Accountability Coaches Enter the Weight-Loss Game — For a Price

There are numerous reasons why people seek to lose weight. For some, it’s about fitness and health. For others, it’s about appearance. (For others, it’s a combination of both.) And while simply getting on a scale isn’t necessarily the best way to track one’s own progression when such a program is underway, it remains a tool used by exercisers and personal trainers. And “accountability coaches.”

In a new article at Air Mail, Linda Wells explores the rise of these so-called accountability coaches — multi-hyphenate fitness, wellness and life coaches — including one who, in her words, “pushes sanity with the can-do spirit of a football coach.”

What does that translate to? Sarah Wragge of Sarah Wragge Wellness offered advice on how best to navigate dining out, including the idea of eating a high-protein “mini-meal” in the late afternoon before a meat- and pasta-filled dinner out, so you’re less likely to overindulge.

Wells compares accountability coaching to “babysitting” at one point — albeit babysitting for executives who can pay up to tens of thousands of dollars for the service. It all sounds very rigorous; Wells characterizes the modus operandi of another coach, Teddi Mellencamp — yes, she’s John’s daughter — as an advocate for “tough love” who requests time-stamped photos of her clients’ meals.

For some readers, this might sound like far more personal details than they’d be willing to surrender. For others, it might sound decidedly enticing. But then, if there was one universal solution to questions of fitness and feeling good about one’s body, life would probably be much easier.