r/dietetics

I think my cat has prader willie syndrome.

He’s going to be 5 in a couple months and he has always been a feral in hunger guy. He can never get enough. He is fixed. He’s on a timed automatic feeder with 3 regular meals and 2-3 small snacks a day (2+ portions = meal, 1 portion = snack). Here lately, he has been BEGGING for food like he has NEVER done before. Like he’s legit howling and being a menace. I noticed it getting worse maybe about a month or three weeks ago? It’s bad enough that I have to lock him out whenever I have food because he will literally steal it from my hands. He stole bread out of my pantry!! And bagels!! The feeder IS working. It dispenses multiple times a day and it is halfway full so the food is going SOMEWHERE.

Has anyone experienced this? I’m putting it here because I thought as RDs we’d at least get a kick out of it.

I will be posting it to a cat thread as well. This post is mainly just for humor and maybe someone can relate.

I really hate bariatric surgery 😭 I’ll support any patient through anything they need, but the more bariatric patients I see, the more I just think it’s a downright bad decision to go through with the surgery. I have someone now who is s/p duodenal switch AND on a GLP-1. what do you mean I need to somehow meet a 120 G protein goal when you can only tolerate 2 oz of intake at a time 😭😭😭 am I alone in this?

I signed up for an email list to get access to patient education materials to give to a patient and it made me enter a phone number and email. The handout was not as advertised, It turned out to be a promo for a program, not patient education. I then started getting annoying text messages promoting the program. I previously thought it was a pretty reputable company and thought it would be a cool place to work someday. But now I am not comfortable with the pushy and misleading marketing tactics. Yeah it may be standard but I had higher hopes for this company. I don’t think they need this pushy marketing

I think it’s a good idea to try out the patient experience if you can to see if you’re comfortable with the company before applying, especially to these Telehealth companies.

PS is this showing up as an Ask Mee any thing. (Writing that way so it doesn’t default to it) Reddit seems to have been defaulting for all my posts lately in any Reddit.

I recently received a job offer from a local parks and rec department, and I'm looking for some advice/opinions from other RDs. The position seemed really nice based on the job description, but after the interview, some things felt a little questionable to me.

For context, I'm a new-grad RD who recently graduated and passed the RD exam, so I don't have any previous RD job experience.

The position was marketed as a great part-time opportunity. I initially assumed "part-time" would mean something like 20 hours/week, but it turned out to be quite different.

The director of the parks and rec district noticed a need for a dietitian because many participants in their programs have questions about nutrition. Most of their clientele are older adults, and many of them have chronic conditions such as diabetes and kidney disease.

The responsibilities sounded great initially. I would be expected to:
- Provide individualized nutrition assessments and counseling
 - Develop meal plans and dietary recommendations
 - Create nutrition education materials
 - Teach nutrition classes and workshops
 - Give presentations on healthy eating and nutrition

Honestly, I was excited about the position because I love the idea of a parks and rec department recognizing that their community needs access to an RD.

However, this is where I became hesitant.
I was told that I would only be paid for the time I spend teaching classes, conducting nutrition assessments/sessions, and "a few hours" of creating nutrition education materials.
The part that really stood out to me was that I would only be paid for the time spent creating educational materials if I sign away all rights to those materials and agree that I can never use the handouts, presentations, or other materials for my own use in any way.

I also asked how many hours per week I should realistically expect to be scheduled, but I wasn't given a clear answer. The only explanation I received was that their budget is low. Based on the conversation, I'm now thinking this could realistically be only 5–10 hours/week, which is much less than I was expecting and probably isn't enough for me to make the position worthwhile. it’s almost like it could be supplemental to a full time job which i am not looking for right now

Would love to get some advice from fellow RDs! thoughts, concerns? anything i should negotiate or consider?

The pay range is $22–28/hour..

I'm torn because I really like the idea of the position and the population I'd be working with, and I'm trying to get my foot in the door with community/private practice-type work. At the same time, I don't want to accept something that ends up being extremely limited in hours or has questionable expectations around unpaid work and ownership of materials.

I know I'm in a somewhat different position as a new grad because I'm REALLY trying to get any job or experience outside of clinical, so I don't want to turn down an opportunity just because it isn't perfect. But I also don't want to undervalue myself or agree to something that isn't sustainable.

Would really appreciate hearing what more experienced RDs think!

I’ve been an inpatient dietitian for about 4 years. I think I’ve lost the art of giving good patient education lol! This might sound horrible but I find myself not really caring about it while giving it, and then leaving the room being like I’m not sure the patient got anything out of that at all. And I don’t like that at all!! Any suggestions or tips?

As the title says - I'm looking to change careers in my mid-30s and have always been passionate about food and nutrition. It would be a tough segue, having to go back to uni to retrain and an initial massive loss in earnings (assume id have to start as NHS band 5).

Please share your feedback - the good/bad/ugly about your experience please! Thank you

hello everyone!! i was looking for some advice on how to get into this profession. i am one of the people who have discovered their passions somewhat later in life but i am still young enough to make a career switch make sense. I currently hold a master's degree in social work but through life experiences, schooling and early career, i realized that this profession is not something i feel fulfilled by. I am a type one diabetic and in the last 6 years, i went through tremendous personal growth and acceptance. I lost 120 pounds, accepted my diagnosis and have found a passion for health, nutrition and helping people understand how food and movement impact our bodies and life. I hope to become a certified diabetes educator one day to help people in my situation but i know that is a destination for a long journey.

I was hoping for general advice on what to do. I plan to enroll in a ACEND accredited post-bacc program but it seems like i need to complete a degree's worth of classes since my degrees are not science based. What would you all do in my situation? thank you everyone!!

