Dietitians say counting calories bad
Replies
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Dieticians on Tik Tok............................hahaha. Okay.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
Like teats on a bull... both are equally useless....4 -
springlering62 wrote: »Respectfully disagree @rheddmobile
I first visited my dietitian about two months in, when I’d already lost twenty pounds following an extremely simple elimination diet provided by my GP. I didn’t know where to go from there.
She gave me wonderful suggestions and advice, encouragement, and most importantly, directed me to sign up for MFP.
I only visited the dietician three or four times but each visit was priceless for good advice and reassurance I wasn’t going to screw things up.
I would strongly recommend visiting a dietician, if you can afford it. (Mine was $25 per visit, a perk of the hospital-owned gym which was available to area residents as well.)
It’s not like you have to go every week, every month, or even every six months.
While individual dieticians may be great, as a group, statistically, they have a level of long term success in getting clients to lose substantial weight and keep it off for more than two years which rounds to zero. That’s not my opinion but a quantifiable fact.
The one I consulted with at a large hospital who was recommended as “just the greatest” advised that I, as a newly-diagnosed diabetic eat a diet of “three carbs” per meal with a carb defined as a portion of starchy or sweet food such as a sweet potato, rice, or piece of pie. This would have literally killed me in a short time. I still have the handout she gave me at the hospital.4 -
paperpudding wrote: »Dieticians are statistically terrible at helping people to lose weight and keep it off, why listen to them?
I wouldn't agree with that.
I would say actual advice from qualified dieticians (not 15 seconds from who knows who on Tiktok) is good at helping people lose weight and keep it off.
What is terrible , statistically, is people correctly following such advice.
It isnt the advice that is the problem.
Advice no one ever follows clearly isn’t working on some level...2 -
I use a food scale and measuring cups for portion control. Mostly plant based eating with some fatty fish (salmon, sardines) chicken, and a few eggs during the week. I eat beans,peas, and lentils, and lots of vegetable and some fruit daily. The only things I track are nuts, olive oil, earth balance spread, vegan cheese options, sweet treats (my favorite is Sweet Loren's. I make one cookie a day in the toaster oven or 2 Peppermint Jo-Jos with a goal of no more than 120 calories per day), tofu for soy milk for my coffee and cooking, and So delicious Coconut Whip for my coffee (2 TBSP is 30 calories and I love this as a treat). I have gone from my high of 203 pounds to my current 148.8 pounds. If I am good 90% of the time, I can enjoy myself strategically with 10% treats. With the holiday season starting, my goal is to simply maintain my current weight, use the scale to stay on track, and cut out the treat foods if my weight rises more than 2 pounds. I have been able to keep the weight off for the past 8 years despite occasional ups and downs with this strategy.5
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I am a dietitian - although I haven't worked clinically for a few years. I agree with a lot of people here, counting calories is neither good nor bad, it's a tool that may help some people. Some work really well with metrics. They count their calories and keep a record of their fitness efforts, and it's motivating for them. Some also don't realize how much they are eating until they count calories. It's easy to lie to yourself about how much and what you eat until you honestly record it all - believe me in my clinical work I saw it all the time. And no, it won't cause an eating disorder. Although someone developing an eating disorder may be attracted to counting calories, that does not mean everyone counting calories has an eating disorder.11
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rheddmobile wrote: »paperpudding wrote: »Dieticians are statistically terrible at helping people to lose weight and keep it off, why listen to them?
I wouldn't agree with that.
I would say actual advice from qualified dieticians (not 15 seconds from who knows who on Tiktok) is good at helping people lose weight and keep it off.
What is terrible , statistically, is people correctly following such advice.
It isnt the advice that is the problem.
Advice no one ever follows clearly isn’t working on some level...
But that isnt the case - many people do follow it and with good results - like springlering who you quoted
'advice no-one ever follows' is a sweeping and obviously incorrect statement - and people keeping weight off using any method or advice has low stats - including MFP, going by the number of I'm back! posts.
Dieticians advice isnt the issue just like calorie counting or MFP isnt the issue - it is people adhering long term to the advice.
Some do, some don't
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rheddmobile wrote: »springlering62 wrote: »Respectfully disagree @rheddmobile
I first visited my dietitian about two months in, when I’d already lost twenty pounds following an extremely simple elimination diet provided by my GP. I didn’t know where to go from there.
She gave me wonderful suggestions and advice, encouragement, and most importantly, directed me to sign up for MFP.
I only visited the dietician three or four times but each visit was priceless for good advice and reassurance I wasn’t going to screw things up.
I would strongly recommend visiting a dietician, if you can afford it. (Mine was $25 per visit, a perk of the hospital-owned gym which was available to area residents as well.)
It’s not like you have to go every week, every month, or even every six months.
While individual dieticians may be great, as a group, statistically, they have a level of long term success in getting clients to lose substantial weight and keep it off for more than two years which rounds to zero. That’s not my opinion but a quantifiable fact.
The one I consulted with at a large hospital who was recommended as “just the greatest” advised that I, as a newly-diagnosed diabetic eat a diet of “three carbs” per meal with a carb defined as a portion of starchy or sweet food such as a sweet potato, rice, or piece of pie. This would have literally killed me in a short time. I still have the handout she gave me at the hospital.
As far as I know there is no method in existence with a higher than 5 percent success rate. With that in mind, I do not think you can hold the profession responsible for the abysmal weight loss results. They can tell a person how to cut back but they can't force compliance. They are also not qualified to deal with many of the underlying issues that are centered in the brain. They may get better results if they are a part of a team approach but I do not know.
I think it would be fair to say that in any profession there are people who are terrible at their jobs. I am not sure it is fair to say that the entire profession should be judged on a single experience or on things beyond their control. If your RD was telling people they could eat 3 carbs per meal, it is little wonder she was considered the greatest. People like to be told what they want to hear.
