Chasing The Summer Bod

Some trainers are scared to discuss the idea of dieting for summer. This has historically been the time of year trainers promote the "summer bod", which, let's be honest, is quite a useful tool for client acquisition. This approach has been increasingly challenged over the last few years, and I am sure most of you have heard rumblings from anti-diet and HAES activists, or discussions about "diet culture" and its harms. And rightfully so. Some of this is very well justified!

Preying on insecurity with false promises is something that a lot of trainers do. You feel upset and ashamed of your body, you've tried everything, and I finally have the one solution to all of your problems... yet another crappy diet. We have all seen this, and it is indeed harmful. 

Along with crappy fad diets, we also sometimes fail as trainers when we continue promoting diet solutions for non-diet problems. For example, clients with depression, anxiety, and co-morbid mental health problems may be trying to diet their way out of their misery, and this is bound to fail. Low mood, self-esteem, poor body image, and so on, can indeed improve when someone successfully diets, but it's not enough to assume that this is the case, nor is it appropriate to proceed with aggressive fat loss goals without screening for these issues in some way.

With that said, as with many topics in the fitness profession, the pendulum often swings too far...

Let me be clear. If you want to diet for summer to get leaner and look better on the beach, there is nothing wrong with that. You don't have to feel guilty for wanting to look good, and you don't have to try to justify it by using different language. 

Some anti-diet activists despise this idea. They believe that promoting fat loss is inherently "fatphobic", and that this plays into the promotion of "diet culture", as if this is some sort of homogenous system of beliefs that one must either accept or reject in entirety. This is, of course, incredibly low resolution thinking. You don't fix diet culture by rejecting any and all premises associated with it; you fix it by promoting evidence-based methods utilising a professional, compassionate approach to the coaching process. 

In practice, what does this look like?

Well, it means that we sometimes have to have difficult conversations with clients. As an example, I had a client who wanted to get very lean (for a competition) at one point. She had a history of disordered eating, and I knew that pushing on with dieting was inappropriate at the time, particularly given the presence of amenorrhea (loss of normal menstrual cycle). She really wanted to, but it's my job as a professional to make the call as to what the best course of action is. Client-centred does not mean client-directed. 

The result?

I lost that client. We finished up the coaching process at that time, and she was upset. She wanted to get extremely lean, I knew it wasn't the time, and that meant sacrificing both financially, personally (these are not nice conversations with clients), and professionally (she went to another coaching team). Within a year, she messaged me to thank me and confirm that I was indeed right in what I had said at the time (things hadn't gone so well), and she was in a much better place working on what she eventually realised was more important. 

Making the right call for clients can be difficult, and it certainly isn't black and white like ideological positions online might lead you to believe. It's not just "work harder, suck it up and lose that fat", not is it "dieting and fat loss are harmful!!".

If you want to be a professional as a coach, or you want to be your best self as a trainee, you need to be able to embrace the nuance. There are no one-size-fits-all methods, and different people require different approaches, and those same people require different approaches over time.

Embrace the nuance, challenge your biases, and make those difficult decisions. If you want to diet for summer, don't apologise for stating that goal. It's a perfectly reasonable goal, and I'll be losing a few pounds myself, which will leave me feeling more confident and happy with myself when I'm on my post-exam holidays. Nothing wrong with that!

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Gary McGowan

YouTube: We published four new videos this week. Make sure you are subscribed to keep up, as 2023 will feature a heavy focus on YouTube videos (longer form vs instagram etc.) for us at Triage.

Instagram: As always, we posted plenty of new content on Instagram this week, all of which you can find listed below for ease of access.

• You're Not Weak Because You Struggle with Fat Loss | Gary
• The Menstrual Cycle & Weight Loss | Gary
• Assessing Shoulder Flexion ROM | Gary & Paddy
• The Myth of the Perfect Week | Gary
• Assessing Shoulder Abduction | Gary & Paddy
• My 10-Minute Time Crunch Workout | Gary
• Tips to Boost Protein Intake | Paddy
• Unrealistic Weight Loss Expectations | Dean
• 5 Tips to Add 10kg to Your Bench Press | Gary
• 5 Reasons to Slow Your Reps | Gary