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

Normal food to me would be

b - poached eggs on toast
l - jacket potato with tuna and salad
d - homemade spag bol with loads of veg

think single ingredient foods. You shouldn’t be buying packaged shite.

There was a cheese thread!?

Too much sugar sweets are not food they are a couple of times a week treat. Up the fruit and veg ditch processed stuff like cereal bars....if you're in a rush do overnight oats. Bananas are great snacks.
Think do I want diabetes and act.

I was just about to ask how you feel in the day when I saw you said you feel dreadful, I would feel the same. You are not getting enough calories during the day so you will probably feel lethargic, nauseous and might have a headache. If you eat more balanced meals you will actually be able to eat a lot more and you will feel more "well" and less hungry while losing weight (if that is your goal). Others on this thread have some great advice and I would look at planning your meals in advance so you know what you will be eating and have the food/ingredients ready and waiting for you. I think you know that the meals aren't balanced as you have barely any fruit or veg but asking for advice is the first step in making a change :)

No breakfast and no lunch isn’t normal but you know that, why you feel the need to start a thread about it is beyond me.

A good tip that someone gave me was to hold out your hands in front of you, side by side with palms up. You will be looking at something around the size of a plate. One palm is protein, one palm is carbohydrate and all the fingers are the veg.

Omg really? What app?

It looks a little like a mild case of a binge eating pattern - starved throughout the day then calorie overload in the evening. You're not overloading of course, but the pattern is there.

An easy pattern to fall onto if you're wanting to lose weight and accidentally fail - please don't be harsh on yourself.

A lot more vegetables and less processed food.

Here's a sample of what I eat.

I generally don't bother with breakfast but if I get too hungry and lunch is a long way off I will have a banana and maybe some yoghurt.

Lunch typically would be a chicken and salad tortilla wrap made with a tsp of light mayo, with either some carrot sticks or pepper sticks dipped in a couple of tsp houmous. Plus either an apple or a few nuts if still hungry after that.

Dinner - curry made with at least 2/3rds veg and 1/3rd meat or quorn served with brown rice, or a ladleful of chilli on a jacket potato, or spaghetti with a sauce made from aubergines, courgettes, peppers and a tin of tomatoes with plenty of herbs - optionally I might stick a few sausages or some shreaded chicken into the sauce if I feel the need for a protein boost.

You need each meal to contain a balanced mix of protien with high fibre carbs and vegetables to sustain you through to the next meal.

OP, it appears you're skipping meals and when you do eat a lot of it isn't healthy. You don't need to have loads at breakfast, just something healthy which kickstarts your metabolism, ie one day you had an apple and cereal bar, if you can't always eat that much at least have the apple/other piece of fruit. A packet of crisps at lunchtime is a snack, not a meal - something like salad and a protein, cheese or ham salad sandwich, homemade soup would be much better. When you have your evening meals, you need to include veggies rather than processed carbohyrates.

Not saying my diet is perfect, but yesterday I had small portion cereal, two biscuits, soup and bread, piece of toast (as teatime changed to late), fish with potatoes, broccoli and peas, then grapes later.

Today, small portion cereal, grapes, two biscuits, egg on toast with mushrooms, then later a tomato, pepper, mushroom and veggie mince pasta bake with cheese/breadcrumb topping - trying to use things up in freezer so there's sweetcorn for anyone who wants something else on side.

I wouldn't focus on quantities, I'd focus on improving your diet. I am sorry (tough love) but your diet is appalling. Cut the junk, have more fruit and veg, and wholegrains and lean protein. You don't have to have breakfast, I don't - I do fasting overnight then have two meals a day. My first meal will be overnight oats with fruit, seeds and nuts, or if I'm home, brown toast with eggs and vegetables. Second meal - vegetarian chilli with brown rice, or brown pasta with tomato sauce, all with a big salad. Snacks are fruit, veg sticks like carrots, oatcakes.

More fruit needed, more veg. One day you only have an apple; the other day you have a salad and some onion rings. Not enough.

One of your sample days has nothing for lunch, one has a bag of crisps. Eat an actual meal for lunch.

One day you eat nothing till evening - not normal.

