A Registered Dietitian with the College of Dietitians of Ontario, specializing in eating disorder recovery. Non-diet, weight-inclusive, and virtual across Ontario.
Lauren Hofstee is a Registered Dietitian, registered with the College of Dietitians of Ontario, who works specifically in eating disorder recovery and disordered eating. She is based in Guelph and her practice is entirely virtual, by secure video, so she works with people anywhere in Ontario. Her approach is non-diet and weight-inclusive: no weight-loss prescriptions, no meal plans built on restriction, and no judgment about how you eat right now. Every new client starts with a free introductory call.
Lauren came to eating disorder care early and deliberately rather than by accident. Before she was a dietitian she spent a year volunteering as a mealtime supervisor in a hospital eating disorder program, which is where she first saw how much of recovery happens quietly at a table, and how much difference it makes when the person sitting with you is calm and not afraid of the food. That is still the centre of how she works. She has also worked on the other end of the food conversation, coordinating a community food market and doing research on food insecurity, which is part of why she does not treat eating as a matter of willpower or good intentions. Access, cost, culture, and history all sit at the table too.
Lauren holds a Master of Applied Nutrition from the University of Guelph, completed in 2019, and a Bachelor of Applied Science in Applied Human Nutrition from the University of Guelph, completed in 2016. The Master of Applied Nutrition includes the supervised practical training required to become a dietitian in Ontario, across clinical, community, and management placements. She has been registered with the College of Dietitians of Ontario, the regulatory body for the profession in this province, since 2021, and holds a general certificate of registration in good standing.
In Ontario, Registered Dietitian and RD are protected titles. Only someone registered with the College of Dietitians of Ontario may use them, which means there is a required standard of education and supervised practice behind the name, along with a code of ethics and a public complaints process. Nutritionist, by contrast, is not a regulated title in Ontario, so anyone may use it regardless of training. This distinction is worth knowing about any practitioner, not just Lauren, and there is a fuller explanation of it in the guide to finding and choosing an eating disorder dietitian in Ontario.
You do not have to take anyone's word for a credential, including Lauren's. Under the Regulated Health Professions Act the College of Dietitians of Ontario is required to keep a register of its members and make it available to the public, and it shows each dietitian's registration status, category, and any restrictions or discipline history. You can search it here: the College of Dietitians of Ontario public register. Search the last name Hofstee, and you will find one entry. Looking up any dietitian you are considering, including this one, is a reasonable thing to do and it takes about a minute. Lauren's College registration number also appears on the receipts she issues, which is what an insurer needs for reimbursement.
Lauren has spent more than four years working as a Registered Dietitian at an eating disorder recovery centre in Toronto, alongside her own virtual practice. That is the work she does day in and day out: the nutrition side of recovery from anorexia, bulimia, binge eating, ARFID, orthorexia, and eating that does not fit a single label but has become frightening or exhausting. She works most often as one part of a team, with a client's therapist and family doctor, because eating disorder recovery is rarely a one-clinician job.
The approach is non-diet and weight-inclusive. In practice that means the goal is not a number on a scale, it is a quieter, more trusting relationship with food and your body, and the freedom that comes back with it. Sessions are conversation, not instruction. Depending on where you are, the work might be eating more regularly and adequately again, gently loosening food rules, making sense of hunger and fullness after years of ignoring them, or slowly taking the fear and the morality out of eating. The pace is yours, and progress is rarely a straight line, which is normal and not a failure.
This matters as much as the rest. Lauren does not prescribe weight-loss diets, detoxes, or restrictive meal plans, and she will not help you eat less as a goal in itself. She is not a therapist, so the psychological side of recovery belongs with a psychotherapist or psychologist, and she is glad to work alongside one. She is not a physician, so medical monitoring, bloodwork, and medical instability belong with your doctor, in person, and she will say so plainly if that is what is needed first. Virtual care is genuinely effective for nutrition counselling, and it is still not a substitute for medical oversight.
Adults and young people at every stage, from people who are years into recovery to people who have never said any of this out loud. Some come with a diagnosis and a treatment team, some come because eating has quietly taken over more of their life than they expected. She also works with parents supporting a child, students, athletes, and men, who are often left out of the conversation entirely. You do not have to be sick enough to deserve support.
Anywhere in Ontario. Because every session is by secure video, you are not limited to dietitians who happen to practise in your town, which matters a great deal in smaller communities and in the north, where an eating disorder dietitian can be hours away in person. There are pages for individual communities across the province under locations across Ontario, and a plain walkthrough of how virtual nutrition counselling works if you have never done an appointment by video. Lauren is registered in Ontario only, so she does not take clients living in other provinces.
You reach out, and the first thing is a free introductory call. It is a relaxed conversation, not an assessment, and there is nothing to prepare. The point of it is to see whether working together feels right, and it is completely fine to decide it does not. If you want to know what the first paid session involves, or what a dietitian costs in Ontario and how OHIP and insurance treat it, both are answered plainly elsewhere on this site, in the common questions and in the guide to cost and coverage.
Yes. Lauren is a Registered Dietitian registered with the College of Dietitians of Ontario, which is the regulatory body for the profession in Ontario. Registered Dietitian and RD are protected titles in the province, and her registration can be confirmed on the College's public register.
She is registered with the College of Dietitians of Ontario only. The dietitian title is regulated province by province in Canada, so her practice is limited to people in Ontario, and she does not take clients living in other provinces.
A Master of Applied Nutrition from the University of Guelph, completed in 2019, which includes the supervised practical training required for dietetic registration in Ontario, and a Bachelor of Applied Science in Applied Human Nutrition from the University of Guelph, completed in 2016.
Eating disorder recovery and disordered eating, including anorexia, bulimia, binge eating, ARFID, orthorexia, emotional eating, chronic dieting, and body image. She has spent more than four years working specifically in this area.
She is based in Guelph, Ontario, and all sessions are virtual, held by secure video. That means you can work with her from anywhere in the province, and there is no clinic to travel to.
No. She is a dietitian, so she works on the food and body side of recovery. The psychological side belongs with a psychotherapist or psychologist, and she is glad to work alongside one, with your consent, so your care stays connected.
No. You can reach out directly and start with a free introductory call. Therapists and physicians are also welcome to refer through the clinician referral pathway. Some insurance plans ask for a physician's note before they reimburse, which is a separate thing from needing a referral to book.
On this page. Everything here is Lauren's own professional record: her registration with the College of Dietitians of Ontario, her degrees from the University of Guelph, and her experience in eating disorder care. There are no client testimonials on this site, by choice, because recovery is private and no one should feel their story is being used to sell anything.
If anything on this page is unclear or out of date, please write to laurenhofstee.rd@gmail.com.
A relaxed conversation to see if working together feels right. Nothing to prepare, and no pressure in either direction.
Book a free intro callOr call (226) 407-8455
A clinician referring a patient? See the referral pathway for clinicians.