Help me get the most from my nutritionist
October 20, 2017 10:20 AM Subscribe
Have you used a nutritionist/dietitian to deal with excess weight and/or emotional eating? Can you share your experience and any tips on how I can get the most from my appointments?
So, I'm overweight but quite fit, and I know emotional eating/bingeing is a big part of why I'm still carrying the weight. I don't need to be thin but right now, I'm about 20kg over where I'd like to be and I worry about my health as I get older.
I feel stupid asking for help because I understand the fundamentals of nutrition. However, it's so emotional for me that I can't make a plan, and I keep caving to short term urges instead of looking at my goals.
I booked in to see a dietitian (the registered term in my country) and told her the truth in my registration form. I just want a plan (which works as a vegetarian who can't digest x and y) to follow without making emotional decisions, to lose weight gradually and sustainably. We spoke on the phone and she said this sounds fine.
If you have worked with a nutritionist/dietitian, and especially if you can relate, can you offer any advice or tips on how to get the most from this? How long did you work with them and how did it go? Thanks!
So, I'm overweight but quite fit, and I know emotional eating/bingeing is a big part of why I'm still carrying the weight. I don't need to be thin but right now, I'm about 20kg over where I'd like to be and I worry about my health as I get older.
I feel stupid asking for help because I understand the fundamentals of nutrition. However, it's so emotional for me that I can't make a plan, and I keep caving to short term urges instead of looking at my goals.
I booked in to see a dietitian (the registered term in my country) and told her the truth in my registration form. I just want a plan (which works as a vegetarian who can't digest x and y) to follow without making emotional decisions, to lose weight gradually and sustainably. We spoke on the phone and she said this sounds fine.
If you have worked with a nutritionist/dietitian, and especially if you can relate, can you offer any advice or tips on how to get the most from this? How long did you work with them and how did it go? Thanks!
I've done this! Keep a good food diary and it will be most helpful with 3-4 weeks worth of meals so that your dietician/nutritionist can get an average. For extra info for both of you, you might consider trying the USDA SuperTracker which has reports which can be helpful to both of you.
When you track your food, also track your activity and note how the food made you feel when you ate it and how you were feeling when you chose it. Like: Peanut butter and jelly sandwich (feeling tired & cranky; afterwards felt full).
(and if you want to trade vegetarian recipes/cooking for the week ideas once you've seen her, please feel free to Me-Mail.)
posted by eleanna at 12:42 PM on October 20, 2017 [2 favorites]
When you track your food, also track your activity and note how the food made you feel when you ate it and how you were feeling when you chose it. Like: Peanut butter and jelly sandwich (feeling tired & cranky; afterwards felt full).
(and if you want to trade vegetarian recipes/cooking for the week ideas once you've seen her, please feel free to Me-Mail.)
posted by eleanna at 12:42 PM on October 20, 2017 [2 favorites]
I do work with a nutritional therapist, as I, too, am an emotional eater. But my therapist and I don't have any sort of meal plan or such. Emotional eating is not about the food or finding just the right plan. It takes some deeper work to look at why you cope/soothe with food, becoming aware and mindful, and learning new tools to put in place to cope/soothe in more constructive ways.
Personally, we work with the principles of Intuitive Eating, but I realize it's not for everyone.
And if any of that speaks to you, I also highly, highly recommend the book Eating in the Light of the Moon (the audio version is just awesome, and I fall asleep listening to it almost every night).
posted by bologna on wry at 1:40 PM on October 20, 2017 [2 favorites]
Personally, we work with the principles of Intuitive Eating, but I realize it's not for everyone.
And if any of that speaks to you, I also highly, highly recommend the book Eating in the Light of the Moon (the audio version is just awesome, and I fall asleep listening to it almost every night).
posted by bologna on wry at 1:40 PM on October 20, 2017 [2 favorites]
I had to see one for s different reason, but this might help you too.
I don’t really cook, so I brought in menus from restaurants I frequent. We went through them to figure out what I could and could not eat. (I found out I had celiac.)
For me it was super practical. And got me thinking of components in a different way, instead of just a blanket list of things I can’t eat anymore.
Also, be honest as you can. About what you will eat and won’t, etc. Its my standard advice for seeing any kind of doctor. Sometimes we want to please them or get overwhelmed - whatever. Be honest so they can help you best.
posted by crankyrogalsky at 2:25 PM on October 20, 2017
I don’t really cook, so I brought in menus from restaurants I frequent. We went through them to figure out what I could and could not eat. (I found out I had celiac.)
