u/Mei_Flower1996

Hi everyone,

I am thinking of getting into having steel cut oats for breakfast. They can take up to half an hour to cook, so I'm thinking of just setting them up to cook, and then while they simmer brushing my teeth/washing my face/combing my hair, etc. They can cook while I get ready.

Anybody else do this? Instead of making them the night before/soaking/instant pot ? I'm speaking of a weekday morning

Hi folks,
After taking a break for a few months, I'm getting back into hill runs. I do 2-3 runs a week in the hill in your yard, it's about 7-8 laps a mile. The front yard is flat but the back has a hill, so it's quite the workout!

Of course, I am sore the next day, since a hill run is a like a halfway point between cardio and strength training. I a 5'3.5" ,135 lb active woman. Since I workout or walk every day, my maintenance cals are about 2000-2100 a day. I find that the day I am most sore from a workout, if I do not only high protein, but a small calorie surplus ( 100-200 cals) I recover from the workout much faster. For example, if I run Monday, take a gap Tues and Wednesday, and then run Thursday. If I eat at maintenance Mon,Tues and Wed, I don't get a huge increase in speed/power on Thursday, even if I eat more protein.

But, if I eat just 100-200 extra calories Mon and Tuesday, along with higher protein ( I normally do about 70 grams a day, so this would be like 90-100 grams), my recovery is more robust, and my performance is better on the Thursday run.

Anyone else? This does make sense, as muscle repair takes energy, and making sure you have a bit extra energy so your body can divert what it needs to repair muscle, makes a lot of sense.

Hi Folks,

I am an almost 29 year old woman. I have been in shape off and on in my twenties. About 2 years ago I started losing weight, because I weighed 148 and wanted to slim down.

I did a couple of months of a small calorie deficit, taking 2 weeks to lose a lb. I basically did it from Late April to Late June. I then stopped for a few more months, then tried losing weight again from Oct through Jan. October I was easing into the Calorie deficit, then Nov , Dec, and early half of Jan I was in it. I was going to go until Feb, but once I got to around 134 lbs, I stared getting hit with STOP signals from my body, including serious hunger and fatigue during the day, and some insomnia. I always do at least one day a week to eat at maintenance, and will eat at a smaller deficit/no deficit on workout days if I feel like I need to.

I took a break for about a year. I gained a couple of pounds back, but I realized what was causing that. It turns out once you get older, eating 2-3 large meals a day and no snacks regulated your hunger much better than 3 meals and 2 snacks, which is what I had previously been doing. This past winter ( Dec 2025- Feb 2026, take a break for Ramadan which was in March, then April 2026) I do another calorie deficit. Everything is going smoothly...until I get to early May. Intense hunger related insomnia, more so than daytime fatigue and excess hunger.

Both times I had to stop the weight loss prematurely, I noticed one thing. It's once I get to the 134/135 lb mark. I am literally just trying to get to 130 flat, which is still on the upper end of normal, so I always felt like that would be achievable. But, it seems it is not. My body seems to get "stuck " at 134 and does not want to go lower. I am looking into body recomp, because I still have a belly pooch that I am sick of looking at. I am Pakistani American, if that means anything. I do have a "wider" built, but the normal BMI range for my height is from like 110lbs -145 lbs, so 130 is still on the upper end of normal.

Anyone else have a similar issue? A weight " set point" that's on the upper end of normal, that you feel you should be able to reduce but can't?

Hi folks,

I posted about finishing my Bachelor's in Biology ( bioinformatics concentration) in 2019. After that I applied to medical school and worked part time as a medical scribe. When I was in college I did mostly pre-med stuff, because I could never land a position in a research lab.

Got into medical school. From late 2020-mid 2022 I was in medical school, it did not work out.

Realize I have a 3 year gap in resume. At the time, many people who did not complete medical school went back to school for a Master's. It "closes the gap" and has the potential to make you more employable. I did my Master's in Bioinformatics, finished in Dec 2024. I ended with a co-op but I couldn't be hired after because of funding issues with the study I was working in.

