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Is your diet and exercise plan plateauing? Time to find an expert
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How to choose a qualified nutritionist or personal trainer
If you needed advice on nutrition, it would make sense to go to a nutritionist. And if you needed advice on fitness, it would make sense to go to a personal trainer. To earn titles like these, someone would have to study for years, endure rigorous training and pass several grueling exams, right?
Not necessarily.
We found that when it comes to choosing qualified people to guide you in your health endeavors, the word "expert" is subjective.
Who knows nutrition?
"There's no legal definition of nutritionist. It could be someone with a sixth-grade education, or it could be someone with a Ph.D. in nutrition," says Lona Sandon, a registered dietitian and assistant professor of clinical nutrition at UT Southwestern Medical Center. She says that a person could call himself or herself a nutritionist after a 16-hour weekend training course.
So if you need the help of an expert, how do you weed out the nuts from the nutritionists? It's probably safest to go to someone who is a registered dietitian, according to Ms. Sandon. If he or she has that title (and can prove it), that person has studied for years, endured training and passed several exams.
"A registered dietitian has to have completed a minimum of a bachelor's degree in nutrition or dietetics, and it must be a degree program that is approved by the Commission on Accreditation for Dietetics Education," Ms. Sandon explains. Plus, she says, they have to do a minimum of 900 hours of an internship and, to use the registered dietitian credentials (RD), they must pass a national board examination. She says you can ask to see a copy of his or her registered dietitian card.
While Ms. Sandon admits that the word "nutritionist" may be a red flag on its own, it's possible someone could have a lot of knowledge on the subject without being a registered dietitian. In that case, you would want to ask about his or her education.
And beware of nutritionists trying to sell you something, she says. "If your nutritionist insists that you take supplements that they are selling for financial gain, you should question that," Ms. Sandon says.
Getting the right help
Web sites such as eatright.org and dallasdietitian.com offer lists of credible registered dietitians, and even your doctor or insurance company can recommend one. Your first visit would be a one-hour consultation, but Ms. Sandon emphasizes that everything is not going to be solved in that meeting.
"I think it's important for patients and clients to realize that you're not going to go get a meal plan and go off and live happily ever after. You should expect to have two to three visits minimum," she says. "But if it's weight loss, expect to follow up every two weeks for the first month and then once a month for three or four months after that."
So what is this kind of expert advice going to cost you?
If you're referred because of a medical condition, your insurance might cover it.
"However, if you just want to come see me because you want to eat healthier, then you'll have to pay out of pocket," says Ms. Sandon. A first-time visit could be $80 to $100, and follow-up visits could be $30 to $60. Other so-called experts may charge more, and that could be a red flag. Nutritionists "may be charging too much. I've seen places in Dallas charging $400, plus selling supplements," says Ms. Sandon.
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Exercise experts
You also may be inclined to consult an exercise expert. Do you need an at-home personal trainer? Or can you go to your local gym and use one of theirs?
Know this: Anyone can call himself or herself a personal trainer. There are Web sites that offer quick certifications. A person could get certified from the back of a magazine.
"There's no legal ramification to doing that," says Richard Cotton, the national director of certification for the American College of Sports Medicine. This means that even if you use a trainer associated with a gym, you're not guaranteed that he or she is a legitimate personal trainer. "It really depends on the scrutiny that the gym uses in hiring, because it is not a licensed profession," says Mr. Cotton.
He explains that, while there are many certifications in the fitness industry, only nine (including the ACSM) are accredited by the National Commission for Certifying Agencies, the organization that accredits certifiers. So whether your potential personal trainer is associated with a gym or not (and Mr. Cotton says there are many fine trainers who work independently), you should check credentials. Mr. Cotton says you can call the organization that he or she is certified in or look it up online. Anyone who has NCCA accreditation is required to have a system for verification.
The ACSM recommends that you ask about the trainer's education, CPR certification and whether the trainer has liability insurance. And to make sure this is the right trainer for you, Mr. Cotton says, ask about specialty areas. "There are some trainers that are more into bodybuilding or working with older adults or working with people in a weight-loss program. So make sure the specialties of the trainer match your needs."
