Methodology
What Coaches See in a Body That You Don't
Francesco Zen, founder of ZTraining · Last updated June 19, 2026
A real story from training other trainers
London, until 2021
I stopped her and pointed out, smiling, that professional bodybuilders competing at the Mr Olympia level don't eat that much oats. She walked me through her calculation seriously, and the formula she'd used to arrive at the number. Beyond the specific rule set being unclear to me, what I actually saw was a formula producing an answer with no discernment or common sense applied on top of it.
"260g of raw scaled oats is close to a food challenge. If that was the fat loss plan, I couldn't imagine what the muscle gain version would have looked like."
Why this happens
She was genuinely fit herself, eating maybe 30 to 40g of oats on a heavy training day, and in her late thirties with a clear, lived understanding of what real food intake looks like. Coaches fresh out of formal training programmes often stick rigidly to formulas and templates rather than applying the obvious discernment that experience eventually builds.
How it ended
I closed the conversation by encouraging her, telling her the number was off but that practice, working with real clients, is how that judgement actually develops. She was someone I genuinely considered bringing onto the team afterward, a lucky find, since most people coming out of that kind of formula-first training would have faced the same correction I gave her.
Related: What is the structural chain reaction assessment? · How to choose an online fitness coach