Am I eating too much food?

[BunnyTails]

Hi all,

I feel very podgy for my petite little frame (currently 9 stone 13) and I need your opinions on whether I’m eating too much. Here’s my average daily intake:

Cereal such as all bran or shredded wheat, half a bowl with drizzled honey and almond milk
A chocolate bar (I know I know)
A salad- lots of leaves, half a can of tuna, half a can of sweetcorn and some honey and mustard dressing
Salmon and vegetable stir fry with 2/3 a pouch of rice
A naked bar or a v small bowl of cereal in the evening

Please be gentle in your replies, I’ve been through hell with body dysmorphia in the last few years.

Use My Fitness Pal. It will tell you how many calories you need to lose or sustain weight.

We have four different sizes of bowls so “a bowl of whatever” is vague.

Keep in mind a small bar (45g) of dairy milk chocolate is 240 calories.

I agree with the others who've said that it's not much in quantity but it might help you to reduce the "hidden" sugars and eat more protein.

Without knowing all the quantities, just guessing a bit:

If you are, say, having a Nakd Berry bar (16.6g of sugar), a Twix (25g of sugar), 500ml i.e. two glasses of sweetened almond milk on the two bowls of cereal (20g of sugar), that's 61.6 g (I think) of sugar a day, not including the sugar in the honey, the salad dressing or any drinks. Women are supposed to have only 25 g of sugar per day, men 37.5g.

It might be worth putting exactly what you eat over a week into My Fitness Pal and weigh/measure what you're having etc. to get a good idea of whether you're getting the right percentages of protein, fibre, fat, carbs etc.

How you eat is exactly how I will eat naturally - I have a really sweet tooth, so I have every sympathy. But when I reduce sugar, up veg and protein, I tend to crave the sweet stuff less and can eat a bigger plate of food.

You need fat and protein, I recommend a raw cow's leg and a block of lard.

I think maybe you need a complete overhaul of your diet.

I think maybe a professional is in order, especially with your history of body dysmorphia. You are restricting calories, which obviously you have to do to lose weight but you want to be eating a healthy, filling diet rather than just as little as possible.

Unless you want to try Slimming world, in which case a family sized bag of pasta and 25 Muller lights hun.

Agree with pps who have suggested using My Fitness Pal.

But it doesn’t sound like you’re eating too much!

If you want to lose weight, you can keep eating the same, but eat it all before 6pm and then stop and don’t eat anything else until breakfast. I don’t know why that works, but it does. I’m sure someone sciency will come along and say that’s bollocks, though!

Agree that sugar creates more cravings. I love sweet things too. Sub the chocolate bar for two dates? Or switch to a very dark chocolate?

Loads of fruit (a piece of fruit as dessert for example) lots of veg, drop the sweet stuff.

I’m not very active at the moment due to the fibromyalgia. Doesn’t help I know. I’m not able to just go for a run or do cardio. Walking is possible though.

My lunch salad is dinner plate size but that’s mainly leaves. Dinner salmon stir fry is one salmon fillet, 1/3 of a courgette, 3 spring onions, some stir fry sauce and 2/3 pouch of rice.

Size wise, well I tried a skirt on in next today and couldn’t get it done up! It was a size 12 and v tight. I’ve always had a wide hips and butt situation going on. My legs are just so cellulite-y all the way down! I’m a 10 on my to half.

Go see your GP for an open conversation about how you feel about your weight and your diet and the effects of your medication. Ask for a referral to a nutritionist. No one on this thread will be able to give you the advice you need, be kind to yourself.

It sounds fine to me.

It honestly baffles me hearing other peoples height/weight/size. I'm shorter than you, weigh more and yet I'm a size 10.

My Fitness Pal is not necessarily a friend to someone with body dismorphia and disordered eating!

I have a history of very disordered eating. I posted on here a couple of years ago and starved myself as a result. You do not need to starve yourself or obsessively calorie count. I have sorted out my mindset and have spoken with an amazing nutrition psychologist. Message me if you’d like any more details :)

I look at your diet and it doesn’t look like a lot, but it’s chock full of sugar / quick release refined carbs. Eg, not much protein / foods that fill you up in your breakfast, you could swap for: apple and almond butter, Greek yoghurt, sprinkle of nuts / seeds and some berries, omelette or egg and soldiers, scrambled egg and avo, overnight oats...

You could easily swap your chocolate bar most days for something healthier, even a plain croissant would be better if you fancy something “unhealthy”. Or there are some yummy Nairn’s low sugar chocolate oat biscuits. Or sweet and salty popcorn? I love a date with nut butter or cottage cheese on a rice cake (I’m weird I love cottage cheese 😂)

We’ve had to re-educate ourselves with sugar. I started looking at what we were eating / kids were eating and looking at the “free” sugar content in everything and seeing if we were inside recommended limits. We weren’t. And it was things like smoothies and chocolate twists, the “treats” that were making the big difference. Honey is a free sugar, so a drizzle isn’t a problem on your breakfast but add in chocolate bar, salad dressing, cereal (dairy milk chocolate bar = 25g sugar) and you’re well over your 30g limit for the day.

