Clients who DON'T progress - Personal Trainer Community - Forum

[Liz]

I have a client that I've been working with for 8 weeks now and I am so concerned because this is the first time I've worked with someone who hasn't seen results! I don't know what to do or even how to act! We did measurements at her 4 week mark and there was no change whatsoever in her body fat percentage and in her measurements, it was such a small reduction that it was hard to tell if I was just cinching the measuring tape a little tighter or if she really did shrink. :P

Tomorrow is the 8 week mark and we will be taking measurements again, but from the looks of her, she really doesn't look like she has changed at all. I know that when she is with me, she is working her butt off. She is coming twice a week and she tells me that on the other days, she is doing her cardio sessions, just as I have instructed.

She has explained to me that she suffers from binge eating and once even struggled with bulimia. The bulimia is gone, but says that she still struggles with the binge eating. She gave me a food diary right at the beginning and I gave her many suggestions - to which she says she is following, but if she were, she would have to be losing weight.

I just don't know how to act with her tomorrow if my hunch is right and if she hasn't improved at all. I know I am doing my part, but I don't want to offend her by saying she's not working hard enough when she's not with me.

Every other client I have had so far (keep in mind, I have only had a handful), has had great SHRINKING results at each of their measurement marks. What do you do when you have a client who shows no improvement and how do you relay to them kindly, that they need to be even better????

Help!

[abbi]

Hi Liz,
I can empathize with you right now. I had a client who was close to 250 pounds. He used to get winded with 10 mins of moderate activity.
He took 4 weeks to run continuously for a minute!
Thats when i discovered CrossFit.com.. The beauty in it is that it can be scaled to your needs. For eg. , I started off by making my client do Push-Ups on the wall. Then slowly brought him down to the floor. Today he can do 24 consecutive ones!! He is down to 195 pounds in close to 2 months. Weight-Loss is really not an indicator of a good fitness level, but he is able to perform various activities. I can attribute this to CrossFit and a bit of determination shown by my client.
Do visit the website. People say CrossFit is for the Elite. I want your opinion.
Do message me If you require help with an exercise program.
Cheers,
Abbi

[Christina]

Hi Liz,

I always tell my clients that there are 168 hours in a week and I spend anywhere from 1-3 hours with them. That's a whole lot of time left over to make good (or bad) choices. I experienced something similar with a client recently. When she was with me she worked SO hard but when I wasn't there she would not do a thing. I don't have time right now to share the whole story but needless to say you should sit her down and have a discussion with her.

Christina

[kettlebell king]

I had a lady start 4 weeks ago- wiht he goal being weight loss, when she found she had actually gained an inch aound her waist this week she was really angry. I sat her down for a re assessment and when I asked her if she had been sticking to the program I had set out she said she had been doing bits of the circuits in between doing the house work etc and had obviously been lying to me throughout the four weeks when I checked to see if she was progressing. Really pissed me off as I had to turn down a potential client so she could maintain her slot- what can you do against such blind stupidity!!