Is this too much, just right or too little food?

[PigletsBestFan]

I’m curious as to whether people think this is a normal amount of food or not. Also, is it balanced?

This is for a full day yesterday:

Breakfast:
Graze bar (the small individual oat boosts at around 90 calories)
An Apple

Lunch:
A normal bag of McCoy’s crisps (lunch was very busy).

Dinner: McMuffin Fakeaway

2x warbutons breakfast muffins, 4x rashers of bacon, 2x McCain hash browns, 2x poached eggs

Snack:
Fun size bag of mini eggs (the smallest size ones)

Previous day:

Breakfast: Nothing

Lunch: Nothing

Dinner:
Grilled chicken with salad and pittas, onion rings and 2x slices of garlic bread

Snack: Fun size mini eggs

You must realise that no breakfast or lunch isn't normal. The meals seem OK but I would include more fruit and veg and make a proper lunch which will mean you don't need the mini eggs or crisps

You need to stop skipping meals or just eating a bag of crisps for a meal.

The first day wouldn't be so bad if you had eaten a nutritious lunch.

The second day is worse. It's not a good idea to miss breakfast and lunch. Dinner is okay but your blood sugars must be all over the place. It's like a binge at the end of the day.

I your position I'd focus on eating 3 meals a day, every day (actual meals not just snack foods) first and foremost, without worrying too much about what the content is.

I don't think you're alone in not really knowing OP. Some of these answers are harsh and/or condescending but absolutely loads of people never get taught the basics of nutrition and cooking. Ignore the sniffier posts.

Who is it for, yourself or another person, child or elderly person, a colleague?

Either way it doesn’t look good. Too much processed junk and not balanced.

You don't need to eat breakfast really early though, I have it mid morning as I'm not hungry first thing.

Kindly though, op, whilst some people don't eat breakfast, skipping breakfast isn't working for you because your eating is so disordered. You need to work on establishing normal eating patterns. You ate a bar and an apple on one day, that's okay for a daily breakfast?

@Unexpectedlysinglemum Can you recommend an AI app I could use?
I wouldn’t know where to start.

Yes to the PP who said blood sugars are all over. I feel dreadful some days but I could not figure out why because I’m so used to eating like this.

I eat one meal per day most days. I’ve tried to eat breakfast this week but was so sick by lunch, I couldn’t eat anything else.

I would expect the weight to be dropping off me but it’s not. Does it really sound disordered?

There are different schools of thought on this. People always used to say that breakfast was the most important meal of the day, but I don’t know if there is much evidence for that. Given the recent success of fasting diets (which do appear to be pretty healthy when done sensibly), it is clearly ok to miss a meal and doesn’t automatically make a person’s eating disordered.

I am 46 and also don’t eat breakfast- I haven’t since I was probably about 15. I’m a healthy weight and do not have an eating disorder (I did once for a while but eating/not eating breakfast was not a relevant factor to my eating disorder).

I do eat lunch though! Or brunch. So most days I don’t eat till about 12 or 1 and will have something like a wrap with houmous or cheddar, with loads of spinach and coriander. (Or it might be a bagel, some soup or a small portion of leftovers from the previous day’s dinner). In the evening I eat a cooked meal which will usually incorporate meat or fish, plenty of veg, and some sort of carb such as brown rice, pasta or potatoes.

Your blood sugars are high because most of your diet is carbohydrates. You need protein, fibre, good fats and fruit/veg too.

I wouldn't get hung up in the breakfast thing. Brunch or elevenses is fine.

If you can't face breakfast and haven't eaten it for years that is fine. But maybe don't skip lunch too as you will feel awful. I'd start introducing lots of whatever fruit and veg you like, some greek yoghurt, some cheese, lean meats, and try not to eat too much of the processed stuff. Also check your water intake.

Maybe you could start off trying a light breakfast, even just a piece of fruit mid morning, and a salad for lunch, or just start having lunch to begin with then you won't need such a big dinner in the evening.

Yeah this isn't great OP I think you know that. But I disagree with the posters saying you must eat breakfast. I don't think that's true for everyone, I only have coffee for breakfast myself. However you definitely need to eat a proper balanced lunch. Make this your largest meal and include at least 3 veg and 1 or 2 pieces of fruit. Dinner should be a similar composition of 25% protein (not processed), 50% non starchy veg like spinach, broccoli, green beans or sprouts and 25% lower gi carbs like sweet potato or brown rice. Snacks go for high protein with good fats like unsweetened Greek yoghurt with berries, or a handful of nuts, hummus and veg sticks etc. my best tip for making healthy food more interesting is to make different sauces and dressings with lots of fresh herbs and different spices and condiments, better to make your own than buy pre-made.

