Cathy Whelan - The Diet Coach 2.38

What does a Diet Coach do?

Essentially, a diet coach is trained in Nutrition in order to advise and formulate healthy eating programmes for people who want to loose or gain weight and improve their general health and wellbeing. The goal of the coach is to offer the client strategies for personal change and to work towards a sustainable healthier future using dietary analysis software, body composition analysis and health coaching.

Based on your personal statistics and food preferences, a dietary coach will design a healthy eating programme that will ensure you are eating for optimal health and minimising the impact of genetic and environmental influences e.g. stress, pollution and lifestyle but taking into account your individual food preferences, cooking skills, available time and exercise preferences.

What is involved?

Diet coaching is done in 3 stages or consultations generally as follows:

Stage 1. Before your first consultation, you record a food and drink diary for 7 days and bring it along on the day.

At this first consultation, the diet coach will start by gathering information on your height, weight, food likes/dislikes/allergies and take a summary of your exercise practices, lifestyle factors and your health goals.

- After this initial consultation, your statistics and food diary are analysed using nutritional analytic software which will provide a report on your BMI(Body Mass Index - Fat/Muscle ratio), your optimum weight and the number of calories you need per day for weight loss or maintenance. The analysis will also flag any areas where your diet may be lacking in macronutrients (ie, protein, fat, carbohydrate) and/or micronutrients (ie vitamins and minerals) which can affect your health and/or cause weight gain and prevent weight loss.

- When all of these areas have been considered the diet coach will re-formulate a personalised eating, food supplement and exercise plan for you

Stage 2. Consultation 2. You will be given your feedback and a suggested eating plan to take away and implement over an agreed period.

Stage 3. Consultation 3 (usually a few weeks later) you meet again to monitor your progress and alter/add or remove certain aspects of your plan based on what is working well or you have lost or gained your ideal amount of weight etc.