Have you seen a Registered Dietician?

[bearkatjen]

I've struggled with weight loss for years, and I have a problem with emotional eating. Someone in my life recently mentioned getting a referral to see a registered dietician. I'm curious if anyone here has seen a registered dietician, and if so, did it help? I feel like I need more than a food and exercise plan. I need relationship counseling with food, and help dealing with or overcoming pickiness. Is this something a dietician can do?

[Susie]

My mom is an RD, and I've also talked to another RD about hiring her to assist me with race- and training-specific nutrition. I plan to work with her for my upcoming HIM training cycle; some of the issues are race-specific but others are more general, like getting my body below a threshold weight that it likes to hang onto. That part is partly vanity, and partly that I don't want to carry more pounds on race day than I need to, and don't want more pounds slamming my joints during training than necessary. (I have a BMI at the very, very top end of "normal," occasionally crossing the line into "overweight.")

Based on those experiences, I'd say an RD is a good choice. I pretty much always advocate for an RD over a "nutritionist." An RD is credentialed, while a nutritionist doesn't have any specific qualifications. There might be good ones, but there are also lots of quacks.

What you can get from an RD can vary really widely. The one I am working with is a several-time Kona finisher, multi-time Ironman, and deals with a lot of sports-specific stuff. She is many states away from me, so I work with her by phone/online.  My mom is retired now, but she did geriatric nutrition in a nursing home setting.  She understood all the reading, but wasn't really equipped to help me with nutrition for endurance races.  I'm sure there are also dieticians out there who have other specific interests/skills. What you're looking for might take just the right dietician, but I bet it's out there.