How do people without disordered habits eat?

[Frequency]

It's probably the wrong place to ask but how do normal people eat? Why are the not either fat or hungry all the time?

And, most importantly, how do they deal with cravings? Like, how do they just eat what they fancy, when they fancy without worrying about losing control and gaining weight?

If for example, they really, really wanted a portion of Gregg's brownies with salted caramel dip, would they just order them without considering how they would fit into their daily calorie allowance?

Surely, if they did that, they'd be over their TDEE that day? And if they did that say every couple of weeks, they'd gain weight.

Basically this. I have trained myself out of eating shit food over the years. I have NEVER craved a mcdonalds or similar. I've trained my brain so that a takeaway makes me feel like I would be sick if I ate it.

On the rare occasion I want a piece of cake that's worth it, I'd have salad for lunch and a slice of toast for dinner and then stop eating. I wouldn't feel hungry.

Yes to all the above because I don’t have an eating disorder. I have a healthy relationship with food and eat what I want because life is too short to be anal about calories. I keep the weight off my exercising

You must know how unhealthy this behaviour is? Just have the brownie

Beats me. I'm always one minor inconvenience away from ordering crap or binging an entire pack of chocolate buttons.

all those breakfast bars, protein bars are UPF and will be spiking your glucose - causing the sugar cravings and wouldn't fill a hole in a tooth!!

You need to eat proper food, whole foods

Dr Rupy Aujla has a new book out, and its worth buying just for the insight into protein, although the recipes look really good as well ( Im still looking through it ) Its called Healthy High Protein and seriously, I thought I had a good understanding of of my protein needs and where to get it, but this book really spells it out in simple terms

I just eat what I want. Brownies, whatever. I’m bang in the middle of normal BMI. I gain a dress size in winter, when I’m cold and want more comfort food. I lose it again in spring, when I’m naturally more active and eat less.

I feel very lucky with all this - but I am also very determined not to get weird about food, as my family is riddled with eating disorders of all kinds and I just don’t want to waste a minute more of my life than I absolutely need to thinking about food. I can’t really bear to listen to anyone talk about calories, carbs etc if I’m honest. It makes me want to jump out the window and run screaming into the woods.

I have to stay off diet threads because I'm an ex-anorexic. It's a good question, though, OP, so forgive me for answering without RTFT.

I have the snacks. Biscuits and crisps are my thing, sometimes ice cream (I don't think I've ever left a half-eaten family tub of Ben & Jerry's for another day). Some time after I've finished them, I remember to check the calories. I fish the pack back out of the bin, multiply the "per 100g" by the package weight, go "Bloody hell, that's more than a day's calories! Oops!" and stop worrying.

I sort of put the number into a quiet part of my mind and it does its own calculations, so I'll even out my intake over the next day or three. I barely notice. This works longer-term, as well, so I'll gain quite a bit of weight over Christmas & January, then quietly lose it again over the next couple of months.

I told you I had an ED, right? I trained for this. Following Susie Orbach's advice and philosophy, I applied myself to the mission of learning to respect my own body and its inbuilt common sense. Trust your own self - and, if you really can't, find a feminist counsellor who doesn't think the size of a woman's body is an inverse statement of her worth.

It's much nicer this way 🙂 Good luck.

To me eating is not complicated, I eat 3 meals a day and have the odd snack or chocolate or pudding when I feel like it, no idea why people need to complicate food but I don't need to know that is up to them

I am slim, no idea what I weigh but same jeans have fitted me for at least 12 years. I have never had to have something like a real craving that’s overwhelming. I have 3 meals a day, don’t really snack. I don’t restrict a specific food but I don’t eat much sweet stuff as I am more of a savoury flavour liking person. I will have a piece of home made decent cake but buying shop made cake unless it’s from the expensive bakers in town it just wouldn’t taste good enough.

Would you mind me asking what you’ve read specifically? And has it t ‘aged’ well if it was written decades ago?

Reading the thread, I realise that another thing is that I am naturally very fussy about what I eat. By which I mean I have no interest in sweet things unless they are homemade or very high quality. My husband says I'm a princess, but I just hate mass-produced cheap cake, biscuits, chocolate, etc. I think that limits the amount I eat because I have to either make it myself or pay a lot and go out of my way to find a source, e.g., farmers market. A tin of biscuits just would not tempt me at all. My own homemade biscuits would, though!

I used to have severely disordered eating, bulimia and anorexia.

It has taken me the best part of 15 years to get where I am now.

Now I eat what I want. Losing the food ‘rules’ has made the difference. If I want the brownies, I will eat the brownies. I won’t consciously reduce what I eat for the rest of the day.

I find now I have permission to eat it and I genuinely don’t beat myself up for it anymore, I overthink less and I obsess less. So I naturally eat less some days then others.

