Nutritionists!

[icecream]

No I don't want reccomendations for one :grin:

I want to know why they are selling my friend 1200 calorie plans when her maintenance calories are over 2000 a day? The first time it happened it worked really well (which any new diet would right).. A couple of years later she's up almost 10kgs and still trying to eat 1200 calories, and my head is about to explode :shock:

What would be their reasoning for doing this? Two separate nutritionists have given her similar calorie plans (both well respected in the industry). She originally said fast weight loss so she got what she wanted.. But no way is it something you can maintain. How do you tell that to people though..

I might not have been listening in my nutrition classes, but I'm pretty sure she needs to eat MORE, not less. The calculator tells me that too.

But if I have missed something, list it here :nod:

[AZIDE]

.

[Phedder]

She originally said fast weight loss so she got what she wanted.. But no way is it something you can maintain.

Did they not readjust the diet after the initial fast weight loss?

Seems like a massive oversight from two 'well respected in the industry' professionals, I honestly don't know why they would do such a thing. I can say that there's a huge variability in the quality of nutritionists out there. I know quite a few currently studying or recently graduated, and some of them have made me face palm many times, others have given me solid advice or we've had some great discussions/debates.

I think it tends to boil down to a persons ability to critically analyse information. With most fields there's going to be the ones that just regurgitate information passed onto them, and then there's the ones who absorb and analyse that information, take what's useful from it for the situation/client at hand, integrate that with other knowledge/experience they have etc.

Hopefully you can get into her head and set her right. If not, find another nutritionist that you know will, and tell your friend to get another opinion. Hopefully their opinion will help sway here. Or a dietician, same issues as above apply, but they have to study longer and do some form of research, so more often have that ability to analyse and integrate what they've learned and apply it appropriately.

[icecream]

I think the original one was adjusted to a maintenance plan of about 1400/1500 calories. So she would still be getting fat loss. This is going back a couple of years though, many stop starts since then.

Azide - It was fine for the initial weight loss.. I'm surprised that they continue to put her on plans under 1300 cals despite her weight going up (which would mean her BMR would increase).

My thoughts are that they are just doing because she insists on the fast weight loss, instead of educating her on slow and steady.

Fingers crossed she sees a bit of change now though - Increased her fat and protein intake \:D/

[icecream]

I think it tends to boil down to a persons ability to critically analyse information. With most fields there's going to be the ones that just regurgitate information passed onto them, and then there's the ones who absorb and analyse that information, take what's useful from it for the situation/client at hand, integrate that with other knowledge/experience they have etc.

Oh hell yeah this

If anyone knows any good ones I'd be happy to refer her onto them

[Mcmass]

I don't see how your friend can blame the nutritionists really. If someone pays for a plan and has said their goal was fast weight loss, the diet will of course be under the persons maintenance. Unless of course there are multiple follow ups and weight/fat loss goals are meaning calories will change.

So she got good initial results on 1200cals at first, and she was still seeing the nutritionist in the long term?, and one didn't adjust to a slower loss/maintenance calorie program and the other gave the 1500cals after the initial loss ?

Was your friend wanting to just continue to lose weight at the same rate as at first, so wanted to keep calories low to try and achieve this?

I agree education is important long term, it can allow someone to self regulate their diet around lifestyle and how the body is reacting to the plan...trouble is education takes time and that costs money and more than a few sessions.

[FellowshipOfTheRon]

It fails because it's just as you said, it's catered towards quick loss with no vision of future maintenance.

The nutritionist ends up looking like a god to the client after the first month or so, they don't realise it's the nutritionist at fault because initially they had that great loss so they associate success with the nutritionist and failure with themselves.

When they start feeling like shit or gaining fat again they give up completely & write newspaper articles about 'skinny'(fit) people being over obsessive/obesity being a healthy way of life and in general make a bad name for the health & fitness industry.

As for the nutritionist ; This line is very common in most customer service positions "Find out what they want, give them what they need."

It's great to give your client what they want (when they ask for fast fat loss you give them a plan to suit) but with an ounce of experience you would know to suggest they come back to you for new measurements/recalculations on new diet after certain period of time and even explain to them why if you think they could handle the reasoning. You get return business and you can feel good knowing you've helped another person into a healthy lifestyle, win/win situation if dealt with properly.

Probably there's heaps of great nutritionists out there who crunch the numbers and hand out a solution but there's also a whole bunch of lemons out there who just hand out pre-set templates from the 90's (as your friend has experienced).

[icecream]

I don't see how your friend can blame the nutritionists really. If someone pays for a plan and has said their goal was fast weight loss, the diet will of course be under the persons maintenance. Unless of course there are multiple follow ups and weight/fat loss goals are meaning calories will change.

She's not blaming the nutritionists, I'm just concerned that their plans are a bit on the low side. She's always hungry, thinks about food 24/7, and she's not seeing any results anymore. BUT, she finds it hard to take my advice because I don't have a nutrition degree (I am only qualified to give basic advice according to my cert haha).

Of course it will be under maintenance yes, but I think 700-800 calories is a bit excessive considering she also works out 5 times a week, and she's not actually training for anything but to fit in her jeans. If she was competing then yeah, go hard.

[icecream]

I will just keep prodding her with education anyway I have linked her a good article about slow steady weight loss written by a local nutritionist, so maybe she will read more of that blog..and then go see her

[tomsammce]

she should tell her concerns to the nutritionalist so she can be told whys and hows... that would solve the concerns and mysteries in about 5 minutes where its been over 5 hours on here.

[icecream]

I have suggested she do that considering my calorie calculations were way higher. :grin:

:clap: