Day in the life of a Weight Management Health Coach

 

If you saw my blog post back in August, you’ll know that I’ve got my first proper job! After graduating with a first class degree in dietetics, I’m now working as a health coach at a weight management company.

My job involves coaching groups of people via messages in a mobile phone app. This is quite different to the traditional clinical dietitian role, it’s not in a hospital for one, but I’ve always been interested in weight management and it’s utilising digital healthcare which is a growing area.

A bit more background before I get into my typical day, the people I coach are in groups as peer support can be really useful in helping people lose weight. The people in the programme have a daily article to read and usually have an activity to do based on the article. For example, there’s articles about exercise and some of the challenges include asking people to try and get some form activity in each day.

Here is my typical day:

8.30: I start work and use this time to check emails or any messages from my team.

8.45: I check on my groups and answer any questions people have sent since yesterday. I currently have 9 groups so there’s usually quite a few messages to reply to as people will continue discussing things after I sign out. I also ask a question about the daily article to encourage people to read it.

10.30: meeting time! As this role is remote, we have biweekly meetings to catch up with the team and chat about anything going on.

11.30: I check on my groups again and reply to any messages and give them support if needed. I get comments/questions like 'I'm struggling with fitting exercise in' or 'Is honey better than white sugar?' or 'the scales haven't moved this week, I'm so stressed'. 

12.30: lunch 😊

1.30: I check back with my groups, in the afternoon I usually ask how they got on with their activity or how they’re getting on with their goals and what they could do to enable their progress, or I make conversation about something completely random!

3.00: depending on how long it takes me to reply to messages I may have some time around 3 to do some reading. We have lots of resources for the members so I always want to make sure I know what’s available so I can best support them.

4.30: my final check in time with my groups to reply to messages and respond to any queries.

5.30: I finish for the day!

A key part of coaching is that I’m not telling people what to do, I’m helping them realise what changes they want to make and supporting them to do so. It’s asking questions like ‘how do you think you could incorporate physical activity into your routine?’ or ‘what strategies have worked for you in the past when dealing with stress?’ By them coming up with solutions, it means they’re more likely to make the changes and stick to them.

 

There’s so much you can do in dietetics that’s not the clinical role. If you’re considering studying dietetics, I hope this post gives you an idea of some of the other areas we can work!

I’m only at the start of my career in dietetics and I’m excited to see where this role takes me. I’ll keep you guys updated with my job and how I progress.

I hope you enjoyed this post. I'll be posting biweekly from November so subscribe to make sure you don't miss a post!

Bye for now! 👋