I need some help with eating, please!

[MawkishTwaddle]

Which is pathetic, as I'm 44.

However...I've been steadily gaining weight throughout my forties, and I think it's a case of all my chickens coming home to roost. They appear to be roosting on my hips and belly, too, the bastards.

I could blame my antidepressant, but I'd be lying. The fact is, I'm a right greedy sod. I eat for reasons other than hunger, and I have a raging sweet tooth. And a carb face.

I know I need to eat like a normal person - I'm not interested in faddy diets, or cutting out food groups or anything like that. I've downloaded MFP to get me kickstarted, but I know I won't use it forever.

My question is, what is a normal portion for a slim person who doesn't diet?

If you were eating a lunch of, say, oatcakes and hummus, how many oatcakes would you eat?

How many roast potatoes and Yorkshire puds in a sitting?

How many new potatoes? How much pasta?

Sorry it's long. TIA.

Dotty some really helpful advice there, but I just can't snack. I start with the best of intentions, but I end up just eating far far too much.

I found reading 'French women don't get fat' interesting. It focuses a lot on enjoying food. The main thing I took from it is that if you choose good quality ingredients that taste good and concentrate while you're eating it you'll feel satisfied without having to eat mountains of it. If you go out for dinner choose what you want from the menu and enjoy it rather than going for a healthier option and feeling like you've made a sacrifice etc.

Reading this in addition to a spell on the 5:2 diet that showed me that you don't need loads of food to not feel hungry have played a part in my going from being a serial dieter to just eating normally for 6 years. I also switched to full fat dairy 6 years ago. My weight has stabilised. I'm not skinny and my BMI is 24.9 but I feel good and like I've got the right balance for me between weight and eating what I want (I will still eat an 80g bar of chocolate in the space of 10 minutes and I have cake a couple of times a week and I'll happily choose burger and chips if I'm eating in a pub). I could eat more healthily and be a stone lighter but this suits me for now.

Mawkish

Let's do this 💪🏻

My breakfast was terrible. I won't lie! I had coco pops with hot milk 😂

I'm a terrible snacker so think tomorrow I'll pop out and get lots of nuts and small pots and be done with those!

I am trying to maintain my ideal weight after a period of dieting. I'm tall and 10 stone 11.
I find tracking all food on a Fitbit really helped the loosing and maintaining.
I know a lot of people hate calorie counting but it's more tracking what you expend versus what goes in - incredible how little energy can be burnt on an inactive day. Also it helps me consider whether something is worth the calories and I'm much more mindful about what I consume.
I also plan ahead so if I know I have a few big meals later in week I will eat lightly for a few days which really helps. I feel great- weight was just slowly creeping on as I hit my late 30s

I try to keep the carbs on my plate to a "fist sized" portion, ditto the meat and then fill up on other veggies like broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, sweetcorn, cabbage, turnip etc.

If you're making pasta fill it out with a bit of broccoli or butternut squash.

I swapped rice for couscous and I try to stick to cottage cheese and quark (good for pasta sauces) as they've got less fat in that harder cheeses.

Other PPs are right, people generally eat bigger portions these days and I found that when I first started reducing the amount that was on my plate people felt the need to comment and yes I was still hungry. But over time my body got used to eating smaller portions (took a couple of weeks!) and now I physically can't eat a full size restaurant meal.

I did other little things like swap tea for green or fruit teas and using coconut milk on my cereals and almond milk in my coffee. The advantage of drinking green and fruit teas is that I pretty much no longer eat biscuits because my brain doesn't connect a hobnob with fruit tea (that would be so wrong!!)

I also grab a pint of water if I feel hungry between meals, I definitely think that sometimes my brain thinks I'm hungry and I'm not I'm either thirsty or just bored!

When you're using MFP try to keep your macros to a maximum 50% carbs and 20% fat with the balance made up of protein.

I weigh things and enter them in MFP and it helped me to understand portion sizes.

I’m a thin fat person. I absolutely can’t eat loads as I have PCOS and gain weight so easily. I also pretty much on enjoy eating carbs and sugar. So for me, I know I eat too much sugar and fruit but my calories are low enough for me to not gain weight. If I try and cut out stuff or force myself to eat salads for lunch I just quit so my best approach is eating things I actually like but less and in a routine.

So work days:
AM - for breakfast I have some muesli, maybe just under a mug full of it? Not a bowl full at all. Mixed with low fat yoghurt and some form of fruit eg strawberries. This keeps me full for ages. I have this around 7.30

If I’m starving I have maybe a cracker with some butter on or a banana at 11. One or two max. Most of the time I try and make myself last until lunch time.

Lunch - one weight watchers wrap literally brushed with low fat mayo, with ham and salad bits eg cucumber lettuce tomato. Rolled up and cut in half. An orange cause they take ages to eat and allow me to recognise I’m full from the wrap.

On the train home I eat a pack of French fries cause they take a while to eat and low cal/fat. 77 calories

Tea often some sort of meat with veg, sometimes some roasties but I cut them really small so it feels like more. Jacket potato with beans and cheese (1 potato, no butter). Sometimes have pasta with sauce, sometimes a stir fry type thing.

After tea I often have a fan ice lolly as only 70 something calories and again takes a while to eat. If I’m feeling like a treat I love a mint cornetto but even that’s not as high as say a choc bar.

So yeah and then at the weekend I often only have breakfast and then tea but might have a naughtier tea eg fajitas with nachos etc

Oh I should add though i walk at least 10k steps a day as my commute includes an hour walk in total and I have dogs.

Skeleton I have PCOS also and gain weight ridiculously easily.

