HSOS #44: Before You Take Nutrition Advice From Anyone, Listen to This

Kim had a conversation recently that she almost didn't share, but she's glad she did. After reaching out to a well-known trainer about a potential collaboration, she got a response that stopped her cold. What followed was one of the most clarifying moments she's had in her career, and it led to this episode.

Today Kim is pulling back the curtain on what it really means to be a registered dietitian, why the line between "credentialed" and "qualified" matters more than most people realize, and what you should actually be asking before you take nutrition advice from anyone, online or in person. Plus she's sharing exciting news about a brand new program built for women who want real results without spending their whole Sunday in the kitchen.

Let's talk.

Welcome to Her Season of Strength, where women over 40 reclaim their bodies, their energy, and their voices, without apologies. I'm Kim Duffy, registered dietitian, personal trainer, mom, and your biggest hype woman when it comes to aging like you mean it.

This show isn't about chasing skinny or counting wrinkles. It's about building real strength: physical, emotional, and hormonal. Each week, I'll share straight-talking nutrition tips, sustainable fitness strategies, and conversations that help you feel powerful in your skin once again.

Menopause is not an ending, it is only the beginning. This is your season of strength.

What I Cover in This Episode:

• The conversation Kim almost didn't share, and why she's so glad she did
• The real difference between someone who calls themselves a nutrition expert and someone who actually is one
• Why your favorite fitness influencer's follower count tells you nothing about their qualifications
• The little-known legal protection that exists in most states and how to use it to protect yourself
• What dietitians actually do that has nothing to do with telling you to eat more vegetables
• The mindset shift that separates a sustainable nutrition approach from one that burns you out in two weeks
• A brand new program Kim has been quietly building and why it might be exactly what's been missing from your routine
• Click here to get in on the lowest price, best bonuses and early access to the Easy Prep Blueprint before the window closes June 15th

Links & resources for this episode:

Fit After 50+ Program: 8-Week Nutrition Coaching & Strength Program for menopausal women.  Join the interest list today for the best discounts, bonuses and updates about the next program coming Fall of 2026!

Free cheat sheet: "20 Tips to Crushing Menopause"

Join my free weekly newsletter list and get a new high protein recipe sent to your inbox every Thursday. 

Find me on social media: Instagram I Facebook I Tiktok

Transcript

[00:00:00] Hey there, and welcome to her Season of Strength, where women over 40 reclaim their bodies, their energy, and their voices without apologies. I'm Kim Duffy, registered dietitian, personal trainer, mom, and your biggest hype woman when it comes to aging like you mean it. This show isn't about chasing skinny or counting wrinkles.

[00:00:20] It's about building real strength, physical, emotional, and hormonal. Each week I'll share straight talk nutrition tips, sustainable fitness strategies, and conversations that help you feel powerful in your skin once again. Menopause isn't an ending, it's only the beginning. This is your season of strength. Hello, and welcome back to Her Season of Strength.

[00:00:42] I'm so happy you're here. I I don't know about you, but the weather is absolutely gorgeous up here in Minnesota. Everything is so green. I am really enjoying just getting outside and getting the fresh air, planting some flowers, taking the puppy for a walk. She loves it as [00:01:00] well. I hope the weather is just as nice wherever you are.

[00:01:03] So today's podcast episode I debated whether or not I was gonna talk about this, and I thought that I want to. Hey I'm an open book here and this is where I talk about, my personal stories, as well as I hope, provide a lot of information on nutrition and exercise specifically for women in menopause and perimenopause.

[00:01:24] But today's conversation is about, speaking up for ourselves, and feeling confident in speaking up for ourselves, as well as, give you a little bit of background into what I do. So I know a few weeks back I was telling y'all about how I had hired a trainer and worked with him for about three weeks, and feel great.

[00:01:49] I have been pushing myself harder than I ever have before as far as strength training. I've been getting in my cardio. I've been dialing in my nutrition. And it just, it's [00:02:00] nothing that I feel like, oh gosh, I never heard of that before, this is all new information, but it's accountability, it's motivation.

[00:02:06] It's somebody helping to push you, right? We talked about this. So- That has been wonderful. But yesterday I did something. I fired him and, said I, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna renew my subscription. And he said, "Why? What's going on?" And I said I feel a little bit silly paying someone who doesn't respect what I do, doesn't respect my profession."

[00:02:35] And so I wasn't gonna say anything about it. I wasn't gonna tell you this story, but I thought, what the heck? So when I first started working with him I gave him a call because he headed up the the convention in Las Vegas, right? For personal trainers. And when I went there, I just I was like, "Hey, you know what?