You don’t mention what drinks you’re having?

I haven’t dieted at all this Jan but have reduced sugar intake and my tummy is much flatter and jeans looser. I don’t eat lots of bread or flour. I concentrate on eating satisfying foods like the nut butters, cream cheese, nuts, avo I talk about up above.

I don’t drink alcohol at all (I’ve been teetotal for 2 years) have stopped having fizzy drinks this month (17g sugar in a can of lemonade / 35g in a can of coke), and eat proper sized meals, soup with lentils at lunch, low sugar beans on toast, better meals - bigger than I was having last year with lots of veg, to make sure I’m eating well.

I love the intuitive eating movement. Maybe check out some articles on line?

Are you trying to lose weight or maintain??

You can work out how many calories a day you will burn on line (BMR) - I've just done a quick calculation and with low activity you would be roughly burning 1500 kcals a day.

If you track your food using My Fitness Pal you can see if what you are eating is truly "too much" but you have to weigh everything and be honest with yourself.

It doesn't sound like a lot to me!

That sounds very healthy and about right for your size. I have similar but wouldn’t have the daily chocolate bar and evening cereal. I’m size 8-10 and 5’6”. And 30 - I think age makes a big difference to weight actually and you have to eat a little less as you get older and especially as most peoples’ lives get more sedentary.

Having said that I also have days where I’ll have fish and chips or a burger or pizza when I eat out.

You probably already know this but it’s hard to say without knowing your portion sizes and ingredients in the sauces etc if you’re eating too much or not enough. I agree with pp - see a nutritionist as bouncing from 8 stone 4 to 9 stone 12 and worrying about it so much isn’t healthy.

Could be the medication, because even with the chocolate and the cereal after dinner it's still not a lot of food. Have you worked out how many calories it is? I bet it isn't many. I'm 5'4" and small build (so similar to you) and I need around 1600 calories per day to maintain my weight.

it doesnt sound very much at all to me, and this is only cos you have asked for comments i wonder is is there missing detail, for example my daughters drizzle of honey means she goes through a jar a week..how much is some honey and mustard dressing - a tablespoon may be fine, if your having two you could be addional 150 cals worth to your salad , same with stir fry sauce..pre made ones can add a good few calouries if your adding a load in, id see if you could up the veg content in stifr fry and use soysauce ginger and garlic to flavour instead, get you fuller by adding carrot peppers etc a bit of courget and spring onion is not a enough your plate must be almost half carbs with the rice and sauce,
the night time cereal is that also with milk honey etc. maybe youd be better with a handful of nuts or some protein.
finally what size choc bar...

Although we weigh the same, I'm 1 inch taller than you but I'm a size 8... so firstly I doubt you're a 'large 12'

I'm the same height as the OP. I weigh 8st 4 and I'm a size 8, so it just goes to show how differently we all carry weight. Not to mention how sizes vary from shop to shop.

Are you losing weight/ gaining weight/ staying the same?
Whether that’s enough food/ too much is quite an individual thing. Personally I’d gain weight on that, but then I gain if I eat over 1100-1200 a day (and yes, those are correct figures, I’ve weighed and measured but I think my metabolism went through the floor when I hit 38)
It doesn’t sound like you’re eating much at all, but for me I’d be gaining weight at that.

I eat more or less that much but most days I have the odd snack. And I am 5'2 weighting 47kg. Petite size 8.

Your weight is healthy, your dress size normal, and your diet is reasonable. If your weight is stable then you're not eating too much.

There's room to eat better but there's absolutely no need to eat less.

as a pp has said i would try less sugar and more fruit, veg and protein. Swap cereal for wholemeal toast and an egg.
Swap choc bar for melon (i know! But quite satisfying after a bit and sweet ish). Drop the honey dressing and have the whole tin of tuna (or salmon) and brown rice.
However: there isn't much point asking what other people eat without knowing their age, portion sizes, how active they are, health issues etc. As you have fibromyalgia it is worth speaking to your doctor before making any drastic changes, but walking is great exercise.
FWIW I find as i get older I need to eat a lot less than i used to.

It must be joyless AF to obsess over what you eat this much.

I'm the same height and a very small frame. Currently 8 stone 8lbs and working my way back to my ideal of 8 stone. People are saying you eat very little but for a short person like myself it sounds ok. Im doing IF (16:8) and have lost 4lbs since new year. My daily food would be something like; salad with chicken or tuna and a yoghurt for lunch and whatever I like for dinner eg pasta and fish, stir fry with chicken or fish, mash and fillet steak etc. Usually have a couple of squares of dark chocolate or a couple of biscuits after dinner. At weekends I either eat out or get takeaway one night and have a few glasses of wine or gin but I don't snack much.

I don't mind being hungry sometimes, it's no great hardship to be hungry for an hour or so and I'm happy that I will be back to my ideal weight in the next 6 weeks or so.