Are people really eating this little?

[ABugWife]

Thread after thread after thread I see on here of people posting tiny amounts of food that they eat, or fasting most of the day. 1200 calories, 800 calories, bananas are bad for you, don't eat any carbs, no sugar ever, it goes on and on.

I am short 5'2 and fairly light at the top end of 8 stone so by these threads I should be eating barley anything but I eat every two hours pretty much, I snack all the time, I eat cheese and crisps and sweeties and cakes, sometimes I gain weight, sometimes I lose weight but it's quite steady between 8st 10 and 8st 13

I really find it hard to believe that people are eating such tiny amounts of food and not losing weight.

Does everyone here have a massive drink problem they don't include in their calories or are people lying perfectly still in bed all day long.

Where are the people that eat a normal, mostly healthy but sometimes shit diet.

@TomatoSandwiches me too. I’m massively carb intolerant.

A banana will spike my glucose as high as chips from McDonalds.

People don’t understand that carbs are digested into sugar. It doesn’t matter if that carb is a potato or a doughnut. It’s the same thing metabolically.

When I read the food threads on here it’s clear that a lot of posters have EDs and must be seriously deficient in lots of nutrients.

I eat 3 meals and at least 2 snacks a day, maybe 1800 to 2500 calories each day, depending on what I’m going. I do sports and running and I’d collapse on what these posters eat. I think mumsnet should delete a lot of the threads, they seem to promote EDs.

I'm 5'2 and was generally 8st 10 until I hit menopause. Now 10st and am dieting on 1200 calories. I lose a pound a week. I would lose nothing on 1600 calories a day.

I find 1200 calories fine, I'm doing low carb so you don't get hungry. I have tried 1000 and that was too low for me, I had no energy. 800 must be dismal.

I thought Tim Spector on the Zoe app was saying it was about the biome. And not calories in and out?

This. Weight dropped off me at 35 dieting. At 50, nope, it's a terrible battle.

Just feel grateful for now.

That’s madness. Just because it doesn’t match what you eat?!

I have Hashimoto’s and was morbidly obese. I have to eat Keto to maintain my 8 stone weight loss. I cannot eat more than 1300 calories because of my slow metabolism due to thyroid insufficiency caused by the Hashimoto’s. In order to keep the Hashimoto’s in remission I need to eat almost carnivore.

Do I have an ED? No, but I have to be very very careful about WHAT I eat as well as HOW MUCH I eat.

I always think the same. I eat huge quantities. I eat loads of carbs and I eat late at night. My BMI is 20 and I'm in my sixties. Admittedly I don't eat breakfast or drink alcohol. Don't really eat fast food or eat sugary stuff. But apart from that I'm constantly stuffing my face, and find most restaurant meals far too small.

No idea exactly what I weigh. We don't own scales. But I'm a size 10 and 5ft 4.
In my 20s and early 30s I used to eat like a PIG! I mean full sharing size bags of chocolate éclairs, Sensations crisps, a whole 1kg bag of Haribo - all in one sitting! And on a limited budget we loved 'all you can eat' restaurants. And drank loads of booze. And I've always been exactly the same size.
But now I'm 39, to maintain that same size, I don't eat any of that anymore. I eat whatever I want, but I prefer eating nutritious food these days, and eat small portions. My only regular treat now is a daily small bar of dark chocolate.

I wonder whether there is some truth in the idea that dieting makes you fat?
I've never "dieted" never counted calories, never avoided carbs, sugar or anything else.
I weigh 10 stone at 65, same as when I was 25. I put it down to genes, I'm slightly more likely to gain weight now but equally it drops off me if I'm ill or eat differently. (For example I always lose weight on holiday no matter what I eat).
I try to eat healthily but dont exclude anything. I have a few life long rules / habits that I stick to such as no snacks during the day and that seems to work. If I starved myself like some of these threads suggest I would lose weight rapidly and would be fainting.

@LMNT I think on 1300 a day, eating good food, you can get your nutrients. I’m talking about people that say they have a black coffee for breakfast, a slice of toast for lunch and a slice of pizza and a salad for dinner. They’re living on fuck all and will pay for it in years to come.

