One of the biggest mistakes people make with weight loss is assuming there is one perfect approach that works for everybody.
There is not.
Some people need more structure. Some need more flexibility. Some struggle with emotional eating. Others struggle with consistency, confidence, social situations or under-fuelling around exercise. Some people use weight loss injections. Most do not. Some love the gym. Some hate it at first.
Good online weight loss coaching is not about forcing everybody into the same plan. It is about working out what actually fits the person sitting in front of you.
Below are a few examples of the different kinds of people I have worked with and the different approaches we used.
If you are interested, you can also read my client reviews and testimonials.
Mum In Her 30s, 14kg Weight Loss In Five Months
This client lost around 14kg, approximately 31lb, over the course of five months. That included holidays, meals out, social events and periods where life was not completely perfect.
One of the biggest things we worked on was removing the idea that she had to be “good” all week and then “bad” at weekends.
A lot of people fall into that trap. They try to eat perfectly Monday to Friday, then end up overeating socially because they feel restricted or because they think they have already “blown it”.
Instead, we focused on flexibility.
We used a simple calorie banking approach so she could still include treats during the week and enjoy meals out without feeling guilty or out of control. Nothing was banned. There were no cheat meals or extreme restrictions. We simply planned ahead and looked at the bigger picture across the week rather than obsessing over individual meals.
That shift made things feel far more sustainable. Instead of feeling like she was constantly “on a diet”, she learned how to fit weight loss around real life.
Amateur Athlete Using Mounjaro To KickSTart The Process, Down From 160kg To Around 100kg
This was a very different type of journey.
This 40 year old client originally came in weighing around 160kg and wanted to eventually complete half marathons and a sprint triathlon.
At that body weight, the first challenge was not motivation. It was managing the process safely and sustainably.
We had to ease into running carefully to reduce injury risk and build fitness gradually. At the same time, we worked heavily on habit change, routine and building a more active lifestyle overall.
The client used Mounjaro for around four months during the process, with the dosage only increasing in the fourth month, but the majority of the transformation came from the lifestyle and behaviour changes built around it.
Over time, confidence improved massively.
The client now goes to the gym regularly, trains consistently and is planning to complete their first triathlon later this year.
That is one of the things people often underestimate with weight loss. It is not just about the number on the scales. Sometimes it completely changes what somebody believes they are capable of physically.
Male Client In His 20s, 12kg Weight Loss Over One Year
This client lost around 12kg, approximately 27lb, over the course of a year.
Could the weight have come off faster? Probably.
But that was never really the goal.
He enjoyed travelling, holidays, meals out and socialising, and he did not want weight loss to completely take over his life. So instead of chasing the fastest possible result, we focused on building something more realistic and maintainable.
We worked on planning ahead, increasing activity levels, getting more steps in and improving consistency without turning life into a constant restriction cycle.
One of the biggest mindset changes for him was learning to stop seeing foods as “good” and “bad”.
That sounds simple, but it matters.
When people label foods as forbidden, they often become more obsessed with them. Then when they eventually eat those foods, they feel guilty and spiral into overeating. Removing some of that emotional charge around food helped him stay far more consistent long term.
Female Client Transitioning Off Weight Loss Injections
Another client came to me while coming off weight loss injections.
One of the biggest fears many people have when stopping medications like Mounjaro or Wegovy is that everything will unravel the moment their appetite increases again.
What we focused on instead was building habits that would continue working after the medication stopped.
We worked on portion awareness, meal structure, exercise consistency and building confidence in the gym. Running also became part of the process. Not because she had to become an athlete, but because increasing activity helped create a bit of a calorie buffer while her appetite adjusted.
More importantly though, it gave her structure and routine.
A lot of people assume weight loss injections do all the work. In reality, long-term success still comes back to habits, consistency and behaviour. The medication can help create momentum, but you still need to build the foundations underneath it.
Endurance Athlete Trying To Lose Weight Without Ruining Performance
Not every client comes to me needing to lose huge amounts of weight.
One athlete in their 40s came in wanting to lose around a stone, while still maintaining performance for running and cycling.
One of the biggest issues here was actually under-fuelling.
A lot of endurance athletes accidentally make weight loss harder because they either eat far too little during the day or mistime their food around training. That often leads to poor recovery, lower energy, cravings later in the day and inconsistent eating patterns.
One thing I often see with runners, but even more commonly with cyclists, is people saying they have never exercised so much yet still cannot understand why they are gaining weight. With cyclists in particular, this is often because they are under-fuelling on the bike, then getting home absolutely starving and raiding the fridge an hour later, meaning they often end up eating far more calories than they actually burned during the ride.
With this client, instead of aggressively cutting calories, we focused on improving meal timing, improving consistency and making sure training was properly fuelled.
Sometimes that meant smaller meals spread more evenly across the day. Sometimes it meant increasing food intake around harder sessions so recovery and performance did not suffer.
The goal was not just weight loss. It was maintaining fitness, performance and energy levels while gradually improving body composition.
There Is No Single “Best” Weight Loss Approach
One of the biggest things these examples hopefully show is that successful weight loss coaching is rarely about one magic diet or one perfect system.
Different people need different approaches.
Some people benefit from more flexibility. Some need more structure. Some need support transitioning off weight loss injections. Others need help rebuilding confidence, improving consistency or learning how to fuel exercise properly.
The common thread is usually not perfection. It is finding an approach that feels realistic enough to stick to long term.
That is what I focus on with my weight loss coaching, and also with my online personal training. Helping people build a sustainable approach that works around their actual life rather than forcing them into a rigid plan that falls apart after a few weeks.
If you would like help with your own weight loss journey, you can book a free Zoom consultation and we can talk through what may work best for you.
These case studies are anonymised to protect client privacy.
If you’d like to see reviews from real named clients, you can read my client reviews and testimonials here.
