weight loss isn't just about eating less and moving more

tedi nikova is a registered dietitian and weight loss coach in toronto who helps women break behaviours that are sabotaging their health so they can move forward with their lives. she spoke to healthing about how to recognize if you have an unhealthy relationship with food, why we give the scale too much power, and how a change of just 10 per cent can set you up for success.

what is a weight loss coach?

nikova: i think of coaching as focused on the ‘why’ rather than the prescriptive approach or the ‘what.’ so as a coach, i have a third-party perspective — or lens — in breaking my clients’ patterns that are holding them back from what they know they need to do.

you talk a lot about how we relate to food. what are some of the signs that you might have an unhealthy relationship with what you eat?

n.: the number one sign of an unhealthy relationship with food is if you’re giving food morals. if you’re labeling food as good versus bad, or foods that are good for weight loss and then the off-limit junk food.

what are the top three drivers of a bad relationship with food?

n.: diet culture messaging. what is diet culture? it’s anything that’s promoting the message that weight loss or “healthy eating” is as simple as just eat less and move more. anything that’s ignoring the physiology around obesity — which is a real medical condition — and weight loss.

the third one is diet cycling. we see this when someone has been on a lot of fad diets that they can’t sustain for the rest of their life and they’re used to following a lot of rules. or they’ve been given a list of foods that are good for their diet, and then ones to avoid.  that can absolutely play into how you look at a healthy food that may have landed on the off-limit list.  

many of us have a love/hate relationship with the scale. what are your thoughts? 

n.: this comes up on a daily basis. the scale is taking up way too much power. at the end of the day, we can’t control the number we see on the scale. there’s so many factors involved, like bowel movements, water retention and hormones that play a role in that number day-to-day. but we give it too much power in defining our success. i ask clients, ‘what if the number on the scale never moved? what would success look like to you in your journey?’ i ask them to map out 10 success criteria.

tedi nikova is a registered dietitian and weight loss coach in toronto who helps women break behaviours that are sabotaging their health. supplied

we often hear stories about people losing massive amounts of weight through aggressive dieting or exercise, only to gain it all back. how can we set ourselves up for success instead of failure?

n.: that’s a really big question. i would say number one focus is sustainability. the rule of thumb — and this is a tough pill to swallow sometimes — is that any change you make, you need to be certain that you can maintain that behaviour change for the rest of your life. so i focus on small, but permanent, behaviour change. a strategy i use with my clients is to focus on 10 per cent tweaks in their eating or movement. that’s a good, manageable percentage. some clients might say 10 per cent is not enough, and maybe 10 per cent may not be enough in that moment for weight loss, it’s enough for behaviour change and consistency. over time, that 10 per cent allows for sustainable weight loss.

what is the most rewarding part of your work?

n.: empowering women. clients who come to me are not broken, we don’t need to fix them. they just have some blind spots. a lot of women know what to eat — they don’t need me there to tell them what their diet plan is. they’re telling me, ‘i know what to eat, but for some reason, i keep on overeating or feeling not in control of my food.’

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weight loss isn't just about eating less and moving more

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