Nutrition Counseling for Weight Loss, Diabetes, and Chronic Disease

Eating well nourishes you and gives you fuel to live a healthy, active life. Virtua nutrition experts can guide you with personalized plans to help you reach your weight loss or health goals.

What’s the best diet to lose weight?

This is a million-dollar question, and the answer is as unique as you are. The best diet to lose weight is one that you enjoy, want to follow, and that helps you reach your goals.

You shouldn’t hate the food you eat or feel your diet is too strict.

Virtua registered dietitians work with you to understand your food preferences, exercise habits, lifestyle, and goals. Together, you’ll create a personalized plan designed specifically for you.

If your plan needs to include fast food or your favorite treat, it will! And we’ll give you real-life recommendations on the healthiest choices at your go-to restaurants.

We can even teach you how to eat a piece of chocolate so you learn to savor and enjoy its decadence without needing to eat a whole candy bar.

How does a healthy diet improve conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure, or GI disorders like celiac or Crohn’s disease?

Virtua registered dietitians understand diet’s crucial role in improving serious health conditions.

Depending on your condition, you might need to make dietary changes to feel better, ease symptoms, and avoid serious complications. This could include following a low-salt or low-sugar diet, or avoiding foods that worsen your symptoms.

We teach you how to track your food and symptoms, including how to use easy-to-navigate food-tracking phone apps. Then, we evaluate your diet and help you make adjustments to reduce or avoid triggers.

Our goal is to help you manage your medical condition successfully through diet changes without making you feel restricted or deprived.

Nutrition Counseling for Weight Loss, Diabetes, and Chronic Disease at Virtua

Virtua registered dietitians are your partners, working one-on-one with you to help you make the positive changes necessary to live your healthiest life.

Nutrition Coaching and Support for Weight Loss

We offer individual weight-loss coaching sessions to help you learn how to lose weight or eat healthier.

At your first appointment, your registered dietitian will get to know you. You’ll discuss your diet, exercise habits, personal goals, and what motivates you.

Your visit also includes:

• A personal nutrition assessment
• Body composition and metabolic rate analysis
• Discussion on the benefits of food tracking and how to do it
• Prioritization of your goals and the plan for achieving them

During your follow-up visits, we continue to evaluate your body composition and metabolic rate and discuss your successes and struggles.

Since weight loss is a journey, it’s realistic to expect ups and downs. We support you through your challenges and adjust your plan to help you overcome them. We also celebrate your successes and non-scale victories!

If you pursue weight-loss medications or bariatric surgery through our Complete Weight Management Program, we will help you make diet, nutrition, and behavior changes to support lifelong success. However, our registered dietitians do not prescribe weight-loss medications. These medications are only prescribed by our Virtua board-certified bariatric medicine specialists.

Diabetes Nutrition Counseling and Management

Our certified diabetes care and education specialists play a critical role in helping people manage diabetes through diet and education.

If you have diabetes, our team can help you with the following:

• Teach you basic information about diabetes and its management
• Help you understand and properly use diabetes technology (meters, insulin pens, pumps, and continuous glucose monitors) and teach you how to interpret data
• Help you adopt healthy eating habits through nutrition education, including meal planning and weight-loss strategies
• Work with you to develop problem-solving strategies and skills to self-manage diabetes
• Help you understand how your medications work, including side effects and dosages
• Teach you skills for handling stressful situations
• Determine if there are barriers that make it harder for you to access care and work with you to develop plans to overcome them

We also provide in-person and Facebook diabetes support groups moderated by Virtua diabetes nurse educators and registered dietitians.

If a primary care provider or endocrinologist refers you, we can share your plan and progress and make adjustments as needed.

Nutrition Counseling

If you’re managing a chronic disease, we can help you reach your individual nutrition goals and achieve a healthier lifestyle.

You’ll meet with a registered dietitian who understands your food preferences and health needs. We’ll help you make healthy choices and develop a unique nutrition strategy that fits your lifestyle.

We provide nutrition counseling for a range of medical conditions, including:

• Cancer
• Celiac disease
• Crohn's disease
• Dysphagia (trouble swallowing)
• Fatty liver disease
• Food allergies/sensitivities
• Gastrointestinal (GI) disorders
• Gastroparesis (paralysis of the stomach)
• Heart disease
• High blood pressure
• High cholesterol
• Inflammatory bowel disease
• Irritable bowel syndrome
• Kidney disease
• Menopause metabolism changes

Virtua Complete Weight Management Program

We know that losing weight is more than looking better—it’s about feeling better, inside and out.

Virtua’s Complete Weight Management Program is led by board-certified obesity medicine experts who deliver customized weight-loss approaches backed by science. This includes both FDA-approved weight-loss medications and bariatric surgery, allowing you to choose the option that works best for you. As part of the program, our dietitians offer personalized nutritional counseling to maximize your success.

Sports Nutrition

Athletes have different nutritional needs, whether playing competitive soccer or training to run a marathon.

Virtua registered dietitians can help you reach your peak performance. We can help you create an eating plan to support your goals, such as gaining muscle or improving endurance. We also help you learn what and when to eat to support your training and active days.