Would you find this sufficient for lunch?

[LottyD32]

A small m&s side salad.

I saw someone have this and this alone for their lunch, and imply anything more is greedy.

I suspect competitive undereating*, but do you think this is tiny/normal/lots? I'd be bloody starving 5 minutes later 😂

*Unfortunately I've worked with a few of these in the past and just roll my eyes.

I'm a size 16 porky and I don't normally eat until the evening. I'm afraid that is exactly the sort of thing I'd pick up if there was an occasion where I would feel awkward eating nothing.

^07Dogsaresomucheasier

Depends what they are eating the rest of the time, judgy comments are not appropriate, though!^

Judge comments are what MN and message boards are about, surely?

If someone feels the need to comment to me about how they are full after insubstantial/ minute / low cal portions, or make a big deal of cooking for me and others while not visibly eating much at all, and is slim, I immediately assume ED / former ED / disordered thinking around food.

Very sad but my cousin has had an ED for the last 25 years and is usually between 5-6 stone, and always behaves like this. I've no idea how she is still alive and functioning but I've never felt able to talk to her about it. She's fiercely private :-(

At the very least, I would eat that with a couple of boiled eggs and a packet of crisps. Or a large pack of veggie sushi.Definitely not on its own. The clue is in “side salad”.

My female boss used to eat the same thing every lunch... small side salad like that one, 2 crackers and about 8 blueberries.

I'd have it with a chicken breast on the side and a bag of Maltesers

@JaneAust

Is the person in question really slim?

Very.

As others have said totally depends what else is eaten during the day. My DH likes
A big breakfast and evening meal but often skips lunch. If she’s having half a grapefruit for breakfast and a cuppa soup for tea it’s not enough

I sometimes have just a pot of Greek yoghurt, at around 150cals for lunch (no breakfast), if I'm not particularly hungry. But I low carb so my appetite is pretty low and my dinner is usually quite high calories due to all the fat. I would not be making a point to people about it though, unless they asked.

EndaDay

It's absolutely fine for lunch. No wonder there is an obesity problem in this country.

If you have a breakfast of 2 slices of buttered toast, an egg and a slice of melon-that's about 400-450 calories.

A banana mid morning-100 calories

that salad for lunch-150 calories

a digestive biscuit mid afternoon-100 calories

that's 800 cals, not including milk or sugar if you take them in drinks. If you do, it could bring it up to 1000.

An evening meal and glass of wine-about 700 calories.

You're getting up to about 1800 calories-ample.

I think this is where the problem is. The comment that it's loads for lunch seems ridiculous in isolation. For me it's not enough for lunch, but no way would I be eating 450 calories for breakfast and not usually 700 for dinner. I'm not a fan of food in the morning, but like a decent lunch and less for dinner.

Nice to see the teenie tinies are still around..😁

I'm on saxenda weight loss drug so would be fine with just that

Yes, I would be fine with this… if I had my real lunch 30 minites later

Surely it's impossible to make any kind of assessment of the quantity and the nutritional value in isolation from the rest of the day? For most healthy people, there's nothing magical about eating at particular times of the day or at particular intervals (unless they feel it suits them or they have eg a blood sugar issue or some other problem). There's no such thing as a universal healthy lunch - people do it different ways.

The big problem is their implying that anyone who eats more than leaves is greedy. Perhaps if she has a bit of protein or carbs with her salad, she would be less hangry/ nasty?

I love this salad for lunch, with Tin of tuna . But then when I go to M&S I usually get a box (or 2) of the Jaffa cakes too. Or a pastry. Oh and salt n pepper crisps. And an eat in for 2 for tea with wine. I am starting to see why my ‘diet’ isn’t working….

Impossible to comment without seeing the bigger picture.
The salad eater may have had a huge cooked breakfast or planning to go out for a meal straight from work.

I quite often have a late breakfast and no lunch.
Seeing a single snapshot event of a light lunch tells you nothing.

I don’t think it’s ok for either side to judge the other, she can’t make comments that anyone who eats more is greedy and no one can decide she’s competitive under eating or make other snide comments about her eating

I honestly just don’t understand why people can’t not judge each other. This thread is a prime example. She’s judging others and others are judging her. Wtf is that all about.

Where does it say it’s a side salad?

It’s worth noting this salad also comes in two different sizes which look very similar I’m sure.

I'd pass out if I only had that

It would be plenty for me , I often don’t eat lunch at all or just have an apple .

I used to work with someone like this. We work quite a long day but we hardly ever saw her eat, and when we did it was some sort of veg smoothie (no fruit because of the sugar) or a salad like this. She was super skinny to the point she had a bit of a lollipop head, and we later found out that she had mental health issues that may well have been linked to an eating disorder.

I don’t particularly care what others eat or don’t eat but it was the constant commenting on others meals. ‘Are you having a sandwich again? I don’t know how you can eat bread it makes me feel so bloated’. ‘Cheese? It’s just so rich, I can only eat a tiny sliver or I feel sick’. It was just ridiculous but with hindsight she probably needed help rather than us eye-rolling.

That being said, I’m now in the habit of having a salad for lunch (thanks to Jugdy McJudgerson’s ‘helpful’ comments, I caved in the end) but I do tend to throw in some prawns, tuna or chicken because I never eat enough protein. I don’t think I would be full on just leaves.

Competitive underrating bingo on this thread.

Yup.
That would feed my family of 4 for a week!
Has anyone lost sight of what a healthy weight is yet??

@EndaDay

It's absolutely fine for lunch. No wonder there is an obesity problem in this country.

If you have a breakfast of 2 slices of buttered toast, an egg and a slice of melon-that's about 400-450 calories.

A banana mid morning-100 calories

that salad for lunch-150 calories

a digestive biscuit mid afternoon-100 calories

that's 800 cals, not including milk or sugar if you take them in drinks. If you do, it could bring it up to 1000.

An evening meal and glass of wine-about 700 calories.

You're getting up to about 1800 calories-ample.

1,500 calories isn’t sufficient for an adult.

I'd have it alongside a large Cornish pasty.

@speakout

Impossible to comment without seeing the bigger picture. The salad eater may have had a huge cooked breakfast or planning to go out for a meal straight from work.

I quite often have a late breakfast and no lunch.
Seeing a single snapshot event of a light lunch tells you nothing.

There's no cooked breakfasts going on here, and no huge dinners.

Fry-ups and huge meals are disgusting apparently.