I'm pretty active. I walk approx 4 miles x 3 per week (on top of usual activity) but very aware I need to actually do a class or two.

MFP will teach you about portion sizes. I lost about 2 1/2 stone with it and have maintained for nearly two years just from the things it taught me. I do still weigh myself at least once a month to make sure I've not put any weight on and if I have then I know what to do to lose it again.

Breakfast as the weather gets colder cries out for porridge. It is far cheaper to get big boxes of oats but again, portions can creep so easily so I got huge boxes of Oat so simple from Costco (60 a box!) which are pre-portioned. I don't have them with sugar - you can get tiny squirty squash bottles (Squash'd) from Robinson's in a load of flavours so you can have cal-free fruit drinks, but they are brilliant at being interesting porridge flavouring without adding calories. The portions are supposed to allow you to add just 180ml of milk, and they're pretty good, but I found them too variable so weigh out 140ml which suits me and is 50cal if skimmed.

I use little boxes I got from John Lewis as portioners. Inexpensive and take about 50g of fruit (again easy then to learn the volume) and you can pop one in a handbag and use anywhere. Sistema also do them as do Lock and Lock and...
You could also use US cups which work off volume. Set of those is cheap and portable.

Some fantastic ideas here, thank you!

Luckily I really like plain porridge, but the Robinsons squash idea is genius!

American cup measures are handy, yes.

I'm so determined to nail it this time. Above all else, I'm sick and tired of beating myself up.

My mum used to have a plate smaller than all of ours..
she said it used to trick her mind into thinking she's eating the same portion size and she would feel satisfied with a smaller amount on her plate..
not sure if it would be helpful to you, but I certainly helped my mum along with her diet

Hi OP. I'm not slim yet (still a stone to go), but have lost nearly 4 stones. These are my portion sizes -
Porridge - mix 1kg of oats, 1 pack of mixed dried fruit and 1 (198gs) tub of skim milk powder. I use 4 heaped tablespoons of this, along with water and cinammon.
Pasta/rice - 75gs
Cheese - 30gs
Sandwich - 2 slices wholemeal bread. Butter spread very thinly or I miss it out if I'm using something spreadable like cream cheese or houmous
Cooking oil/butter - 1 teaspoon per portion
Half a tin of baked beans
1 poached egg, or 2 eggs and 30gs of cheese (or less) in an omelette
Potatoes - a few new potatoes if they're little, or 2-3 medium potatoes.
I don't eat meat so can't help you there. I believe the recommended portion is about 80gs though ?
Those are really the only things I measure out. I use a small plate (about 9" diameter) and that really is the right amount of food.

Thanks, noeffingidea that'll be really useful.

Some great weight losses on here. Really inspiring.

I've dug out my portion plate, sailed past the biscuit and chocolate aisle in Waitrose and stocked up on Ryvitas.

This time...

Some fab advice here

AD can be a bitch for weight gain, I put on 3 stone with citalopram 😢 I used to work with someone who developed Prozac and he admitted that weight gain is an unfortunate side effect

I do get sad that my choice is between fat and mad, but I also can't deny that I eat like a pig and drink far too much wine.

So I'll see what changing my diet does. It might least alleviate some of the citalopram weight gain.

Okay, I've had my Sunday dinner. All weighed out and logged. It came to 665 cals.

Had more beef than I normally would, three good sized roast potatoes, one Yorkshire pud, gravy and plenty of veg, on my special plate.

I'm not stuffed actually a bit hungry but I guess I'll have to retrain myself, especially after the eating marathon that was last week.

I'm slim, and on lots of psychiatric drugs, that all put weight on people!

I usually boil 70g of pasta for me, but can never eat it all. Probably around 1/3 of a cup of rice.

1/2 cup porridge in the morning.

Usually a wrap with tofu or something at lunch.

I eat loads of veg and pulses.

I have a pudding at every meal except breakfast. Usually fruit and plain yoghurt or fruit and vegan alpro chocolate puddings. And hot chocolate at night. That sorts out my sweet tooth cravings without being too unhealthy.

I don’t snack much and am naturally slim- bmi ranges between 19.5 and 21.

I’d eat 4 oat cakes
3/4 new or roast potatoes
2 Yorkshires

I cook 1/2 pack of pasta for 2 adults and 2 children.

Mawkish

How you doing?

I've hidden the coco pops and swapped for eye bread/almond butter.

Had a couple of 'better days' although not counting any calories just yet.

Picked up my C25K and decided to start running again (well attempting too!)

I said to my husband last night I'm going to crack it this time. He said 'ok yeah' as he's heard it sooooooo many times. But this is it! I've got a big birthday next year and don't want to yoyo my way through those years either!

Rye bread is also good too 😂

When I'm trying to eat healthily I look at it like this;

A portion should fit into the palm of my hand

I only have one portion of carbs, or one of protein, but I'm happy to have more than that of veg/salad to fill me up

If I'm having a dinner I'll only do myself one small Yorkie - I know it's not the healthiest thing on the plate but I don't feel deprived

I'm not a big crisp lover but you could get some low cal/low fat ones and have a bag each night as a treat - if you're careful of what you're eating all day then an extra 90-100 cals there shouldn't set you back too much

GoodMorningSunshine so far so good!

I'm on 1400 cals a day, as I want the weight loss to be slow and sustainable. I'm using my special plate and I'm shocked at how much extra I've been eating

I haven't exercised much as I've been unwell this week, though I did do 14k steps on Monday, so that wasn't too bad.

Sounds like you're making some good changes too. We can do this!

Let'sHaveAnotherGo some great tips there. I do find I'm peckish last thing at night, but I normally have about 200cals left over, so a piece of toast or a few almonds staves off the worst.