WIBU to ignore the nutritionalist's advice?

[Helini]

I've always struggled with my weight. I'm currently 3 stone over weight which is pretty low for me usually but I've been going to Slimming world (3rd time lucky) for a few months now and I'm enjoying it.

Back in the summer I asked my GP for some help as I was getting desperate and couldn't stick to a diet. Over the years I've tried Cambridge, keto, Dukan, cabbage soup, you name it, I've tried it... Just healthy eating I can't do alone. It's like I need a consultant to train me and the support. I'm like a crack addict.

I finally had my appointment with the NHS nititionalost and she wants me to go on Keto. Sugar and carbs are the enemy and she had been following keto for years and has never been healthier.

I've seen 'The magic pill' on Netflix so am aware of how great the diet is but I've done it before. Stuck with it for 2 months and lost about a stone and a half. Great. Problem is, I had horrendous dihorrea the whole time and found it too restrictive. I was miserable making my husband and my toddler all this lovely food like potateos and cous cous to go along with the family meals I couldn't have any.

I wasn't expecting the nutritionalist to want to cut out major food groups. It feels like a faddy diet to me not a lifestyle change. She also said my nearly 2 year old, who was with me, could follow keto too and dosn't need carbs and snacks. This feels a bit worrying to me.

I really want to get into a healthy BMI. I need surgery after experiencing horrific birth injuries but they are reluctant to give me because of my age. They have said losing weight will help. It hasn't helped and my injuries are worse so would love to go back and say: 'well I've lost weight and it's worse so give me the surgery!' losing weight isn't just about looking good. I want this surgery and I want to be a healthy role model for DS before he clocks in that I'm overweight. (Wouldn't mind looking fabulous for my brother's upcoming wedding too)

I'm so conflicted. Suddenly butter and oil are the good guys? I love potato so much. WIBU to think the nutritionalist was just part of some kind of cult? I'm only joking. But I would love to know what you think.

Sorry for the long, rambling post. Don't want to drip feed later.

I have a qualification in Nutition and Diet. Personally I don't agree with any diet that severely restricts any food group to the point of eliminating it. If you feel deprived you will want it even more.

A balanced diet, reduced portions and smaller amounts of carbs, minimal sugar and move around more. Drink water to reduce hunger pangs, and keep a supply of carrot sticks, cut up peppers, celery etc.

People say to avoid fruit because of the sugar, however fruit is healthy, unlike chocolate, and should form part of a balanced diet.

Bear in mind that meat (especially red) takes longer to pass through the digestive system and can make you feel sluggish. Vegetables are important. Eat pulses.

There is no need to follow a fad diet, if SW works for you by all means do it, but maybe look for a group that promotes a normal diet so that you don't feel deprived of the foods you enjoy and find support there.

A square of good dark chocolate as a treat is also good but try to avoid the sugar and palm oil that is Cadburys. And no fizzy drinks or sweeteners.

She also said my nearly 2 year old, who was with me, could follow keto too and dosn't need carbs and snacks. This feels a bit worrying to me
That is EXTREMELY worrying!

I didn't think you could get nutritionists on the NHS, only dieticians, who have to go through rigorous training and have clinical experience and be peer-reviewed. I wouldn't trust a nutritionist and I certainly wouldn't listen to this one.

@Jeezoh Are you also exercising to lose weight? I swim once a week and we walk the dog for 45mins/1hr every day. Unfortunately, due to the birth injuries, thats the most I can do. Anything more than a brisk walk and my insides would very quickly become outsides. I'll never be able to run, jump, lift anything heavy again. Even a vigorous hoover round the house is dangerous.. Which is why I'm desperate for the surgery!

@Herringbone31 - Is your toddler overweight? No, DS is perfect and healthy. When he was weaning the HV's gave me loads of info on portion sizes and BLW, and how his plate should be 1/3 fruit+veg 1/3 protein and 1/3 carbs. The nutritionist said when she looks after her 3 year old GC, she doesn't give him the snacks Mum packs. She just gives bacon, avacardo, chicken, cubes of cheese and only 3 meals a day as they don't need anymore. My LO is a right picker which more small meals throughout the day. He's like a little bird and loves a little messe or tapas type meals with picky snacks in-between like carrot sticks, cucumbers, malt loaf, hummus. So it just came as a bit of a shock to me.

@GrumpyHoonMain - Women are meant to live on a keto type diet Please can you explain to me why?