Applying for jobs, including 'biology' type jobs that use the lab skills I did learn during the college coursework. They are a little rusty but I am sure I can be retrained- these are "research tech jobs" that include on the job training, but I am nervous I forgot how to hold a pipette or there will be some niche question during the interview that I won't be able to answer. I had to learn skills much faster before ie during my co-op I had to teach myself totally new software, so it's not like I'm a slow learner, I just want to shorten the learning curve as much as possible so I can hit the ground running during training.

Can youtube videos help with that? Are there lab technique videos I can watch that will allow me to recall the basic and remember little tricks to pipetting, etc.

edit: Asking this question was more about finding out if this would be useful at all or a waste of time. Not so much that I can't search youtube myself lol.

Hi folks,

I finished my Bachelor's in Biology ( bioinformatics concentration) in 2019. After that I applied to medical school and worked part time as a medical scribe. When I was in college I did mostly pre-med stuff, because I could never land a position in a research lab.I am in this odd position where I have my BS in Biology and my MS in Bioinformatics, but almost no research experience.

Got into medical school. From late 2020-mid 2022 I was in medical school, it did not work out.

Realize I have a 3 year gap in resume. At the time, many people who did not complete medical school went back to school for a Master's. It "closes the gap" and has the potential to make you more employable. I did my Master's in Bioinformatics, finished in Dec 2024. I ended with a co-op but I couldn't be hired after because of funding issues with the study I was working in.

Since then, no job. The Bioinformatics industry has pivoted heavily to preferring PhD's, but it's also that there are just fewer jobs in this in general. I can't get a job as a Data Analyst, or anything that's somewhat related to my Master's.

My next role is applying like crazy to entry level research jobs that I could have gotten with my biology degree ( Lab Tech, etc). There are more of these roles than there are bioinformatics roles.

Initially, people kept suggesting I do a PhD. I initially resisted it because I am sick of taking classes, but also because the last time I did a doctoral program it didn't go so well. But, people suggest a PhD like it's not big deal after doing a Master's, which confused the heck out of me.

But, the more I think of potentially not utilizing my Master's at all, the more upset I get about it. I looked into this, and it turns out if you choose the right PhD program, you can transfer/waive out/ whatever term you want to use most of the coursework requirements, so you only have ,like, 12 credits of classes left. You can also chose a program where you earn your stipend through research rather than TA'ing ( I was a TA during my Master's and really struggled with grading efficiently, so I don't want do that again). After that, it's not too different from an intense research job.

Is this possible? Can someone please describe if they did something similar, a PhD after a Master's, but with most of the coursework waived with the work they did during the Master's?

Since I have no research experience, my first move is to still land a Research Tech job or the like, and work for about a year before starting the application process. But I'm almost not as averse to the idea of a PhD, now.partially because I got a C+ in one of my final classes, making my GPA around a 3.4, so I don't think I could get into a solid mid-tier program without some research experience.

Thoughts? Experiences?

Hi folks,

I finished my Bachelor's in Biology ( bioinformatics concentration) in 2019. After that I applied to medical school and worked part time as a medical scribe. When I was in college I did mostly pre-med stuff, because I could never land a position in a research lab.I am in this odd position where I have my BS in Biology and my MS in Bioinformatics, but almost no research experience.

Got into medical school. From late 2020-mid 2022 I was in medical school, it did not work out.

Realize I have a 3 year gap in resume. At the time, many people who did not complete medical school went back to school for a Master's. It "closes the gap" and has the potential to make you more employable. I did my Master's in Bioinformatics, finished in Dec 2024. I ended with a co-op but I couldn't be hired after because of funding issues with the study I was working in. I am i the Boston area.

Since then, no job. The Bioinformatics industry has pivoted heavily to preferring PhD's, but it's also that there are just fewer jobs in this in general. I can't get a job as a Data Analyst, or anything that's somewhat related to my Master's. Bioinformatics, computational biology, data analysis, those types of jobs.

