Balanced Diet: The Easiest Way to Overcome the Weight Problem

Dietitian Ayşe Keskin, who commented on the issue of weight, said, “Today, people are facing weight and health problems because they do not use the healing properties provided by our Lord in foods in a balanced way. By guiding people towards healthy and conscious nutrition, we help them get rid of both their excess weight and illnesses.”

Keskin emphasized that making a positive impact on people’s lives and providing benefits to them is effective in loving her profession as she answered Genç Çağlayan‘s questions.

When you think of a dietitian, the first thing that comes to mind is usually weight loss. What exactly do dietitians do?

As you mentioned, dietitians are often seen as weight loss specialists. However, as popular as that aspect may be, helping people lose weight is just a small part of our job. Dietitians are involved in various tasks such as menu planning and ensuring hygiene in institutions providing mass meal services. In hospitals, they perform many duties, including assisting with weight gain, weight loss, healthy eating, nutritional therapy for certain illnesses, and ensuring the healthy nutrition of special groups like vegans, vegetarians, and athletes. They also regulate the nutrition of patients receiving treatment in intensive care units. Dietitians play a role in the preventive health sector rather than just the curative health sector.

How did you decide to choose such an important profession?

During university preferences, my beloved dershane (private coaching center) director called me into his office and showed his belly, saying, “Do you see this? Now I’m going to tell you a profession, and you’ll pray for me throughout your life. First, you’ll make me lose weight, and then everyone else. In the future, everyone will be your patient.” With those words, he convinced me. At that time, it wasn’t a well-known profession, and my decision may not have seemed very logical to others. However, as I researched more, I realized that I had actually chosen a profession that suited me perfectly.

As your private coaching center director pointed out, many people have problems with their weight. In your opinion, what is the source of these problems?

Just like in everything else, balance is essential in nutrition. Our Lord has created countless blessings for us and made each of them a separate source of healing. Healthy eating means consuming these delicious blessings in balanced portions and with variety. When this balance is not maintained, weight problems start to arise. Let us not forget that if a food is harmful to us, it is already forbidden in our religion.

I would also like to briefly mention other causes of weight problems.

-Prolonged fasting: Skipping meals for an extended period. Having breakfast late in the morning, then not eating anything and becoming very hungry, leading to overeating during the evening meal.

-Inactivity: (At least 150 minutes of physical activity should be done weekly).

-Inadequate water consumption: (Around 30-35 ml of water should be consumed per kilogram of body weight).

-Rapid weight fluctuations due to improper weight loss methods, which can both harm our health and lead to the yo-yo effect, causing more weight problems. You cannot achieve sustainable weight loss by starving yourself or following a single-food diet.

-Emotional eating: This refers to experiencing a tendency to eat high-calorie foods during periods of emotional intensity such as happiness, sadness, stress, and anxiety, followed by feelings of regret.

As a dietitian, what are you paying attention to? I’m sure everyone is curious about the dietitians’ kitchen.

I don’t make very detailed calculations for my own diet. However, I always try to follow general guidelines. If I happen to overeat or consume too many carbohydrates one day, I try to eat a lower-calorie diet the next day.

It seems that we don’t pay much attention to this matter. We tend to deviate from balance and approach issues differently. What are the common reasons that lead us to want to lose weight? Have you had any interesting cases with clients coming to you for specific reasons?

Mostly, they want to lose weight related to body image. They believe they are not being liked by society because of their weight. Some also come because of health problems they are experiencing. One of my clients had a very interesting reason for coming to me. The lady was 50 years old but looked very young. She was quite thin as well. When we measured her metabolic age, it turned out to be 32. When I explained this to her, she said, “Yes, I look young, and my metabolic age is low, but I wonder how I can make my bone age lower. If I can also make that lower, I can prove that my body is young, and my age on my ID card will be lower.” We encounter such interesting requests and situations at times.

I would like to ask you another question that everyone is curious about: Is it harder to lose weight or to gain weight?

In my opinion, gaining weight is harder. Because generally, the inability to gain weight is rooted in metabolic disorders or traumatic appetite loss. In such cases, the person needs both nutritional therapy and, depending on the need, psychological treatment or medical treatment for the underlying metabolic condition. Under normal circumstances, a person can lose about four or five kilograms per month. For someone who wants to gain weight, our maximum goal is two or two and a half kilograms. Anything more than that can cause different health issues for individuals.

We would also like to get information from you about a type of illness that we hear about from social media and the press. Can you provide information about “anorexia nervosa,” also known as “model’s disease,” which is common among young people? Have you ever had a patient with this condition?

This illness is an eating disorder caused by a distortion in perception. It is particularly observed in individuals aged 15 to 25. Despite being very thin, a person with this condition perceives themselves as obese and tries to lose even more weight by avoiding eating. Their BMI (Body Mass Index) value is usually less than 17 kg/m². These individuals do not have a loss of appetite but suffer from perceptual distortions. Treatment should be provided gradually with the collaboration of a dietitian, psychologist, and even a doctor. Those affected by this condition often refuse to acknowledge their situation and reject treatment. They constantly come up with excuses not to eat and can spend hours cutting a tiny chickpea into pieces on their plate waiting next to it.

In the early years of my career, I had a patient with this condition. It was a male patient, 1.85 meters tall, and weighed 45 kilograms. Just by looking at him, we could immediately see his health issue. When we tried to measure him with a body analysis device, the machine couldn’t measure him because his body fat percentage was zero. He had wounds on his face, hands, and arms that wouldn’t heal. He said that these wounds were not getting better. What surprised me the most was when he said, “I don’t actually think I am thin. I didn’t come here to gain weight. But I can’t go to the WC. I came here to solve this problem.” First and foremost, we were careful not to scare the patient. I had to convince him to see a psychologist as well. We were able to have four sessions with him. After he started eating, he didn’t continue the treatment. He also refused to go to the psychologist. It’s a serious illness, and that’s why its treatment is crucial.

What are the things that contribute to you enjoying your profession?

You can touch people’s lives by helping them achieve their desired weight. When you see your clients happy, it brings joy to you as well. You can help individuals get rid of chronic diseases they have without the need for medication or surgery, simply through nutrition therapy. These reasons play a significant role in my passion for this profession. However, like in any profession, there are also some negatives we experience. There is a lot of misinformation about nutrition and weight loss, which makes convincing people more challenging. On social media, there are fake dietitians who have not received proper training, and unfortunately, many people trust them. You have to fight against them as they can easily undermine your efforts. People come to you with the dream of losing all the weight they’ve accumulated over the years in just one or two months. Being realistic is crucial; the healthy rate of weight loss is a maximum of four to six kilograms per month.

As a dietitian who is passionate about touching people’s lives and helping them heal, what would you like to say to young individuals considering this profession?

I definitely recommend this profession because during the pandemic, it has been realized that health is the foundation of everything. Dietetics is also a fundamental part of preventive health services. My advice to young friends considering this profession is as follows: Be patient and have a cheerful demeanor. You should constantly keep up with scientific developments because what we consider correct today may turn out to be incomplete or incorrect tomorrow. Do not compromise the ethical framework of your profession for popularity. Your priority should be the health of the individuals who seek your help; the numbers come later. Setting short-term goals will lead you and your clients to achieve results more easily.

Addendum:

Table displaying BMI and body weight values for adults aged 19-24: [The table with BMI and body weight values for the specified age group should be provided in the format requested.]

Footnote

[1] Yo-yo effect: The phenomenon where a person loses weight initially through a diet but fails to maintain it in the long term and starts gaining weight again. Then, they try to lose the regained weight once more. For more information, see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yo-yo_effect.