What do normal sized people eat?

Qualify normal, size 8-10 athletic- I have around 1900-2200 cals a day / macros 30/30/30

Exercise 2-3 hours daily with a rest day every 10, I am technically an athlete as I compete at sport but have a full time job / kids so not elite - but compete in my age group 40+

This usually looks like

Latte breakfast (I hate eating in the morning)

Lunch
Protein pudding
Protein bar
Sandwich with a chicken breast or prepped cottage pie / other protein rich meal with carbs

Afternoon snack of Blondie / cake

Dinner
Protein bar / crisps or a meal if I fancy it but usually just want to snack as get back 930pm after training

I am normal size but my workout and diet is not normal as I do what works for me etc.

You need to find your perfect macros / cals and food routine and understand your TDEE and output

Toast with butter and honey or croissant

Sandwich usually tuna or chicken

Massive meal at night

Today:

Breakfast:
few coffees

Lunch:
Bowl of soup
Chicken breast in sauce with potatoes, broccoli, carrots
Banana custard with meringue
Apples and biscuits

Dinner:
Not happened yet but maybe a small steak, mashed potatoes, cabbage, kale and spinach

Male, BMI 20, 53kg, very active

I normally aim for around 2000 to 2500 calories a day, don't pay much attention to macros

I don't have crisps in the house nor chocolate, snack bars etc. breakfast varies so porridge (plain oats, 40g) plus fruit or toast on work days, scrambled eggs or bacon plus toast on weekends (but later so skip lunch). Weekday lunch is a sandwich and a piece of fruit or a mackerel salad plus fruit. Evening meal varies a lot but get hello fresh 4 x a week which are portion controlled and we make 2 portions stretch to 3 of us as we all are dieting!

But even with this I'm not loosing, probably the beer on a Saturday night

I'm about 'average' for my size (size 12) but I exercise a lot - we're talking 4hrs a day roughly. It's hard to know what would be 'too much' for you given you haven't said how much you exercise.

Today I've had:
Two almond croissants and 4 lattes.
200g greek yoghurt, 40G granola, one apple (grated into it), a tablespoon of honey
250oz steak, 100G broccoli, 100g carrots, 1 large jacket potato and a fairly large slab of salted butter and a serving of peppercorn sauce.

Yesterday I had two whole packs of custard creams, a luxury hot chocolate and 20 chicken nuggets. That was it.

Eat what you want. Indulge when you want. Exercise. Don't restrict - it nearly always ends in disaster and tbh it's miserable!

Am active. Feel like I eat loads. 5ft7 size 12. Run 5k 5 times a week plus weights x2 and lots of walking / moving all day. I eat a big bowl of overnight oats with fruit and nuts; a large lentil & random veg salad at lunch dressed with hummus; toast and peanut butter mid afternoon if hungry and often nothing for dinner (can’t be arsed). Stir fry veggies or similar if I can be. 20g to 40g of dark choc a day; no snacking. Low ish carb, no ready meals, rarely eat out (when I do I have whatever I fancy). No takeaways. No alcohol. Just drink water and tea/coffee. I used to be overweight with food issues; now post meno and find being off the hormone rollercoaster has really helped me find a pattern that works for me. Very occasionally still engage in emotional eating.

I'm 56 , 5 ft 7 and around 9 stone 3. I was 9 stone 2 the day I got married aged 22. I've have four children.

I've pretty much eaten the same foods every day for 40 years.
Boiled egg with a slice of seeded toast for breakfast (real butter), with orange juice.
Salad with cheese , or vegetable soup, or hummus and Ryvitas for lunch, and sometimes a packet of crisps.
Pasta with loads of veg (and cheese) or crusty bread, cheese bake and roasted veg,, or jacket spuds..more cheese.. for dinner. I'm veggie so no meat and rarely eat the meat alternatives.

I drink water, black coffee and too much red wine .

We usually have a pizza or curry once a week.

I do eat sweets (always have mint imperials in my car) but am not really interested in cakes or puddings... much prefer savoury.

I have noticed since hitting 50 that a couple of bags of crisps too many, or a run of takeaways and I do gain weight quickly... but it also comes off again as soon as I rein it in. I have a dog, an allotment, and an active job but don't do gym or a sport.