My next role is applying like crazy to entry level research jobs that I could have gotten with my biology degree ( Research tech, etc). There are more of these roles than there are bioinformatics roles.

Initially, people kept suggesting I do a PhD. I initially resisted it because I am sick of taking classes, but also because the last time I did a doctoral program it didn't go so well. But, people suggest a PhD like it's not big deal after doing a Master's, which confused the heck out of me.

But, the more I think of potentially not utilizing my Master's at all, the more upset I get about it. I looked into this, and it turns out if you choose the right PhD program, you can transfer/waive out/ whatever term you want to use most of the coursework requirements, so you only have ,like, 12 credits of classes left. You can also chose a program where you earn your stipend through research rather than TA'ing ( I was a TA during my Master's and really struggled with grading efficiently, so I don't want do that again). After that, it's not too different from an intense research job.

Is this possible? Can someone please describe if they did something similar, a PhD after a Master's, but with most of the coursework waived with the work they did during the Master's?

Since I have no research experience, my first move is to still land a Research Tech job or the like, and work for about a year before starting the application process. But I'm almost not as averse to the idea of a PhD, now.partially because I got a C+ in one of my final classes, making my GPA around a 3.4, so I don't think I could get into a solid mid-tier program without some research experience.

Thoughts? Experiences?

Hi folks,

I finished my Bachelor's in Biology ( bioinformatics concentration) in 2019. After that I applied to medical school and worked part time as a medical scribe. When I was in college I did mostly pre-med stuff, because I could never land a position in a research lab.

Got into medical school. From late 2020-mid 2022 I was in medical school, it did not work out.

Realize I have a 3 year gap in resume. At the time, many people who did not complete medical school went back to school for a Master's. It "closes the gap" and has the potential to make you more employable. I did my Master's in Bioinformatics, finished in Dec 2024. I ended with a co-op but I couldn't be hired after because of funding issues with the study I was working in.

Since then, no job. The Bioinformatics industry has pivoted heavily to preferring PhD's, but it's also that there are just fewer jobs in this in general. I can't get a job as a Data Analyst, or anything that's somewhat related to my Master's.

So, despite the fact that my Biology Bachelor's is 7 years old, I have been applying to entry level "biology" jobs. Lab tech, etc. I will say it's possible my resume needs a bit of work, because it was, initially, more geared towards computational roles. One role I literally got referred for by one of my previous bosses and still got rejected ! What gives, bro!

Now, I am spiraling. When I did not complete medical school in 2022, I wish I had known that the right move was to simply enter the biology job market while it was still hot. I did not know investing time and money in the Bioinformatics Master's would get me nowhere, and would only allow my college skills to degrade, and cause me to miss the train on when the job market was good. I really should have just tried to get a job back then. I'm really spiraling these days, to be honest. Crashed out really hard yesterday.

If only I had known starting medical school and not finishing it would land me here.

Any thoughts?

Hi folks,

I have the Bialetti 2 cup venus. I have made various latte-style and corrtado style coffee drinks with it. I normally do "cortado" style drinks with 1/4 cup whole milk per round of output, or "latte" style with 1/3rd cup 2% milk with the 2 cup's output.

It works pretty well with vanilla, maple syrup and salt, etc.

My only catch is, I can't get mocha lattes to come out right.

I use the "Coop's Original Hot Fudge: Gourmet, All Natural, Handcrafted," sauce, 1/3d cup 2% milk per moka pot output. I melt the fudge into the coffee and heat and froth the milk separately. I use 2 tsp of fudge per drink, should it be 1 tbsp?

How do you guys make Mocha lattes with Moka pot coffee?

Edit. What I'm really asking is how you guys make Mocha flavored coffee drinks. Specifically the chocolate coffee flavor. What do you use to achieve the "chocolate " aspect of the drink flavor?

