Fad diets vs. a Dietician...

[LanceBoggs]

I am not obese, but tend to float about 20 pounds above my optimal body weight. During a burn out period, where I didn’t want to do anything but eat and play video games (on top of a sedentary office job).

The result, as you can imagine, was going from 220 (pretty much my overweight comfort zone) to 253 in the course of four months. Deciding this was a stupid way to live my life I chose a new track to finding a diet that I could actually stick with.

I had tried a variety of fad diets in years pasts such as Atkins, Southbeach, Weight Watchers, and various other things. I was never able to get any gains, and always felt miserable and hungry on these diets.

My dietician put me on a reasonable plan, eating normal food with a tad more common sense. She was able to work around the supplements I had begun taking again (like my 230 calorie protein shake), and structure a plan that after a week felt very comfortable and natural.

I’ve dropped from that horrid 253 down to 228, and this time am going to focus on getting down to 205 instead of stopping at my chunky comfort weight.

I would suggest anyone who has a hard time figuring out what to eat, when to eat, how to eat to lose weight in a healthy manner on a plan they can stick with visit a professional who can assist them with this. It made all the difference in the world for me.

[skelooth]

Or the the other alternative is to dedicate an hour or two of your time each night to learning about nutrition. In a week or two you'd have a pretty solid understanding of what to do.

[lordofchaos]

Or the the other alternative is to dedicate an hour or two of your time each night to learning about nutrition. In a week or two you'd have a pretty solid understanding of what to do.

I like to combine the methods actually... I have taken a lot of time to study up on things in fat loss, and now I am taking the time to understand WHY these things I have learned work... So I like to go visit the free dietician we have available at work (I love my cushy quasi government job...) or send her an email questioning things that she recomends or getting her input on things I have just read up on... I find it to be fun to learn the why behind things (although I still admit to knowing very little over all, just a lot more than I used to, it seems the more I learn, the more I find that I didn't know I don't know... or didn't even know was there...) and it satifies my inquisitive engineer side to know why...

[mpipes]

If you want to learn all the "why's" and "how's", pick up Dr. Oz's book "You On a Diet". It goes into great detail of how everything affects and interracts with your body.

[LocksJD]

Or the the other alternative is to dedicate an hour or two of your time each night to learning about nutrition. In a week or two you'd have a pretty solid understanding of what to do.

Agree.
Using a nutritionist is great and all - but i just find it much more beneficial to look at foods in the grocery store and know what it is, what it does for you, and then decide if thats what will benefit your diet when considering physical goals you may or may not have.
I imagine a nutritionist will tell you "make sure M/N of your meal is comprised out of lean proteins X, Y, and Z are lean proteins. A, B, and C are fatty proteins. Avoid A, B, and C." Then you have this simplistic idea that fats = bad or something and you blindly go into the grocery store looking for X, Y, and Z and hardly even know anything about the foods they're putting into their body.

I could be wrong.. everyones different and i've never been to a nutritionist. And if using one helps you reach your goals, good job and I'm all for it. But, I find it overlooks the importance of understanding how your body works and why your body works the way it does.