Dear Personal Trainers, Coaches, and Fitness Industry Professionals,

Do you know how much damage you’re doing?

Do you understand the harm you cause when you act like losing body fat is just a matter of discipline, willpower, and following your “simple steps”? 

When you promise results that most people will never achieve; because of genetics, because of biology, because of a million factors outside of their control, do you realize that you’re lying?

Or worse, do you actually believe what you’re selling?

Let’s talk about it.

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selling the dream
(aka selling a lie)

If you’ve spent your entire life in a smaller body (most personal trainers), if you’ve always been able to manipulate your weight with a little effort (most personal trainers), you might genuinely believe that “anyone” can do it. You might think that if someone just “worked as hard as you do,” they’d look like you. But let me tell you something:

People have tried.

Every single person who wants to lose weight has already tried. 

They’ve done the diets. They’ve done the workout plans. 

They’ve given their money to people like you, believing the promise that if they just did this one thing and followed this one method, they’d finally achieve the body the industry keeps dangling in front of them like a prize.

And when they don’t? When their body refuses to comply with the fantasy you sold them? You know what happens? They blame themselves.

Not the diet.

Not your bullshit plan.

Not the industry that thrives on making them feel like failures.

They believe they just weren’t disciplined enough; that they’re weak. That they’re broken. That they did not try hard enough. 

Do you understand the harm in that?

the fitness industry’s favourite scam

Do you even realize how ridiculous this sounds to people in bigger bodies? What are these last 15 pounds? Where do you think they’re hiding? 

Do you get that bodies are different? That genetics play a massive role? That there’s no universal, one-size-fits-all answer to fat loss?

And most importantly, why are we still pretending that shrinking bodies is the ultimate goal of fitness?

At what point do we, as an industry, stop selling insecurity and start selling actual health?

we can do better.
we have to do better.

We could be teaching people how to move for strength.

We could be teaching them to train for mobility, for longevity, for joy.

We could be helping them eat in ways that nourish them instead of making them feel stressed and unsatisfied.

But that doesn’t sell as well, does it?

Telling people they’re enough as they are? That they don’t need to chase an impossible standard? That they don’t need to punish themselves for existing in a body that doesn’t fit the industry’s mold? That doesn’t drive as many sales. It doesn’t hook people into the cycle of desperation and failure that keeps them coming back, hoping this time will be different.

But we can change that.

We should change that.

And if you’re a trainer, a coach, or anyone in this industry still pushing the same tired weight-loss promises, it’s time to ask yourself:

are you actually helping people?
or are you just profiting off their pain?