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June 10, 2021 • read
How a dietitian can help you reach your weight loss goals
Taking the first steps in your journey towards weight loss can be daunting, but you don’t have to do it alone. Dietitians are a fantastic resource you can leverage when you’re trying to lose weight. They work with you to create realistic plans and set achievable goals. They’ll also help you find solutions to obstacles you hit along the way.
The goal of a dietitian isn’t to give you easy answers. There are no easy answers for weight loss. A dietitian’s goal is to help you better understand how to make intelligent choices regarding your diet, which will ultimately have a positive impact on your health.
We make it simple to meet with a dietitian. All you have to do is schedule a visit on our platform so you can get started right away.
Personalized tips and tricks
Do you have a bad food-related habit you’d like to break? A dietitian can help you find reasonable solutions.
If you drink a lot of soft drinks every day, a dietitian may suggest cutting back to a single cup per day. Are you a huge fan of pizza? You can still enjoy weekly pizza night if you start ordering more vegetable toppings, less fatty meats, and skip the extra cheese.
We all have foods we love that aren’t necessarily great for our diets, but that doesn’t mean we have to cut them out completely. A dietitian will work with you to identify food habits that could be hindering your weight loss plan.
Once you’ve determined some foods that could be stumbling blocks for you, you can find healthier ways to build them into your diet. This way, you don’t have to remove them completely. By scheduling them into your meal plan, you can better control the volume you consume.
It’s not always about removing things completely from your diet. Instead, it’s about finding ways to enjoy them in moderation, so they don’t negatively impact your weight loss strategies.
Building a diet plan
Apart from controlling how many “cheat” foods we consume, a dietitian will work with you to create a realistic diet plan for you to follow.
This involves understanding all the factors that go into your body’s daily maintenance calories. These are the calories that your body requires each day to maintain your energy levels, while you go about your daily tasks.
The number of calories we require varies widely from person to person. It’s calculated based on sex, age, weight, height, and the volume of physical activities you perform each day.
Your personalized diet plan will take all those factors into account. It can help you create a meal-planning system that promotes healthy, well-rounded eating habits.
Best of all, your diet plan does this without forcing you to starve yourself or avoid your favourite foods entirely.
Setting achievable goals
It’s easy to aim for the stars when you’re first starting your weight loss journey, but that may not be the most effective way to set goals.
When you aim too high, you make it virtually impossible to reach those goals. When you don’t see the improvement you’d hoped for, it can be demoralizing and demotivating.
When it’s done in a healthy way, weight loss is a slow and steady process. It doesn’t happen overnight, and it can take months or years to achieve the goals you set out for yourself.
A dietitian is going to help you set achievable goals that will be much more realistic to meet, and at shorter intervals. This way, you can pause throughout your journey to acknowledge the small improvements you’ve made.
Small improvements add up. If you stick to the plan the dietitian sets out for you, eventually you’ll be standing in front of the mirror wondering how you’ve come so far.
Breaking through weight loss barriers
One obstacle many people avoid discussing when it comes to weight loss is reaching a plateau.
At different points during your weight loss journey, you will likely reach points when your weight loss starts to slow down. The things you were doing before may not work as well anymore, and this could require you to reevaluate your current plan.
This is normal. It doesn’t mean you’re not working hard enough, and it certainly doesn’t mean that the plan isn’t working.
As you lose weight, your body will begin to adjust to the things you’re doing, meaning the same efforts may not have the same results. Also, as you begin to shed weight and adjust your regular diet, your body’s maintenance calories go down. This means that your entire plan may need to be adjusted every few months to account for these changes.
Don’t panic if you find yourself plateauing. Talk to your dietitian. They’ll be able to make suggestions to help you break through these barriers and continue onto the next steps in your weight loss journey.
Creating a healthy long-term relationship with food
Weight loss is only really helpful if it’s sustainable. You may shed a few pounds in a few months, but if you go back to your bad eating habits, you’ll gain them right back.
Working with a dietitian isn’t about finding short-term solutions. It’s about building a healthier, more well-balanced long-term relationship with food. Maintaining good habits means when you lose weight, you’re able to keep it off.
Learning how to manage your food choices and training yourself to maintain healthy eating habits indefinitely are the real benefits of working with a dietitian.
Weight loss is simply a positive consequence of healthier, more well-rounded eating habits.
Can Maple connect me with a dietitian online?
Yes! We’re committed to helping you find the resources you need as part of your health journey, including putting you in touch with a licensed dietitian online.
Losing weight isn’t easy, but you can count on us for guidance and support. We’ll do everything we can to provide you with all the tools you need to take the first successful steps in your weight loss journey.