Section D: Experience of Clients with Disordered Eating

Have you ever encountered a client that you think may have been suffering from disordered eating? Has a client ever lost a large amount of weight really quickly that wasn’t part of their programme with you? Have any clients been extremely strict about their eating and exercise behaviour to the extent it interfered with everyday life? Do any of your clients exercise over and above what you have prescribed as part of their weekly exercise programme? Are you aware of any of your clients regularly “punishing” themselves after a binge session i.e. after a big weekend or night out?

How did you know your client had issues with their eating? Observation? Disclosure from the client or another gym user?

How confident were you that these signs and symptoms may indicate problematic eating? What was it that made you confident it was/was not disordered eating? Did you find these signs and symptoms worrying? What signs and symptoms would you look out for when identifying disordered eating? Would these be the same for male and female clients? How successful do you feel you have been at identifying disordered eating within clients?

Did you experience any difficulties or barriers in identifying disordered eating? How did you decide it was disordered eating? Did you seek advice from anyone else regarding whether or not your client had disordered eating? Was there anything that helped you to identify the disordered eating or anything that you feel may have been useful to know about/have access to?

Can you recall any particular feelings or emotions you experienced when you suspected your client had disordered eating? What was your initial reaction? How do you feel about it now?

After identifying a suspected disordered eating, what did you do next? Did you approach the client about it? YES―Describe this interaction? How confident did you feel? Was the interaction successful? NO―Why not? What would you have done differently?

Section E: Training and Support Systems

What, if anything, do you feel has been useful from your training in terms of identifying and/or dealing with this issue? Where did you receive your training? Do you feel you received enough information and guidance on dealing with disordered eating in your initial training? What other training or information do you feel may be beneficial?

At the time, when you identified suspected disordered eating, did you know who or where to go to for support? Who/where did you go? How did you know to take this action? Are these still the same people or places you would go to now?

What support is currently available for you and/or your clients regarding this problem? Is the information clear? Have you sought any support? Tell me about your experience of using this service? What other mechanisms or guidance do you feel would be beneficial?

What support and guidance would you like to receive? How do you think this service should be delivered? How could it be made accessible to clients as well as trainers?

As a personal trainer, what do you think your responsibility is with regards to identifying and managing disordered eating among your clients? How much responsibility lies with you? Do you feel equipped to handle this responsibility? Is there anyone that should share this responsibility with you?

What is your opinion on there being set guidelines for personal trainers regarding the identification and management of disordered eating among clients? Would you find guidelines useful? What information would you like to see included in these guidelines? Do you think guidelines could have helped you when dealing with the experience you discussed earlier?

Thank you for taking part in this interview.