I have only consulted an RD twice and because my first one left for another position I met two different ones. Both loved me because I was "a breath of fresh air." At the time of consultation I had already lost more than 100 pounds so I had a pretty solid grip on my system. They both shared with me their struggles of trying to make any type of headway with their clients. It seems like a very frustrating job.4 -
rheddmobile wrote: »springlering62 wrote: »Respectfully disagree @rheddmobile
I first visited my dietitian about two months in, when I’d already lost twenty pounds following an extremely simple elimination diet provided by my GP. I didn’t know where to go from there.
She gave me wonderful suggestions and advice, encouragement, and most importantly, directed me to sign up for MFP.
I only visited the dietician three or four times but each visit was priceless for good advice and reassurance I wasn’t going to screw things up.
I would strongly recommend visiting a dietician, if you can afford it. (Mine was $25 per visit, a perk of the hospital-owned gym which was available to area residents as well.)
It’s not like you have to go every week, every month, or even every six months.
While individual dieticians may be great, as a group, statistically, they have a level of long term success in getting clients to lose substantial weight and keep it off for more than two years which rounds to zero. That’s not my opinion but a quantifiable fact.
The one I consulted with at a large hospital who was recommended as “just the greatest” advised that I, as a newly-diagnosed diabetic eat a diet of “three carbs” per meal with a carb defined as a portion of starchy or sweet food such as a sweet potato, rice, or piece of pie. This would have literally killed me in a short time. I still have the handout she gave me at the hospital.
As far as I know there is no method in existence with a higher than 5 percent success rate. With that in mind, I do not think you can hold the profession responsible for the abysmal weight loss results. They can tell a person how to cut back but they can't force compliance. They are also not qualified to deal with many of the underlying issues that are centered in the brain. They may get better results if they are a part of a team approach but I do not know.
I think it would be fair to say that in any profession there are people who are terrible at their jobs. I am not sure it is fair to say that the entire profession should be judged on a single experience or on things beyond their control. If your RD was telling people they could eat 3 carbs per meal, it is little wonder she was considered the greatest. People like to be told what they want to hear.
I have only consulted an RD twice and because my first one left for another position I met two different ones. Both loved me because I was "a breath of fresh air." At the time of consultation I had already lost more than 100 pounds so I had a pretty solid grip on my system. They both shared with me their struggles of trying to make any type of headway with their clients. It seems like a very frustrating job.
I can't imagine how frustrating it must be to be an RD with a focus on weight loss/chronic disease management. So many people want to lose weight, so few of us are willing to engage in behavior change to make it happen (to be clear, I'm including myself in that group, because I would have been very frustrating to an RD until 2015).4 -
janejellyroll wrote: »rheddmobile wrote: »springlering62 wrote: »Respectfully disagree @rheddmobile
I first visited my dietitian about two months in, when I’d already lost twenty pounds following an extremely simple elimination diet provided by my GP. I didn’t know where to go from there.
She gave me wonderful suggestions and advice, encouragement, and most importantly, directed me to sign up for MFP.
I only visited the dietician three or four times but each visit was priceless for good advice and reassurance I wasn’t going to screw things up.
I would strongly recommend visiting a dietician, if you can afford it. (Mine was $25 per visit, a perk of the hospital-owned gym which was available to area residents as well.)
It’s not like you have to go every week, every month, or even every six months.
While individual dieticians may be great, as a group, statistically, they have a level of long term success in getting clients to lose substantial weight and keep it off for more than two years which rounds to zero. That’s not my opinion but a quantifiable fact.
The one I consulted with at a large hospital who was recommended as “just the greatest” advised that I, as a newly-diagnosed diabetic eat a diet of “three carbs” per meal with a carb defined as a portion of starchy or sweet food such as a sweet potato, rice, or piece of pie. This would have literally killed me in a short time. I still have the handout she gave me at the hospital.
As far as I know there is no method in existence with a higher than 5 percent success rate. With that in mind, I do not think you can hold the profession responsible for the abysmal weight loss results. They can tell a person how to cut back but they can't force compliance. They are also not qualified to deal with many of the underlying issues that are centered in the brain. They may get better results if they are a part of a team approach but I do not know.
I think it would be fair to say that in any profession there are people who are terrible at their jobs. I am not sure it is fair to say that the entire profession should be judged on a single experience or on things beyond their control. If your RD was telling people they could eat 3 carbs per meal, it is little wonder she was considered the greatest. People like to be told what they want to hear.
I have only consulted an RD twice and because my first one left for another position I met two different ones. Both loved me because I was "a breath of fresh air." At the time of consultation I had already lost more than 100 pounds so I had a pretty solid grip on my system. They both shared with me their struggles of trying to make any type of headway with their clients. It seems like a very frustrating job.
I can't imagine how frustrating it must be to be an RD with a focus on weight loss/chronic disease management. So many people want to lose weight, so few of us are willing to engage in behavior change to make it happen (to be clear, I'm including myself in that group, because I would have been very frustrating to an RD until 2015).
That is the shame of it for their profession. I needed an RD when I wasn't really ready to lose weight but they would have failed with me. By the time I was ready to lose my weight I didn't need an RD. So basically I would have been a very frustrating client until I barely needed to talk to one.
I went my first time because I was unsure when I should drop my rate of loss from .8% to 2 pounds per week. I have never found really great research backing the 1 percent rule so I decided to always remain just under it early in my weight loss.
Oddly enough, I went my second time to speed my weight loss back up to get ready for a surgery. I knew I would be eating at the 1500 calorie minimum for men for 3 months and I wanted another pair of eyes on my plan. That was a hard 3 months to get through.5
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