What Can a Dietitian Do for You?

“Dietitians are experts in food and nutrition that offer trusted and credible nutrition advice tailored to your unique needs.” –

Introduction:

If you have landed on this website, you may be considering working with a dietitian – wondering who they are and how they can help you. You’re in the right place! This blog post will outline what dietitians do, why YOU need a dietitian, and what makes them so dang special!

Why you should consider consulting a Dietitian

1. Dietitians are the True Experts

Dietitians are the one and only nutrition experts! There is a large difference between a certified nutritionist and a registered dietitian. Nutritionists do not require much to hold their title, some have no formal nutrition education at all! Most of those claiming to be nutritionists are certified by an online course they completed. On the other hand, registered dietitians go through extensive training:

Bachelor’s degree
Masters degree
Dietetic internship
Pass a registration exam

On average, it takes about 7-8 years to become a dietitian today! Wow! Even after receiving the RD credential, dietitians have to keep up with continuing education to stay up to date on important research. The extensive education and specialized training ensures dietitians can truly call themselves the nutrition experts.

2. Dietitians are Trained to Coach you Towards your Goals

In addition to RD’s vast knowledge of food and nutrition, they are also well equipped to coach, counsel, educate, support and guide clients to reach their personal goals. Dietitians are required to take courses in behavior based change and learn how to properly connect with clients, motivate them, guide them out of negative or faulty perceptions and lead them to a place of sustainable, realistic and healthy behavior change. Dietitians understand that not one size fits all and are prepared to meet each client where they are at their stage in life with their individual goals.

3. Dietitians can Specialize

Do you have a specific health condition, sports performance challenge or weight loss goal? Perfect, there is a dietitian for you! Dietitians are educated in a wide variety of topics, however, many go on to specialize so they can best serve a very specific client population. Dietitians specialize in everything from pregnancy to diabetes to even endurance training! Think to yourself, what health problems are you facing? What health goals would you like to reach this year? A dietitian has got you covered! What’s stopping you from scheduling your first visit with a dietitian TODAY?!

4. Dietitians Supply the Missing Ingredients for Success

Many try to reach fitness goals but fail due to a few missing ingredients: accountability, realistic goals and small habits that make a BIG impact. These factors are what keep you going when motivation dwindles. Dietitians are amazing cheerleaders but also understand how to hold their clients accountable.

RDs ensure their clients follow through with their goals by setting clear expectations, creating tools to monitor progress and by consistently communicating with them. In addition, dietitians and clients work as a partnership to form specific, measurable, attainable relevant and timely goals. Too many people fall victim to trendy diet fads and tabloids reading “lose 30 pounds in 10 days!”

These unrealistic results lay claim in the minds of many and lead to unhealthy goals, destructive habits and frustrations with slow progress. A dietitian is able to identify healthy vs unhealthy goals as well as what is truly realistic and sustainable for you. You are the driver of your goals, but the dietitian is in the passenger seat giving you directions along the way.

Many also underestimate the power of small habits. These small habits compound over time to amount to life changing results. Your dietitian will help you define micro habits to implement, identify potential barriers to achieving them, help you devise a plan for those barriers, celebrate your habits as they build over time and continuously raise your standards you set for yourself.

5. Dietitians can Educate and Provide Practical Applications

As dietitians have had countless hours of education, they are well prepared to educate you! Dietitians are very passionate about sharing their knowledge in a way that is useful and applicable. Have you ever read about how protein is important but unsure how to actually consume more everyday?

Enter dietitian! Dietitians not only provide the important education piece but also ensure you have relevant ways to implement them into your daily life. After completing a year or more with your dietitian, you will have a wealth of nutrition knowledge, ready to make healthy choices everyday with a true understanding of why those choices matter!

There is tons of unreliable information in the media today surrounding health. You may be confused by what is actually factual information and what is sold to us as a marketing gimmick by a supplement company or wellness brand. This is understandable! A dietitian will clear the path for evidenced based information and finally put all of the misinformation to rest!

6. Dietitians can take Insurance

Another exciting benefit of working with a RD is the opportunity to use your insurance, a luxury that nutritionists do not have. Similar to seeing any other healthcare provider, you may be in network with a dietitian, greatly lowering the out of pocket costs, if not eliminating the costs all together! This expands the reach of many dietitians and increases accessibility for clients. If financially affording a dietitian was a concern of yours, our team is credentialed with numerous insurance providers and very likely able to serve you for no cost at all! Yep, you heard me!

In Conclusion

If you made it this far, it should be clear to you that a dietitian is an extremely valuable resource, teammate, educator, motivator, accountability buddy and nutrition expert! RDs are the one and only expert for all things nutrition, and you could have one at your fingertips! Dietitians are specially trained to cultivate meaningful behavior change that will result in a long lasting healthy lifestyle.

Whatever stage of life you are in, goal you have for yourself or chronic disease you are managing, there is a specialized dietitian ready to support you. Dietitians provide the missing ingredients for success – accountability, realistic goals and small habits that compound into major changes.

RDs have a wealth of knowledge and are excited to educate you as well as teach you ways to implement your new knowledge into your everyday life. Lastly, dietitians can take insurance, greatly reducing or eliminating your out of pocket costs.

Well, what are you waiting for? Schedule your first visit with a dietitian TODAY!