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Dietitian appointment freaked me out?!
Jay9201
Posts: 119 Member
Hi all,
What is the best way to lose weight for an apple shaped body, particularly belly fat?
Following my previous post about my trip to the dietitian I've been left with a lot of unanswered questions. My dietitian did my assessment and concluded that I have a textbook diet (whatever that means) and is happy with how I workout. However she isn't happy about my bad relationship with food I apparently eat well but think about food a lot and analyse quantity of the food I eat and end up feeling guilty if I eat certain foods. This then leads to binge eating. (Occasional episodes ).
What concerned me is she has to speak to a pyschologist and other colleagues about whether she can truly help me? What does that mean??? But overall I am a apple shaped body and I need to relax and allow myself to eat and belly fat will be the hardest to lose. So how do I lose my belly fat? I'm 80.08kg goal weight is 60kg.
So much easier said than done. I genuinely left feeling like I'm crazy and more focused on the issue that she pointed out.
She also explained that my home scale won't show my true weight as it isn't calibrated like theirs. I weigh less at dietitians and doctors scale and more on my own scale.
But has anyone gone through anything similar? Tips would be so helpful.
What is the best way to lose weight for an apple shaped body, particularly belly fat?
Following my previous post about my trip to the dietitian I've been left with a lot of unanswered questions. My dietitian did my assessment and concluded that I have a textbook diet (whatever that means) and is happy with how I workout. However she isn't happy about my bad relationship with food I apparently eat well but think about food a lot and analyse quantity of the food I eat and end up feeling guilty if I eat certain foods. This then leads to binge eating. (Occasional episodes ).
What concerned me is she has to speak to a pyschologist and other colleagues about whether she can truly help me? What does that mean??? But overall I am a apple shaped body and I need to relax and allow myself to eat and belly fat will be the hardest to lose. So how do I lose my belly fat? I'm 80.08kg goal weight is 60kg.
So much easier said than done. I genuinely left feeling like I'm crazy and more focused on the issue that she pointed out.
She also explained that my home scale won't show my true weight as it isn't calibrated like theirs. I weigh less at dietitians and doctors scale and more on my own scale.
But has anyone gone through anything similar? Tips would be so helpful.
1
Replies
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Your body shape isn't that relevant to weight loss. You'll lose weight with a calorie deficit, the same as a person who is shaped differently.
If you're finding that your thoughts about food are intrusive and contributing to a poorer quality of life or if over-focusing on certain foods makes you prone to binges, then I think speaking to a mental health care professional could be a really helpful thing.17 -
Your body shape has nothing to do with how to lose weight and you cannot choose which body areas you lose from how quickly. You need to eat at a calorie deficit, as explained in detail on this site. The dietician is concerned that your relationship with food be addressed, as she feels this is underlying your weight loss issues. A dietitican has less training in this area than with the straight "what and how much food" aspect. A psychologist would have more training in the mental and emotional issues and this is why she wants to talk with one.think about food a lot and analyse quantity of the food I eat and end up feeling guilty if I eat certain foods. This then leads to binge eating
It does sound like your scale is off because most people weigh less at home (first thing in the morning after using the bathroom) than at a medical office because they have usually eaten and are wearing more clothing when weighed elsewhere. However, your scale will give you a trend of pounds lost, regardless of the exact number. If you weigh 155 at home and 150 at the dieticians, and you lose 5 lbs, both scales will go down by 5 lbs.
Don't freak out, she's trying to help you!10 -
Your body shape has nothing to do with how to lose weight and you cannot choose which body areas you lose from how quickly. You need to eat at a calorie deficit, as explained in detail on this site. The dietician is concerned that your relationship with food be addressed, as she feels this is underlying your weight loss issues. A dietitican has less training in this area than with the straight "what and how much food" aspect. A psychologist would have more training in the mental and emotional issues and this is why she wants to talk with one.
It does sound like your scale is off because most people weigh less at home (first thing in the morning after using the bathroom) than at a medical office because they have usually eaten and are wearing more clothing when weighed elsewhere. However, your scale will give you a trend of pounds lost, regardless of the exact number. If you weigh 155 at home and 150 at the dieticians, and you lose 5 lbs, both scales will go down by 5 lbs.
Don't freak out, she's trying to help you!
Freaking out because I feel like they're making me out to be someone with an eating disorder. I don't have one. I'm just super disciplined maybe a little too much if I have binge episodes.
