Whether you’re heading off on a cruise ship or packing for a romantic getaway, there’s always one thing you want to avoid – being overweight.
According to the United Nations, being overweight is responsible for more than 400 million pounds of food waste each year. That’s enough food to fill about 20 Olympic swimming pools!
If you’re struggling with your weight and want to take a more sustainable approach to your diet, you’ve come to the right place. Here, we’ll discuss whether or not a dietitian can help you lose weight, identify the barriers you might encounter along the way, and suggest solutions to get you started on the right foot.
Is A Dietitian The Right Fit For Me?
If you’re reading this, you’re probably wondering whether or not a dietitian is the right fit for you. After all, you need to feel confident that the person guiding your food choices is qualified to do so. The answer, of course, is yes!
A dietitian is, generally speaking, a person who has acquired extensive knowledge of nutrition through education and experience. This area of knowledge is often referred to as the ‘dietetics’ and, as you might suspect, it has a lot to do with food and drink. A registered dietitian must, therefore, possess a good knowledge of food nutrition and be able to impart that knowledge to others. They should also have a sound understanding of food manufacture, packaging and labelling. In order to achieve registration, most candidates undergo either a bachelor’s degree or a professional diploma in dietetics.
A registered dietitian can, therefore, offer valuable assistance in many areas. They can, for example, help you formulate a diet plan or make suggestions for specific food products that are low in calories and high in nutrients. They can also help you identify the nutrient deficiencies that might be preventing you from losing weight or sticking to a diet. This area of nutritional counseling is sometimes referred to as ‘nutritional screening’.
When it comes to supporting your weight loss efforts, a dietitian can help by providing you with a personalized plan or menu and by looking at your current eating habits. They might suggest that you try out a new technique called ‘intermittent fasting’ or suggest an approach to food combining that will benefit your body composition.
How Can A Dietitian Help Me Lose Weight?
The first step in successfully losing weight is to identify the barriers that are standing in the way of you reaching your goals. For some people, the main barriers are mental. They might be thinking, ‘I can’t lose weight, I’m a male and I’m not supposed to be carrying around excess weight!’ Or, ‘I don’t have the time to cook healthy meals.’
These are all common excuses that people give themselves when they’re struggling with their weight. The fact is, everybody has the ability to cook healthy meals and everyone has the time to go to the store and buy food. It’s not that difficult – you just have to put in the effort to make it happen.
If your main barrier to losing weight is that you don’t believe you can or you don’t think you’ll be successful, a dietitian can certainly help by providing you with the self-belief and the tools you need to succeed. Once you’ve overcome your mental barriers, you can move on to putting your body in the right place to support your healthy lifestyle.
The Main Benefits Of A Dietitian
Aside from giving you the confidence to lose weight and the tools to do it successfully, a dietitian can also offer you a number of other benefits.
A registered dietitian can, generally speaking, help with a variety of issues, including
- Weight loss
- Mental health
- Disease prevention
- Energy management
- Sports performance
- Reproductive health
- Nutritional screening
- Intercultural nutrition
- The glycemic index
- The glycemic load
- The ketogenic diet
- Food allergies
- Food preferences
- Food security
- Shopping for food allergies and intolerances
- The Atkins diet
- The Paleo diet
- The vegan diet
- The dairy-free diet
- The raw food diet
- The gluten-free diet
- The food allergy diet
- The macrobiotic diet
- And more…
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Stress
- Sleep disorders
- Mood disorders
- Eating disorders
- Diabetes
- Hypertension
- Heart disease
- And more…
Being a registered dietitian gives you access to a variety of websites and blogs where you can find all the information you need to know about any issue related to food and nutrition. This is a massive advantage over most other sources of information that might pop up along the way. If you have a specific question about a topic that you’re not sure about, you can look it up online and find the answer in under a minute.
Since a dietitian is, generally speaking, an expert in the field, they can usually offer valuable advice on a variety of subjects. If you’re really stuck for ideas, you can ask them about other areas of nutrition or look them up on PubMed, a website that provides access to all the medical research that has been published in respected journals. This is often a better option than just asking a friend or family member for their opinion, especially if you’re not sure about a particular dietary choice or if you want to know how it will affect your body in the long term. A registered dietitian can also help you to prepare a nutrition meal plan that will help you to lose weight and maintain a healthy lifestyle. This might involve looking at your current food intake and nutritional needs and building a plan from there, or it could mean taking a more in-depth look at the macronutrients required (carbohydrates, proteins and fats) to support your body’s functions and maintenance.
A Registered Dietitian Can Help With Many Different Issues
Not only can a registered dietitian offer you support with your weight loss efforts, they can also help with a variety of other issues. Keep reading for more information on some of the other topics that they might be able to help you with.
A registered dietitian can offer you support with
If you’re looking to improve your mental health or feeling down about yourself, a registered dietitian can help by providing you with the advice and tools you need to succeed. Sometimes, it’s not the most obvious answers that help people the most, but answers that are more subtle and that require a bit of reflection on your part before you can apply them.
They Can Help With Weight Loss
If you’re looking for a quick and easy way to drop some pounds, a dietitian can certainly help by providing you with a personalized plan or menu that will help you lose weight. They might, for example, suggest that you cut out carbohydrates in the afternoon to help your body to produce more adiponectin, a protein that encourages your body to store fat. Or, they may suggest that you take up exercise to boost your body’s functions and change your life for the better.
Whether you’ve tried other diets in the past or are looking for a change to shift some extra weight, a registered dietitian can, generally speaking, provide you with the tools you need to succeed. If you’re looking for someone to help you put your body in the right place to support your healthy lifestyle, a registered dietitian can certainly help by providing you with the confidence and the tools you need to succeed.