Hi folks,

I am in the habit of peeling most fruits. I used to have oral allergy syndrome when I had spring allergies as a child/teen/young adult , so because I would get symptoms from apples and peaches, I got into the habit of peeling them.

This ended up extending to most produce, including plums, as a precaution.

I have since outgrown the hayfever, but I still don't like the texture of most fruit peels. Most fruit has plenty of fiber, even without the peel. So I still peel plums, peaches, pears , etc.

Lately I have been on a weight-loss journey, and have decided to keep the skins on for extra fiber because fiber is very important to minimize hunger. I realize I really dislike the taste of plum peels- they overpower the sweet/floral taste of the fruit and are just too tannic and tart.

Lately I have been cooking plums because of the parasite going around. I thought, while I like cooked peaches and honestly prefer apples cooked, they don't taste very good cooker.

I realized the issue was the peel. When you cook the peel it makes the whole cooked plum mixture taste way too tannic and not sweet and mild at all. I'm like " Why are cooked plums so mid? how am I going to enjoy this box of plums from costco mid parasitic outbreak?"

It was the damn peel.

Anyone else?

Title

People say Biology lab work is repetitive. I don't disagree, but I feel like all STEM jobs are like that , to a degree. During my co-op, I worked in writing a software tool using Docker. That was also repetitive. I feel like same could be said for engineering jobs.

Thoughts?

Edit: I should have specified entry level jobs.

Hi folks,

Trying to lose a bit more weight. Doing a 300cal/day deficit. Usually working fine.

The issue is sometimes in the 24 hrs after I do a run, I'm so hungry despite meeting my carb/protein goals, that I can't sleep. I have to break deficit slightly, by eating a carby snack before bed. So , normally breaking by about 100 cals.

I don't fret about it too much. There are a lot of factors that make it so your body's energy needs would actually change day-to-day. A phase in your monthly cycle , the 24-48 hours after a hard workout. There are also other things related to calories, some say you don't always absorb every calorie you eat, or that food calorie counts aren't totally accurate.

Hi folks,

I spoke about finishing my Bachelor's in 2019, taking a gap year as a scribe, and then being in medschool for over 1.5 years and it not working out. I got my Master's in Bioinformatics in Dec 2024. Since then.... no job. I am now pivoting to "standard" biology jobs I could have gotten with my bachelor's. When I was pre-med, I did mostly pre-med activities, so I don't have lab experience. I am applying to entry level roles and am really trying to make myself stand out by writing cover letter's for every position, stating what I like about the lab's research and how I would like to be a part of it.

Some research roles literally don't mention a lab or PI. They just say " the Research assistant will ( tasks)." How am I supposed to write a CL then? It makes me not want to apply, I feel like it's a ghost posting.

Anyone else?

edit: I do apply to those jobs by attaching my resume. It's just that I can't write a cover letter when I don't know what research topic the lab entails, and because my resume is not exactly lab oriented, it makes me feel like applying to them is a waste but I do apply.

Hi folks,

I spoke about finishing my Bachelor's in 2019, taking a gap year as a scribe, and then being in medschool for over 1.5 years and it not working out. I got my Master's in Bioinformatics in Dec 2024. Since then.... no job. I am now pivoting to "standard" biology jobs I could have gotten with my bachelor's. When I was pre-med, I did mostly pre-med activities, so I don't have lab experience. I am applying to entry level roles and am really trying to make myself stand out by writing cover letter's for every position, stating what I like about the lab's research and how I would like to be a part of it.

Some research roles literally don't mention a lab or PI. They just say " the Research assistant will ( tasks)." How am I supposed to write a CL then? It makes me not want to apply, I feel like it's a ghost posting.

Anyone else?

I made the above post about having a gap between my Biology BS and my Bioinformatics MS. I am currently trying to enter the job market, and I am realizing beginning in a more "typical" biology job may be how I can do so. I am applying to roles as a Lab Tech or Research Assistant I.

