Diet gun

The dietary history aims to provide a detailed record of a person’s medical history, eating habits, preferences and goals in order to design a personalized diet plan.

The dietary history should be collected by the dietitian in the form of a series of questions and not by the method of completing a questionnaire by the client who is interested in following a personalized diet.

When the questions are asked by the dietitian who will create the diet plan, many more topics will certainly be discussed and questions will be answered than if a questionnaire with specific questions is given to the client.

In this way, there will be a greater understanding of the lifestyle, goals, medical history, eating habits and psychological state of the client who wants to follow a specific diet plan for weight loss, for regulating blood values ​​that have deviations or simply for better nutrition.

Although the dietary history should be collected at the client’s first visit, it is essential to repeat certain questions during the diet program that will be followed, especially if it is of long duration. The questions are not specific but will be detected by the dietitian as long as he correctly evaluates the client’s progress with the diet program that he has given.

Lifestyle

Lifestyle is of great importance as the level of physical activity, working hours, the hours that meals can be taken without creating a problem with the client’s work or anything else, the hours on holidays or on days when he does not work, and the level of his stress level should be detected as much as possible.

Goals

The client’s goals should be explored and created if they do not exist. Without specific goals, it is not possible to proceed properly with a diet program. The goals should be short-term and long-term depending on the duration of the nutritional program (e.g. weight loss in a specific time, muscle mass gain, disease management, blood value correction).

Medical history

In the medical history, the dietitian must obtain all the information regarding the client such as possible diseases that he has or has had in the past, the intake of medication, intolerances or possible allergies that exist, checking recent blood tests to detect deficiencies of elements that can be improved with appropriate nutrition and elements that may require medication or the use of nutritional supplements.

It should also be asked if there is a hereditary history of diseases in the family.

Dietary habits

The dietary habits of the foods consumed and the recording of all meals, quantities as well as drinks and liquids consumed and those that are not consumed but can be consumed.

Preferences and favorite foods or meals should be recorded and will be used when possible (as long as they are foods that cannot be used frequently within a balanced diet plan).

Can he use a scale to weigh the foods or is it better to measure the foods with cups for greater convenience?

Psychological state

The psychological state of the client in order to be able to follow a diet plan is very important. Although we do not have the necessary certification to judge professionally as a psychologist would, we can distinguish, if we want, the basic behavior of the client during the history taking and each time we see him for a change in diet plan or for body measurements or even by phone call.

If there is none, we must create a positive psychological state in the client as much as possible.

Physical characteristics

Examining the client’s physical characteristics is very important for the correct regulation of the diet’s calories, the ideal weight that the client should have, the weight that he can lose, the muscle mass that he has and that he can gain if he wants, the body fluids and how they are distributed in the body, the body type (ectomorph, mesomorph, endomorph) that he has and whether this can change to the values ​​that characterize him.

Weighing, measuring height and correct body fat and body measurements will show us the client’s physical characteristics.

Depending on the history, the appropriate diet will be created that will be personalized for the specific client.

A diet that is not personalized will sooner or later fail.

Diets that are based only on calorie counting, without considering the client’s history, can create more problems than they try to solve.

The same nutritional programs in different people will have different results, not always positive.

Clearly, if the dietitian follows the correct dietary history that he has discussed with the client (and continues to discuss throughout the nutritional program) to create a personalized diet, he has taken the biggest and most positive step towards the success of the client’s goals.

Don’t be lazy to get a correct dietary history, the success of the client’s goals will also be your success.