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Your body shape has nothing to do with how to lose weight and you cannot choose which body areas you lose from how quickly. You need to eat at a calorie deficit, as explained in detail on this site. The dietician is concerned that your relationship with food be addressed, as she feels this is underlying your weight loss issues. A dietitican has less training in this area than with the straight "what and how much food" aspect. A psychologist would have more training in the mental and emotional issues and this is why she wants to talk with one.
It does sound like your scale is off because most people weigh less at home (first thing in the morning after using the bathroom) than at a medical office because they have usually eaten and are wearing more clothing when weighed elsewhere. However, your scale will give you a trend of pounds lost, regardless of the exact number. If you weigh 155 at home and 150 at the dieticians, and you lose 5 lbs, both scales will go down by 5 lbs.
Don't freak out, she's trying to help you!
My scale is so weird tbh. My doctors scale showed me 80kg first thing in the morning that was a few weeks ago. My scale consistently showed me 82kg+ and then dietitian showed me I'm 80.08kg in the evening after a full day of eating. So it's really weird.
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Freaking out because I feel like they're making me out to be someone with an eating disorder. I don't have one. I'm just super disciplined maybe a little too much if I have binge episodes.
You don't have to have an official ED to potentially benefit from talking to a professional about your guilt around certain foods and your tendency to binge. Don't think of this like "Oh, something must be wrong with me." It's more like just like an RD is a professional in dealing looking at your diet and determining if there is anything you want to adjust, someone more experienced with mental health is a professional who can help you look at your thinking around food and determine if there is anything you want to adjust.
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janejellyroll wrote: »
You don't have to have an official ED to potentially benefit from talking to a professional about your guilt around certain foods and your tendency to binge. Don't think of this like "Oh, something must be wrong with me." It's more like just like an RD is a professional in dealing looking at your diet and determining if there is anything you want to adjust, someone more experienced with mental health is a professional who can help you look at your thinking around food and determine if there is anything you want to adjust.
I hope so it's a waiting game at the moment to see what they decide. In the mean time I've been advised to practice mindful eating and portion control. It's harder than I thought.
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Wondering if your dietitian stands to make a profit lol. You sound frighteningly...normal. When on a calorie restricted meal plan we all think about food. We all fall off the wagon occasionaly. Just keep swimming and eat real food, not too much.9
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Goober1142 wrote: »Wondering if your dietitian stands to make a profit lol. You sound frighteningly...normal. When on a calorie restricted meal plan we all think about food. We all fall off the wagon occasionaly. Just keep swimming and eat real food, not too much.
Unlikely. Binge eating is a legitimate concern, as is feeling guilty over certain foods. It's actually quite smart to consider reaching to another medical professional for an issue that is potentially out of the dietician's range of expertise.
OP, it doesn't mean there's something "wrong" with you that your dietician is reaching out to a psychologist. It's about helping you reach a healthier relationship with food, with the goal of eliminating your binge episodes (occasional as they may be) and feeling guilty over certain foods. Weight loss can be as much mental for some of us as physical. Your dietician probably doesn't want to end up giving you bad advice on something outside of her education. Belly fat seems to be notorious for being the hardest to lose, you just keep at it until it's gone.10 -
It might help to track just to see what sets off binges so you can better reign them in. Also hmm... I tend to be apple-shaped and I'm pretty sure weight loss for me has been like anyone else's.3
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Let's say you weren't exercising because of a sore back and the dietitian said, "I think I will talk to one of my physical therapist colleagues to see if I can give you recommendations that will help or if they recommend you see one of them," would you FREAK OUT? No? Well, this is the same idea.
We can all use help with our emotions/thought processes. People who study psychology arguably have a better knowledge base upon which to base recommendations than we who haven't studied it do. Do you think a professional football coach who was offered information from a specialist in the psychology of competition would freak out and refuse to listen? They might take the recommendations or not based on their own expertise but a smart coach wouldn't freak out about the idea that someone might know something that would be helpful. A insecure football coach might feel threatened but that coach is less likely to improve because he's closed himself off to new information.
Don't close yourself off to new information. Consider that someone who has studied the relationships we all have with food might know something you would find helpful. Being open to new information from psychological therapists is the exact opposite of crazy. It's a sign of psychological and emotional health.