Oats and fruit with Greek yoghurt for breakfast
Sandwich or salad or something for lunch depending on what I'm doing.
Something like an omelette or baked potato with cheese and veg for dinner.
Lots of tea and the odd bit of chocolate/nuts/some kind of snack along the way.

I agree. Sometimes I overeat by having a massive takeaway or pizza or whatever (food that’s generally designed to make you want to keep eating it…) but generally not. I think we’ve often lost sight of what a normal portion size looks like.

I eat what I want, but in smaller portions, and I eat slow. I very rarely finish a meal, I usually leave a few mouthfuls because I'm full by that point.

OP is wondering what normal sized people eat, which I think we all know means healthy weight.
People of a healthy weight do not eat too much overall. Maybe now and again, but if they ate too much all the time they would be overweight. "Too much" indicates more than you need.

My BMI is around 22 and I don't gain weight.
I've always had this huge appetite. I remember that even as a little girl I noticed I could eat more in one sitting than a fully grown man!
Because of this I was prone to putting on weight and yoyo'd for decades.
For the last ten years I've been maintaining. I need to have really big meals to feel satisfied so I've basically cut a meal out. I'll have brunch around 11am, a couple snacks in the day and then a big meal around 6pm. Brunch will be substantial. Today it was an avocado, an orange and a fried egg sandwich with cheese. Dinner is also substantial - today it was a large portion of pasta bake with loads of vegetables, tuna and cheese.
This way of eating suits me because I can feast but because it's only two meals a day, I don't gain weight.
Other people are more suited to eating several small meals throughout the day.
We're all different. Try and find what works for you.

Yogurt, oats and berries for breakfast, or scrambled eggs followed by a banana.

Lunch and dinner are varied but it’s vegetable heavy. Some meat and dairy. On a day to day basis I generally don’t eat anything that’s UPF - I eat them occasionally but it’s a rare treat. Have a read of Chris van Tulleken’s book “Ultra Processed People”?

Butterscotch Angel Delight! I thought I was the only adult who still ate this 😋

I assumed they meant a healthy weight.

I am the same size now at 55 as I was at 20. I wear an 8/10. This is important to me because I love my clothes and want to be able to fit into them. I have some things I love which are 20 years old.

Breakfast is a boiled egg, a few cherry tomatoes, handful of blueberries and 3/4 Brazil nuts. An odd combination but lots of nutrients.

Lunch is homemade soup, made with lots of veggies and lentils.

Dinner is fish or chicken or vegetarian, includes lots of veggies again. Sometimes with pasta or rice.

Snacks are nuts, fruit, cheese or plain Greek yogurt. I don't have a sweet tooth but I love salty crisps, etc. but wouldn't eat them too often.

I don't drink and looking at friends that do, I think no alcohol has made a big difference to holding my weight steady over the years. So many calories in wine/beer that add up over the months/years.

I eat quite a lot I think, I’m 6ft 10.5stone. Yesterday I ate
2 boiled eggs and 2 toast
nuts, banana
hot chocolate
chicken sandwhich
apple
chocolate
Hm chicken smash burger thing, wedges and salad

That’s probably a typical day, sometimes I have cereal or porridge for breakfast.
I have a couple of drinks at the weekend and tend not to snack after dinner.

Overnight oats for breakfast:

30g porridge oats
100g 5% Greek yoghurt
Little bit of water to loosen the consistency

With either 100g frozen berries or cinnamon mixed with the oats and 100g homemade apple compote (basically stewed apple no extra sugar)

Lunch varies but these are pretty standard…

4/5 oat cakes, two Ryvita or a couple of slices of that dark German rye bread with thickly spread Philadelphia, cucumber, tomatoes and celery salt on top.

OR

Vietnamese salad: one round (portion) of rice noodles as they come out the packet, thinly sliced carrot, cucumber, radishes, spring onion, raw green chilli and coriander leaves with a handful of prawns or a handful of leftover roast chicken on top. Lime juice and soy sauce to dress it. If there’s more than a meal prep container of food, I split it into two days.

