I Turned ChatGPT Into My Fitness Coach—Here’s What Actually Worked

Maybe you’ve used AI to polish a cover letter for a job application. Or to get input on your dating dilemmas. I’ve been experimenting with ChatGPT in different parts of my life, but, until recently, I hadn’t considered its potential for my fitness routine. I was happy with my diet and workout strategy and the results I had achieved. However, when my routine got disrupted by three recent events, I turned to ChatGPT for advice. 

Over the past 6 months, ChatGPT has been a surprisingly helpful (and free!) stand-in for a nutrition coach and trainer. It’s not perfect, and it’s definitely not for everyone. If you’re curious, though, here are 3 ways it’s helped me. 

Recovering from Surgery

This spring, I had to go through two rounds of oral surgery. For two weeks after each procedure, I could only eat soft foods and had to limit my exercise. The first round of surgery, despite my efforts to prioritize protein, I found myself eating way too much Jello and mashed potatoes and feeling sluggish and out-of-sorts from more sugar and less activity than I was used to. 

The second round of surgery, I wanted to do better. I asked ChatGPT:

“Please create a meal plan with only soft foods suitable for recovering from oral surgery. I want each day to have 1600 calories, 120 grams of protein, and 25 grams of fiber while staying under 1500 milligrams of sodium.” 

ChatGPT came through with some great suggestions that I hadn’t thought of, like mashed avocado, or pureed lentil soup. I hadn’t realized how high in fiber avocado actually was! 

ChatGPT’s numbers for calories, protein, and fiber were accurate when I checked them against MyFitnessPal. I got much better nutrition the second round of surgery and felt more energetic and less irritable.

Adjusting to a New Routine After Getting Married

Contrary to what some red pill men claim, I don’t think women decide to eat everything in sight the moment they say, “I do” and the guy is trapped. Marriage does tend to lead to weight gain for both genders, but some data actually shows that men gain more weight than women after marriage. 

For me, marriage definitely made my once-simple fitness routine more complicated. As a single woman, it was easy to stay fit. I had optimized my life for my fitness goals. I could work out whenever I wanted, there were never any tempting snack foods in my house, and I could meal prep on the weekend and eat the same simple combinations of lean protein and veggies all week. 

All of that changed after moving in with my husband after our wedding. I love to cook, and I stepped into my wife era by baking fun treats, scouring cooking blogs for recipe ideas, and digging up recipe cards from my grandmother’s kitchen. When you come from a family where preparing food is a primary way to express love, it’s an easy trap to fall into. 

My schedule also became more complicated. While it was great making time for things like sharing a morning cup of coffee with my husband, those cozy moments made it more challenging to schedule in enough time for workouts. And, in the small town where I had moved, there weren’t the group fitness classes that I had loved attending before my wedding. 

I was so happy to be married, but I was also frustrated by how my jeans were growing tighter day by day. I didn’t want to lose the momentum I’d built while getting strong and healthy for my wedding. 

Anyone with a basic knowledge of fitness can tell you that the solution in these kinds of situations is to eat fewer calories and move more. That said, there are lots of different ways to accomplish eating fewer calories and moving more, some of which may be a great fit that you can stick to, and some of which may not make sense with your needs and preferences. So, again, I turned to ChatGPT for some brainstorming help. 

I asked ChatGPT to do a motivational interview for me. Therapists and coaches are often big fans of motivational interviewing, because it gets clients to identify their own reasons for making a change rather than lecturing them about why they should change. It’s an approach that maximizes empathy and honors their sense of agency so that they will have strong buy-in and adherence for new behaviors. 

I told ChatGPT:

“Please do a motivational interview for me as if you are a nutrition coach and I am a new client. I am worried because I’ve gained a few pounds after my recent wedding and want to deal with it before it becomes a big problem.” 

ChatGPT asked a series of thought-provoking questions. Why did this matter to me? What would my life look like if I made a change? What challenges was I facing? What small shifts could I start with?

Essentially, it was a guided journaling exercise. By the end of it, I had a list of small changes that soon had me back on track, like prepping some simpler ingredient combinations for my dinners, cutting back on the olive oil I put on my salads, and having my husband handle dinner clean up while I went for a walk. Could I have come up with those ideas without ChatGPT? Probably. But having some structure for brainstorming was tremendously helpful. 

I even started putting recipes from cooking blogs into ChatGPT to analyze the calorie totals and suggest ways to lighten them up. For a chicken and rice casserole, it subbed in cauliflower rice and cut back on the cheese, resulting in a healthier (but still yummy) meal. If you like to cook, but your favorite online recipe sources don’t post nutrition facts, ChatGPT can do the heavy lifting with calculations for you. It’s one of my favorite time-saving hacks. 

Finding Alternatives When My Gym Closed

While searching for a post-wedding fitness rhythm, I found a weekday gym routine that worked for me: about 30 minutes of strength training with dumbbells and kettlebells, followed by a 12-3-30 treadmill workout to get my Zone 2 cardio in. It became a morning ritual that genuinely energized me.

Then my gym announced it would be closed for a month of renovations.

I had dumbbells in a variety of weights at home, so strength training wasn’t a problem, but I needed a cardio alternative. I asked ChatGPT:

“My gym is closing for a month and I need an alternative to the 12-3-30 treadmill workout. I hate running, and walking on a flat surface doesn’t raise my heart rate enough for Zone 2 cardio. What can I do?”

It suggested everything from jump rope intervals to YouTube aerobics videos. I had used YouTube for Pilates or yoga on rest days but never thought about using it for cardio. Thanks to that suggestion, I’ve discovered a few instructors I actually enjoy.

I still miss my treadmill routine, but I’m viewing this month as an opportunity to experiment. And now I have more options for keeping up my cardio, even while traveling or visiting family.

When ChatGPT Might Be a Bad Idea

ChatGPT may not be the best fit for your situation. Research shows that it doesn’t do as well with recommendations for people with specific health conditions like diabetes. If you’re pregnant or nursing, you definitely want to run your nutrition and exercise routine by your physician as well. And regardless of your health status, it’s always a good idea to get a medical doctor’s advice before starting a supplement.

There are some situations where I won’t turn to ChatGPT. For example, as I get older, I find myself prioritizing strength training more, to avoid the muscle loss that starts for women in our thirties. I want to age like Halle Berry! As I think about implementing OB-Gyn physician Dr. Mary Claire Haver’s advice about preparing now to age well, I'll probably book a few sessions with a personal trainer to make sure I don’t injure myself if I start lifting more. I’m also curious about how the supplement creatine might help with avoiding age-related muscle loss, but I’m not just going to say, “Hey, ChatGPT, should I take creatine?” I’ll bring it up with my doctor at my annual physical.

You could think of ChatGPT as less about making specific clinical guidelines for your situation, and more as a tool to figure out practical implementation of advice that you’ve gotten from a reliable medical or fitness professional. I don't recommend relying on ChatGPT for big questions like, “I have PCOS. How should I change my nutrition?” Instead, once you have good big picture guidance, consider asking tactical questions more along the lines of, “Can you suggest some breakfast ideas that have at least 30 grams of protein and are under 400 calories? I am especially interested in meals I can prep ahead of time.” 

ChatGPT isn’t a magic bullet, but it can be a helpful sounding board, recipe analyst, and coach. It’s definitely made it easier for me to keep prioritizing fitness despite the ups and downs of the past year.