At your height and weight and age and moderate exercise levels 1600 would be about right for slow weight loss

Ten years time you likely find you need to eat less to lose weight

I feel like I eat loads and all the time but if I actually add up my calories properly it works out that o eat far less than sone people who claim to eat nothing ( and moan about how much I eat )

Food is really strange and peoples idea of loads and nothing is more related to feelings than facts

“The OP says she had a banana and someone replied that she might as well just have a Mars bar 🙄 “

I’ll take the mars bar lol …

I could eat whatever I wanted until the age of 42 - now everything I eat adds an extra layer of plumpness😂

But you’re not constantly stuffing your face. You just said you don’t eat breakfast which means you do intermittent fasting. A very well known method of healthy weight control. I bet you also unconsciously control your portion sizes too because you have health blood sugar through IF!

People have different metabolisms.
Some people can eat a little and their bodies hoard the energy. Some people eat a lot and burn it off (literally, they emit heat).

I wonder whether there is some truth in the idea that dieting makes you fat?

100%. My mum's a life long dieter and I've seen how it's screwed up her relationship with food completely. The thread on here the other day about salad was an eye opener - with dieters warning others not to eat olive oil because it's fattening!

Okay well lucky you!? Some of us have to work harder at it. Yes I’d love to eat more, but if I want to lose weight I have to eat 1200 a day. I’ve lost 4 stone doing this. Is it easy? No. Is it worth it? Hell yes. Why don’t you concentrate on yourself rather than your faux concern over what others are eating?

I agree with you OP. I'm your height and I put on maybe 1 stone when I was about 45. I've just increased my cardio exercise to an hour a day and started HRT. I'm 47 now and back to 8.5stone.i eat about 1800 a day. Swimming was the key for me. I can't believe how some people restrict on here. It's terrifying and their bones will be screwed by 70..
I eat a banana every day before I swim.

I'm ashamed to find myself at 4 stone heavier than I should be , more so that I have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.
I'm 60.

I've seen some recent threads where people have posted what they eat in a day and have been shocked at the amount of carbohydrates that are freely eaten.
Also, fruit consumption.
I had no idea that freely eating fruit was not a good thing and that blitzing loads of fruit into a smoothie was really bad .

I'm re-learning my relationship with food now.
It's such a different pathway.

I'm 5ft and my BMI is currently 37. I've managed to knock it down from 43 since the pandemic nudged me into doing something, but I'm still too far from being a healthy weight.

With complete honesty, I've exceed 1200 calories on only 4 different occasions this year, all for birthdays and a small slice of cake. Generally I eat closer to the 1000 calorie mark.

Everything is weighed, measured and properly counted. I even measure out the milk for my tea and keep it in a seperate container each day. I don't drink alcohol because it's empty calories.

Despite this and despite me running 3 times a week weights 3 days a week and yoga as often as I can I'm lucky to lose 0.5lb every 10 days or so.

At my weight and with my lifestyle it should be falling off me, but it's not. My thyroid has been checked and is apparently normal.

I'm just really fucking unlucky, but honestly what makes it worse is the disbelief. My close friends and family obviously know the truth of what I'm doing but everyone else, including on MN assumes I'm either lying to them or myself.

It's fucking miserable being obese and eating like a sparrow for 3 bastard years and barely shifting any weight. People like me do exist, but I bet at least one person reading my post will roll their eyes and think "Yeah, whatever...as if you're being truthful".

Oh, and just want to give parents a heads up on catering to fussy eaters who only eat chicken nuggets, pasta and chips... tread very carefully, it will catch up with them.

Bananas are weird little feckers, for an active person with good glucose control they are great. For someone with insulin resistance they are awful.

im a grazer, it just suits me better to eat little and often rather than 3 bigger meals that leave me feeling bloated and overly full. On the surface it appears I eat a lot but I just split it over more “sittings”. I definitely couldn’t survive on 1200 calories or only eating for 8 hours a day! I diet on 1700 and even then I’m often starving. The people I know who seem to eat the least during the day are also the most overweight so they’re knocking the calories at some point.

I'm your height op. I've never been 8 stone as an adult. I got to nine stone by barely eating...one meal a day. I was always hungry. I did briefly get to 8.5 stone but only because I had a serious gum infection which meant I couldn't eat for two weeks.

That's lovely for you.

I'm the same age as you, and after my second child 6 years ago my body/metabolism completely changed. Gone are the days of eating exactly what I want, when I want. I wasn't obese, but I was certainly uncomfortable in my body, and my clothes weren't fitting nicely.

Currently counting, and am on 1200 a day.

I've lost a stone so far, in a steady 6 weeks. I've had the odd day off, and I eat better now than I did before in terms of veg/fruit.

I 100% do not have an ED, in fact I have a healthier relationship with food now than I ever have.

What exactly do you mean by that?