Scared of dietitian

i am really scared and anxious about working with a dietitian for weight loss and being pediabetic. (i talked to a diabetes specialist and tbey said i’m just pediabetic so far) as the last time i tried to work with a dietitian over 10 years ago. i didn’t do well because it diet they had me on was so strict it was impossible to follow. so i am hoping things have changed. and that things are easier this time. but dosen’t stop me from being scared out of my wits about it anyone have any experience they are willing to share? in is more then welcome. keep in mind i live in canada. but any experience is welcome at this point.

No need to be scared of your dietitian. You can only give your new diet plan a try and see how it goes. If you test your blood sugars two hours after meals you will see what foods spike you and can eliminate them from your diet. Most diabetics find that carbohydrates are the problem, drop the amount of bread, rice, pasta, potatoes that you eat and by testing you will find by substituting vegetables for carbs it will be easier to keep to the number on your meter that your doctor wants.

Whatever the diet you are given if you test you can tinker with it until it is tailored to suit your body. There are no diet police!

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There is no reason to be afraid of doctors or their associates. If what the dietitian asks you to do seems unreasonable then tell them so and seek a compromise. Agreeing to a diet plan that you find too restrictive only sets you up for failure.

Ask them if you can set your goals up in steps instead with each attainable step getting you closer to your goal. Once you reach the first step the second step will come easier, as will the third then forth and so on until you reach your ultimate goal.

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Now days they help you plan a meal plan with things you like to eat. Don’t stress it is " your meal plan" . Nancy

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I also loath restricted meal plans. I’m a ‘big eater.’ I think a lot and I move a lot, so I am always hungry and require a ridiculous amount of food.

Although I don’t remember hating restricted meal plans as a kid, I did go hungry a lot and refused to eat when my sugar was high in order to bring the numbers down (this was pre-sliding scale insulin). I can’t imagine going back to that.

This is the most filing bread that I have discovered. It has a lot of protein and is delicious, hearty bread. There’s not enough bread in the world to fill me up if I eat that flimsy, refined garbage bread. Ezekiel Sprouted Bread | Food For Life | Ezekiel Bread Ingredients

Consider talking to them about sliding scale insulin if you are a super hater of restricted meal plans. That increased my quality of life because I had a lot more flexibility in eating.

not at the point where i need insulin still just prediabeties. hopefully i can nip it in the bud. or at the very least delay the on set of type 2

Without insulin, I don’t see you getting out of the meal plan. Thats a bummer. Prediabetes and type II bummer. Its not all bad over here on the insulin side. My heart cries for you and your dreaded meal plan. Guy Mitchell - My Heart Cries for You (1950) - YouTube

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I just started with a new dietician and completely understand how you feel!

She pretty much looked at everything I regularly eat and threw it all out, giving me a whole new set of things to do. It’s been two weeks and I haven’t done even a tiny bit of what she wanted other than eating protein before sports. I don’t feel like eating meat often, don’t have time/energy to cook every meal and don’t like any of the replacements she gave me for what she cut out. And this isn’t even my first diet rodeo… I’ve done it successfully (for short periods) in the past and just can’t even think about doing all that again.

Totally not looking forward to our check-in tomorrow!

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Dietitians are like doctors and CDE’s, you need to find one you can work with. They don’t all think the same or recommend the same thing. You can find really good ones who will work with what you usually eat and help fit it into your lifestyle. There are so many different cultural differences in diet, that a good RD must work with those differences. So please don’t be afraid! They are there to help you not scare or shame you. Find one that will listen and work with you. And don’t think you can change everything right away. Just little baby steps and keep moving forward. Good luck and let us know how it goes.

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Like others have already said, there’s nothing to fear about meeting with a dietitian. Any of their recommendations you accept is totally your choice. It’s important that the dietitian understands and uses your current food preferences to work out a meal plan for you.

Many of us long-term diabetics have found past doctrinaire offered by dietitians who closely followed their professional association’s guidance regarding the amount of carbohydrates in the diet as unworkable for someone with an impaired glucose metabolism. Carbohydrates determine the amount of insulin needed to metabolize, whether that insulin is home-grown or taken as an injection.

While we are all different in our metabolisms, many of us have found that limiting carbs can have a profoundly positive effect on our post-meal blood sugar levels. In the past, dietitians have often recommended consuming 50% or more of our daily calories as carbohydrates. As part of a 2000 calories/day plan means eating 250 grams of carbs/day. For me, that level of carb consumption increases the amount of insulin I need to dose, drives up glucose variability, and exposes me to increased hyper- and hypo-glycemia.

