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.

My point is not that they felt unwell, but that they experienced physical and mental effects of starvation on what is considered to be a reasonable number of calories in diet culture. And regardless those who are only eating 800-1200 calories per day are likely to be existing on things such as rice cakes which are low protein/low nutrient/low calorie and therefore not getting the essential nutrients (let alone energy) for their bodies to be functioning optimally.

Sorry I have no idea how you actually resolve that!

I had half a large bar of Cadbury fruit and nut for tea yesterday, mainly as I was so tired due to DS not sleeping. Probably not exactly a balanced diet but I don't think it will kill me too quickly.

People on restricted diets for anything other than specific health conditions always strike me as weird. Not suggesting my diet is one to follow though.

How do you have time for all that exercise? Do you have kids?
I am on maternity leave currently and have worked out that when I return to work in September I will be able to manage the following:

• Cycle to and from work 5 days a week (20-30 minutes each way) until it starts lashing with rain and I have to get the bus
• 1 hour of cardio at gym on Monday afternoons, Wednesday morning (if I get up and go before work), and Friday morning (luckily this academic year I won’t be working Fridays but that will only apply this year - then this and the below will have to stop)
• 1 hour of combined yoga/Pilates on Friday morning
• Walks of 5-10km with the buggy on Saturday and Sunday afternoons

As mentioned, this will reduce once my parental leave stops so that will be two exercise sessions (the Friday ones) gone instantly. Luckily my job is not at all sedentary so I hope that will help.

I’m just curious as to your childcare arrangements/how far you understand just how difficult it is for working parents with multiple children to fit the amount of exercise in that you describe.

I have been dieting for 18 months and have lost several stone. I write down everything I eat and have almost given up alcohol, don’t eat chocolate, crisps, or snacks of any kind. I weigh myself every day and have stuck at the same weight for several weeks! So frustrating. I could do with losing at least one more stone and it is frustrating that it is assumed I over eat because I am not stick thin! I am trying so hard to lose this last stone, but it’s not easy. People are judged so harshly if they are overweight, but lots of factors are involved!

I have also taken up swimming having not been for a couple of years.

These rare people posting their diet as tips on weight loss threads, you have really missed the point on this one.

Wait a minute, I wasn’t suggesting everyone needs to do the same amount of exercise as I do. How did you get that from my post? 😂

In my 20s I was super lean & could & did eat lots! In mid/late 50s, I can’t. I think true for many.

I have learned a lot on this thread. Thank you to knowledgeable posters. I have chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia and chronic pain and had 3 major abdominal surgeries including hysterectomy/ ovary removal, 2 hernia repairs. Really been through the mill as I’m not well enough to properly heal internally from that - I have a 12 inch lateral scar. Now 3 years on from surgery 3. I am now ready to tackle my poor eating and spiralling weight, which is due to frantically scrabbling for energy and running on sugar. Vicious circle, I know but I can only do this when I’m not feeling like shit, constantly dizzy and sick, when able to exist without feeling dreadful. If you feel like you’d rather not be on the planet, it’s hard to care what you eat iyswim.

I see a toxicologist and use her remedies. Apart from these, I’m eating lots of veggies, including tomatoes. Tomatoes aren’t low FODMAP but seem to agree with me whereas a lot on the list don’t. My body doesn’t get on with gluten and especially soy at all. I can’t eat gluten free bread or pasta in any quantities so eat these rarely. I’ve also stopped eating potatoes as they were also causing issues.

I am getting on well with sweet potatoes. My breakfast is often gluten free breaded chicken - the Sainsbury’s one with lots of roasted veggies including a bit of sweet potato. Then 1/2 to one chunk of dark chocolate with a heaped tsp of coconut oil (which I’m eating twice a day). Lunch usually a large salad. I am eating cheese atm but body is 50/50 on it and do better on soft cheeses. So lots of lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, a bit of meat protein and cheese, maybe a couple of slices of salami, avocado. Dinner can vary as I do try to cook most days. Meat, sometimes fish and veggies usually with herbs (some of the time in some kind of sauce, which agrees with me) etc. Last night I ate a small amount of pasta and feel ok. But won’t be eating regularly.

I’ve got a bit more variety coming in the food delivery today for breakfast to reduce the breaded chicken now as my energy is increasing, despite my teen dd breaking up a couple of weeks ago! I still know all this could be better. But I have only a certain amount of energy to work on and am hoping to improve further as the winters are very hard.