I have heard that many people with a slightly "dated" degree simply omit their graduation year. I am thinking of omitting my college graduation year. I was initially wary of doing so, because my wet lab skills are, indeed, rusty, so I was thinking it may be suspicious. I am aware entry level jobs have on-site training, and each lab does things a bit differently anyway, so some skills degradation is not the end of the world for a lab tech job.

I am also thinking that my master's was more computational, and was two years long, and I have been unemployed for over a year. This 3 year gap would cause anyone to have a bit of a skill degradation, even if they finished college right before.

Thoughts? Would this benefit me? I would still list my Master's as 2024, but have no year for my Bacherlor's.

Hi everyone,

I finished my Bachelor's in Biology in 2019. After that , I was premed for a while working as a medical scribe, and was in medschool for about 1 year. It...did not work out. I am in MA, so the job market for Life Sciences is generally good.

I had an over 2 year gap on my resume, so I went back to school to get my Master's in Bioinformatics. I finished the Master's in Dec 2024 with a co-op. I was not hired after the co-op because of funding related issues.

Since then, I have been unemployed. Obviously, the market was totally frozen in 2025. Now, it is is gradually unfreezing in 2026. I am applying to Bioinfo/computational biology roles, as well as Data Analyst type roles. Things that use my Master's.

I have been debating whether or not I should seriously apply to standard entry level biology jobs. There are more of those than Bioinfo jobs, but not many since companies don't really do entry level these days. That leaves just academic institutions, so there are fewer roles than there should be, but still more than Bioinfo.

Do I have a chance with how old my Bachelor's is? If I start in a more wet-lab environment, can this get my foot in the door for an eventual bioinformatics type role? There are two ways to look at this: On one hand, if I start with a wet-lab job at an academic institution, that can get my foot in the door, and I can land a more bioinformatics type job when the opportunity arises. On the other hand, if I get a wet lab job using just my biology degree, I may be "locked in" to similar jobs, and not use my Master's at all. During my bachelor's , I did more pre-med type activities, rather than research experience.

Any ideas? Any personal stories?

Edit: I just realized... is it allowed for me to omit when I finished college? Do I need to write " 2019" for my BS degree? Could the rust lab skills be explained by the MS being more computational, and taking 2 years time? I did always know this was an option, but I worried that ,in my case, my lab skills have degraded a bit.

Hi everyone,

I finished my Bachelor's in Biology in 2019. After that , I was premed for a while working as a medical scribe, and was in medschool for about1 year. It...did not work out. I am in MA, so the job market for Life Sciences is generally good.

I had an over 2 year gap on my resume, so I went back to school to get my Master's in Bioinformatics. I finished the Master's in Dec 2024 with a co-op. I was not hired after the co-op because of funding related issues.

Since then, I have been unemployed. Obviously, the market was totally frozen in 2025. Now, it is is gradually unfreezing in 2026. I am applying to Bioinfo/computational biology roles, as well as Data Analyst type roles. Things that use my Master's.

I have been debating whether or not I should seriously apply to standard entry level biology jobs. There are more of those than Bioinfo jobs, but not many since companies don't really do entry level these days. That leaves just academic institutions, so there are fewer roles than there should be, but still more than Bioinfo.

Do I have a chance with how old my Bachelor's is? Does anyone have a similar story?

edit: "Chance" not "Change" darnit.

Title.

Back when I graduated undergrad in 2019, a gap of employment of more than a year after graduating raised eyebrows, especially more than 1.5 years. This was because even if you didn't really do any resume builders in college, you could get an entry level job without much issue. Not a great job, not a fantastic job, but a job to get your foot in the door.

With the frozen job market in 2025, many people are unemployed for a year or more. Is this changing employer's perspective on this kind of thing? Is this still the red flag that it used to be?