Good luck with your dietary consult. I think we all can learn more about what we eat. The most powerful tactic for learning how to eat with diabetes is one called “eat to your meter.” It simply means measuring your blood glucose with a fingerstick meter before and two hours after you eat. If you don’t like the post-meal check, then alter the serving size or possibly eliminate that food from your diet. It’s a customized system that puts you in charge of your uniques metabolism.

Good luck! Sorry if I answered with more detail than you wanted. :wink:

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On a side note, I found your comment/perspective, Terry4, very interesting. As a type 1, my Doc hasn’t asked me to speak with a dietician in decades. I mostly just discuss it everybody on Tu. I share your perspective on nutrition and agree with everything you said. But, what you said made me step back and re-evaluate the big picture. Its possible that my (possible) increased “glucose variability” and (possible) experience of, “increased hyper- and hypo-glycemia,” might be a result of specificities in my diet. I’ve been a low protein eater since long before I became a diabetic, so I never even really considered it as a variable. Thanks for making me think. I’m gonna run my numbers against yours.

no sugars, no starches, eat everything else.


page 4

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I have had three experiences with dietitians. My first was an epic disaster – the dietitian wanted me to eat more than twice the amount of calories with which I am comfortable AND more carbs than I’ve eaten regularly in many years. I argued with her and she “compromised” – I promptly put the material she gave me on a shelf and never looked at it again.

My second and third experiences (ongoing) were much better. I’ve been working with a dietitian and with a CDE that have embraced the concepts that lower carb diets make much more sense than the traditional ADA/Mayo Clinic approach. Though I need insulin, sticking with a low carb approach has helped make management of my diabetes much easier. As difficult as diabetes is, anything that makes it easier is helpful! I had already embraced the low carb idea before starting with these dietitians – and that’s the point: The key is to have medical professionals that consider you a PARTNER in your health management, rather than those that take a paternal approach and expect “compliance.”

With any luck, the dietitian you see will help you find the tools that help maintain and improve your health and with whom you are comfortable!

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Could not agree any more emphatically. It took a while but I found a doctor who treats me like a team member rather than a wayward pupil or employee, and who recognizes that I know more about my diabetes than anyone else. I’m holding on to him for dear life.

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Agreed as well. One of the biggest things anyone trying to change behavior (which is what a dietitian is doing) needs to be doing is collaborating with their patient to create a plan that the patient feels is doable and is genuinely willing to try to implement—they can create the best diet plan ever in terms of diabetic control, but if it’s not going to be used at all, it’s completely useless. If that type of collaboration and assessment isn’t part of your treatment, might be time to either find a new provider or, if that’s not an option, assert your need for them to take into consideration where you are actually at much more. Also, for many people, dramatic overhauls may not be realistic, even if in the longer run, a lot of change ideally needs to occur—it’s very reasonable to ask for smaller steps to take to shift what you are doing in a healthier direction. That’s how progress works for most people!

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I am also in Canada (Vancouver) and I have had mixed results from consulting with dieticians. However I owe a lot to a doctor who I first consulted about my diabetes (Vicky King). That was back around 1998 when I was first diagnosed with type 2. She emphasized that there was no single solution to managing type 2 without medications, which was my goal, saying that what had gotten me into trouble in the first place was a combination of a sedentary lifestyle (too little activity) and too much of the wrong foods. The solution was to address both of those problems. So I ended up focusing on low GI carbs (not to be confused with low or no carb diets) combined with activity - walking after each and every meal. The thing about low GI carbs (there is lots of info on them on the net) is that they are very slowly converted to blood sugars, meaning you get a chance to literally walk them off before they get to do damage.
Following that formula, in the course of a year I lost 45 lbs. and lowered my Hba1c from 12 to 5.4. After a cardiac arrest with rehab for a brain injury seven years ago I fell behind but I have caught up again and it is working the same magic. After limiting my carb intake to low GI sources like rye bread, squash, fettucini and basmati rice, in the course of a week my random bg testing went down from the 11-13 (198 - 234) range to between 6 and 8 (108 - 144). With the help of regular walking I am convinced I will be back to the good levels I was at.
I actually once asked a dietician why they unlike dieticians in most other countries were not promoting the low GI carb diet for diabetics. She answered that ‘it is considered too complicated for most people to follow’.
DUH!!!