For me it was super practical. And got me thinking of components in a different way, instead of just a blanket list of things I can’t eat anymore.
Also, be honest as you can. About what you will eat and won’t, etc. Its my standard advice for seeing any kind of doctor. Sometimes we want to please them or get overwhelmed - whatever. Be honest so they can help you best.
posted by crankyrogalsky at 2:25 PM on October 20, 2017
I had to use a nutritionist 6 months ago when I was disgnosed as a pre-diabetic. Here are a few things I learned
1) Be honest with the nutritionist. Both about your eating habits and your goal. My goal was not necessarily weight loss, but getting control of my metabolic factors. The weight loss is an optional extra. You should do the same. Get a complete physical check up and pay attention to the following: Diastolic BP, HDL/Triglyceride ratio and A1C hemoglobin count. Your diastolic should be less than 80; Triglyceride/HDL ratio should be less than 3 (with a HDL>40); and A1C less than 5.6. This way healthy living is the goal and not necessarily weight loss.
2) Tweak what you are already eating rather than starting something drastically new. This is more sustainable in my view. With me it was cutting way down on my carbs and increasing protein. As a south Indian vegetarian this is not easy as we eat Rice 3 times a day. The first was to switch to parboiled Rice as it has a glycemic index of 40 compared to 80 for white rice and eating this only for lunch. Switching to whole wheat flatbreads for dinner. And eating proteins with every meal. As a vegetarian this is a lot more difficult as beans are not necessarily the best source for proteins as they also have a LOT of carbs. I use a combination of non-fat Greek Yoghurt, Tofu, Seitan, TVP and Eggs for protein and make sure every meal has one of this. I also completely cut off sugar. I eat out way less often and try to eat snacky foods sparingly. I have also found that drinking Soda water by making my own using Soda Stream fools my stomach into thinking it is full :)
3) Changing my exercise profile. I used to do a lot of cardio with a littel bit of weight. Now I do a bit of cardio and a LOT of weight/resistance. I got some help at the gym and have started Deadlifts, Shoulder Presses, Biceps/Triceps etc. and this seeems to be helping.
I have lost 15 pounds over these last few months and have another 15 to go. But this feels sustainable as I am not doing something drastic for short term goals. I feel that just looking at weight is not the best way for me. I want to lead a healthy life and for that I need to maintain good metabolic functions.
Lastly, if you can do it; do intermittent fasting. I do a 5+2 method. 5 regular days of eating and 2 days of fasting (essentially go dinner to dinner without eating).
Whatever you decide after talking with the nutritionist; try to do something that is sustainable over the long haul. I think the word Dieting is misused. It should be reserved to mean what you can do for the rest of your life to stay healthy; rather than what we can do for the next 3 weeks so we can fit into a bikini/speedo for the summer on the beach!
posted by indianbadger1 at 2:58 PM on October 20, 2017 [1 favorite]
1) Be honest with the nutritionist. Both about your eating habits and your goal. My goal was not necessarily weight loss, but getting control of my metabolic factors. The weight loss is an optional extra. You should do the same. Get a complete physical check up and pay attention to the following: Diastolic BP, HDL/Triglyceride ratio and A1C hemoglobin count. Your diastolic should be less than 80; Triglyceride/HDL ratio should be less than 3 (with a HDL>40); and A1C less than 5.6. This way healthy living is the goal and not necessarily weight loss.
2) Tweak what you are already eating rather than starting something drastically new. This is more sustainable in my view. With me it was cutting way down on my carbs and increasing protein. As a south Indian vegetarian this is not easy as we eat Rice 3 times a day. The first was to switch to parboiled Rice as it has a glycemic index of 40 compared to 80 for white rice and eating this only for lunch. Switching to whole wheat flatbreads for dinner. And eating proteins with every meal. As a vegetarian this is a lot more difficult as beans are not necessarily the best source for proteins as they also have a LOT of carbs. I use a combination of non-fat Greek Yoghurt, Tofu, Seitan, TVP and Eggs for protein and make sure every meal has one of this. I also completely cut off sugar. I eat out way less often and try to eat snacky foods sparingly. I have also found that drinking Soda water by making my own using Soda Stream fools my stomach into thinking it is full :)
3) Changing my exercise profile. I used to do a lot of cardio with a littel bit of weight. Now I do a bit of cardio and a LOT of weight/resistance. I got some help at the gym and have started Deadlifts, Shoulder Presses, Biceps/Triceps etc. and this seeems to be helping.
