My Meeting with the Nutritionist and the Secret to Losing Weight

I’ve been trying to lose a few pounds on my own now for about a month. I’ve been eating about 1400 calories a day and I’m pretty active. But the scale barely moves. I decided I needed professional help.

I met with the nutritionist at my doctor’s office. She is a young girl, slight of build, pretty. I can imagine how many women meet her for the first time and think “how is THIS skinny little thing going to understand my weight problem”.

Jenny was pleasant. She reviewed the questionnaire I had filled out in advance and began asking me questions.

“How much weight do you want to lose?”

“20 pounds” I responded.

“You don’t need to lose 20 pounds” she quickly quipped back.

I thought to myself, “and you shouldn’t be wearing those shoes with that skirt, but we’re not here to judge one another.” “Okay 10 pounds,” I politely responded.

“You don’t need to lose 10…I’m looking at your BMI and its normal. Your weight is fine.”

I wanted to tell her how stupid I thought BMIs were, and remind her that any body builder is going to have a BMI that’s off the charts but no one would argue that they’re in shape, but instead decided to take a possibly more constructive approach.

“I understand that my BMI is normal, but I am not happy with my weight. I used to be thinner and I want to feel better about myself. Is this something you can help me with?”

She asked me if I track my food intake. I explained that I use MyFitnessPal to track my food and activity and this pleased her. She wanted to log into my account. I felt a little like I was allowing someone to peer at my diary, but I reluctantly gave her the log in info. She scrolled through the days, scrutinizing my diet. “Well it looks like your diet is good…wait…..HERE….April 9….you had a chocolate glazed donut” she glared at me like a mother who had just found cigarettes in her teenaged daughter’s purse. I responded like the teenaged daughter, “It wasn’t my fault! I bought in donuts for my staff. I do that sometimes. They like it. I normally don’t eat any, but I was weak that day. I just had one. And I felt really bad about it.”

She continued on. “And HERE…May 3….you started out well by having Greek yogurt for breakfast but then you didn’t have anything ALL day until the evening when you indulged in two slices of pizza.”

Back to teenager mode, “But I was working outside ALL weekend by myself installing a pond in my backyard. It was a lot of work and I needed to get it all done in a weekend. I didn’t have time to eat. And I went to my boyfriend’s house that night and all he had was leftover pizza. I was really hungry….”

This was not going well, and my defense mode soon turned into irritation. “Look Jenny, my diet may not be perfect every day, but most days I eat a balanced diet, I stay under 1400 calories, I don’t eat processed food (other than the two instances she sniffed out) and I’m still not losing weight. Can you help me or not?”

She sat quiet for a few minutes, still scanning my food diary. “Well, it looks like you’re not eating enough, or at least not often enough. You’re killing your metabolism.” She explained that for someone like me who doesn’t need to lose lots of weight, it’s not as simple as cutting out snacks or walking for a half hour a day (in fact I brought up the walking thing and she said it would do me NO good, which I totally disagree with). She suggested I eat three meals a day and have three snacks a day. “If you want, you can even go down to 1200 calories a day. Just make sure you’re eating SOMETHING every 3 to 4 hours. And get in 250 minutes of serious physical activity a week like strength training or body combat. But even then, don’t expect to lose more than about a half a pound a week.”

“A half a pound a week?!!” I cried. “1200 calories, busting my butt exercising and that’s all I can expect?!”

“Yeah,” she said nonchalantly. “You don’t really need to lose weight, like I said earlier. In fact, why DO you want to lose weight so badly?”

“I don’t like the way I look.”

“Why? You’re thin. You look tone and strong.”

“Because I think I look better weighing less.”

“I see. Have you ever been anorexic or bulimic? Are you feeling depressed? Do you not like yourself?”

What, now suddenly she’s a psychiatrist?!! “NO, I’m not any of those. I’m fine. I just want my clothes to fit better and I don’t want to cringe when I put on a bathing suit. Is that too much to ask??”

“Has anyone ever labeled you a ‘perfectionist’?”

At this point I was done with Jenny. She gave me a few handouts with basic info I already knew about diet and nutrition and said she wanted to follow up in three weeks. She gave me nothing I wanted. I told her that I’m the kind of person who needs structure. She didn’t have a diet plan in her drawer that I could follow? Really? Just tell me what to eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner and I’ll be on my way.

I was so irritated when I got home. I decided to go on line and check out 1200 calorie meal plans. I looked at about a half dozen and decided to create my own. I created a 5 day eating plan with food options. Meals for breakfast, lunch, dinner, two snacks and a dessert. All with a good balance of protein, carbs, fruits/veggies and fats. I thought about some of the things she said like making sure almost every meal was ¼ protein, ¼ carbs and ½ fruit/veggies. All whole foods – nothing processed. I had to give it a shot.

I started the diet Monday. I diligently measured out my 2 Tablespoons of hummus, ¼ cup of organic raisins, 1 tablespoon of natural peanut butter. In the evening I took my one pound of organic lean hamburger and divided it into fourths. I made 4 mini meatloaves knowing that would be an easy way for me to get my 4 oz of protein at dinner. I resisted all temptation. And I resisted the daily urge to weigh myself. But by Thursday I caved. I woke up in a frosty mood. Walking into my bathroom, I gazed down at the scale and thought to myself, “I’ll bet little Miss Jenny is WRONG and I probably GAINED weight.” So I stepped on the scale….and I was down 3 pounds. Obviously it was water weight, but it was a kick to my ego. Maybe she was on to something. Maybe I wasn’t eating often enough. Maybe I wasn’t eating balanced enough. Or maybe my scale needs new batteries. Only time will tell.