If you have always been a healthy weight, what do you generally eat?

[biggerthanthebiggest]

Or is there anything you avoid. I'd love to hear what maintaining a size 12 in your 40s looks like in reality. I've definitely fallen down a hole the last 10 years with raising young family, working long hours that I've totally forgotten how to care for myself. I used to be a size 10 and would panick if my jeans didn't fit. Now I'm a size 16 but longing to get back to a healthier weight (for me) but I feel quite lost. Im going to eat more proteins to fill me up and loose the sugary treats

What's your success?

I’m 43 and a size 8-10. I eat cereal or porridge for breakfast, salad for lunch some days, some days toast and jam/scrambled egg and a gousto meal in the evening. I snack on crisps and biscuits through the day.
If I try and drop a few pounds I try not to have too much dairy, so no cereal with milk in the mornings, cut down on the milky tea I drink, stop having toast with butter for lunch.

I think the first thing you should do is cut out Coke Zero. The sweeteners make you crave high calorie foods. I’d just concentrate on cutting that out for a couple of weeks at least and then think about your diet after you’ve been successful doing that.

40s, 10-12, wearing a denim skirt today I bought at 17-18. I rarely snack unless socially (e.g. at a bbq), used to eat 3 meals a day - toast or museli for breakfast, sandwich or salad maybe with crisps for lunch and a hearty dinner which does usually involve substantial carbs. For the last 6 months I eat between 12 and 8, have museli and Greek yoghurt at lunch time, sometimes a sandwich a few hours later if still hungry, same kind of dinner, usually home cooked. So now eat 2-3 meals a day rather than always 3. Don’t drink much other than socially. Run 5-15km/week. Eat the odd cake but usually on special occasions or when I take DD out to a cafe.

I'm 49 and have always been an 8-10 though now firmly a 10, at least for trousers. Still an 8 on top.

I have never been a big drinker but since the start of perimenopause a couple of years ago I very seldom can't drink, so now probably have a glass of wine every 2-3 months (in a restaurant, for example).

I cook nearly everything from scratch, and try to avoid UPF, though am not too absolutist about it. I try to avoid foods that I regard as messed around with, such as flavoured yoghurts, would never buy anything marketed as low-fat or low-sugar and never really snack between meals (I'm pretty greedy at mealtimes and like proper food, but don't see the point of snacks).

I usually have either porridge or homemade granola for breakfast, with either blueberries or banana and organic milk (in glass bottles from the milkman!).

Lunch is usually soup, or eggs in some form, or hummus and veg, followed by a piece of fruit, or occasionally full-fat Greek yoghurt with a few nuts and teaspoon of honey swirled through. I make my own soda bread so sometimes a slice of that toasted forms part of my lunch.

Dinner is just a normal family meal - stir fry with salmon, pasta with a sauce and salad on the side, curry, risotto or something like that. My elder DD is a vegetarian which means I do cook a fair bit of vegetarian food.

My weakness is homemade cakes and puds, and I do have to really keep an eye on this. I bake a cake most Sundays - lemon drizzle today - and try to make us eke it out for the start of the week. Sometimes later in the week I'll do a crumble, or rice pudding, or baked apples. Or bake a batch of shortbread and have a square of that after dinner.

In terms of drinks, I dislike fizzy drinks and don't ever buy fruit juice. I have 2-3 cups of cafetière coffee a day, lots of water, and a cup of rooibos tea in the evening.

I'm not keen on exercising (lazy) but do walk most places, and try to force myself out for a run now and again - my ideal is 2x a week, but I'd be lying if I said I always achieved that. Sometimes I do short 10-15 minute YouTube exercise routines.

I'm a size 8 - teetotal 7 years and a new vegan. Regular runner too