Download an app like myfitnesspal or Loseit and count your calories and track your activities. You must weigh, measure or count every molecule you consume. Look for things you can just drop from your eating routine, eat smaller portions, snack on low calories items like baby carrots, etc. Most diets fail because people greatly underestimate the calories they consume.

If you create a sufficiently large caloric deficit you will lose weight.

I've lost 10 pounds since Christmas. Plain Yogurt and fruit for breakfast, a small sandwich for lunch and a sensibly portioned dinner of whatever DH and DD are eating. I also walk 3-4 miles per day. This is sustainable for me.

The keto may help in the short run, but it wouldn't be sustainable for me either.

SW is working and I love going to the group each week. The problem is it's quite expensive for me. It's the difference between taking DS to a class or me going to SW. I feel very guilty about that because I could, in theory do SW alone but I struggle so much going it alone. Plus that adult time once a week is wonderful. I asked my GP for a bit of help last summer (way before I joined SW as I have given up twice before) because I've already tried every diet under the sun.

Because the waiting list was so long, I joined SW in the meantime thinking it's only a short term thing until I can get in with the nutritionist and then I can take DS back to a toddler class.

I remember a friend of mine going to an NHS weight loss group before her wedding that was similar to SW but was obviously free and wasn't gimmicky, trying to get me to buy a load of Hifi bars and the contents of the SW freezer at Iceland. Just weighing every week with proper advice with like-minded people. This is what I was expecting tbh, not to do keto again.

I've tried myfitness pal but I'm a monster and I need structure and a group and to get the shiny stickers

you need make some kind of change, whatever that is is up to you

FWIW we follow the keto diet and have done for years, i don't find it particularly restrictive. the idea we're all gorging on pork scratchings dipped in double cream is...misguided

we eat a wide range of vegetables (above ground ones mainly) salads, meat, cheese, we eat delicious, healthy meals and are never hungry. check out dietdoctor, i also find the recipes easy to adapt to include the children, i just do them a bit of rice etc, although they'll happily eat cauliflower rice (because it's nicer than real rice)

These threads really worry me. Nothing edible is the enemy. It’s calories v output, simple as that. Cutting out ridiculous quantities (ie shakes only) or specific food groups is never going to work long term when you go back to normal food.

Work out how many calories you need to eat to lose weight. Work out am exercise plan too - walking at first if your fitness is low. Then stick to it! It’s willpower, or lack of it, that’s the enemy, not a particular Food group.

Eat like your kids. If you feed them a healthy balanced diet, copy. I’m desperate to stick 5/6/7 portions ok f fruit a day in my kids but neglect myself. If I feel unfit I eat what they eat. I wouldn’t give them a mars bar or a massive piece of cake so I don’t eat it myself.

That nutritionist is massively off piste. Health care practitioners advise about calories v exercise. Not aware of the NHS ever sponsoring any particular fad diets...

Fruit and veg not 5/6/7 portions of fruit!

The advice you have been given sounds crap. But you say you can't do it alone. I'm going against the grain and probably going to get shot down in flames here, but if you really wanted this then you would find away to do it. Regardless.
There is no quick cure or magic fix. Willpower is the only way. The best way is calorie in vs out put. I understand that you medical issues restrict you but there are plenty of low impact excersise that you could try. Yoga, Tai chi, pilates can all be chair based. No diet alone is going to work long term on its own.
If bad snacks are the problem, don't buy them! A healthy diet with the odd treat is fine for the whole family. No one needs sugar/choc/crisps. Yes they are nice but you don't need them!
Meal plan ahead, buy what you need and batch cook if necessary to avoid temptation.
A long term healthy diet is far superior than ww/sw/keto etc etc.

Only you can make the change. The NHS can spend unlimited amounts of its extremely tight budget sending you to nutritionists/dieticians but if you aren't going to heed the advice of them or SW then you won't lose the weight.

I have issues with my weight, mainly because I'm greedy and a bit lazy. I joined SW. It was bloody hard work and yes it cost a fiver a week but I was already saving much more than that by not buying junk and takeaways.

The NHS and any dietician isn't going to be able to give you a quick fix, magical diet that you love and the pounds drop off. You need to do the hard work and persevere. And please no more expensive dietician appointments that costs the NHS hundreds of pounds when they can't do anything for you that you can't do yourself. Keep at SW. If you work hard, you'll get there.