Apart from this, I take a good quality (Nutri) multivitamin, omega oils (drinking Nutri Eskimo oil, which I’m enjoying 😂), black seed oil, extra B vits and vit E. I am really in tune with what my body needs apart from the sugar cravings.

Sadly my weight has ballooned since I became really ill when dd was a tot. The covid jab set me back years. So I’m now working on losing this in a more healthy way whilst trying to reduce inflammation. The supplements help. I am not counting calories as such. I did for a few days to see if I was doing ok and worked out I was eating around 1600 calories a day. Not low, but I’m not prepared to go lower as I’d be eating far less as a lot of these calories are from the oils. In 6 weeks I’ve lost 5kg. Down from 110. I’m 170cm. I am eating the odd sweet once or twice a week and did eat a bit of cake for dd’s birthday. I’ve got to get my head around this being a regime forever as I’m doing so much better.

I did slimming world in my 20s. I’m now early 50s. I can attest that SW isn’t the best way to lose weight and I yo yo’d, putting on more. It screwed up my thoughts on eating for years. So when I went veggie, I thought lots of pasta with tinned tomatoes and cheese for my protein was just fine! I think it has improved now. But a quick google tells me that health oils are syns in the same way as highly processed foods are syns.

Healthy fats like olive oil and coconut oil are anti inflammatory. Idk if this is useful info to you. I’m trying to reduce inflammation in my body.

I did listen to a podcast where they mentioned inflammation and blue zones. They were saying that order of eating is really important so if your going to have things which graze the gut like white carbs that those places which traditionally eat lots and remain healthy do so by eating pre meal digestives aids which have protective aspect and line the gut. Like fermented kimchi in Japan/ China before white rice. Olive oil and balsamic salads before carbs meals in med countries etc. Basically something fermented and non grainy - not because grains are bad in themselves but because they are abrasive to gut lining.

I'm having to go low carb to reduce my blood sugar. I'll tell you why it works- you eat less , it's not easy and you get bored of food easily. There's a limit to how many salads you can eat, or eggs. I can't have my usual snacks and snacking is boring when you can only have veggies.

However low carb is supposed to give you a quick start but after a year it's no more effective at weight loss than other diets.

Before anyone weighs in I need to low fat as well as I can't digest fat properly.

On my 1200 calorie intake a day I have lost 3lbs in eleven days.

I have celebrated today by having a less than healthy breakfast 😂

Last night I treated myself to three slices of a Terry’s Chocolate Orange and it felt sooooo good

Fridays are my lax days so I watch my calories up until 5pm and then me and DH order a curry or a pizza for our evening meal (which I thoroughly enjoy without even taking into consideration what the calories may be), followed by desert 😂

I have two nights a week where I eat whatever I want for our evening meal and that’s what keeps me going. I honestly don’t think I could live on the 1200 calorie diet for 7 days a week.

So although I consider myself a calorie counter I don’t stick rigidly to the 1200 calories every day. However doing it 5 days a week seems to be working out well for me.

My start weight was 10st 10lbs and I want to get down to 9 stone which is what I typically weighed pre-children.

My point is not that they felt unwell, but that they experienced physical and mental effects of starvation on what is considered to be a reasonable number of calories in diet culture. And regardless those who are only eating 800-1200 calories per day are likely to be existing on things such as rice cakes which are low protein/low nutrient/low calorie and therefore not getting the essential nutrients (let alone energy) for their bodies to be functioning optimally.

Key's subjects were also expected to expend more calories than they ate. The type of calories that they ate is important, their diet was meant to replicate people living in war effected areas of Europe, so potatoes, swede, turnip, bread and pasta, so essentially a heavy carbohydrate diet with very little protein ( which is possibly why so many of them ended up with lower leg oedema ? ) and very little in the way of other nutrients.
As I have said, the 800 calories I am counting and eating are nutritious ( each meal comes with half a plate of uncounted calories in the form of green leafy veg ), certainly more so than when I was eating 4,000 calories, and not a single rice cake in sight. I am also taking a multi vitamin supplement.

LDL is the bad cholesterol right? Consuming coconut oil seems to lead to higher LDL & has no impact on inflammation markers.