[00:02:52] There's a gap here." There wasn't any dieticians there talking. And there is a unspoken [00:03:00] rivalry, or maybe it is spoken, between personal trainers and dieticians, and I'm not gonna get into all the who's and the why's on that. But anyway, so I wanted to talk to him, and I said, there's this disconnect between trainers and dieticians, and I'd really love to come and present and talk, just talk about how we can work together better," right?

[00:03:18] And his response was, "Dieticians don't teach anything trainers don't already know or don't already do." And his belief was that if people just counted macros and lifted and did cardio and maintained a healthy weight and did basically what the trainers were telling them, them to do, that there would be no chronic disease.

[00:03:41] It wouldn't exist. And he said he had tested dieticians on things like biochemistry and glycolysis and fat metabolism, and they couldn't give him a good response, or they couldn't answer him. And I was stunned by this, [00:04:00] and that, that stunned feeling what is what led me to this episode.

[00:04:06] And I'm not gonna get any more into the conversation and things were said, it was just a, it was a smack in the face to have someone so outwardly... And I was coming at it with "Hey how can we create a better relationship here? I wanna help to understand when trainers can refer to dieticians and when dieticians can refer to trainers and et cetera, et cetera."

[00:04:28] And he was basically why would we wanna do that? Dieticians don't have anything new to talk about when it comes to fat loss and body comp change, which is the only thing that people want or will pay for." And so I thought that I would just take this time today to talk a little bit about what dieticians do, because I know that it, a lot of people don't understand.

[00:04:54] We used to have people in the hospital, I'd go in and talk to patients, and they would say, "Oh, are you here to take my order? Are [00:05:00] you gonna, I wanna, order this from the menu. Are you gonna take that and go to the kitchen and make it? I don't know." So there's a lot of misconceptions about what the dietician did at the hospital.

[00:05:10] And so I thought I'd, just take a little time to, to just talk about, the wide variety of things that, that dieticians do and, how maybe they might be looked at as an expert in certain areas. So dieticians are required to have, first of all, a bachelor's degree. And the course the minimum is they have to do coursework in biochem, biochemistry, anatomy, physiology, microbiology, food science, and medical nutrition therapy.

[00:05:42] Then once we graduate with our undergraduate... And when I-- Back in 1995, when I got my, my my RD they did not require a master's degree. Now they do, right? But then after you graduate, you need to have a, you need to have 1200 plus hours in clinical, [00:06:00] community, and food service settings. Regardless of what job you see yourself moving to, what you're interested, you have to have a very well-rounded basis because then you have to take a national credentialing exam through something called Commission on Dietetic Registration, right?

[00:06:18] And this exam causes, w- people are studying and studying, and not everybody passes the first time, so they're taking it again. And then every year after that, for e- or I should say every five-year cycle, that you have to do at least seventy-five hours of continuing education to maintain your RD or your RD and credential.

[00:06:37] And as of 2024, they now require a master's degree because they're raising the bar, right? And then on the whole idea of, why, what dietician wouldn't be able to point blank answer, biochemistry on the spot, it's in our training. But one pop quiz doesn't reflect four plus [00:07:00] years of clinical education, okay?

[00:07:03] So I just wanna kinda show you, how wide dietetics is. So in the hospitals, we can work in clinical, which might be ICUs or oncology, which is what my field was in, what I had a lot of experience in. But I also worked in placing feeding tubes in the ICUs we're writing tube feeding formulas. TPN or is it's like IV nutrition.

[00:07:28] It's called total parenteral nutrition. We frequently are writing those orders. Lots of math involved, right? Also dieticians are working with eating disorders. In the outpatient patient setting, dieti- dieticians are working with people with diabetes, with heart disease, kidney disease, and GI conditions.

[00:07:46] These are not all conditions that are gonna be made better by just eating well and exercising, right? There's genetics at play. There is, income and [00:08:00] education levels at play. People who maybe can't afford certain diets or maybe they don't understand what foods might help them. Maybe they have uncontrolled blood pressure or whatever.

[00:08:13] Not everybody can afford a trainer to keep them, fit and healthy, and not everybody wants to. When it comes to women's health, things like fertility, I work in perimenopause and menopause. These are areas that you'll see dieticians working in just because there's a lot of interconnected pieces of the puzzle that need to work with nutrition, whether it's lab work or hormonal health.