It’s what I eat when I am hungover. Not frequent!

@PigletsBestFan you don’t have to eat breakfast early. I don’t, I eat mine about 10am. I can’t just get up and eat.

My typical day when I am being neither particularly good or particularly awful is:

Greek yoghurt (full fat) and a no added sugar muesli. Fruit juice. On WFH days it is eggs on toast instead.

Granary bread sandwich with ham or chicken or cheese or egg mayo
Apple
Something salty like crackers or baked crisps
Something sweet like a small cake or a couple of biscuits

Salmon fillet, jacket potato, 2 or 3 veg

My big vice is a daily coke zero. Otherwise it is water or water with no sugar cordial. I don’t drink tea or coffee apart from an occasional green tea.
I am not great with fruit but I like veg.

Some days are much healthier, but that’s a middling and honest day!

Your thread title made me think of Goldilocks, and actually porridge would be a good start for you. With a bit of fruit and honey. You could have it for lunch if not breakfast.
Cut out the chocolate and crisps, that's not food. Have an omelette or soup or salad with lean protein. Get Michael Moseley book for inspo, lots of good advice in there.

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I'm not a breakfast person either OP. I think it's fine to skip breakfast. The main issues are that you need more veg and less processed food. Did the salad include things like tomatoes and avocadoes? If it was just lettuce and cucumber then that doesn't have much nutritional value.

I don't like eating breakfast either so generally have 'brunch' between 10 and 11, fruit and nuts etc for snack then an evening meal relatively early as kids are quite young so all eat together. I have completely ditched UPF for the last two years and feel great (plus 2 stone lighter).

Today I've had a really nice avocado, red pepper, houmous and fresh coriander salad sandwhich on toasted wholemeal bread and about to have my second coffee with a banana.

Yesterday was porridge with banana, blueberries, walnuts and pumpkin seeds. Huge bowl.

Carrot sticks and apple with some monkey nuts and houmous.

Massive chicken and vegetable stir fry using leftover roast chicken from Sunday with chilli dressing.

Generally have about 3 coffees a day, a couple of peppermint or green teas and the odd bit of good quality choc or homemade biccie (and wine )

It does look quite chaotic op. You can improve it starting with some small changes though.

I get it, a lot of people can't really face breakfast. So how about a small but healthy snack maybe between 10-11 or whenever you are ready - natural yogurt with fresh fruit/a banana/a few veg sticks to dip in hummus/or even a graze bar for familiarity. Maybe when the rest of your day is more stable you'll be more up for breakfast eventually who knows.

Then move on to a decent lunch. A wrap with salad and chicken/jacket potato with a tin of sardines or tuna/veg soup with a small wholemeal roll to dip/dinner leftovers. I quite like the Bol or similar veg pots you can buy if I occasionally fancy something warm and tasty but quick. You're not aiming for perfection, just regularity and a decrease in "snack" food. Preparation is the key here, think about lunches before lunchtime so it's prepped and ready to grab.

Dinner, endless possibilities. Maybe batch cook something different a few consecutive weekends so you've got a few days worth of different options. Chillis/bolognese/fajita fillings etc. other ideas - salmon with brown rice (takes longer to cook but I've cime to prefer it as it's more filling) or even packet cous cous and some roasted veg, chicken with whatever dry seasoning you like new pots (maybe 5? Depends on size!) and any boiled or steamed veg, variations on noodles with whatever meat and veg you like. Your muffin fakeaway sounds nice too. I guess the aim is to slowly up the veg and decrease the proportion of food not made from scratch. But that doesn't mean it will or should be perfect. Don't let perfection get in the way of improvement. All the best op. x

Smacks of someone who has swallowed diet culture's message that they don't deserve to eat because they are too fat but who doesn't hate themselves enough to actually starve.

@ehb102 just succinctly described my life

Thank you for all the good tips. I will sit down to write out a shopping list. I should add that was just two days worth of food.

I do also eat things such as baked potato, tuna, salad and I like oranges and apples, broccoli and cauliflower.

If I post a list of meals later, would posters be happy to critique? I’m not sure I can deviate away from one meal at the moment but if I make it healthier, it should help?

@Squit sadly you’re right. I avoid eating anywhere in public because of this thought process. I also decline invites with friends in case someone I know from my childhood sees my new size. It’s sad, but it’s how it is. Obviously I don’t hate myself enough to drop the weight to stop this.

Ok I work with ED.