Hi everyone,

I am an adult now ( 28F) , but my youngest brother is in high school. I went, and my brother currently goes, to a competitive MA public high school. I regularly had 3+ hrs of homework a night before even getting to AP classes. This wasn't too big of a deal, as I had light after school activities. Only UNICEF ,which met once a week for like an hr, and Science Team, that had a more involved meet once a month from Oct-April. No sports or anything.

One thing my high school did was that about half of my honors levels classes had a syllabus. The syllabus detailed hw, tests, projects that were coming up. This was mainly designed for people who did time consuming afterschool stuff, ( so they don't come home at 6 PM with all their HW waiting for them) , but I'm realizing I would have hated high school a lot less if I had used those syllabi to get a bit ahead on the HW on the weekend, so I didn't have quite as much to do afterschool. Because while I 'technically had time' I'm realizing I hated doing more than 2 ish hours of HW when I had classes all day, and then having wayyy more time Fri/Sat/Sun.

Ironically, this practice stopped when I got to my AP classes. I did STEM AP's, so HW was assigned but never checked, and your grade was mostly tests and lab reports. Lab reports, we had about a week to do them. Tests would be announced like two days in advance! The idea was you stayed on top of HW on your own, so it didn't need to be checked, and it wasn't a part of your grade. If you did stay on top of HW, you would be "ready" for the tests. I would wonder, if these are AP's ( with harder tests that are actually worth of your grade, like 5% of your grade per test) , why did we not have a syllabus? I then realized it was because the assumption was that people who took more than 1 AP would have minimal afterschool stuff, and the "syllabus" was more for people with heavy afterschool schedules.

Anyway. I'm wondering if you guys have that, because it is one thing that makes high school a bit more manageable.

ASA Ladies,

I have been HIjabi for many years, since about age 13, I am almost 29. Since I was about 14, my default option for outfits was "long shirts" ( a top that is long enough to cover the hips/bottom, or hit at might thigh) and pants that were loose-ish ie not skinny jeans but typical jeans or chinos ie fitted on the thigh loose on the bottom leg. Most of them were these stretchy rayon tunics I'd get from JJill, not the most fashionable. The others were basically short dresses back when longsleeves/short skirt dresses were easy to find. Kind of like a Western version of Shalwar Kameez.

I'd literally been thinking of adding long skirts to my rotation for like 6 years. That way I can do a "regular " shirt and still cover my bottom/hips/thighs. Additionally, covering the shape of my legs is a nice bonus. They also look so much more pretty and feminine.

I guess the reason I had been dragging my feet was thinking that I would find the double layer of fabric on my legs hot/uncomfortable (as us Hijiabis generally wear a layer to cover our legs under the skirt, of course), and that I am not graceful enough to move in one without making a fool of myself ie tripping or not being able to climb stairs. I have not given up pants, I have simply been wearing them less.

I have found that they are surprisingly easy to move in. To the point where if I wore a skirt a couple of inches above my ankle, and it had ample wiggle room and some flexible fabric, that I think I could even run in one. My modest athletic wear is basically cotton athletic pants and a simple cotton kurta, so basically shalwar kameez. I feel like a long athletic skirt would be even more modest. Apparently, these do exist.

Have any of you ladies worn long athletic skirts? Are they easy to move in? Can you run in them?

Hi folks

I finished my Master's in bioinformatics in Dec 2024. I still don't have a job. I have wanted to a more software dev type bioinformatics role, so I bounced around learning Java and trying to work on my own personal projects ( Bioinformatics projects are so hard to reverse engineer...). I have currently landed on taking the Clinical Data Science Specialization offered by Coursera to try to get that certificate under my belt, and I'm realizing projects working with the playground patient data sets may be easier for me to achieve to add to my resume since I have been slowly progressing on anything else. Maybe I am just slow or maybe this is normal. I am not sure.

If is possible to start out with a more health informatics type role, and then eventually transition into a more "software writing" type role?

Also, has anyone here been out of a job for over a year and still landed one? Similar question, did anyone who finished school in 2025 land a job? At all?