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June 21, 2005
A Trainer on Jenny Craig?
Weight loss is the main goal of most of my clients. It’s not surprising, then, that some of them supplement their training with membership in a commercial diet program.
Trainers, on the other hand, are required by their jobs to be all fit and no fat. Usually a “diet” to a fitness professional means mega-calorie weight gaining program meant for bodybuilding. It’s rare to find trainer down at Jenny Craig or Weight Watchers, or in The Zone.
Rare, but not unheard of. While trainers aren’t lazy, they do get busy with studies and other non-physical activities which cut into gym time and encourage late-night snacking. One trainer I know found herself packing on the pounds -- and while it didn’t show much on her otherwise athletic frame, she decided to stop it before it did and went shopping for a weight loss program.
First she considered The Zone. She rejected it because having the food delivered was too expensive, and trying to follow the diet and cook the meals on her own would be too time-consuming. She ruled out Nutri/System over concerns about food quality. Finally she settled on Jenny Craig, knowing that one of my clients who lost 60 pounds in five months on it, and having sampled someone’s extra entrees from that program.
When she got to the center she’d thought they’d be surprised to see someone who was basically starting with a body that few of their clients ever dreamed of ending with. However, they were very understanding of her goal to keep muscle while losing fat. (Even so, she’s still convinced that the staff, and particularly the clients who come and go, think her crazy doing any diet at all).
Her goal is to get down to 126-28 pounds of pure muscle. She’s within a few pounds of that now, having lost 10 pounds and three percent body fat in five weeks. However, because both fat loss and muscle are required, she estimates it’ll be another 2-3 months before she gets the results she’s looking for.
Having been dieting on and off for years on every fad imaginable, she’s satisfied that her nutrition is now as balanced as it’s ever been. The cakes satisfy her craving for sweets and she especially likes the french toast. The food is relatively inexpensive (at or below her $100 a week budget) and there’s no significant cooking or preparation time involved.
The weekly trek to the center for the weigh-in meeting and meal pick-up is the main inconvenience. She also finds that it’s not as easy to eat out anymore. Over all, however she reports that the Jenny Craig experience has been surprisingly hassle-free and pleasant and would recommend it to other trainers with objectives similar to hers.
I wonder if Jenny Craig has ever considered a special program tailored to fitness professionals? Obviously the majority of their customers are people who are simply overweight, and there are enough certainly enough of those support the business for the foreseeable future. But the company does seem to involve trainers in some of their operations (see here and here, for example), so maybe someone inside will drop a hint. I’ll ask Kirstie Alley (or what’s left of her) about it next time I see her.
Note: For further reading from a trainer’s perspective: Check out Randy Herring’s Rating Diet Programs: The Inside Scoop at BodyBuilding.com.
Posted by Kristen at June 21, 2005 01:32 PM