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Hi!
So I’ve just signed on a new client. His goal – health and fat loss. I’ve worked with a lot of fat loss clients before, and have my systems in place (utilising CBL and CN). Though this guy is rather extreme. He’s 140kg, 38, and currently drinks 4Litres of normal coke a day, oh and eats ‘a couple of blocks a chocolate’ a day!
He’s committed and wants change, I’m going to put him on a Carb nite protocol, and his training will involve a lot of walking, some HIIT work on a bike, and 2 full body high rep strength days.I’m setting him daily walking targets in terms of steps per day.
Thankfully he doesn’t drink, doesn’t smoke and sleeps great.
In terms of supps, he’s just ordered:
Fish Oil
Vit C
Thorne Multi
Creatine
Magnesium
Vit D/K2
Bio Gest Enzymes
Gymnema Sylvestre
Chromium & Vanadium
Green Tea
Curcumin
And Probiotics
He’s told me his family have addiction issues (he has family that are/were addicted to gambling, sex, drugs, alcohol etc) and he’s obviously addicted to sugar.My questions:
1) Has anyone worked with a client that has this bad of a diet before? What tips do you have?
2) Addiction – Do you have any pointers with the addiction issues?
3) Coke – I’ve told him to drink sparkling water and kombucha in replace to the coke. I don’t know how well this will work. Does anyone else have any other tips?Appreciate the feedback 🙂
Thanks
AlexSeeking optimal health & performance for myself & others at:
Alex Fergus Coaching - www.AFCoaching.com.au1) Yes, they ended up resorting back to carbs when they didn’t need it right now, and training wasn’t as great as they hoped. Another with someone who crash dieted before, and didn’t want to fix themselves to make this diet work properly.
2) Cutting off cold turkey will make those cravings worse, for the coke, try diet coke once or twice a day. For chocolate try Lidnt 85% dark chocolate, and stick to 2 pieces a day. Cut them off every two weeks, and go from there. I’d do that allowance daily, then after the two week mark start taking a day away.
3) Anything diet might help like in #3.I’m no trainer but… if he’s THAT addicted to sugar, going to full-blown CNS out of the gate is probably going to be a horror show. Everybody’s committed and wants to change right before they start putting in the work to do it and knuckling down. If it sucks for them right out of the gate, it’s less likely they’re going to stick to it.
If it was me I’d get him to somehow log everything he eats over the course of the next week without changing anything in that regard. Get him into the walking, biking and lifting. At the end of the week, sit down with him over his log (and reiterate when he starts it to no-shit write down everything, you’re not there to judge him for it, you just have to know what he’s eating to make adjustments) and start cutting down all the bad stuff for the coming week. Instead of 4l of Coke, have him cut to 3 – instead of two bricks of chocolate, get him to space a single brick out over the course of the day – and again, log everything, even if he slips and falls off the wagon. Introduce him to the concepts of macros but don’t beat him over the head with it. Not yet.
At the end of the second week, go over the log again and cut it all down by another quarter (or half if you think he’s able) and up the walking/steps and HIIT a little bit. Go over macros again and start breaking down what he’s eating into macros to get him more comfortable with how all that works. Get him thinking about the healthy stuff he’s eating (hopefully he’s eating something healthy lol) and how to increase that to better align with CNS. Talk to him about insulin resistance/response and how it affects fat storage and whatnot and how pushing back carb eating to the evening will benefit him right away.
Ending week three is more of the same, cut by a quarter his intake of bad crap and up his exercise. Go over his logs, break things down to the macro level and compare what he’s taking in to what his maintenance level is for his age/level of activity/body type. Start talking about low carb eating during the week. If he’s not using it maybe show him the MyFitnessPal app and how to use that. If he’s having a problem with cheating get him into the mindset of “okay, if you HAVE to have that yummy-bad-for-you-thing, hold off until after 6PM to have it.”
At the end of week four, if you think he’s being honest with all of his logging, motivation and stick-to-it-iveness see if you can get him to switch to something healthier than coke during the week and re-iterate the idea of low carb eating during the week and introduce a “cheat period” when he can eat some of that stuff he’s been craving if he’s been good all week; and that cheat period starts after 2 or 3PM.
Baby steps. It’s been my experience that people that dive in whole-hog go off the rails really quick because it’s just too much of a change. They’re tired from the walking/HIIT. They’re too sore from lifting. They’re too deep in the grip of the sugar. They “didn’t have the time for” whatever. “You didn’t gain all that weight in a month, tyou’re not going to lose it in a month” has to be your mantra for them to repeat to themselves.