I have lost 15 pounds over these last few months and have another 15 to go. But this feels sustainable as I am not doing something drastic for short term goals. I feel that just looking at weight is not the best way for me. I want to lead a healthy life and for that I need to maintain good metabolic functions.
Lastly, if you can do it; do intermittent fasting. I do a 5+2 method. 5 regular days of eating and 2 days of fasting (essentially go dinner to dinner without eating).
Whatever you decide after talking with the nutritionist; try to do something that is sustainable over the long haul. I think the word Dieting is misused. It should be reserved to mean what you can do for the rest of your life to stay healthy; rather than what we can do for the next 3 weeks so we can fit into a bikini/speedo for the summer on the beach!
posted by indianbadger1 at 2:58 PM on October 20, 2017 [1 favorite]
I did this. I went weekly for about three months.
Dietitians are big on getting people to make small changes that will make a difference over a longer period. They'll help you to set weekly goals: 'this week, I'll drink water instead of soda' or 'this week, I'll have popcorn instead of chips', or 'this week, I'll eat breakfast every day instead of skipping'. It might even be 'this week, don't do anything different except weigh and record what you eat.' And once a behaviour is bedded in (or you say 'I'm just not ever going to eat breakfast, work around it') they try a new one. If you can save 100 calories a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, you just lost ten pounds without any drastic changes at all.
You'll also probably work on backup plans. Didn't get to go shopping for broccoli and blueberries and halibut and now you're looking at an empty fridge and a pizza coupon? You've got an assortment of healthy meals in the freezer for just such an occasion. Eating out this week? You've already read the menu and decided what you're having and rehearsed saying no to dessert. You've got a small bag of nuts in the glove box. You're bringing a healthy salad to that barbecue on Saturday so you're guaranteed to have something to eat.
(And for me it didn't work because these are small, calculated, rational responses to a large, uncalculated, irrational problem, and if I could make lots of small rational choices about food for an extended period of time I wouldn't have been seeing a dietitian in the first place, and if all I need is an eating plan to blindly follow there are thousands to choose from online for free. One of the issues for me was that seeing the dietitian became a source of stress, because I felt like I was disappointing her or she was judging me (she almost certainly wasn't either of those things), so hey just stop going problem solved have a chocolate mousse buddy!)
posted by obiwanwasabi at 6:20 PM on October 22, 2017 [2 favorites]
Dietitians are big on getting people to make small changes that will make a difference over a longer period. They'll help you to set weekly goals: 'this week, I'll drink water instead of soda' or 'this week, I'll have popcorn instead of chips', or 'this week, I'll eat breakfast every day instead of skipping'. It might even be 'this week, don't do anything different except weigh and record what you eat.' And once a behaviour is bedded in (or you say 'I'm just not ever going to eat breakfast, work around it') they try a new one. If you can save 100 calories a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, you just lost ten pounds without any drastic changes at all.
You'll also probably work on backup plans. Didn't get to go shopping for broccoli and blueberries and halibut and now you're looking at an empty fridge and a pizza coupon? You've got an assortment of healthy meals in the freezer for just such an occasion. Eating out this week? You've already read the menu and decided what you're having and rehearsed saying no to dessert. You've got a small bag of nuts in the glove box. You're bringing a healthy salad to that barbecue on Saturday so you're guaranteed to have something to eat.
(And for me it didn't work because these are small, calculated, rational responses to a large, uncalculated, irrational problem, and if I could make lots of small rational choices about food for an extended period of time I wouldn't have been seeing a dietitian in the first place, and if all I need is an eating plan to blindly follow there are thousands to choose from online for free. One of the issues for me was that seeing the dietitian became a source of stress, because I felt like I was disappointing her or she was judging me (she almost certainly wasn't either of those things), so hey just stop going problem solved have a chocolate mousse buddy!)
posted by obiwanwasabi at 6:20 PM on October 22, 2017 [2 favorites]
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posted by starlybri at 10:33 AM on October 20, 2017