Dinner service - obesity

Where do I appear angry?

I simply said you don't have to buy and eat the foods you say are causing weight gain.

You don't need to eat that stuff. Take an apple or another piece of fruit if you have hunger pangs. OR just wait till you get home and have your dinner.

Also, being blunt, you shouldn't be stuffing crisps in your mouth when driving. It's likely to cause an accident as you won't be fully focused.Two hands on the wheel. Not reaching for crisps .

I also think the 'calorie requirements' need looking at again. When I did my TDEE it came out at 2,500 or thereabouts (I run every day, do spin class and Pilates, plus walking and other stuff, which is why it's so high for a 66 year old). I eat OMAD and around 1500 calories a day and my weight is stable at nine stone. If my TDEE was correct I ought to be invisible about now.

This is really interesting. I made a cake using WW2 ration portions as an interesting exercise with one of the DC. Then I noticed it said put it in 6 inch cake tins. Of course, usual recipes use 8 or even 10 inch tins, and whilst compared to them the 6 inch was small it is actually perfectly adequate. So yes, everything has got bigger and that's why we are all, including myself, just a lot fatter

Do you not mean you'd be obese if you ate 2500 cals not 1500?

Might be for you, but its not that straightforward for everyone. Six years ago, I was two stone heavier than I am now. I had 12 hour work days with my commute, I cared for my father and dependent child and was permenantly exhausted. I quite literally didn't have the time to 'move more' and often relied on fast food for ease and comfort. WFH was life changing, giving me time to excercise and cook healthily. My father's death and my child's independence mean I have the headspace, money and time to focus on my own health and wellbeing.
If my life hadn't changed, my weight wouldn't have either, and there are sometimes life can't be changed. And while it's not impossible to lose weight under certain circumstances, it's a whole lot harder.

I'm fortunate that my weight has stayed pretty static over the years. The only time I had to 'work on' losing weight was after my daughter arrived. I hated the idea of calorie counting, so I ate the same meal as my husband, but on a smaller plate (it was probably half the size of a normal portion). It worked, I lost 10lbs or so relatively quickly.

I think the psychology of it is effective, I remember a couple of times doubting that my portion was small enough!

YANBU really.

I work in a museum and all our 1930s cups, plates and glasses are noticeably smaller.

people posting about their own weight is detracting from the thread.
it is not about YOU
it is about GREED

Surely it’s about the “GREED” of fat people, and where else is better to learn if that “GREED” is related to plate size than from said fat people?

We still have some of the plates we had at home and used regularly when I was a kid in the 1980s, but they date from the 1960s and 1970s, before my mum and dad had me. A couple are slightly smaller, 9" plates, but most are 10", same as my more recently acquired plates!

This.

Most obese people aren't becoming obese by sitting at a laid table every night, filling up a too-large plate. They might do that, but they're also sitting at a desk with a packet of Maltesers, absent-mindedly eating them while they work. Then they're in front of the TV when they get home, eating a 'grab bag' of crisps. They fill their (any sized!) plate with UPFs and starchy carbs despite no need for the amount of sugar (and chemicals) as they're not an athlete.

A lot of lifestyles don't call for plates. I am currently working while eating out of a Tupperware box. Tonight I'll eat leftovers out of a bowl, or perhaps the same box if I can't be bothered washing up! I am single, as are a lot of people, obese or otherwise. I weigh my food and track everything most of the time. It is important to me but I appreciate this isn't easy for me let alone someoen else.

I am slim, but currently dating someone who is obese. We do eat off plates if I cook, but the obesity doesn't come from that, regardless of the size of the plate. It comes from her admittance that once I've gone to bed she craves and eats crisps and sweets.

I don't know. I don't know that if I ate 2,500 calories I might not have more energy which would result in me running further/faster, but since I don't and can't eat 2,500 calories I have no idea whether I would put on weight or use the extra energy to do more exercise.

I'm not really willing to experiment. But all I do know is that I am not, currently, using 2,500 calories worth of energy to maintain my weight.

