Seemingly Sketchy Recommendation from Nutritionist

I don't know why it would be sketchy if you got it from a doctor's office?

Current intake is 1380

Current fat intake?
Age?

Weight loss is not linear.

Often you will lose very little for a few weeks and then WOOSH - you'll lose five pounds all-at-once.

Stay the course with your nutritionist. They take long-term approach. If you make too many changes at once (up and down with your calories too frequently) you don't have an accurate baseline to work with. Trust the plan...or make your own...but stick to one for a while so you have data that's applicable.

I am not a fan of such a small number of calories, but if she is an actual nutritionist through a legitimate medical office, and if you've been regularly seeing her and being monitored, you are in that "under medical supervision" bubble that can get away with lower calorie diets without adverse effects.

That being said, eating that few calories over time is not usually sustainable or maintainable (what happens when you start eating a "normal" but healthy amount of calories? Most people will gain it back). If you are uncomfortable with eating the small number of calories the nutritionist has recommended, then you should be free to tell her that and address the issue, although 0.4 lbs is a healthy loss, especially if you've been pulling big numbers.

Many of my very successful friends subscribe to the "Eat more to weigh less" philosophy, and a good rule of thumb for an average person trying to lose weight is TDEE minus 20% or so.

Anyway, talk to your nutritionist. See what she has to say. You don't have to starve yourself to get healthy but if you have access to a qualified nutritionist, use that resource and find what is going to be the most effective (and maintainable) method for you.

Sometimes the best way to beat a plateau is to eat something "bad" have a little splurge.

Your nutritionist is a riot. A regular joker. WHEN you get to your ideal weight your TDEE is going to be around 1600/1700 (not including your workout calories.) I am 5'7" - I've done some homework on it.

You should check over what you are eating, how much you are working out, if you are/not eating back those calories what does that leave you with for a deficit? If you are consuming too little your body is going to release the weight slower. Do you use a scale and other measuring devices to ensure you are getting the portions you think you are? Else get on that track.
Are you sure to log every scrap you eat?

Are you eating high salt foods? Sodium screws me up hardcore if I eat over the 2500 recommendation, and stays in my system for almost a week at a time.

Are you sure your workout calories burned is as accurate as possible? Overestimating your burn could be causing you issues.

If all that checks out, then understand you may be in the verge of a plateau. The fact that you ARE still losing, albeit slower than you'd like, is still a good thing. You didn't gain it all quickly, it isn't going to jump off every single week (as nice as that would be!)

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I say all this from experience. Earlier this year my nutritionist and I had a serious falling out because I was eating 1500 cals and was plateauing going on 4 weeks and she wanted me to hit 1300 cals and questioned my food intake and when I explained to her that nothing had changed (we had been working together for a year by then, you'd think she'd trust me!) she got huffy and "broke up" with me. I did some homework, and upped my cals to 1600 and within 2 weeks lost 3 lbs. I didn't change anything else - maintained my regular workouts, ate what I usually did, etc. I admit I was freaked about taking 2 weeks to see loss when I upped my cals, but it worked.

the TL;DR version? You need to re-evaluate what you are doing right/wrong and ignore your nutritionists advice to eat less and not eat your cals back. That is asking for a world of unhappiness unnecessarily. Good luck.

ETA: Nutritionists are not fool proof, they make mistakes too. Do your own homework, and go to her with your findings if you think she is mistaken. I My nutritionist but she really wound up being a bad fit for me when I started demonstrating a desire for more info and asking the reasoning behind her logic.

You sure you're calculating your intake kcals correctly? If you're a healthy individual, your daily needs at sedentary would be just over 2k, not taking into account the 6 days per week you exercise.

You said your doctor sent you to the nutritionist. Did your doctor run any testing for metabolic issues prior to the referral?
If you have none, take a long hard look at your intake diary and make sure it's accurate. That's a good start. Then come back and let us know... Good luck

I wouldn't call losing about a half a pound a week a plateau. Weight loss isn't linear, and you always loose faster right at the beginning. I think her advice is fine if you're not happy with what you're currently doing.

I have read #3 from several different sources recently. I'm not saying I agree/disagree, but here's the basic theory:

1. The old school wisdom is that you "work up an appetite". Your body naturally wants you to eat more when your expend more, thus the hunger.

2. The other thing that happens is that after you exercise, if you don't eat more, you may subtly expend less calories in other ways, like sleeping more, being less active outside of the exercise, etc. So even though you expend more calories during the workout, the net you expend for the entire day doesn't move as much.

I don't know why it would be sketchy if you got it from a doctor's office?

Don't believe everything a doctor tells you.

Love,
A Medical Malpractice Attorney

PS - OP we have almost the same exact stats and I've gotten the same crappy advice from a nutritionist. Feel free to FR me!

.04 pounds per week is nice weight loss. I say stay the course and don't make a change so soon.

Distinction between dietitian and nutritionist:

In Australia there is a distinction made between dietitians and other occupations in the nutrition and food science field, including that of nutritionist.

The key difference between a dietitian and a nutritionist is that, in addition to or as part of their qualification in human nutrition, a dietitian has undertaken a course of study that included substantial theory and supervised and assessed professional practice in clinical nutrition, medical nutrition therapy and food service management.

Therefore, in Australia, all dietitians are considered to be nutritionists however, nutritionists without a dietetics qualification cannot take on the specialised role of a dietitian.

There is no industry specific assessing authority that assesses the qualifications of nutritionists who are not dietitians.

Are you seeing a Nutritionist or a Registered Dietitian? There is a big difference, Dietitians are a registered health professional. Nutritionist are not, and not goverened by any laws and are not regulated.

The terms “nutritionist” or “registered nutritionist” are not protected terms. This means that anybody can call themselves a nutritionist and there are no standards for their quality of care.

Technically, I could agree, but this Nutritionist is in her doctor's officer and was probably recommended by her own doctor. Weight might not be the only issue here if her doctor recommended this nutritionist. Maybe her cholesterol and blood pressure was so high that the doctor had to recommend her to a specialist. In any case, if she really doesn't like this plan from her nutritionist, go back and get a new plan, or new nutritionist. I know someone said it earlier but I just wanted to reiterate that this is what people call a medically supervised weight loss plan.

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doesn't sound sketchy to me. Its pretty much a sensible diet plan, although I would not necessarily agree with her advice about exercise. Why not just follow MFP rules? Sensible and easy...and it works.