[00:08:40] In mental health, in pediatrics, sports nutrition, gerontology, food allergies, integrative nutrition. There are dieticians that are working in research on policy, public health in like in the food industry. But the point here is that nutrition is not a single lane. A trainer specializes in exercise.

[00:08:58] A dietician specializes in [00:09:00] the medical and physiological side of food. These are not the same thing, but both matter, right? So anyone can call themselves a nutrition coach. There's no federal regulation protecting that title. But many nutrition coaching certifications can be completed in weeks or months entirely online without prerequisite science coursework or hands-on training.

[00:09:28] So this isn't about bad intentions. Many coaches are actually genuinely helpful within appropriate scope, but that scope matters. And then we add in social media, right? What-- it amplifies all of this, the follower count. You see somebody that has hundreds of thousands of followers, and you think, "Oh gosh, they must be an expert in this field."

[00:09:52] So the question to ask would be, what is this person's actual training? And is this recommendation within their scope of [00:10:00] practice? Meaning, should they be giving out this information, or is this literally illegal? Okay. So this is about, it is about you and empowering you as a consumer. It's not me being a professional gatekeeper saying, "No, you can't do this," or, "You can't do that."

[00:10:22] Licensure is a level of protection that most people don't really know exists. Most people don't understand that nutrition practice is regulated in most states. And this is, super useful for you. I-- In Minnesota, where I am, and the majority of states, dieticians have to be licensed. So I have my registration, but I'm also licensed in the state of Minnesota.

[00:10:45] It's a-- it's a legal requirement for me to practice. So practicing medical nutrition therapy without it can be a violation of state law. So if you have somebody who is not licensed, and they're, say, looking at your labs and [00:11:00] recommending supplements to correct imbalances make sure that they are licensed in the state, and they have proper credentialing to be able to do that.

[00:11:11] Because licensing boards actually verify education and credentials. They're gonna track complaints and disciplinary actions or history, and they can pull someone's license if someone causes harm or acts out of their scope. This is public protection. This is the same reason that your doctor or your nurse or your physical therapy, therapist are all licensed.

[00:11:35] So nutrition coaches, personal trainers, and social media influencers do not go through this process. And just a little aside, you can look up a dietician's license and complete history at your state's licensing, licensing board website. So wherever you live, you can look up like we have the Board on Nutrition and Dietetics.

[00:11:58] And, you can look that [00:12:00] up and you can look up a specific dietician to make sure that they do have those credentials So the disconnect here is real, but it ha- it doesn't have to stay that way. There are great trainers and great dieticians working together, and that's a gold standard, especially for women navigating perimenopause and menopause.

[00:12:20] Exercise is not a substitute for medical nutrition therapy, and nutrition alone isn't a substitute for movement. They work together. So what I wished I could have said to him hindsight's 20/20 and I tend to get I feel a little, I felt a little bulldozed and like I didn't really know how to respond.

[00:12:41] But, I wanted to say, "I'm not here to compete with you. I'm here to fill the gaps that you can't." This trainer is a very good trainer, very good at what he does. The disagreement is about scope, not ability So just make sure, look for practitioners who [00:13:00] understand collaboration and refer out appropriately.

[00:13:04] Like for me, if I have children come to me or people say, "Hey, can you talk to my child about nutrition?" I'm like, "You know what? I don't specialize in pediatrics. That is not my wheelhouse, and I think you would be much better served paying someone who focuses on that area."

[00:13:20] Another area which requires a great specialty is eating disorders, which are very-- We see this so often in, in people who are exercising and, counting every calorie, counting every macro. And this is something that trainers really need to be careful with. You need to talk about history.

[00:13:43] You need to determine, does someone have a poor relationship with food? H-Have they had a history of binging or purging or, over-exercising or losing large amounts of weight? And we really need to be thinking about this, and we need to say, "I'm sorry, but I don't feel [00:14:00] comfortable training you or talking about this.

[00:14:01] I feel maybe looking for a therapist." 'Cause, eating disorders require such a team approach, so there are areas that I won't touch and especially like GI, really GI-focused people who are having extreme GI issues. I have another dietician that I refer to because that's what she specializes in, and she's very good at it.

[00:14:23] So we all have our areas, just you wouldn't go to your primary care provider to do surgery on your knee, right? They refer out. Each dietician has a specialty, and, it, it requires a team and that's kinda what I was looking for when it comes to, creating a team with a trainer.

