A Personal Trainer used to be only for the film-stars or the extremely wealthy. Nowadays hiring a Personal Trainer is becoming as common as taking your car to the mechanic.
Our bodies are designed to move, be strong and active - without physical activity, we lose muscle tissue and become weak, stiff & sluggish. The metabolism then slows down and the tendency to eat fast, processed, fatty/sugary foods increases as our bodies crave 'pick me up' energy due to lack of fitness. This bad pattern combined with inactivity increases body fat levels (internally & externally) which opens the door to sickness and potentially disease and the slow deterioration of our over-all health.
Unfortunately, today's sedentary lifestyle - sitting at desks all day working on computers (ironically what I am doing now to write this!), sitting in the car or on the train travelling to and from work, sitting down eating your dinner and then sitting down to watch TV or work again in the evening, all leads to the slow accumulation of the problems described above.
Most people are aware of this problem nowadays and then usually flock to the gym or take to the pavement running in order to counter it. Unfortunately what I see time and time again is that people have good intentions and have mustered up the will-power needed but don't really understand what safe exercise is or what type of exercise they should be doing or how much of it is needed in order to lose weight/body fat to get themselves fitter and healthier.
A good Personal Trainer will be able to advise you on this as well as devise a safe & effective program tailored to suit your needs and your body specifically as all of us are very different. A good trainer will also be able to advise you on your over-all lifestyle and most importantly on your diet and eating habits which are more than likely a big part of the problem. Personal Training also provides you with the motivation that you need and how to over-come 'hurdles' (excuse the pun!) and plateaus that you will more than likely experience along the way to achieving your goal(s).