If you’re in the search for someone or something to help you lose weight, you know there are endless options to choose from.
You could try a fad diet like keto, paleo, or intermittent fasting. Or you could go with a program like Noom or WeightWatchers.
You could also try to work with someone who is a weight loss coach. Or maybe a health coach, nutrition coach, or nutritionist.
There certainly isn’t a shortage of programs or professionals. However, there is one professional that stands out among the rest.
Registered dietitians are food and nutrition experts. They are well educated and highly trained to help people just like you achieve your nutrition, health, and weight loss goals.
As a registered dietitian myself, I am confident in saying that a registered dietitian is better equipped to help you lose weight than any other program or professional.
In this article, we’ll walk through what a dietitian is, what dietitians help clients with, and how dietitians can help you lose weight and keep it off for the rest of your life.
What Is A Dietitian?
Registered dietitians are food and nutrition experts. Dietitians are educated and trained in both medical nutrition therapy and nutrition counseling
Medical nutrition therapy uses the latest research to help guide nutrition recommendations in a way that is evidence-based and backed by science. Dietitians study topics including anatomy, physiology, microbiology, and biochemistry so they have a clear understanding of how the human body works.
Nutrition counseling uses dietitians' knowledge and skills to build a tailored nutrition plan for each individual that will allow them to reach their individual goals. Dietitians study psychology and sociology, along with nutrition sciences, to learn effective strategies to counsel individuals to reach their goals.
What Do Dietitians Do?
Dietitians who work individually with clients use a variety of methods to help their clients achieve their goals. Some of the methods dietitians use include:
- Providing nutrition counseling that dives into what you eat, as well as why you eat the things you do, when you eat, how much you eat, how you feel about food and your body, and more.
- Helping work healthy eating into your life in a way that is personalized to you and helps you achieve your personal goals.
- Helping you understand your body so you can figure out what works for you and optimize your health.
- Following a holistic approach that includes not only nutrition, but also exercise, sleep, stress, mental health, mindfulness, self-care, and more.
All of these practices can help individuals like you achieve your goal of losing weight.
What Dietitians Don’t Do
While dietitians use multiple methods to help clients achieve their goals, there are also some things dietitians will not do, mainly because they are not sustainable solutions or are dangerous for your health and wellbeing.
Some methods dietitians will not recommend include:
- Quick fixes that are not realistic to maintain in the long-term.
- Drastically cutting anything from your diet, which can be risky for your health.
- Relying on supplements instead of a healthy, well-balanced diet.
- Specific workout plans, which dietitians are not qualified to make unless they hold an additional certification.
How Do Dietitians Help Clients Lose Weight?
If you are interested in changing your eating habits, learning to understand your body, and using holistic methods to lose weight, a dietitian can help you do all of these things.
However, if you are looking for a quick fix that requires cutting things from your diet and relying on supplements, a dietitian may not be the nutrition professional for you.
With that said, let’s get into how dietitians guide people like you to lose weight.
As I mentioned above, dietitians are thoroughly educated in how the body works. This includes how our bodies process food, how they use the nutrients we eat, how our metabolism works, and how we lose or gain weight.
Because dietitians understand the science behind all of these body processes, they are able to guide you to adjust your overall food intake, as well as your intake of specific food groups, to place your body in the right conditions to lose the extra weight you’d like to get rid of.
Your dietitian can provide you with specific guidance on what to eat and how much to eat to achieve your weight loss goals.
Now you may be thinking, I can get an online calculator or an app to tell me what to eat and how much to eat to lose weight. You are correct.
However, while a tool like that can be a great starting place, what do you do when the information it gives you stops working? Most people blame themselves for not being strict enough or not following the rules to a T when, in fact, it’s often the system that is broken, not you.
Dietitians are humans. They have the ability to respond and adapt and help you do the same so you can continue making progress.
Most dietitians will acknowledge that the plan you start out with likely will not be the plan you end up achieving your goals with. This is because we need to shift and change over time to continue to stay on course to reach your goals.
Using a calculator or an app, or even working with a coach who isn’t properly educated and trained, can leave you stuck part of the way to your goal. It can leave you confused about how to proceed on your own.
Working with a dietitian will help you achieve your goals and maintain the results you achieve in the long term.
Maintaining Weight Loss With A Dietitian
Maintaining your new, healthy, happy weight can be just as challenging as getting to that point in the first place.
This is why we see so many people lose substantial amounts of weight and gain it right back, often with a few additional pounds.
Having a professional by your side who can again help you adjust to your new goal and allow you to find continued success is crucial during this time period.
Your dietitian will help you develop new, sustainable habits that will allow you to be one of the few who successfully loses weight and keeps it off for good.
Where To Go From Here
If all of this has you ready to jump into personalized nutrition counseling with a registered dietitian, great, we are here for you!
At OnPoint Nutrition, our team of highly qualified dietitians and nutritionists has helped guide hundreds of people just like you to lose the weight they’ve always wanted to and keep it off. Not only that, but we’ve also helped them live healthier, happier lives in the process.
If you’d like more information on our approach to weight loss, which we call the No Diet Nutrition Guide, you can learn more about our unique approach to weight loss that never involves calorie counting.
We don’t believe in quick fixes. Instead, we’re here to help you take small steps forward and see the momentum you can build with our guidance.
If you’re ready to dive right into a program, you can schedule a free consultation with our team to get started on your journey today.
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