Dietitian role in your weight loss

Hello I am a dietitian working with a team of professionals to help you achieve your weight loss.

With the increasing number of adults and children becoming overweight, it's becoming a major challenge for a health professional like myself both locally and nationally, in the public sector and private sector. In UK being overweight or obese is the second most common preventable cause of death after smoking.

My role as a dietitian in weight management is to help you bring about weight loss through effective easy to understand methods and apply changes to your diet. I work hard to improve all weight related health problems through achieving healthy eating patterns that meet your nutritional needs and weight targets.

In hospital or private sector, I work with you to devise individual, realistic weight loss targets especially in complicated medical cases using evidence based practice. I provide personalized, specific, age and culturally appropriate advice taking into account you as a whole person with your specific lifestyle helping you experience a positive experience of care with me your Dietitian.

I work with you providing structured, personal advice that enables you to sustain healthy food and lifestyle changes, supporting you long-term weight loss success with cost effective treatment.

I also train other health care providers such as community carers, nurses in behaviour change and weight management interventions.

I engage in research and peer review to achieve the best treatment for you.

Patients with high B M I above 40 with life threatening complications e.g. heart disease, diabetes complications, severe respiratory disease are offered the option of bariatric surgery and are well informed and supported before and after operative surgery.

I strongly believe in early intervention by addressing obesity in childhood and during pregnancy. As a Dietitian I offer evidence based advice to mothers or mothers to be to improve their own and their children's health in the long-term.

My aim as a Dietitian in weight management service to ensure that you can manage your food and lifestyle to maximum your quality of life with optimal outcomes.

So here's a few points on what it is a dietitian can do for you during your weight loss journey:

1. Listens to you in order to understand what it is that motivates you to lose weight

2. Helps you address what is coming in the way of your goals

3. Help you with personalized food and lifestyle goals that are simple, measurable, achievable, and realistic and can be achieved with a reasonable time

4. Follows your progress regularly to ensure that the changes you have made meet your nutritional needs, weight loss targets, easy to understand, apply and are effective in the long-term.

When choosing weight loss advice or weight loss program ask yourself the following questions:

• Is the weight loss goal sensible no more than 1 kg /2 lb per week?

• Is the advice provided nutritionally balanced following the eat well plate food guide including healthy foods from all four food groups: fruit and vegetables, whole grains, low fat dairy, lean protein from meats or meat alternatives and a small amount of healthy fats at each meal?

• Offers me regular meals not skipping meals, fasting or cleansing which can be unhealthy?

• Maintains a plan that helps me enjoy a healthy lifestyle over the long term including physical activity where possible?

• Is it flexible and addresses my unique needs e. g likes/dislikes. allergies, eating out, cultural restrictions and health concerns?

Red flags to watch out for as warning signs that the advice does not meet your health needs:

• Promises fast weight loss > 1 kg per week

• Recommends a very low calorie diet plan < 800 calories without medical supervision

• Tries to make you dependent on their company by selling you products such as foods or supplements rather than teaching you how to make good choices from regular grocery store food

• Does not encourage long-term realistic lifestyle changes, including regular exercise and healthy food that suits your lifestyle and health.

• Employs sales people who act as counsellors but are only trained on the program and the company's products and not on healthy approaches to help you change your behaviour to help you lose weight.

• Require you to sign up a long-term and expensive contract.

• Pressures you to sign up right away by offering you special price.

• Does not tell you about the risks to your health

• Promotes weight loss aids e. g starch blockers, fat burners, herbs, supplements or amino acids that have not been scientifically proven of have any health benefits. A Dietitian is perfectly placed to find out this information for you.

• Does not offer any support or follow-up to help you lose weight and most importantly keep it off.

• If it sounds too good to be true it probably is.

• Ask yourself can I follow this program for life? Will I be enjoying the change in the long-term? Can I be successful in this program?

A Dietitian like myself can review your current way of eating, help you develop individual personalized plan, teach you how to track your portions sizes and food choices to meet your weight loss goals and offer resources that support your lifestyle changes.

Note: if you take prescribed medication, weight loss may require a change in your dose of medication. Speak to your doctor. Individuals with chronic disease like diabetes should speak with their doctor or dietitian first before starting a weight loss program.

Reference: PEN The global resource for nutrition practice

B DA Dietitian key facts obesity

For specialized Diet and Nutrition advice seek the advice of a Professional Dietitian and Nutritionist Tabby Kabeer SRD HPC