Diet & nutrition
Eat and move in a way that lasts
General, evidence-based advice on food, activity and the habits around them — given by a doctor, in writing, with the reasoning explained. No prescription, no products to buy, and no promises the evidence will not support.
Fully online. Video consultation with Dr Qurbain, medication dispensed to your door, and no need to travel anywhere.
Know what you should be doing, and still not doing it?
If any of these sound familiar, this consultation was built for you.
You do not need another rule. You need a plan that survives a normal week.
You want the reasoning explained, not just the instruction.
You would rather be measured than guess.
You want advice you can keep, in writing.
Advice is only useful if it is honest about what it is.
This is an advisory service. It gives general evidence-based guidance on diet quality, energy balance, portion and meal structure, activity type and volume, behavioural strategies, sleep and alcohol — and it sets realistic goals with you rather than handing you a plan to fail at.
It is not dietetics, and it is not specialist nutritional therapy. Where either is what you actually need, saying so and referring you is the right outcome. The list of things this service deliberately does not do is further down the page, and it is worth reading before you book.
How it works
Four steps, all from home
Measured, not estimated
Height and weight measured during the video consultation where that is feasible, so your BMI is calculated rather than self-reported. Waist circumference where it can be measured reliably.
The full picture
Weight history and what has happened before, a typical day of eating and the context around it, current activity and any physical limits, relevant conditions, medicines that affect weight or appetite, mood and body image, alcohol.
Screening that is not optional
Eating disorder screening at the first consultation for everyone, and again at every review. Where features are present a validated tool is used and the result recorded.
Written advice you keep
Advice is given in writing after each consultation — so you have the record, and so any other clinician can see exactly what was advised. A review interval is agreed with you, typically four to twelve weeks.
The activity target, in plain numbers
This is the UK Chief Medical Officers’ guidance for adults. Advice is graded to where you are now, not to where a guideline says you should be.
150 min
Moderate activity a week
Brisk walking, cycling, anything that leaves you warm and slightly breathless but able to talk.
or 75 min
Vigorous activity a week
Running, swimming hard, sport. Interchangeable with the moderate target, or mixed.
2+ days
Muscle strengthening
On two or more days a week. Carrying, stairs and bodyweight work all count.
Less
Time spent sitting
Reducing sedentary time matters in its own right, separately from hitting the targets above.
What this service does
Advice given
- Diet quality, energy balance, portion and meal structure
- Activity type and volume, graded to your current capacity
- Behavioural strategies, sleep and alcohol
- Realistic goal-setting, with a moderate and sustainable rate of change
- Support alongside weight-management treatment where you are having it
How it is given
- Video consultation with a doctor
- In writing after every consultation
- Consistent with NICE and UK Chief Medical Officers’ guidance
- Supplements only where there is an evidence-based reason, at licensed doses, recorded as advice
- Your GP told where a red flag, an abnormal measurement or a concern is found
The activity target, in plain numbers
The UK Chief Medical Officers’ guidance for adults is 150 minutes of moderate activity a week, or 75 minutes of vigorous activity, plus muscle-strengthening on two or more days. The old rule that activity only counted in ten-minute blocks has been removed — it all counts, and reducing the time you spend sitting matters in its own right. Advice is graded to where you are now, not to where a guideline says you should be.
When we stop and refer instead
Side effects, and what to do about them
Read
Some findings mean advice is the wrong response and assessment is the right one.
- Unintentional weight loss — referred to your GP for assessment before any advice about weight is given
- Symptoms suggesting undiagnosed diabetes, thyroid disease, coeliac disease or cancer
- Chest pain, breathlessness on minimal exertion, blackouts or palpitations on exercise — no advice to increase activity; referred for cardiac assessment
- Malnutrition, frailty, or significant nutrient deficiency
- A BMI or complication picture needing specialist weight management — referred
- Significant low mood, self-harm or suicidal thoughts — escalated and supported
What this service does not do
Who this service cannot treat, and why
Read
This list is deliberate. Each of these needs a different kind of clinician or has no evidence behind it, and offering it anyway would not be doing you a favour.
- Therapeutic diets for clinical conditions needing dietetic management — kidney disease, inflammatory bowel disease, coeliac disease, swallowing difficulty, tube feeding, type 1 diabetes, pregnancy-specific nutrition
- Food allergy or intolerance — not diagnosed or managed here, and allergy testing is not arranged
- Unlicensed, unregulated or high-dose supplements, or any product without an evidence base — not recommended and not supplied
- Very low calorie or total diet replacement programmes — not offered
- Food intolerance panels, hair mineral analysis, microbiome tests sold as diagnostic — not offered, because they do not do what they are marketed as doing
- Advice to anyone under 18
- Advice to anyone with an eating disorder — an absolute exclusion, whatever your BMI
- Weight-loss advice in pregnancy — referred to maternity and GP care
- Crash dieting — not supported, and we will say so
Where an eating disorder is present or suspected, no weight-loss advice is given. That is a safety rule, not a judgement. We tell you why, refer you to your GP for proper assessment, and notify them the same working day.
Reviewed against your goals
The full review and monitoring schedule
Read
A review interval is agreed with you and recorded — typically four to twelve weeks. At each review: your progress against the goals you set, your weight, what you have managed and what got in the way, a repeat of the eating disorder screen, and a reassessment of the red flags. Where no progress is being made and a clinical cause is suspected, the answer is referral rather than more intensive advice.
Before any advice about weight
Screening for disordered eating happens at the first consultation for everyone, and again at every review.
Is there an eating disorder present or suspected?
If there is
No weight-loss advice is given, whatever your BMI. That is a safety rule, not a judgement. We tell you why, refer you to your GP for proper assessment, and notify them the same working day.
If there is not
Advice proceeds, with the screen repeated at every review and red flags reassessed each time.
Our approach follows current national guidance. See the guidelines we work to.
Initial consultation
Your initial consultation is paid when you book, before the consultation, and is charged whether or not treatment is prescribed. A follow-up review is paid when it happens, and only if you or your doctor decide you need one.
Joining the waiting list is free. Medicine, if prescribed, is bought separately from the dispensing pharmacy and its cost is confirmed with you before you pay for each supply.
Video consultation with the doctor, measured assessment, eating disorder screening, and written advice after every consultation. This service does not prescribe, so there is no medication cost.