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.

One word:

menopause

This really makes sense now. Thanks!

I’m currently on a keto diet, which is very low carb and no sugar. Some days are easy and some days are a bit harder but I’m sticking with it until I reach my target weight (9-10 kilos to go). I’m also intermittent fasting on it and have stuck to it about 95%, I’ve slightly lapsed with it the last couple of days as I was hungry before my ‘eating window’. This isn’t something that you have to stick with forever (like veganism or vegetarian etc) but it is working for me. I’m losing the weight with very little effort. I will be careful when I come off it though to not go mad on the carbs and sugar (I love and miss real chocolate) as they pile the weight on me very quickly. I don’t go hungry as the food I am eating is pretty filling.

You don’t eat enough to fuel that amount of exercise. Especially at that age.

Calories in/out still matter.

But the point he's making is that it's not like a combustion engine, with known rates. Some foods are not well measured by traditional calorimeters. People's bodies and metabolism vary considerably (eg by health of their biome, but also other factors)

(Also, there was a Scandinavian study back in the 90s that wasn't meant to be about weight loss at all, but was about types of fat and their role in arterial and cardiac health. Diets of subjects we controlled, and they were on same number of calories, but the types of fat varied. Somewhat to their surprise, the researchers found (unexpected) weight loss in one of the groups - it wasn't the purpose of the study, but it showed it's not just the number of calories you eat that matter, it's the type of food they are)

So - particularly if you are in/approaching the perimenopause, you may need to reduce calories (probably by individual trial and error) compared to what a younger person would consume.

If you need to avoid glucose "spikes" (diabetic/pre-diabetic or simply seeking to avoid peaks and troughs) then you need to be cautious with fruit and other high GI foods

I'm in my 60's and eat one meal a day of completely unprocessed food that I cook at home, preferably organic. When you eat this little you can afford organic.
I don't drink alcohol or have sugar of any kind that I know of apart from the sugar in vegetable carbs and fruit.
I don't eat meat or fish.
If I am absolutely starving I eat a banana.
If I try and eat "normal" food for just one week I can put on half a stone in weight just like that which then takes me forever to get off. I don't know how many calories I eat but it must be about 800 a day.
I do of course take vitamin and mineral supplements.
I had to take drastic action because my weight was wrecking my arthritic knees and back and at my age I cannot afford to be overweight.
I never eat with friends, we do other things like hiking, camping, visiting museums and National Trust properties.

That was so weird. Like a small amount of salad dressing will make someone fat. And olive oil is healthy!!

I obviously know metabolisms are different but not to the extent of one poster advising a small handful of nuts and a chicken salad for dinner being all she eats. Or some of the tiny potions people say they eat.

I'm 29, size 8.

I aim for 1300 week days and don't do anything on the weekends. I also do 16:8 weekdays.

With the both, Immy body has got used to eating like this and I don't get hungry. I couldn't stomach 3 meals a day now. I've totally adapted.

Humans have totally lost touch on portion control and how much we actually should be eating. We are eating more now than ever.

In my 30's and early to mid 40's I could eat what I wanted.
After 45 , a combination of menopause , having to take steroid tablets for my breathing , the weight just started coming on.
I have a bowl of muesli in the morning then some fruit and if I need more, another bowl of museli. I don't drink alcohol and yet I am currently sat here in my brown dungarees looking like a massive baked potato 🤷‍♀️

Is that madness all down to ZoeApp selling its product? Because ZoeApp programme is built around what happens to customer's blood sugar. CovidApp hugely benefited Zoe, really caused huge take up, or maybe just among MN neurotics. ZoeApp say their programme is tailored to what microbes are in your gut, but there never seems to be any advice about what to do to improve your gut microbe balance beyond the usual "eat lots of vegetables & fruit" advice. ZoeApp advice is centered instead about blood sugar control. I'm not even sure they have proof that the variations (spikes?) they are telling people they must avoid are that important to avoid.

I have a history of "inflammatory" musculo-skeletal conditions so I would quite a simple set of diet instructions what to do to relieve / cure my "inflammation", but I can't find anything but 1) pure quackery or 2) "eat lots of vegetables & fruit and not a lot of junk food" advice which I already knew / try to do.

No - if you are eating normally you don't need to post about it!

This. I'm 5'4". I was a size 8 for years and years. I could eat anything I wanted without thinking about it ever. Now I'm a 10 and very very often a 12. If I drink beer or wine it turns to fat. If I eat crap I feel so ill. If I eat more than usual because I am on holiday, its Christmas etc I can gain 3 or 4 kilos in a week. I have to exercise and watch what I eat because it will stick if I don't. I keep cake as an absolute treat. I like baking but I don't because then I would eat my baking and I would go up another size. I am part of a walking group. I work out every day. I have a big garden I spend a lot of time working on. I want to stay the size I am. I cannot be a size 8 again without starving myself . Staying at a 12 requires effort.

This obsession with weight is so utterly depressing. Life is for living, so chuck out the scales. Stop counting calories and free your mind - read a book, look at some paintings, listen to music. Just live, people, and be grateful that you live in a country where the population isn't forced into starvation by war or famine.

I heard of an interesting study where pig were fed the same weight of biscuits, but one group had theirs processed and ground up. The second group put on much more weight over time. I can't find the study though, but if true it has interesting implications, suggesting a diet of processed food leads to weight gain and it's not just about calorific value.

I usually only eat 1 meal a day 5'6 10st 9 but now I'm working out I eat lunch too. I just can't eat before about 2pm makes me too lethargic and grumpy when I eat.

if i eat over 1200 calories i dont lose i maintain at 1200, so right now im on a diet and im eating 800 calories a day. thats 3 very small meals a day.

When I was your age I was taller than you and about the same weight. I never had to worry about what I ate and could eat anything. Then I became ill with undiagnosed underactive thyroid, I went up three dress sizes in 6 months. Despite being diagnosed and taking medication, I have struggled to lose the weight. I can eat breakfast and one other meal but nothing else or I will put on weight. I can't eat cakes, sweets, desserts or any other food containing sugar or I will put on weight. It's shit.

This cannot be correct.
My fit bit shows I did 4 miles which burned 207 calories after adding that to my resting of 1,121 calories and that means eating anything over 1,328 calories would result in weight gain.

Lol. I was like you at 37! Things change op. Menopause sucks!

I’d swap the bowl of muesli for a more savoury less sugary breakfast. That will
balance energy levels throughout the day more.

All you eat is muesli?!

Most of the time i only ever eat 1 meal a day about mid-afternoon with no snacking at all before or after it.
It's only recently I've learned that this is quite extreme and classed as "intermittent fasting"
It's just routine and convenient for me.

I think it is that different. But I don’t buy the ‘that’ overweight and eating a handful of nuts and a few lettuce leave either. If you have that much weight (ie cells) it surely needs servicing with energy and your surely going to have a blood sugar crash and be curled up in a cold sweat with that deficit. I don’t know the answer. I am slim and it does confuse me. It must be something genetic or environmentally triggered - perhaps ironically by dieting itself?

You’re doing fantastic! Keep it up. Once you get to your goal, you can transition into maintenance.

It’s so bizarre how those eating a bare minimum are struggling to lose weight. It’s almost as though dieting doesn’t work.