I maintain my weight (am even losing very slowly) but I have peace. I mean, I’d still like to lose half a stone and I eat too much sugar but..

This isn’t a very useful post because I can’t pinpoint what changes I made to get to this point to be honest.

That's not enough food. Why no lunch? Try eggs for breakfast.

I think I would feel unhappy eating what you have listed it’s very processed stuff plus what are you doing with your chicken and veg, where is the flavour?

Can you actually cook? I grew up in my tender years in a restaurant as my parents ran one and did work in catering when young. So can cook.

You are after a sugar hit it’s why you don’t really care where it’s coming from. You have a sugar addiction looking at that list. What do you mean by healthy stuff you don’t like? Many people seem to think they need to just eat salad which also makes them miserable.

I like my food and probably (definitely) eat a bit too much of it at meal times, but I don't get those cravings you describe. So if I was out and saw a nice brownie for sale, I might buy one to have as part of lunch or to eat later after a meal, but I wouldn't randomly start thinking about cake during the day.

I have a pretty healthy relationship with food and have a fit body.
I eat! Lots of protein from lean meat, eggs, tofu etc.
Lots of veg. Filling, high volume meals.
Greek yogurt and berries for a snack.
I don’t really crave super sweet food and wouldn’t really ever think about getting anything from Greggs. Not because it’s “bad”, because I don’t particularly want it. If I crave something sweet I’ll have dark chocolate. If I’m having dinner out I’ll occasionally have a nice cake.
I believe if your meals are balanced and filling enough, with quality protein, you won’t have the insatiable need for the processed sugary stuff.

The food you list is an awful amount of UPF and particularly will be full of artificial sweeteners. The options hot chocolate, the sugar free jelly, the protein bar most likely also has them. It will all be spiking your glucose and then no wonder you are feeling hungry!

Chris Van Tulleken's book Ultra Processed People may be worth a read.

I think from reading your most recent post that a lot of the food you’re eating is low calories, but very high sugar, ‘diet’ food which is not filling or particularly nutritious. Could you focus more on protein and fresh food so you feel full for longer?

I just googled the brownies. How much of the box is a portion? I have a sweet tooth, but probably couldn’t manage more than three of the brownie bites.

Your food list reads like a list of desserts with not much ‘real food’. And I say this as someone who would eat cake everyday if it was available to me. But it needs to be punctuated by something that will stabilise your blood sugars.

It's probably far more about WHAT you eat, rather than calories.

As you ate two bowls of cereal, your blood sugar is likely to have had a huge spike, leading to a crash an hour or so later. Your body will then crave sugar to get your blood glucose to where it should be. So more sugar, then another spike, leading to yet more sugar etc etc.

Try starting the day with protein instead of carbs.

If I wanted the brownie, I'd have the brownie but with a couple of important caveats. I'd probably make sure I had a lower calorie, balanced dinner (and by this I mean I'd have a good hearty salad with a some decent protein rather than a giant pizza) and I'd not be having a brownie the next day...or the next...

It's fine to have 'treats' in fact, I'd say it's worse not to have them. You'll just crave them more. Have the treat, minimise the 'damage', move on.

So have them . Life's too short.

PS just read the list of what you eat and very little of it is nutritious and filling.

Swap Muller lights for full fat greek yoghurt with fruit, and ditch the "protein" bars for low sugar granola with some toasted seeds and nuts.

Try reading Food For Life by Tim Spector or listen to Zoe podcasts as they explain this really well. Also the Glucose Goddess on Instagram

I think a lot of it is how you were brought up. We had 3 meals a day and snacks weren’t a thing. We had a fruit bowl so after school we could have one piece( was 3 of us so not allowed more as they had to last) and nobody ever ate after dinner!! It stayed with me. Mum cooked normal meals from scratch and I do the same. My trolley is full of veg, tins of pulses, beans and tomatoes and fruit ( frozen and fresh) then chicken, fish, mince. I make lots of flavourful meals from this with spices and herbs and garlic. I also don’t have a sweet tooth so those brownies you mention mean nothing to me. I’m that annoying person who loves veg and fruit and salads. Have disliked cream and butter since I was a child.

I eat 3 fairly consistent meals a day and a small afternoon snack. I would never fancy the brownies and I choose not to eat things like that because I prefer to be slim than the 5 or 10 minutes of eating brownies.

I have been heavier than I am now, though not overweight, but I feel better at the lower end of the BMI scale.

I always enjoy my afternoon snack, it is some fruit, nuts and a squre or two of 95% chocolate. Now I don't eat much sugar I don't crave it. Fruit and 95% chocolate is the sweetest thing I ever eat.

I don't count calories but I have a good idea of the kinds of things I can eat for each meal and a good portion size. I don't really think about food until I'm hungry for my next meal.