{"id":3190,"date":"2019-10-25T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-10-24T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.neolifesalud.com\/nutritional-coaching-at-neolife\/"},"modified":"2019-10-25T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-10-24T22:00:00","slug":"nutritional-coaching-at-neolife","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.neolifesalud.com\/en\/blog\/nutrition\/nutritional-coaching-at-neolife\/","title":{"rendered":"Nutritional Coaching at Neolife"},"content":{"rendered":"
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One of the most popular terms in academic, cultural, sports and business circles is the concept of coaching, which may be understood as a type of personal, group or institutional training.<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Coaching as a discipline was born in the United States, in the area of sports training, with the aim of increasing an athlete\u2019s individual performance. Since then, the practice of coaching has been extended to the most diverse fields of human activity, such as the area of human nutrition and diet, where the concept of nutritional coaching is born.<\/p>\n

Tania Mesa – Director of Neolife Nutrition and Nursing Unit<\/em><\/p>\n

Alejandro Monz\u00f3 – Neolife Nutrition and Nursing Unit<\/em><\/p>\n

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Coaching is a transformational process whose goal is to achieve awareness, discovery, and personal and professional growth<\/strong><\/p>\n

The purpose of coaching<\/strong> is to improve and develop skills so that people are happier, more productive and able to achieve their goals in a balanced way. It is an interpersonal process between a tutor (coach) and a student (coachee) within a context that involves a specific action that is productive, relational, personal, and results-oriented (1). It is focused on helping the individual, engage in their own acquisition and improvement of skills that will allow them to achieve their individual and personal goals.<\/p>\n

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the prevalence of obesity<\/strong> nearly tripled between 1975 and 2016. Every year, 2.8 million people die from obesity or being overweight<\/strong>. In 2016, more than 1.9 billion adults were overweight and more than 650 million were obese (2). In 2003, the WHO stated that:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not longer enough for a doctor to give information and advice to achieve long-term changes in a patient\u2019s behavior\u201d (3).<\/p>\n

For a person to make a change and adopt a healthy lifestyle<\/strong>, it is not enough to show them what they should and shouldn\u2019t do. For a great many people, this strategy<\/strong> alone is not enough. There are different therapies aimed at changing behavior, used to achieve a greater adherence from patients who want to acquire healthy<\/strong> eating habits<\/strong> and lose weight (4).<\/p>\n

One of these is nutritional coaching<\/strong>, which, by definition, is a process through which the patient identifies and overcomes their own obstacles, creates the right environment and adopts the attitude and determination to achieve a change in their diet, while improving at the same time other aspects of their behavior and lifestyle<\/strong> (5).<\/p>\n

During the coaching sessions, the coach talks to the coachee to identify their reality and situation, and consider the barriers that prevent them from reaching their goal<\/strong>. In this way, the coachee<\/strong> becomes the protagonist and is responsible for their decisions. No one tells them what to do. They are free to make their own decisions during the process and choose what they want to change in their habits, and, most importantly, \u201cwhy\u201d they want to do this (Table 1).<\/p>\n

\"Nutritional
Table 1. The patient\u2019s role and the professional\u2019s role in the nutritional coaching model compared to the traditional model (4).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From a scientific standpoint, obesity<\/strong> and being overweight<\/strong> are considered recurrent phenomena. Relapses are very common because these problems are usually treated with dietary adjustments<\/strong> that do not take into account the psychological components and underlying inappropriate habits (6). In the nutritional coaching process, the following key elements stand out:<\/p>\n

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  1. Basic goal: weight loss and\/or the acquisition of habits for a healthy life<\/strong>.<\/li>\n
  2. Need for motivation<\/strong> towards change. Recognition of achievements.<\/li>\n
  3. Objectives: personalized, realistic, and agreed upon.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    However, a key element in any weight control<\/strong> process is the understanding and management of thoughts and behaviors that are associated with dietary behavior<\/strong>. These may interfere with weight loss, and it is precisely the analysis of thoughts and behaviors that determines the food intake that is chosen in the nutritional coaching<\/strong> process, which is completely different from other weight control processes (1, 5). Therefore, the nutritional coaching process will identify behaviors and\/or beliefs that may be interfering with the person\u2019s efforts to lose weight, such as eating with no limits after exercise, using food to cope with stress<\/strong>, feeling that dessert is a must after meals, etc.<\/p>\n

    During the coaching process, the coach creates a safe environment, in which there is no prejudice, allowing the exploration of the coachee\u2019s objectives through active listening and the use of open-ended questions. The coach takes into account (1, 4):<\/p>\n