Working on your MFP goals with a nutritionist

abimaelmonarrez7615

I’d like to open a discussion for people that go to a nutritionist while using this app.

I’ve generally been doing pretty good at meeting my daily calorie goals but I want to do better at distributing them properly. Finding propper balance is hard to me, some foods have the nutrients I need but also have excess of what I don’t need.

I also want variety. Finding one perfectly balanced breakfast by myself is hard for me already, and my goal is to eat different meals every day of the week.

I know that I could achieve my goals eventually, the more I keep tracking my foods the more I’ll learn. But I’m considering a nutritionist as a shortcut.

Have any of you done that?
How was your experience?
Were your nutritionist’s recommendations substantially different from your MFP goals?
Did following your nutritionist diet significantly help you meet your MFP goals?

Thank you.

deannalfisher

I work with a nutrition team (Eat to Perform) and just use MFP to log

I haven’t run recent MFP goals to see what it would give me but from what I remember even using a TDEE calculation it was significant can’t under what ETP has me eating and maintaining weight but I have noticed my incidental movement has increaeed

kommodevaran

I have never seen a nutritionist (nor a dietician), I just tend to overcomplicate things myself, but try to simplify, so I have these thoughts: Perfect balance is an abstract, what you're really after, is a good balance, which doesn't have to happen for each individual meal, or even day. Over time, any inbalance, real or perceived, evens out.

Define variety and different. How different do things have to be in order to create variety? How much trouble are you willing to go to? Is the quest for variety in fact making your diet more restricted, instead? Is what you are doing (or plan to do) going to make your eating more enjoyable, or less?

abimaelmonarrez7615

kommodevaran wrote: »

I have never seen a nutritionist (nor a dietician), I just tend to overcomplicate things myself, but try to simplify, so I have these thoughts: Perfect balance is an abstract, what you're really after, is a good balance, which doesn't have to happen for each individual meal, or even day. Over time, any inbalance, real or perceived, evens out.

Define variety and different. How different do things have to be in order to create variety? How much trouble are you willing to go to? Is the quest for variety in fact making your diet more restricted, instead? Is what you are doing (or plan to do) going to make your eating more enjoyable, or less?

With “perfect” balance I just mean meeting the nutrients goals in the app. I kind of do that already but I have almost the same meals every day.

With variety I just mean eating different stuff while maintaining the same daily nutrients. This will make me eat more enjoyable. I want to be excited about what I’m going to eat tomorrow, knowing it won’t be the same as today but I will still reach my goals.

acorsaut89

I have been working with a registered dietitian for a couple years while being on here. She's helped in the sense of bouncing ideas around and finding what works for me. I also, however, deal with a binge eating disorder so I've found her helpful for dealing with those issues too.

A registered dietitian can help you go through the list of foods you already eat and help you figure out where to substitute so you can hit your goal of eating different foods each day. You could always have a consultation/initial appointment and just see if you find someone who works for you. Also, don't be afraid to meet with more than one - a good relationship is essential and trust is important so if you don't jive with one it's ok to shop around.

Hopefully you can find what works for you

Hungry_Shopgirl

I talked to a nutritionist a while back when my weight loss had stalled about 10kg from goal. I wanted to ask her profesional opinion on whether I should press on, tighten my logging and lose the rest of the weight, or if I was putting my body under undue stress trying to reach an arbitrary number (I'm already pretty fit and at a healthy weight, these last ones are vanity pounds).

She wanted to see my food logs for the past couple of weeks so I showed her my fitness pal records. She was shocked I used this app and tried to talk me out of it, saying it would create an unhealthy relationship with food and is basically a waste of time. She was also not impressed that I was having "small amounts of sweets every day" and suggested I cut them out, because health.

Meh. I lost 25kg using this app and having the ability to eat sweets throughout while staying under my calories has kept me sane and, not to sound cheesy, empowered. Because for the first time I didn't cower in fear to this so called professional, I just knew she was wrong and I didn't have to listen to it. She did say it would be ok for me to try losing a bit more, to give me a "buffer" as I get older.

So I didn't go back for a follow up appointment. Kept logging, kept maintaining, kept reading the forums here and last month found the "refeeds and diet breaks" thread. It gave me exactly the type of information I wish I would have gotten last year from the nutritionist.

Now I'm losing again and looking forward to reaching that goal. No nutritionist needed, just the great folks on this site.

kew1952

I recently started working with a dietitian. She was thrilled to see that I used MFP. She agreed with my daily calorie goal and helped me to fine tune some of my food items such as smoothies. Also gave me some good ideas for different sauces to use when grilling veggies. I will see her monthly and weigh in, which will hold me accountable.

Bexx909

I have been working with a nutritionist for 5 months and have found it really useful (perhaps even life changing- hopefully!).
I've been doing mfp for 7 years and thought I was being really good as I weigh and log my foods religiously however I have consistently put on weight for 3 years despite burning more calories than I was consuming - so I went to see the nutritionist. He has shown me that I have developed really unhealthy and restrictive attitudes towards food. Seven years of doing mfp has taught me which foods and meals are very low calorie so I tend to eat a lot of these which means I'm eating a lot of food but nowhere near reaching my calorie goal. I wrongly assumed many types of foods were unhealthy and avoided them or felt guilty if I ate them however he has shown me they are in fact healthy. For ease of logging I tend to have the same breakfast and lunch each day but he has given me lots of ideas for more variety in my diet. He also found that I have too much of a calorie deficit going by the amount of exercise I do so is helping me to eat more. It's a slow process trying to undo the damage I've done and change my food attitudes / become less obsessive around calories and exercise but I'm hoping that it will work and that going forward I'll have a much more varied and balanced diet.