There's a quote "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." You're failing on 1 and 3 of those.

these commenters would cry if they heard what i ate today.

breakfast -
jam wagon wheel
4 (or 5 can’t remember) viscount
space raiders
an apple
square of dark chocolate

lunch -
jamaican patty

dinner-
not sure yet, probably spag bol

I think we all have off days . My meals today should have been overnight oats with fruit yoghurt and seeds for breakfast and a banana and cheese croissant for lunch . I’ve also scoffed three squares of chocolate , a twix bar and a hot cross bun .

I’m stuck at home with a sick child and have cleaned the house and am just bored.

OP try overnight oats - the convenience of just eating it on auto pilot after preparing it the night before really works for me as I’m not hungry in the morning . It also keeps me full through to lunch . BBC food website has an easy recipe with lots of nice topping ideas

Op, there will be a lot of people respond to this thread who are disordered and obsessive in their own unique little way.

I'd say start with the meal plan you've described. Add in a bowl of homemade soup for your lunches. Follow your dinner with a couple of satsumas. If you can't face breakfast then you can't face breakfast, you'll never be a porridge eater at 7am - but could you stomach it at 10am? Trail mix is great to snack on. Little bits added in rather than a complete overhaul.

OP, you need proper help from medical professionals to help with your nutrition and your past and current disordered eating habits.

People can list things to eat for meals which are ‘normal’, healthy and balanced, but you need more help than that. Also, keep in mind that there are a lot of posters attracted to food threads who themselves have disordered eating, and that’s not going to be helpful to you.

See your GP and get the proper help and advice that you need.

Asking for diet advice on here is going to yield mixed results at best. MN is in a real purity spiral on upf and carbs and people who barely eat.

@Cosycover ask ai app it's amazing

I also use it to generate recipes to recreate products if I cut and paste the link to the product

Thankyou for the tips in this thread. I’m going to use the app suggested to create a healthy meal plan but so far I’ve produced the following for tomorrow’s meal:

Breakfast:
Apple and Banana with two weetabix and skimmed milk

Lunch:
Nothing (as said upthread, I can’t stand to eat in public so I’ll skip this)

Dinner:
Baked potato with tuna, salad and corn
Fruit salad with yoghurt

Nuts

I’m not going to focus on calories, I just want to balance things out. Does this sound better?

Also on my list I have:

Strawberries, grapes, broccoli, carrots, pork steaks, eggs, potatoes, chicken breasts, rocket, cheese, oats for porridge, honey

Does this look better?

I know I should know this, but as I’ve said in my PP I’ve lost my way and just need posters to kindly point out what I’m doing wrong.

Please see a doctor or failing that talk to Beat abd consider counseling or support groups. IF you do need to lose weight discuss that with your GP and follow a sustainable healthy eating plan. If you do have issues with really planning healthy meals then a dietician can help.

But you worry about eating in public, feel like you have lost your way. Get to the root of those feelings.

Meal plans on here won't help you. There will be other people with disordered eating patterns encouraging you to eat less than you need. It could make your disordered approach to food worse not better.

If you can't eat in public (I get it) how about a drink type meal? Smoothie, protein shake, huel?

I'm overweight so my diet isn't always great but I usually have (and think I eat fairly normally!)

Breakfast - sometimes! Porridge and protein powder with banana, scrambled eggs on toast, protein shake, something more time consuming on a weekend like a McDonald's muffin made at home

Lunch - sandwich/toastie/wrap, bag of baked crisps or some plain popcorn, always a couple of pieces of chocolate

Snacks - Greek yoghurt, fruit, piece of cheese, couple of biscuits

Tea - usually something batch cooked like cottage pie, lasagne, beef stew etc with veg or salad. Or beans on toast, jacket potato, halloumi salad, omelettes

I think your list looks great op - all the best with it and remember it doesn't need to be perfect to be healthy and balanced.

That sounds much better and more balanced! Well done for sitting down and thinking about it. As a PP said, how about a shake or "meal replacement" drink (not necessarily a diet one) for lunchtime so you are still getting some calories and nourishment? Your list is great, also remember other sources of carbs other than potatoes if you like them - rice, pasta, couscous etc.