Are you going to put me on a diet plan?

Here at Allied Nutrition, we specialise in the Non-Diet Approach to health and wellness. This approach focusses on healthy behaviours and a flexible, intuitive approach to healthy eating. This means that we won’t give you a ‘one size fits all’ diet plan to follow, with a list of rules for what and how much you’re ‘allowed’ to eat. Research shows these kinds of diet plans don’t work long-term.

5 reasons a diet plan won’t work

• You will get bored with the diet plan quickly because there are only certain foods you’re allowed to eat
• Sticking to a diet plan is hard when you want to eat out a restaurant
• The diet plan might include foods you don’t like or are allergic to
• Some of the foods or ingredients prescribed in the diet plan might be too expensive
• Following a diet plan is hard when you have a partner or family who doesn’t want to also follow the diet plan

What’s the alternative to a diet plan?

Instead of prescribing a diet plan, your dietitian will educate you on the general principles of healthy eating and help you apply these principles to your current diet. Your dietitian can teach you skills such as meal planning, smart shopping and how to cook healthy meals. At all times, you are in charge of what advice you choose to act on and what changes you want to make. This is known as a client-centred approach. This encourages people to take responsibility for their own health and wellbeing.

What if I still want a diet plan?

Sometimes we have clients who want a traditional ‘diet’ approach, and we are able to assist them with this. In this case, we may prescribe a  calorie-controlled diet plan. We make no guarantees that a diet approach will give them the results they are after and we encourage people to think about their long-term health, not just short-term weight loss.