Yes I agree about the cakes, all the cake /traybake portions in cafes are far more than one person can eat. I'm overweight but wouldn't dream of having one other than to share,and only occasionally.

!! Some of them are objectively quite slim!

You just single handedly fixed obesity - well done you

I agree with a PP who said about calorie adjustments, and TDEEs found online (and I suspect, among medical professionals too!) being inaccurate.

My TDEE is something like 1800 last time I looked, and I did not put in that I did any exercise. I currently eat around 1200-300, very occasionally go up to 1500. I weight train 6 days a week(to the point I have very visible biceps and defined back muscles) and have recently been active otherwise (I am renovating a garden and have done a lot of lugging about, breaking up ground, lifting and have been on a walking holiday).

I am slim, as I said above but I can still pinch loose flesh and have a bit of a belly. I suspect that if I went up to the recommended1800 I would become overweight very quickly.

I understand the description of obesity as a "disease" being based on there being a defined medical model showing the progressive physical impact that state has on health. Likewise for alcoholism being classified in the same way.

Why it is so widespread is another question with multiple answers.

I’m quite slim late 40’s .I never eat desert after dinner but I frequently have a large slice of cake with black coffee mid morning. DH is a fabulous baker) I eat a massive evening meal but I don’t snack and only eat twice a day , I was never a breakfast person and have always unconsciously intermittent fasted , stop eating by 6/7 eat again 11/12 midday.

We have some Denby dinner plates which are really big, we dont use them because they dont fit in the dishwasher! But a side plate is no way big enough fir any of our appetites for a main meal. none of us are overweight and I do eat snacks, carbs and chocolate, every day - and cake, occassionally.
We inherited some small wine glasses which I preferred because you could have 2 glasses of wine and it wasnt over half a bottle. When those broke its been virtually impossible to find any the same size.

It's not the size of the plate, it's the content.

In the 70s people had much worse standard of living than today. Vegies and protein cooked from scratch were staple diet. Not much money left for chocalates, crisps or chips everyday.

Today, with both parents working, expensive housing and lack of resources multiplied by cheap sauces (full of sugar) pizzas, and even cheese with content with gluten, it's no wonder our western societies are getting obese. Fresh vegies, fish and meat are expensive.

I made today a salad I love for dinner. Boiled eggs, potato, carrott, lettuce, tomatoes, tuna, corn kernels, apple, spanish black olives, cucumber and extra virgin olive oil. Yummy but not cheap. Many families can't afford or have the time today to eat healthy

Use a smaller plate has been all over the media for decades I’m genuinely unsure how you’ve missed it.

yes portion size is a part of causing obesity, but seconds are a thing, as is snacks, reliance on cars and not walking, doing desk based jobs, and an abundance of readily available food.

I dispute that there were no fat people in previous generations.my mums family were all overweight (my grandparents, mum , her brother) ive got old pictures of them and they were overweight in the 40s and 50s. Well before upfs, they didnt have a car, they walked or cycled everywhere
My mum slimmed down in the 70s but for most of my childhood and beyond she was overweight, but im not convinced she ate more than I do, I think she had a different body disposition to put on weight and would probably qualify for WLI if she was alive today.

Yes I used side plates when I lost a lot of weight in my early 20s. I did the 5:2 so I was fasting twice a week anyway but I did find it helped me lower the portions.

I probably agree with you but I have no idea what those things mean.

In the 70s people had much worse standard of living than today. Vegies and protein cooked from scratch were staple diet. Not much money left for chocalates, crisps or chips everyday.

How old are you @Alondra

I was working and living independently in the 1970s.
I don't recognise your idea of life in the 70s.

I was buying sweets and choc from my pocket money as a child.
Sweets and chocs were the norm and also fish and chip suppers form the chippy OR homemade chips- most houses had a chip pan. Egg and chips, sausage and chips, pie , chips and peas- classic 70s dinners for the working class.