ABSTRACT
The dietary management of people with overweight and obesity remains one of today’s greatest healthcare challenges. Accurate assessment of weight status requires an office environment sensitive to the unique needs of patients with obesity. Medical nutrition therapy by the Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN) will include a comprehensive nutrition assessment to obtain, verify, and interpret data needed to identify nutrition-related problems, their causes, and significance. The RDN should assess food- and nutrition-related history, anthropometric measurements, biochemical data, medical tests and procedures, nutrition-focused physical findings, and client history in order to individualize the comprehensive weight management treatment. The first step in dietary assessment for weight management is to determine a patient’s energy needs. After dietary intervention and appropriate weight loss goals are determined with the patient, discussion about the intensity of the intervention is important. A number of dietary approaches have produced weight loss in the short term; however long-term maintenance of weight loss remains a critical challenge.
