Are professional nutritionists worth it?

Jedi_Archivist

As i've recently turned 30, i decided to take stock of my life and diet- which leaves alot to be desired!! Was considering forking out for the services of a nutritionist to assist in this endeavor. Anyone with any experiences of them? In particular a company called 'Whichvit Health'.

intheclouds

Nutritionist is not a protected term in Ireland, anyone can watch a youtube video and call themselves a nutritionist.

Dietitian is the protected term in Ireland, first port of call is your GP.

messy tessy

Jedi_Archivist wrote: »

As i've recently turned 30, i decided to take stock of my life and diet- which leaves alot to be desired!! Was considering forking out for the services of a nutritionist to assist in this endeavor. Anyone with any experiences of them? In particular a company called 'Whichvit Health'.

Do you have a particular goal in mind? To lose weight or just eat healthier?

B-D-P--

Personally I would say no,

Most have a different twist to the same story.
If you want to get into shape, and you cant think of where to start diet wise, let me save you the 100.

Research "Paleo Diet" Its got all the research in it, it allows you to eat sufficiently, and not be a starved horse all day.

Its pretty easy to follow.

When in doubt, Eat Meat and vedge.
Instead of sauce(ketchup n mayo) use seasoning.
Fruit is always good.

Go to aldi/lidl to get your diet on a fair budget.
Write a shopping list before you go shopping and stick to it, no distractions.

There is more tips, but end of day, its down to will power and keeping to healthy eating.

B-D-P--

double post

Jedi_Archivist

In response to messy tessy; getting healthier/eating the best things for my body more the goal than losing weight. If i do shed pounds in the process, then thats just an added bonus.

marialouise

If your goal is just to eat well then start by cutting out processed anything. Never followed Paleo but maybe that other poster is right, it's a good place to start. Read a bit about nutrition, on AuthorityNutrition.com or something to learn the basics. If you want a good idea of what you are eating, try typing your foods into MyFitnessPal (an app or a website, I prefer the app) and you'll see what you are eating and what needs to be changed. I paid €300 for a nutritionist (not a dietician) and it was worth every penny but most of the results came after I finished, and when I learned myself about what was in different foods. Weight loss was the goal at that time, if it's not then maybe save yourself the money.

Loads of lovely ideas from the likes of BBC Good Food, The Little Green Spoon, The Healthy Spoon ebook, Clean Eating Alice, Deliciously Ella, Joe Wicks Lean in 15... all these people have books of lovely healthy recipes that don't involve weighing food or losing weight - just eating nutritious yummy food!

Star_Nupa

Unless you suspect or have a specific health issue I wouldn't bother with one myself. All the information you need is available here and the likes of Reddit.

Paleo might be a good place to start. It's not a magic potion for weight loss though.

It didn't agree with me at all for various reasons. I stick to lower fat and higher carbs and it's worked better for me!. Try different things and see.

Just start by finding out you TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) if you're trying to lose or gain weight - you can google it for a rough estimate. It may not be exact.

Track your grub and calories on myfitnesspal. See how you get on.

newcar2016

I lost alot of weight this year until July but I might have been cutting calories too much initially.

I started counting every single calorie most days in August and have continued to drop the weight (3.7kg down in August) eating an average of just over 1850 calories a day in conjunction with plenty of exercise. I did have a couple of boozy nights with food so its not exact.

Averaging 1962 calories a day in September which should be quite accurate as I have logged everything. Low and behold have only lost 1.2kg so far this month so I probably need to average a bit less now to continue the fat loss.

I'd say count every calorie. Even in the smallest bowl I could find, you could fit more than twice the recommended portion of porridge oats easily! So food needs to be weighed on a weighing scales and a food diary kept.

It's much easier in my opinion to keep the calorie count down if you cut out bread, pasta,rice etc but I think paleo is a bit extreme but works for many.

A heart rate monitor can be useful for working out calories burned in exercise, its less than you would think! And they often give calories burned in Gross Figures (i.e. inclusive of calories you would have burned by being alive anyway!)

cptgav

If you're just looking to get healthy, then cleaning up your diet (nothing crazy) and exercise are the best places to start. If you don't have a baseline from which relate progress (or a specific issue to deal with), spending money on a nutritionist at this point doesn't really make sense (as they'll charge to tell you to eat clean and exercise, and pretty much just the information you'll find anywhere online).

Your best bet would be to take a list of measurements (weight, waist, tummy, thighs, chest, etc), make a meal plan based around no processed food for a month, and then an exercise plan that won't kill you. At the end of the month see how you've responded and go from there!