Today’s Dietitian – August 2019

A

ccording to the National Institutes of Health,

two-thirds of adults in the United States are

either overweight or obese. That makes for a

huge market for weight loss programs. Tele-

vision commercials, print ads, Facebook ads,

tweets, and Instagram posts for weight loss

programs are everywhere. As a result, dieti-

tians can expect their clients and patients to come to them

for a professional opinion regarding the value and effective-

ness of these programs and whether they’re worth the cost,

which, for some, can be quite high.

In this article, Today’s Dietitian (TD) speaks with RDs affili-

ated with several of the most popular diet programs to get the

inside scoop on how they work and how dietitians are involved

with planning and implementation. The following list isn’t

comprehensive but does include diet programs rated as some

of the best this year by U.S. News & World Report.

SLIMFAST

Maryann Walsh, MFN, RD, CDE, a consultant to the SlimFast

Plan, is involved with the company’s menu planning and brand

messaging. Established in 1977 in Palm Beach Gardens, Flor-

ida, SlimFast’s program consists of substituting SlimFast

products for two meals per day. Guidelines for the third meal

are provided for free to any SlimFast customer. There also are

lines of SlimFast products for people following the popular

keto diet plan or those who have been diagnosed with diabe-

tes. The goal is to limit calories to 1,200 per day for women and

1,700 per day for men. Walsh is involved in developing meal

plans, brand messaging, and moderating SlimFast’s Facebook

Popular

Weight

Loss

Programs

How They Stack Up and

What to Tell Clients

By Densie Webb, PhD, RD

28 today’s dietitian august 2019