Training tip-offs
You might encounter a personal trainer who wants you to sign a long-term contract. This may sound standard, but organizations such as the ACSM think trainers should take a different approach.
"How much will that trainer help you become an independent exerciser? That's probably one of the biggest challenges to hiring a trainer," says Mr. Cotton. Naturally, there's a conflict because a lot of personal trainers want you to keep coming back. According to Mr. Cotton, you may only need a personal trainer for three months.
Also beware of those who pitch supplements. Personal trainers are limited in the amount of nutrition advice they're supposed to offer. According to the ACSM, health and fitness professionals may give general, nonmedical nutritional advice, such as foods that should be included in a daily diet and essential nutrients needed by the body. They shouldn't, however, calculate an individual meal plan.
Once you've determined that the person has the right certifications, education and intentions, you'll want to check his or her price. Costs vary; the ACSM says that they typically range from $20 to $100 per hour. However, Mr. Cotton says that someone who charges more may be well worth it.
"If you get a trainer that is excellent in helping people change their habits, they're worth their weight in gold," he says.
Freelance author Elsa Simcik often writes about health and fitness.
When he shed weight, he shed a fear of dietitians
Keith Simmons, 48, a truck driver from Dallas, believed his doctor when he said he needed to lose weight. It was December 2006, and he was a diabetic, weighing 332 pounds. What he didn't believe was that he needed a dietitian's help.
"I was very skeptical," says Mr. Simmons. He thought that seeing a dietitian meant that he would have to go hungry. "I do not function well when I'm hungry."
He was so against the idea that he told his doctor he would prefer drugs to curb his appetite. The doctor had another plan: "He said, 'Why don't you go see [the dietitian] and you try to do what she says? You give it an honest try, and if it doesn't work, we'll try the drugs.'" His doctor recommended Julie Bender, a registered dietitian with Baylor University Medical Center.
Even after their first visit, Mr. Simmons remained a skeptic: "I hate eating breakfast, and she made me eat breakfast," he says. "But I told myself I would give it a try."
So for the first two months, Mr. Simmons tracked everything he ate, including a healthy breakfast and two snacks during the day.
"The hardest part about losing weight was standing at the counter for about an hour before I leave and making up my little snack pack," he says.
On his next visit with Ms. Bender, he had lost 20 pounds. Then he was a believer. "I was like, 'Tell me more,' " he says.
And now, a little over a year later, Mr. Simmons has lost almost 100 pounds. He gives all the credit to Ms. Bender, whom he sees every three months.
"She made it a lot easier," he says. "No drugs, no hassles, no headaches."
Trainer helped give workouts a boost
For 52-year-old Sally Seegers of Dallas, a chemical company owner, working out has always been a priority. "If you don't have your health, you don't have anything," she says. But as she grew older, she developed injuries to her shoulder and back, and exercising didn't come easily. That's why she sought the advice of personal trainer Colette Cole of Cooper Fitness Center.
So how did this avid exerciser know she was getting a real pro?
"All of the trainers at the Cooper are very well-certified, and in Colette's case, she actually has a master's degree," says Ms. Seegers. A few years ago, she started talking to Ms. Cole on the weight room floor and learned that she specialized in working with females, specifically women with such issues as cancer or fibromyalgia. "She's written a couple of books. All of those things helped me with the comfort level working with Colette that she really knows how to deal with people with specific issues," says Ms. Seegers.
Once a week, Ms. Seegers meets with Ms. Cole and they concentrate on strengthening her core and relieving pain caused by her injuries. "It's helped tremendously," says Ms. Seegers.
The two have been working out together for a few years, on an as-needed basis.
"I'm not going to say that I'll go every week for the rest of my life," she says. "I will go periodically to do what I call a tune-up, to make sure I am still doing the exercises correctly as well as to learn some new things."
Before she started working with a trainer, Ms. Seegers didn't understand spending the money when she could use the machines herself. "It is unbelievable the difference it has made in my level of fitness and my knowledge of how to work out and how the little things make the big difference. It really, really has been worth the money for me."
By ELSA K. SIMCIK
elsa@writinggal.com
Source: Dallas Morning NewsAll rights reserved.