Trust me when I say there is no normal. There are some excellent evidence based diet plans out there like Eatwell. That's a normal healthy eating plan if you like in that it doesn't advocate extremes of anything and all the recommendations in it have robust evidence behind them.

There's also how a lot of people eat which we know is a lot of energy dense processed food. So that's also normal.

There are also normal vegans. There are plenty of normal people on gluten free/dairy free/ egg free diets for allergy reasons.There are normal Muslims fasting all day for Ramadan. And there are normal obese people on severe calorie restricted diets right now because the NHS recommends them to control or reverse type 2 diabetes. If I saw a patient in an ED clinic trying to stay below 800 calories every day I would be worried. But for other people that's a prescribed intervention. There are lots of normals.

Normal for you has obviously become skipping breakfast and sometimes lunch and eating some processed snacks. But also some larger meals. A dietician could tell you if you are actually eating a low calorie diet. It definitely looks like you are and that will make you tired, then you'll want sugary snacks or crisps to boost your blood sugar especially when you need to eat in a hurry.

You think your eating is disordered - if you have a diagnosis of ED then I would strongly recommend getting help for that first rather than trying to fix the diet. Your ED, whatever it is, will continue to be in control until you learn to control it. If you don't have a diagnosis but want to explore this talk to your GP.

It may be your eating is disordered but not to a clinically significant extent. A lot of people skip meals and statistically most of us eat a lot of processed food. If you want to change that the Eatwell plan is a good place to start. Aim.for three meals, don't worry about perfection just focus on increasing the overall proportion of whole foods and fruit and veg in your diet. If you can't face breakfast can you handle Greek yoghurt and fruit or overnight oats or some toast with PNB later? When you grab lunch on the go can you get a banana too? Could the McMuffin takeaway be made with a whole grain muffin and some mushrooms? CD the chicken in a pitta have homemade sweet potato wedges with it? That kind of thing. Nothing massive and not all at once. But if you make changes and feel good about them it may help you feel more positive about your relationship with food.

I have very bad eating habits too op. Years of wanting to lose 10lb. Fasting then binging, slimming world etc.
I don't trust myself to know how to eat properly
Anyway I downloaded the Noom app at the weekend and it's quite interesting. It focuses on a traffic light system and encourages you to eat a bit of food from each section. Interestingly the calorie allowance is higher than I would expect for losing weight. Anyway I've been following it for a couple of days and I'm enjoying it so far. Although I do want to lose weight I'm focusing on understanding how to eat properly and I'm hoping that the 2 will eventually go hand in hand.
I'm fed up of the quick fix mentality

OK, if you want adjustments you could make:

Breakfast:
Graze bar (the small individual oat boosts at around 90 calories)
An Apple Not bad, if this is what suits you - you say you don't like breakfast, so have this mid morning. You could alternate with a banana.

Lunch:
A normal bag of McCoy’s crisps (lunch was very busy). Plan ahead to have a lunch which has protein and veg / salad in it. An egg, cheese or chicken sandwich on wholemeal bread, with carrot batons on the side, for example. Make at home or pick up on your way to work?

Dinner: McMuffin Fakeaway

2x warbutons breakfast muffins, 4x rashers of bacon, 2x McCain hash browns, 2x poached eggs . A better version would be poached eggs on a bed of spinach on wholemeal toast - frozen leaf spinach is easy to microwave - and a salad on the side, maybe including a chick pea salad? OR felafels with hummus in pita plus salad. OR a baked potato with tuna plus salad

Snack:
Fun size bag of mini eggs (the smallest size ones) Swap for a satsuma or 2 squares of dark chocolate.

Previous day:

Breakfast: Nothing If you can't do breakfast have a good mid morning snack as above. Banana, apple, chunk of cheese, carrot sticks, natural greek yogurt with berries, or a handful of nuts or nuts and raisins

Lunch: Nothing Have a good lunch with some protein and veg. Oat biscuits and cheese with cucumber sticks, a chicken drumstick, etc.

Dinner:
Grilled chicken with salad and pittas, onion rings and 2x slices of garlic bread Started off really well. Swap the onion rings or garlic bread for more salad

Snack: Fun size mini eggs Adjust as above. 2 squares of dark choc, or fresh strawberries or raspberries or blueberries are nice to pick at while you watch TV, Or grapes.

Good luck OP - it gets easier if you shop and prepare for healthier meals and get in the habit. A few aberrations - fine, don't give up, just get back on track without beating yourself up.

You need to eat more during the day and radically increase your fruit and veg intake.

Eating a tuna salad is as quick as eating a packet of crisps.

If you can’t eat breakfast then you need to have a healthy lunch. I have salads with protein or eggs and veggies.