Yes, a diet coach can be an important addition to your weight loss plan. He or she could easily be the missing piece if you have been struggling to lose weight. Keep in mind that Megan Ayala says that even with the right diet plan, losing weight and keeping it off will be a challenge if you don’t have a diet coach.
Who is a diet coach?
Diet coaches are also commonly referred to as health and wellness coaches or nutritional coaches.
Diet coaches help their clients to adopt healthy eating practices when they want to change their lifestyle, improve their athletic performance, lose weight or even gain weight.
Unlike registered dietician nutritionists (RDN), diet coaches work with clients who do not have medical conditions, such as diabetes and hypertension. A diet coach can recommend the ideal diet, but an RDN is better suited for people with medical conditions.
For example, some foods help lower blood pressure. A hypertensive patient on medication is at risk if he regularly consumes foods that naturally lower blood pressure. An RDN will find a balance to ensure the patient follows a diet that will not interfere with the medication or health condition.
Role of the diet coach in your weight loss journey.
A diet coach will help you achieve your weight loss goals in various ways;
Guide you on what to eat, when to eat, and how much to eat.
Most people who are committed to losing weight often struggle to find a diet that works for them. While one diet might work for someone else, it may not work for you. Our body compositions are not the same. Some people have a higher metabolism than others.
The numerous fad diets in the market make it even harder to choose the best plan to follow. A diet coach will guide you through the options and help you choose a diet that will work for you.
Some diets are so restrictive that your body eventually rebels. When this happens, you go back to binge eating, and the cravings don’t help matters. When this happens, you end up putting on more weight. A diet coach will teach you how to change your relationship with food. This will help you lose weight and keep it off.
Provide moral support.
Your unhealthy relationship with food will cause you to spend years taking one step forward, two steps back in your attempt to lose weight.
The struggle to remain healthy can easily last a lifetime without the help of a diet coach.
Think of the diet coach as the person who holds you accountable.
The diet coach will call you out when you indulge in foods you are supposed to avoid. Likewise, if you faithfully follow the prescribed diet, your coach will motivate you.
Knowing that you have someone in your corner to cheer you on will help you resist unhealthy cravings.
Keep track of your progress.
Sometimes you may not immediately notice any changes in your body or attitude towards food when you change your lifestyle, but your diet coach will. The ultimate morale booster is having someone point out a change in your appearance, especially when you don’t expect it.
Give you a pep talk should you be tempted to give up.
The weight loss journey has many ups and downs. One minute you feel invincible and capable of reaching your desired weight. The next minute, you hear that chocolate bar or tub of ice cream calling your name.
Your diet coach probably warned you this would happen, especially in the first few weeks of denying your body foods and snacks to which it had become accustomed.
If you find it difficult to resist the temptation, you can turn to your diet coach for that pep talk. Giving in to such temptation will set you back. If you need to, call your diet coach for affirmation that you are doing well and don’t need the high-calorie snack you are craving.
Some diet coaches may give you leeway on when to have a treat and the type of snack in which to indulge.
Analyze reasons behind past failures to lose weight.
Before recommending an ideal meal plan, a diet coach will want to know about your previous attempts to lose weight. They do this to determine why you failed and how best to help you succeed this time.
Diet coaches understand that there is no one size fits all diet. He has to identify one that is most suitable for you. If you have failed to lose weight on your own before, why not try to do things differently this time?
