Do You Need A Personal Trainer?

If you're like I was, you're thinking the answer is obviously "no" for the following reasons:

• Personal trainers cost a lot of money, and that isn't in my budget
• Personal trainers are for those rich people, most of whom are already fit 
• Personal trainers are annoying - they stand over me and make me do hard things
• Personal trainers are rigid in their schedules - if I'm having a bad day and need to skip, it's awkward to cancel
• Personal trainers are embarrassing - if I'm with them in the gym, it's like admitting to all the other people that I can't figure things out on my own - I might as well have "Newbie" written in large letters across my forehead
• It's difficult to sever a relationship with a personal trainer - if I fall off the bandwagon, don't like their approach, or whatever, it's hard to tell them that their services aren't needed

Oh wow, in thinking that through I think I've convinced myself that I don't need a personal trainer :-)  But yet working with one made a huge difference for me, so I'll give you the positives now:

• Personal trainers provide accountability.  While I had a good basic knowledge of healthy eating and exercise, what I needed was accountability.  That came because 1) there is expense involved, and there was no way on Earth that I was going to shell out precious money and not do everything in my power to follow the personal trainer's guidelines, and 2) meeting with the personal trainer on a regular basis, you want to stick to the plan in order to show continuous results.  Or else you're just wasting time.  You don't want to be bugged, and they don't want to nag you, so just follow their suggestions and make the burden of results be on their shoulders.  That's what I told my personal trainer up front - "I'm going to follow your plan so that it's your fault if I have a problem or don't see results."  
• Personal trainers have knowledge and experience that they apply to you.  Yes, you can find plenty of plans, routines, programs in books and on the web.  And yes they probably would work pretty well for you if you followed them.  But think about it, a pre-baked plan doesn't take your own personal factors into account.  Trainers with years of experience have seen it all, male and female, severely or slightly obese, hormones, dietary needs, etc.  They apply all of their skills and experience to you and tailor a unique plan, not a one-size-fits-all.  
• Personal trainers change things up.  As you progress, a good trainer will monitor your progress and change your diet and exercise to maximize your results.  Mine made sure that I stayed sore most of the time, but as you can see, it helped my biceps ;-)  He was able to foresee plateaus and make changes avoid them before they happened so that I was able to lose at a consistent 2 pounds/week.
• Personal trainers make creating food and exercise plans easy.  I was fat, I was lazy and had no energy to think about putting together exercise and meal plans.  And as I said, while I knew a few good diet and exercise principles, they were general and I didn't really know what would be best for me in my situation.  The trainer will work with you to set goals and put in place a plan that will take you there, with their help along the way.
• Personal trainers aren't difficult to work with.  If things aren't working out for you and you aren't able for whatever reason to go the distance, they will obviously want to continue to work with you.  But they should also understand that ultimately the decision is yours and allow you to back out.  I told my trainer that I wanted to try it for a month to see how it would go.  He told me that he needed to work with me a minimum of 3 months in order to see concrete results.  I did have a free consultation with him, asked plenty of questions, understood his methodology and the costs involved before I made a commitment.  I suppose he could have also provided references if I had asked.  I could have gone home, thought about it, and decided whether to proceed.  But I was in poor health, I was ready to make a commitment to better health, I realized I needed help, and he impressed me.  It was a good decision.
• Personal trainers cost far less than poor health does.  You might be younger and haven't had any clear signs of health problems due to being overweight, but sooner or later you will (assuming you have significant weight to lose).  You can guess the kinds of problems - joint issues, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, type 2 diabetes, heartburn, the list goes on and on.  In many cases, most of these go away when you are at a healthy weight, eating and exercising.  Add up the potential thousands of dollars you will spend on your poor health and compare that to the cost of the personal trainer.  The trainer costs far less and the result is far better.  There is little in this world more important than your health, isn't it worth it?
• Personal trainers teach you lessons that you can use your entire lifetime.  If you use your relationship correctly, then you're asking questions, learning principles and gaining knowledge so that when you've met your goals you can continue to live a healthy lifestyle without any additional help.  Basically, they should work themselves out of a job if everything goes well.  But then you become a walking ad for their services...haha, I had several people ask what I did and I was able to refer a few people to my trainer.  

So for me, it turned out that a personal trainer wasn't a luxury but a necessity.  I had tried many times to lose weight, some more successful than others.  I'd like to think that it was a sign of strength for me to admit I had a serious problem, I was weak and that I needed help.  Ok, in all honesty the 70 pounds I've lost since last year is still a bit new and I haven't proven that it will stay off.  But this time definitely feels different.  I'm happy with my health, the way I feel, the way I look, and I feel like it is a lifestyle I can keep up indefinitely.  

If you just have a few pounds to lose and need to trim down, perhaps the personal trainer isn't for you.  There are also many examples of people who go it alone and have success.  But if you have significant weight to lose, ask around, do your homework and consider finding someone that can help you from both a dietary and an exercise perspective.  If you find a good trainer, you won't regret your decision.