The nutritionist said when she looks after her 3 year old GC, she doesn't give him the snacks Mum packs. She just gives bacon, avacardo, chicken, cubes of cheese and only 3 meals a day as they don't need anymore

She sounds unhinged! I hope the child’s mother is aware what’s going on. That ‘nutritionist’ sounds very dodgy.

Actually the advice is correct including for your child. Check out some of the information from Tim Noakes to start which will lead you to more info about keto but from a more balanced perspective. No one needs to eat refined sugar or carbs. It is difficult sticking to a diet especially when you are cooking different things for the rest of the family and ideally you all need to be following the same diet. Maybe consider looking more at the paleo perspective.

NHS Dietitian here - keto is completely unsuitable for a 2 year old, unless done with proper medical supervision (there are trials of this sort of diet for severe epilepsy for example, but a child would be under a specialist paediatric team). As pp have made clear, the person you saw may have no specialist qualifications at all and can call themselves a nutritionist regardless. I can't give you advice without knowing you, your medical history etc but as others have said, there's no one right way to lose weight, it's finding what works for you and getting the right support, don't feel pressured to do anything as you know yourself and your body the best. Wishing you well with it all

@keo8260 paleo is pseudo science bullshit

I think there are ways of checking whether this person has the right qualifications. Aren't proper dietitians on some sort of register?

@buffalocauliflower

care to try and back that up!!! I consider the Standard food pyramid is bullshit but my opinion is based on extensive research and careful consideration of the facts

Why not just eat what everyone knows is healthy? That is lots of vegetables, good quality protein, a small amount of unrefined carbs and no or very little added sugar. There's not many that would argue with that.

I think nothing can beat an activity tracker (like FitBit or My Fitness Pal) and logging food to see if you eat the right amount for your activity levels and losing/maintaining weight.

No one needs sugar or carbs
hahahahahahaha.
Sweet baby Jesus

I swim once a week and we walk the dog for 45mins/1hr every day. Unfortunately, due to the birth injuries, thats the most I can do. Anything more than a brisk walk and my insides would very quickly become outsides. I'll never be able to run, jump, lift anything heavy again. Even a vigorous hoover round the house is dangerous..

That sounds really tough. Have you been offered any sort of physio? Would an elliptical machine be suitable? (They can be quite low impact)

As someone who is a few months from graduating with a degree in Human Nutrition, I am shocked at this person advice.
Did she do a full nutritional status and history with you?
I can maybe understand suggesting keto as a short term way of stabilising blood sugars but long term there is a lot of evidence to suggest it can increase a lot of health risks.

There is no evidence to suggest that cutting major food groups from the diet is helpful, there are so many considerations to be made when recommending a way of eating to someone and we are being taught never to be so extreme in our advice.

If you are happy on SW but finding it hard/expensive to get to a group then it would be more sensible to me to suggest using the framework yourself at home and tweaking it to suit you.

The fact that your nutritionist doesn't display her accreditation on the leaflet also rings alarm bells for me, unfortunately, the title of nutritionist is not protected like Dietician is but anyone worth their salt will have a BSc in Human Nutrition and be accredited by the Federation of Nutrition at the very least.

Sorry I mean association for nutrition, typing faster than my brain!

My toddler had to see a paediatric dietician regularly (to a food allergy). Only a month ago we were talking about how important it is for toddlers to have snacks throughout the day as their stomachs cant hold enough to carry them through between meals. I feed my 2.5 year old 3 meals and 3 or 4 snacks a day, I was told this is absolutely correct. Toddlers need huge amounts of calories (I think it's about 1400 for a 2.5year old) but distributed a very regular intervals and of a huge variety, not least to prevent issues such as nuts, but also to avoid restrictive and fussy eating.
The woman sounds strange. Why would anyone impose a restrictive diet on a toddler?

The only real way to lose weight is to eat really balanced meals. Stupid question, but have you tried buying small plates and bowls? That way you can fill ip the plate but its limited, modern plates are very big. Never have seconds. Drink water before a meal and eat the vegetables first.

Slimming world but calorie counting at the same time is good.

Everyone I know who has been through medical school thinks Leto is really really stupid. I can see how it would be good for short term weight loss (the harm of keto is outweighed by the harm of being fat) but I can’t believe that she said that you toddler could go keto! Are you sure you didn’t misunderstand? It’s quite unbelievable otherwise.

I've never done SW but it does seem a bit weird to me with all the 'syn' foods etc. I'd rather just look at calories and macros and log food and exercise. Then just tweak to suit if you notice any weight loss patterns.