7 Benefits of Seeing a Nutritionist
If you’re having legal trouble, you reach out to a lawyer. If you have plumbing issues, you reach out to a plumber. So, if you’re looking to make progress on your health and nutrition goals, why not see a nutritionist? In this post, you’ll learn seven benefits of seeing a nutritionist.
More often than not, we try to go it alone when it comes to making health and nutrition changes. But we all know that our health is super important.
So why don’t we reach out?
Well, a lot of people aren’t familiar with the benefits of seeing a nutritionist or registered dietitian. And, even though they could benefit from working with one, they’re not aware of the reasons to see one.
That makes it hard to recognize when it’s time to reach out for help.
Reasons to See a Nutritionist or Dietitian
Below are 7 reasons to see a registered dietitian nutritionist. For each reason, you’ll also find the associated benefit of seeing one, instead of continuing to go it alone.
Ask yourself if any of these sound familiar:
1) You’re Concerned with Your Health or Eating Habits
There are a variety of health issues that nutritionists can help you with, ranging from chronic health conditionis to optimizations for healthy aging.
Here are a few of the most common health concerns they can help with:
- Managing high blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar
- Improving dietary choices for diabetes and prediabetes management
- Managing and reducing GI distress
- Reducing risk for chronic disease (diabetes, heart disease, osteoporosis, etc.)
- Optimizing diet for sports performance
- Healthy weight management
- Optimizing nutrition for aging
The Benefit of Seeing a Nutritionist: A registered dietitian undergoes extensive training and certification for managing health conditions through nutrition. This helps to ensure you are getting high quality information and guidance.
2) You’re Overwhelmed with Information
Most of us are not suffering from a lack of information. Instead, it’s the contrary – there’s too much information!
With the internet and smart phones, we now have massive amounts of information that we carry around in our pockets. We can endlessly tap our troubles into Google, getting different advice on each subsequent search.
Oh yeah – and then there’s the contradicting flurry of nutrition information we see in the media. Fat is good. Fat is bad. Sugar is evil. No, sugar is okay… fructose is evil.
Frustrating, right?
The Benefit of Seeing a Nutritionist: A registered dietitian can help you sort out the fact from fiction. They can also help you understand and prioritize the information that’s most relevant for you.
From there, they can help you to apply that information. The result? Less overwhelm and more progress.
3) You’re Tired of an Endless String of Diets with Little to Show for It
Every year another diet trend captures society’s imagination. In the US, about 5 million diet books are sold every year.
Each one offers a similar promise. A quick fix. A guaranteed result.
Some of these books have scientifically solid and helpful information. Others are smeared in snake oil. But, too often this endless slew of books contribute to our information overwhelm and desire for the next shiny object.
“But, what if this book holds the secret that I’ve been missing?”
We buy the book. Then we toss it on the teatering heap, adding to our heightened level of overwhelm and frustration.
The Benefit of Seeing a Nutritionist: Ditch the diet books. A registered dietitian nutritionist can help you create a path forward that works for YOU, not the author of the latest fad diet sensation. It’s time to create a diet that fits YOUR lifestyle, unique needs, schedule, and goals.
4) You’re Stuck in Place, Spinning Your Wheels
Analysis paralysis – with so much information, it’s hard to know where to start. So, you stay stuck in place.
Or, maybe you’ve tried several fad diets, with little results. Maybe you even made progress, then eventually found yourself back where you started. But you’re motivated for change – so you make another attempt. You double down with dedication, give it more gas, you try even harder.
But, the wheels just keep spinning. The car stays in place. ARGH!!!
You punch the steering wheel in anger. What else can you do?
The Benefit of Seeing a Nutritionist: Sometimes, you just need an extra hand – someone who can help provide guidance and steer you in the right direction. By working with a registered dietitian nutritionist you’ll gain a different perspective, and learn how to apply information in a way that’s sustainable. That means you’ll get forward progress, and continued momentum.
5) You Believe that You’re Broken
After we’ve doubled down on dedication, and still the diet books fail us, it’s easy to come to one single conclusion:
“I must be broken.”
After all, it makes sense right? If these books worked for everyone else, but they don’t work for me, I must be broken. My metabolism is shot. It’s me. This is my life now.
Not so fast.
Has anyone ever told you that you’re broken? Have you ever worked with a dietitian or reached out to someone for one-on-one support?
Instead of being broken, you might just need a reset. You might just need some help.
The Benefit of Seeing a Nutritionist: A dietitian can help you take a scientific approach to helping you out. That means there is no failure, only feedback. With this approach, it’s easier to leverage past problems to propel you toward progress.
6) You Feel Completely Lost
“What do I eat? What am I supposed to do?”
This kind of confusion is common when we try to process the endless amounts of nutrition information available online.
Everywhere you look there’s another option, more information, and a growing entourage of ads chasing you around as you search.
The path forward disappears into a vast sea of information and advertisements.
The Benefit of Seeing a Nutritionist: If you were lost at sea, what would you want to do?
You need to radio the coast guard! They won’t be able to steer your ship for you, but they can help you get your bearings and connect you to the resources you need. Working with a dietitian nutritionist can help you the same way.
7) You Feel Alone and Frustrated
This is not uncommon. As humans, we often internalize our challenges and hesitate to reach out for help. We don’t want to inconvenience others or we tell ourselves, “I should be able to do this on my own.”
But, most of all, sometimes if feels embarrassing to ask for help. It’s scary to let go and admit that we’re lost. It can feel like a sign of weakness – although it really isn’t.
Reaching out requires us to be vulnerable. To do that we must be brave. This shows strength, not weakness.
On the flip side, isolation is debilitating. And, if we don’t reach out for the help we need, we can remain stuck for years, becoming more frustrated, alone, and weak.
The Benefit of Seeing a Nutritionist: Why go it alone, when you can have a trained expert on your side? With a dietitian by your side, you’ll have someone else to rely on, support you and provide expert advice. All of a sudden you’ll have a partner.
Still confused about the difference between a dietitian and a nutritionist? Check out my article on What’s the Difference Between a Dietitian and a Nutritionist?
You Don’t Have to Go It Alone
Do any of these reasons sound familiar to you? Are you experiencing any of these feelings? If so, maybe it’s time to reach out. You don’t have to continue your health journey alone, navigating an endless sea of confusion.
There are dietitians and nutritionists who are qualified and would love to help you out. To find a dietitian in your area, you can search the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
Work with an Online Registered Dietitian Nutritionist
As a registered dietitian nutritionist, and clinical exercise physiologist, I provide clients with online nutrition counseling from the comfort of their own home.
I help my clients pair information, with application and accountability to make progress on their nutrition and health goals.
Curious about working together? You can learn more about online nutrition coaching here.
