reframing their thoughts so they understand it’s not a missed workout or a piece of cheesecake that will do the most damage. It’s when those behaviors become a habit.

8. Drink Water

Hydrate with water. Although there can be hydration benefits from Powerade, juices, and other drinks, they often have extra sugar and calories that can make losing weight more difficult.

Water is one of the most, if not the most, important nutrients for humans. The body is made of over 50% water and that water plays an important role in several body functions. It supports temperature control, cognition, digestion, and many other processes.

Although each individual’s hydration needs vary (2), The Institute of Medicine of the National Academies suggests consuming somewhere around 91 ounces (for women) and 125 ounces (for men) of water each day. However, it's important to keep in mind, activity levels, sweat levels, temperature, stage of life, and many other variables play a role in the actual water requirements of each individual (3).

9. Teach Your Clients to Read Food Labels

Unfortunately, you can’t be with your client 24/7. So, teach them practical skills that will help them make better decisions.

Reading labels can be confusing and the marketing tactics on food packaging can be misleading. Help educate your clients on what to look for and how to read the labels so they can do it on their own. Keep in mind, some of the best foods for clients do not have food labels (fruits, vegetables, fresh fish, etc.).

10. Remember, Perfection Doesn’t Exist

On the quest for a healthier lifestyle, your client will likely have setbacks and struggle from time to time.

Remind them they are human. They may fail sometimes. They may have days where they feel unmotivated. And, they will likely have days where they eat things they shouldn’t. It’s what they do after those setbacks that will determine their overall success. Help them refocus, let it go, and get back on track.

Are You Passionate About Nutrition?

If you’re intrigued by the role nutrition plays in the way your body looks, feels, and functions, check out ISSA’s Nutritionist Specialization. You’ll learn how to master your nutrition, support behavior change, understand food labels, and unravel diet myths.

References

1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Losing Weight.” Cdc.Gov, 2020, www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/losing_weight/index.html.

2. Popkin, Barry M et al. “Water, hydration, and health.” Nutrition reviews vol. 68,8 (2010): 439-58.

3. Institute of Medicine. 2005. Dietary Reference Intakes for Water, Potassium, Sodium, Chloride, and Sulfate. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press