[00:14:43] So I want to to move on from that, but I just wanted to tell you guys a little bit about that story 'cause I've had people say, "Hey, how's the training going," and it was going really well. It really was. And you know what? I'm definitely hiring a different trainer. I'm def-I definitely [00:15:00] am because I really felt it beneficial and great to have that accountability, and it's always good to see, what other people can bring to the table.

[00:15:10] How, how can that make me be a better coach when it comes to strength training and nutrition? I'm always looking for new and different approaches because, I don't know everything by any means. So just remembering that, a few little takeaways that even the best nutrition advice falls flat without a practical system to support it.

[00:15:36] Because knowledge and implementation, they're two different things. So when it comes to things like fat loss and strength gain, we know that protein and meal structure, they're non-negotiable, right? But so is sustainability. So if it takes hours, we're not gonna do it. If it's too complex, we're not gonna do it.

[00:15:57] And I think that's where a little bit of the [00:16:00] mindset is different between dieticians and trainers. 'Cause dieticians look at it and we're like, "I want to teach you a long-term sustainable approach to make changes and do things forever for long term." Versus, the trainer I was working with was very black and white, was very like, "Nope, this is the way you do it.

[00:16:22] Don't don't go overboard this over the holidays and, bring your meals and bring your scale to weigh and, continue." And I believe in consistency. That is very important, but I also believe in life and I believe that it's okay to splurge and be a little naughty every now and then if that's what...

[00:16:39] I don't like calling things naughty because there, there is no, there should be no guilt and shame around eating certain things or skipping your workout because you wanna spend the day with your family on Memorial Day, right? So I just wanted to give an update on my Easy Prep Blueprint.

[00:16:58] This, the reason why I [00:17:00] am creating that is because I wanted to create something that wasn't black and white, that was something that, that could help women to create this step-by-step system that, to help them to eat better, to make, healthier choices within their time constraints, because we're busy, right?

[00:17:23] So I'm... This is my very first self-paced mini course, and I'm building it specifically for women who, you know, who want those results. They aren't seeing them from their exercise or whatever, but they want a real-life strategy not this perfection, not this perfect one. I see this over and over, and I've made these beautiful meal plans with the- these wonderful recipes and stuff.

[00:17:45] But I also wanted to create something that I could basically give to every single one of my long-term clients to have them walk through it so that they can understand, how can I simplify this whole meal planning or prep process? Especially for those [00:18:00] women who are like, "I don't like to cook," or, "I don't even know where to begin," or, "I've never really spent much time in the kitchen," or or, "I've gotten away from it because my kids are out of the house," right?

[00:18:12] Which a lot of us, in post-menopausal, we're s- our kids are leaving the nest or they've been out of the nest for a while. Maybe we're only cooking for ourselves or only cooking for our husband and ourselves. And sometimes you kinda get out of that practice and this just kinda helps to bring you back in.

[00:18:28] So remember the priority list closes on June 15th. So you need to be on the priority list in order to get the lowest price that I'm going to be offering it, the best bonuses, as well as that early access before I'm opening it up to the public. So I will put a link in the show notes here and let's bring it full circle.

[00:18:54] If you have any questions about what a dietitian is or what she does or anything specifically about me, if you [00:19:00] want to know about my history or what I've worked with, please reach out. And if you have feelings about the story that I told today, I would love to hear them too. Any feedback. This is by no means me wanting to act like I am better than any other person.

[00:19:22] We all are just doing our best in this life, right? And I don't want anyone to feel that this trainer was a bad person by any means. I believe he was a very caring person. He really does a lot for his clients, but has very strong feelings about certain things. And that's okay. That's his take. That's his perspective.

[00:19:45] I'm not going to change that. But you can be a good consumer when it comes to your health by just looking [00:20:00] into a person's certification and degree and experience as well. Because some people, maybe they don't have those things, but they also have a lot of experience in certain areas. And so just looking into that a little bit, because just because someone has a million followers on Instagram or TikTok or whatever, it does not make them an expert in that field.

[00:20:19] They could have just had a viral video or they say certain things that make people go like that. And then they follow them because we're getting that dopamine high from it, right? So one question I want to carry with you, think about what is this person's actual training and is this within their scope of practice?

[00:20:46] Bring what you learned here to your healthcare provider. Ask questions. And if this episode made you think a little differently about who you take nutrition advice from, share it with a friend who could use it. I [00:21:00] really appreciate it. That's how we protect each other. And remember, this is about progress over perfection.

[00:21:05] We're in this for the long haul and this is your season of strength. Have an amazing day.