I’m a registered dietitian and I’m looking for any training or resources to specialize in women’s health (fertility, pmos, endometriosis, pregnancy etc.) there are a few online programs i found but I wanna make sure I have all the resources before choosing one specific program… can anyone help?

Hi everyone,

New RD in clinical for about one month now. I'm wondering what approach everyone takes to talk about NFPEs when you are about to perform one during an assessment? I want to explain why I am doing one, but want to make sure it comes across in a sensitive way that does not make them feel uncomfortable given recent wt loss. Thank you in advance!

I am a newer dietitian who was approved with my state LDN license in PA September 2025. I swear everywhere I read online says the renewal is every two years, but I got an email from the state board of nursing my license needs to be renewed by the end of this September marking one year. I thought ok that's fine, but it's also telling me to submit 30 CEU's and 2 CEU's for child abuse... I was under the impression these were due after two years!!??? I'm so stressed because I now have a month and two weeks to somehow cram all of this in without losing my license, unless there is some error I need to work out. Are there any LDN's in PA who can let me know if this is correct that all of this is due after one year? I only have like 5-10 CEU's right now, my current job doesn't help with them, so I was pushing them off a little to save $ as I'm looking for a new job that will help support me with the cost of them. I need ideas on how to get all my CEU's done fast (and cheap), I'm sooo stressed I actually feel sick over this. And for the state CEU's, I don't even know how these get submitted?

I am a third year dietetics student. I love everything nutrition and physiology. So many people in my family are doubting my career choice because of the average pay as an RD. However, I hear from sooooo many people that this career is going to skyrocket within the next decade. I have ignored my family obviously and stayed on my path. I am not someone who can afford to live a “comfortable life” with an income under 100K. I have been raised in a very financially unstable household and it’s not something I will do to myself or my kids. I want to own a business, private practice, obesity and diabetes consulting, whatever it is that will bring me to the 90th percentile of dietitians. Any RDs willing to give some advice? Any side jobs, hustles, or new routes I can take with a dietetics degree that will push me over that threshold? Any helpful information is appreciated!

Anyone know of one? Patients have asked for this so they can track just one nutrient or macro and not see calories, but I don’t know of one.

I have some free time so i've been doing lots of ceus in a day like 7-10 total ceu hours. When i upload it to MyCDR will they think its sus that i completed that many hours of ceu in one day? I skip a lot of the webinars because they get boring and idk if thats wrong of me to do

Hello RDs I'm currently studying for the cnsc exam in the fall. I find myself especially struggling with the research section. (Also, peds.) I have the ASPEN self assessment modules however can't really find any practice questions on research.

Can anyone shed insights on what are the questions they will ask, and how to prepare/ study for them? Thank you.

P.s. It took me a whole afternoon just to learn how to read a forest plot and still I can't really interpret it well. I feel very discouraged.

I am a solo private practice RD who has taken a mix of insurance (with a contracted biller for my practice and some 1099 clients) and private pay clients. I am pregnant and planning to return from my maternity leave part time and private pay. I am in the process of transitioning out my insurance clients, but I am NERVOUS to become all private pay. I am doing it because I do not want to mess with billing or even the work that comes with working with a biller (reviewing everything) once I am postpartum and a mama. I want to make more with less time being part-time.

Are there any other private pay only RD's? It seems like the field has shifted sooo much recently with all of the telehealth platforms so either you take insurance or work in one of these platforms. I share an office with a private pay therapist who has encouraged me to take the leap and I'm excited about it! But I am so nervous about the sustainability of it. Private pay RD's please share your tips/insight!

Hello! I just graduated and am on the lookout for my first job. I may have the opportunity to work for Fresenius which I was fired up for because I am very interested in dialysis. After doing a deep dive in preparation for my interview I discovered the massive layoffs from January and am concerned.

Would any of you dietitians who have been reporting to your clinic managers still recommend the job? Especially considering I will be fresh out of school without RD supervision?

Hi! I’m a new grad RD and recently received an offer from Nutritious Lifestyles for an LTC position in the Northeast. The role includes covering multiple facilities with higher-acuity residents, as well as with some kitchen audits and staff education. The pay is in the mid-$30s/hr and they offer visa sponsorship, which is a major factor for me. But I saw several older posts with unpleasant or negative experiences, so I’m trying to get to know more current/recent employeement experience with them. I would especially appreciate insight on workload, training, covering multiple building, management, etc. Thank you!

I'm a student and looking at working in the gestational diabetes space.

I have been searching far and wide for long form information on nutrition in pregnancy and especially gestational diabetes and Lily Nichols seems to be the word on the street.

I made it about an hour or two into her book Real food for Pregnancy and had concerns almost straight away with the amount of times she said Ancestral regarding a healthy diet and then around the hour or two mark Lily started on seed oils and was recommending organ meats and animal fats while not talking about the risks of saturated fats. Lily seems to strongly (and wrongly) think that natural = healthy and I think that sometimes that is true and there was some decent advice I ended up refunding the book because it felt more like part science and part pseudo science.

Am I wrong? A part of me wonders whether I'm taking my general healthy eating thoughts and applying them to a unique group (GD) which has such special requirements that I am missing the mark.

I am hoping for some advice on how to approach one of my patients. My patient has a history of severe anorexia nervosa and still struggles with some disordered eating patterns. She has a lot of food noise and her doctor prescribed her a GLP-1 to help with the food noise. My thought is that the food noise is likely from under eating. She is not overweight at all. I feel as though prescribing her the GLP-1 was not very ethical. I am not sure if it is my place to question her doctor’s decision. How would you all approach this?