I like coconut smell in sun cream, but not sure that topical coconut oil is that anti-inflammatory either.

See what I mean? Many claims and little proof.

I went into the rabbit hole (Twitter caught me with a Zoe advert) that says that blood sugar spikes encourage inflammation by increasing insulin resistance, but then that advice has no caveats about feedback mechanisms that could void or moderate the spike <-> inflammation relationship. When you look at the non-food likely risk factors for inflammatory conditions, they are things that don't apply to me, grateful to say.

My grandmother was crippled with arthritis so would like to avoid that.

But I have a stonking cold today so am basically just eating whatever appeals to keep my strength up (!)

You wouldn’t faint though would you-you just think you would. I started intermittent fasting a month ago after years of saying oh I couldn’t skip breakfast! In fact if I skip breakfast apart from a few hunger pangs that I suppress with water I’m perfectly fine and in fact have so much energy in the morning and am more alert. Some people only eat one large, nutritious meal a day and are perfectly healthy.

How are you trying to reduce “inflammation”?

how do you know if it’s working? What are your parameters where you know eating x food is reducing inflammation.

how do you know if you have inflammation in the first place?

i’ce tried to find answers in the literature but honestly “inflammation” just appears to be the latest buzzword.

”follow my diet to reduce inflammation and lose weight”. Throw in a bit of insulin etc to make it sound more scientific.

There's good research to suggest that people underestimate their calories intake so perhaps people who think they don't eat many calories are taking in more than they know.

I am 5ft 1 .
All my life i was able to eat anything and was a size 8 until i hit 45, weighed 8 stone.
Im now moving more eating as well as i can in tiny portions, and 11 stone, well over what i should be.
According to my doctor its hormones and the menopause.

Actually I think being a bit bored of food is helpful. You can see food for what it should be, fuel for your body.

We are fed a constant message of “deliciousness” which I think adds to us over eating. Food as a treat, food as a friend.

When I did fast 800 I ate the same lunch; lettuce, bacon, chicken and Parmesan cheese everyday at work. It was tasty enough to be filling and satisfying and ticked the boxes for mouth appeal. I didn’t need to be looking on the shelves of the sandwich bar every lunchtime having to actively think about which food sensation I wanted or disappointed with a lunch I’d bought in ( needing a packet of crisps to resolve).

Not trying to pick on you! but I'm wondering if this is what the key is to what the OP was talking about.

With help from Papa John's I can easily eat >3000 calories in a day.
So if you have 5 days at 1200 calories and 2 at 3000, that's the equivalent of about 1700-1800 a day across the week.
May be why people are describing such different eating patterns with similar results.

Interesting, I watched a program on TV a while back that was looking at the effect of food looking delicious and how it correlated with our intake. It was also looking a lot how our perception of portion size can also affect our intake in correlation with the “not wanting to waste food” and “you must clear your plate messages that exist in society.

They sat 20 people at one table, and 20 people at another table, and blindfolded all 20 people who sat at the second table.

The waitresses then bought out large portions of lasagne, with each 30 people getting the exact same meal / portion.

The results found that the blindfolded table ate significantly less food than the table where all the people could see what they were eating.

The suggestion was that looking at enticing food can trigger us to eat it even if we aren’t hungry, and that the blindfolded customers all stopped eating when they felt full as opposed to continuing to eat because it looked appetising as they couldn’t see what was in front of them.

Of the table where the customers could see their food, about 8 out of the 12 had completely cleared their plates with the remaining 4 people only leaving a small amount.

On the blindfolded table nobody finished their meal and most people had only eaten 50-75% of it.

I found it really fascinating!

Like you said, I try to think of food as ‘fuel’ and purely something to maintain my body needs. I am trying to rid
myself of the thought process that food must look good or taste good as that mentality does help me stay on track.

Don’t worry about picking on me 😂

I pretty much do as you say and try to look at my calorie intake across the period of a week as opposed to what take in on a day by day basis.

I did start off doing day by day calorie counting but within 3-4 days of reducing my calorie intake to 1200 I started to feel a bit lethargic with a low level headache at times so I knew that although I didn’t feel hungry and I could continue at 1200, I wanted to increase my intake so I felt better overall.

The calculation you gave makes me feel more positive as although I’m still on a restricted calorie intake most days of the week, as an average I’m still coming in at under 2000 a day.