Dietician/nutritionist for trying to gain weight post-cancer in NYC

March 21, 2022 9:57 AM

An underweight friend (mid-30s, ciswoman) who lives in New York City is looking to work with a dietician/nutritionist to sustainably gain weight after having remission from cancer, and is looking for recommendations for someone to work with. Does anyone have any general or specific recommendations in the NYC area?

While my friend has always had a very fast metabolism and thin frame, cancer and its treatment knocked her hunger out nearly completely and led to her becoming more underweight than she or her doctors would like. While her hunger and weight has partially returned since her remission, she has still found it very hard to put on weight in a sustainable way. She is particularly interested in seeing a dietician/nutritionist who has worked with cancer patients before. Another reason this is important to her is that she used to take (very helpful!) ADHD medication that she started just a few months prior to her cancer diagnosis and treatment, but her current psychiatrist is wary to start her back on the medication due to its hunger suppressing side effects for some.

(Perhaps importantly, this is affirmatively not a situation in which my friend has an eating disorder. It has also been a few years since she has been in acute treatment and she hasn't been able to utilize her previous cancer treatment network to answer this question.)

Thanks so much, all!

posted by The Sock Puppet Sentience Movement to Health & Fitness (2 answers total)

Sent you a DM.
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 11:12 AM on March 21, 2022

While I do not have a personal recommendation, my SO’s cancer center does have referrals to dietitians that work with oncology patients. Yours may do the same. I would try there first. In our case, My SO saw one when he started losing his appetite and thus weight on his already thin frame but unfortunately we did not find the information as beneficial as we had hoped. To be fair, I already knew most of it, we were already doing most of what was suggested and truthfully the rest were things like meal supplement drinks that there is no way in heck he would ever drink sick or not. What has helped was a prescription for low dosage (30mg)of Remeron (Mirtazapine) an antidepressant which has a side effect of increasing appetite. He is not gaining weight but he has stopped losing at least. My SO is doing maintenance Chemo so that is a factor too.
posted by ReiFlinx at 11:48 AM on March 23, 2022