OR

a standard size meal prep container of last night’s dinner

OR

Tin of Heinz tomato soup with half a cheese sandwich.

Dinners…

Turkey chilli, rice, half and avocado and salad

Chicken curry with rice and poppadoms…usually made from the leftovers of a roast chicken we have with salad.

Lamb bolognaise with spaghetti.

Pasta pesto with courgette, spinach, peas, green beans and broccoli.

Evening snack…

A yoghurt pot sized crème caramel, ice lolly, child sized chocolate like a Curly Wurley or Freddo.

I’m not a great person to answer because while I’m a healthy weight at 9.5 stone I am not healthy and this is something I really want to get better with.

breakfast: cereal or bagel with butter and jam

lunch: chocolate bar

tea: spag Bol, meatballs, roast dinner, curry, anything like that. Often use sauces from jars like dolmio if in a rush

snack: couple of biscuits

drinks: water, squash, tea and Diet Coke

My diet isn't the best, I have a sweet tooth so eat quite a bit of chocolate every day and stuff like cheesecake, I'm going to tuck into some butterscotch Angel Delight in a minute which is calling me. I have Oatibix for breakfast and quite a small lunch and dinner which is usually something like scrambled eggs, chicken or fish with veg, I'm not interested in takeaways, fish and chips, stuff like that but anything sweet and creamy I love. I also eat a lot of yogurts and similar fridge puds. I'm tall, in my 60s, bmi is about 22.

I must say most on this thread sound like they eat super healthy.

I'm 66 , BMI 21 and been the same weight all my life. I did start to gain a bit a couple of years ago but slightly reduced portions and that did the trick. I never exclude food.
Breakfast oats, fruit, skimmed milk.
Lunch tuna salad. Lettuce, radish, cucumber, carrot, sauerkraut, corn etc. Topped with olive oil.
Dinner Whatever I like, example pork steak with honey and soy sauce, saute potatoes (say one medium potato), 3 or 4 types of veg. Ice cream. A decent sized scoop.
Evening snack - cake and tea.

Very similar every day. If I have wine in an evening I'll have nuts or a few crisps with it.

Same 😭

I don’t eat much in the way of carbs and completely avoid white carbs and sugar (excluding fruit), but am generous with fats and don’t restrict myself on things like cheese, double cream, olive oil.

Breakfast: porridge with seeds, big dollop of peanut butter, nuts (pecans, walnuts, cashews), loads of fruit – chopped apple, frozen berries – and extras like desiccated coconut, chia seeds, with a big heaped dessert spoon of greek yoghurt and maybe a teaspoon of thick cream. V tasty and really satisfying 😋

(Eat this quite late – maybe 10 or 11 – but have a coffee first thing)

Lunch: Maybe 5 fresh falafel with some baba ganoush or some cauliflower curry from the freezer or something along those lines.

Tea: Roasted mediterranen veg with mozzarella, or big pile of winter veg with blue cheese sauce, or something along those lines. Big bowl full. Maybe a second extra bit if I fancy it.

Dessert: Greek yoghurt with nuts, or fruit with cream.

Snacks: Cheese, apples, sometimes a few wholewheat crackers.

Loads of coffee (first normal, the rest decaf)

Do deviate from this sometimes for a meal out with a dessert. (At the weekend had a roast with pudding and custard).

Height about 5“8, BMI about 20.

Did also put a stone or so on in lockdown when I was eating loads of delivery pizza and fries and lots of cake and chocolate.

I have never gained weight. Never dieted and eat a mix of everything. They only thing I guess I do is I don’t eat much upf foods ( I make almost all bread/ baked goods) and rarely snack. I have always been around 50kg since teens, bare pregnancy weight then back straight after.

today:
Breakfast: x2 toasted tea cakes ( homemade)
Lunch: rye bread open sandwich, cheese, radish/ tomato/ cucumber.
Dinner: will be roast veg couscous, Greek port skewers, tzatziki.

Yesterday:
breakfast: granola, peach, berries, seeds
lunch: leek potato soup. Bread. Vanilla yoghurt and cashews
dinner: lasagna, salad, garlic bread

I have made pizza dough today for pizza night tomorrow here