By week six you should be able to start working being in a low carb state during the week and then you can roll into CNS more or less full blown. I’d also have him hold off on taking all those supplements; throw them in the freezer until he’s fully into CNS and then start adding that stuff.
Just my opinion of course but his head is going to be spinning if you introduce all this stuff at once right up front and it’s going to be too much to take on-board. If he bumps up against what he perceives as failure because he’s “not doing it right” then it’s more likely he’s going to go off the rails.
Steve
Thanks for the responses guys. Very informative!
Steve, your approach is exactly what I had in mind when I first spoke to him. The protocol you explained was seriously VERY close to what I had mapped out on paper.
The problem is this:
1) I’m training a friend of his with very good results (I’m actually blogging his progress – http://afcoaching.com.au/blogs/blog/tagged/journal ), and my new client is VERY competitive. Mr C (the guy I’m blogging about) has a goal of abs by xmas. So my new client is like “I want to beat Mr C, i want viens on my abs by xmas”. No shit. Those were his words.2) He’s a very powerful ‘go getter’. He has achieved a lot of great things in business. Unfortunately, he just stopped caring about his health & body.
3) He has told me ‘He doesn’t want any of this ease into it crap’, its all or nothing, we’re either doing this or we’re not.
Hopefully this helps show this guys personality. I honestly think If I told him to sit in a ice bath for an hour a day he’d do it (btw, I will be using CT in his program!).
So thats why we’re going to go straight into it. I’ve explained the short term pain. But again, I’ve never had a client like this before, and I don’t really know whats going to happen!
I’ll be sure to keep you posted. I think its going to be a great success or a horrible failure :/
Seeking optimal health & performance for myself & others at:
Alex Fergus Coaching - www.AFCoaching.com.auWell damn, I guess your bigger problem is going to be reigning him in so he’s not doing TOO much when on CNS. 🙂
And I totally agree, it’s going to be a great success or a horrible failure, looking forward to seeing what comes of it. 🙂
Steve
Haha yes.
I’m just worried about how he will deal with the sugar and caffeine withdrawal symptoms. He doesn’t drink coffee so I think i’ll have him supplement with caffiene for the first few weeksSeeking optimal health & performance for myself & others at:
Alex Fergus Coaching - www.AFCoaching.com.auWell so far so good.
After 6 days he was down 6kg!! I know this isn’t body fat, but jeeze. 6 days without choc or sugar and you’re down 6kg!
We got some of his lab results back.
High DHEA
High Estrogen
Low TCortisol was lowish.
He’s determined though. Said he hasn’t had any carb cravings yet. Had a few days were he felt sluggish, but otherwise he’s going well!
Seeking optimal health & performance for myself & others at:
Alex Fergus Coaching - www.AFCoaching.com.auJust an update.
He’s down 11kgs now. But has plateaued a bit. He’s worried, but I’m not (his average fat loss is about 1.5kg a week when you work it out). Plus he’s been weight training so maybe he has put on some muscle.Anyway he’s doing everything I tell him to do, so it’s going really well!
Seeking optimal health & performance for myself & others at:
Alex Fergus Coaching - www.AFCoaching.com.au11 kg, that’s a lot! It’s only been a month or so?
That’s awesome man, seems like a combination of a great coach and a dedicated and hard worker.
Training Log: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1vuwHRdBaPVILxxLhXly_N1Ys66Hcwk4j-bM7nvKSLrI/edit?usp=sharing
3) He has told me ‘He doesn’t want any of this ease into it crap’, its all or nothing, we’re either doing this or we’re not.
This itself is a good sign.
Many I talk to say “OK, I’m going to start that next Monday” What I hear is: “yeah, I’ll try it but I’m not going to stick to it”.
Think about it, if it were you or me and we see or hear of a new movement or protocol that you are convinced will work, hell I’m not waiting until tomorrow, I’m starting it TODAY.
The eyes can't see what the mind doesn't understand.
Yeah good point.
That is a hard thing about being being a coach who has been studying and ‘in the field’ for so many years – sometimes all the knowledge in the world is useless if the client doesn’t listen or apply what you say!
The longer I work with clients (and get results), the less this is an issue, as people come to you already wanting to make change, they just don’t know what to change!
Seeking optimal health & performance for myself & others at:
Alex Fergus Coaching - www.AFCoaching.com.au
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