(And I had to have this same talk with myself years ago when counseling was first suggested to me. You are not alone in your reaction at all!)22 -
What concerned me is she has to speak to a pyschologist and other colleagues about whether she can truly help me? What does that mean??? But overall I am a apple shaped body and I need to relax and allow myself to eat and belly fat will be the hardest to lose. So how do I lose my belly fat? I'm 80.08kg goal weight is 60kg.
So much easier said than done. I genuinely left feeling like I'm crazy and more focused on the issue that she pointed out.What does that mean???
Given that she's concerned not about what you're eating but about you're relationship with food, I would think she's saying that the problem she believes you have is not what she's trained to deal with. I believe dietitians are trained in helping you figure out what you should be eating, not in helping you with your feelings about food.So how do I lose my belly fat?
You're 20 kg from goal. There's a good chance some of that 20 kg will come from your belly. In any case, there's no such thing as spot reduction. Genetics determine where your body stores fat first, last, and in-between. There's no point in getting upset about it.I genuinely feel like I'm crazy
And needing help with feelings and behaviors doesn't make you "crazy."9 -
Thank you all for your input on this. It's just so hard!0
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Freaking out because I feel like they're making me out to be someone with an eating disorder. I don't have one. I'm just super disciplined maybe a little too much if I have binge episodes.
It didn't sound like she thought you had an ED, just that you needed someone more familiar with mental work to help you with your relationship to food and how/how often you think about it. Think of it like this: Would you go to a gas station to fix your car if your car needed a new transmission? You see your weight as a problem the dietitian can help you with, she sees one important factor in your weight that she does not have the appropriate tools to deal with.
And if you did have an ED that would just open up a different toolkit of ways to help you.
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Body shape has EVERYTHING to do with how you lose weight. If you naturally have a larger belly, or thighs... that's where you'll lose the weight the last. That's just genetics... And that's why it's much harder for apple shapes to lose their belly than pear shapes.
I mean, sure, weight loss is weight loss, nobody's denying that, but where you lose first will depend on genetics/body shape.
That being said, your dietitian probably has a point about bad relationship with food - feeling guilty and restricting too much then binging isn't a healthy relationship with food. You're really not alone in that though... it's just kinda odd that she would expect her customers to feel differently. I mean, they go to a dietitian to lose weight, so I can't imagine that most of her clients don't feel bad if they have ice cream or a chocolate bar! Gosh, I've lost 70 lbs total eating 'bad foods' and I still feel moderately guilty if I have a chocolate bar instead of an apple. I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing or I would probably never have lost the weight.
So no, you're not crazy. You're pretty normal for someone trying to lose weight. You would probably just benefit from learning how to eat 'bad foods' in moderation.3 -
Jay9201..it's OK to seek out other avenues (ie behaviour therapy) besides the act physical fuelling of your body. I speak for me. I was very thrilled to speak to a CBT (cognitive behavioural therapist) therapist to determine as to the "why" I was on a continuous roller coaster of obsessing about placing food first and not moving forward in other areas of my life. Read The Diet Trap, Judith Beck or go to the Beck institute website. You may like what you read. Good feedback on this site.
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If you are textbook eating your food choices and the variety is all good.
It sounds like you have overcomplicated the whole weight loss thing.
Just eat slower enjoying every bite and relax0 -
One of my favourite things about MFP has been that it tells me exactly what I need to do to achieve my goal. In the old days I almost always had a feeling of nagging guilt about every single thing I ate. These days, if I eat a donut it's because I know it fits within my allotted calories for the day and I thoroughly enjoy that donut without any guilt. I think the mental and emotional part of eating is way bigger than most of us realize. Part of my goal when I started was to develop a healthier relationship with food - make new pathways in my brains about food as fuel, stop the guilt, stop the emotional reactions, learn to enjoy. Hope you can find some of that as well!4
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If you are textbook eating your food choices and the variety is all good.
It sounds like you have overcomplicated the whole weight loss thing.
Just eat slower enjoying every bite and relaxIf you are textbook eating your food choices and the variety is all good.
It sounds like you have overcomplicated the whole weight loss thing.
Just eat slower enjoying every bite and relax
That's what she said. She said to relax and enjoy eating
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It sounds like she has to consult with other colleagues about whether she can 'truly help you' because she is concerned about your 'bad' relationship with food (i.e., that you think about food a lot, analyse quantity of the food and end up feeling guilty if you eat certain foods). Particularly with the occasional binge eating, she could be concerned that by working with you she could inadvertantly contribute to disordered eating patterns. I wouldn't say that she thinks you have an eating disorder, but rather that you could be vulnerable to such a development. But she could help you with a more 'mindful' eating approach, so I'm not really sure why she would say that, unless a more mindful eating approach is something she doesn't particularly adhere or prescribe too . . .?
Not sure what you could do about belly fat expect lose weight overall (which should reduce the belly fat). Though everyone carries fat differently, even when I was at my skinniest I still carried the majority of my fat around my stomach. I talked with a dietitian once and she suggested reducing stress could assist with reducing belly fat and suggested things like yoga, meditation, etc.1 -
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Ericnutrition wrote: »
This means one and only one thing - find another dietitian.
An RD with the insight to know she's not qualified in everything and engages with other professionals is good, not bad.11 -
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Ericnutrition wrote: »This means one and only one thing - find another dietitian.
Mr. EpicNutrition, during your prostate exam I sort of felt something down there that I am not 100% happy with but I'm also not 100% sure that it is a concern. You know what? Dr. Specialist is dropping by latter for some coffee, and I'm gonna check and see if she thinks its worthwhile for her to have a look too.
That's OK doc. No worries. I'm gonna take my prostate to a better doc, one who won't prod fingers up my **kitten**
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Ericnutrition wrote: »
After consulting with the psychologist the dietitian could say she could help you. Great.
Or she could say she can't help you and refer you to that psychologist. They are expensive.
So before you spend all that money, try another dietitian.
But if OP truly needs a referral to a psychologist for a longer period of time (which isn't a given), it would be a good use of money.
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Ericnutrition wrote: »
After consulting with the psychologist the dietitian could say she could help you. Great.
Or she could say she can't help you and refer you to that psychologist. They are expensive.
So before you spend all that money, try another dietitian.
Oh no doc. I won't go to a surgeon for my prostate surgery. They're expensive. I will go to another doc. Maybe one who will tell me I don't need no stinking surgery!8 -
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Hi- It sounds like she is legitimately concerned about your mental health. She is making sure to make her own checks and balances into helping you to make sure your needs are being met. She doesn't specialize in eating disorders, so she is just making sure she is doing the right thing. A good dietician will refer to a psychologist, so if you get another referral, you know you are in good hands. Make sure you get approval from insurance before you go. Good luck to you!2
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Ericnutrition wrote: »
Agreed, is she gets the same opinion from another dietitian.
But why would you automatically trust the RD who felt she had the ability to address emotional issues around eating more than the RD who realizes this isn't her area of expertise?
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It's appropriate for a dietician to seek input from other healthcare providers if they feel that your specific situation may be outside of their scope of practice. It would be inappropriate for the dietician to ignore their concerns and just continue to work with you, because that might be keeping you from seeking more appropriate help. It sounds like the dietician is trying to make sure you receive the appropriate level of care; that's a sign of a GOOD healthcare provider.6
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Like someone else said, body shape is irrelevant. It really is all about calories in vs. calories out. The better quality of food you eat, the better off your journey will go and easier it will be to stay on track. Yes, you’ll slip, but everybody does: Newsflash: It means your human!!
Yes, it is good to see a therapist about food. I’ve had so many doctors tell me they can give me something to control my appetite. Problem: I don’t eat because I’m hungry. I eat because I’m happy, sad, tired, bored, it’s raining, it’s snowing, my husband is snoring, the kids jumped in bed at 3am because they had a bad dream, the dog doesn’t want to miss any of the action so she jumps in bed too - It doesn’t matter what day, what time, what mood, whatever - any time is eating time.
After working on dealing with those emotions instead of eating them away, I began to get aggravated about things much sooner and became more vocal about it. SO I quit bottling things up and eating them away.
A therapist will help you figure out how to resolve those issues.
The dietician’s responsibility is to help you find foods that will be healthier alternatives for you. WHat mine told me was: If you focus on high quality lean protein, the fats/carbs will take care of themselves. I’ve found that to be pretty true for me. As the journey has gone on, I realized that what it felt like to actually feel hungry - and realized it was more often than I liked. She suggested increasing the fiber, and guess what - it helped.
THese people do this for a living. It was really hard for me to listen to them at first too - nobody likes change. It would be helpful to roll with it.2
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