to think that we've totally lost sight of "normal" portion sizes

[HighwayDragon]

Everything we buy has to have the nutritional information on, who has actually looked at these? I have today and have had the shock of my life, the recommended amount of philli for example is 30g, I measured that out today, it's tiny. It got me thinking about the size of our plates and what we eat, have we become accustomed to eating too much food? How do we change? Could this be the reason we are so fat?

I saw a programme on TV where they asked mums of 8 year olds to estimate a portion of pizza for a child of that age and they all completely and utter over estimated.

In terms of the comment about the salad, actually salad vegetables esp lettuce
have hardly any calories, so if you don't have any carbs and a moderate portion of protein its fine to eat a whole salad bowl to yourself.

It's a combination of portion size, and activity levels.

There used to be a poster in our local leisure centre telling us how many calories the average man ate in 1950 or so, and how many he eats now (fewer) but how he does much less (no longer working on the farm/in the foundry etc).

People used to walk and cycle, do heavy housework (washing by hand is very hard work, all that lifting and wringing). Even walking to the bus stop and standing there waiting will burn up more calories than getting into the car.

I have a serious chocolate habit. If I didn't have dogs who HAVE to be walked, I'd be in big trouble, weight-wise.

I think everything has changed beyond recognition since my mum ( whose 70) was a young mum herself.
There are so many different factors that have facilitated weight gain.
I believe some of them to be:
Change of lifestyles. A lot of people are working long hours and don't have regular meal times

Types of food available when I was a kid we had Wimpey burger place nd that was a novelty, now burgers and Fried chicken places rule many high streets and that has become normal eating, in some cases on top of a regular meal.
Also on food the advertising of junk food is phenonamal. From TV adverts, bus shelters, big signs in town etc, there's no escaping junk food

More disposable income that can be spent on snacks and biscuits. When I wa a a kid they were a treat rather than something always in the cupboard.
Many families have two cars so drive nearly everywhere. For a long time when I was a child no car families where the norm.

Also labour saving devices such as hoovers, dishwashers, washing machines, tumble dryers mean that physical work isn't done as much to keep the place running.im sure there are more but they were off the top of my head!

saw a programme on TV where they asked mums of 8 year olds to estimate a portion of pizza for a child of that age and they all completely and utter over estimated.

Thare very unfair, though. How are we defining "portion"? I'd give a different amount of pizza for a light lunch than I would for a main meal, and I'd give bigger portions of a thin crust pizza with small amounts of cheese and lots of veggies, served alone, than I would of deep pan pepperoni, which would need to be a tiny slice with lots of salad. And has the kid just burnt 500kcal swimming, or are they recovering from an illness? What else have they eaten today and what will they be eating later? Will they be having a pudding after? Are they having a hungry day?

If some external body wants to say "a portion is one 300kcal slice" then they can but I don't see how that relates to real life.

^That's

Although, yes, if they're serving up an entire pizza to an 8 year old it's probably a bit much

i eat properly, but i had to learn how to, 3 years ago i was obese, i was 170 lbs at only 5 ft 2, i then found out how to eat properly. in order to maintain my weight i need to eat 1185 calories a day, which is far below the 'recommended' 2000 for a woman. i learnt to actually weigh my food, take the time to find out what is in the food i eat and making sure i am not filling up on s* haha. i'm now 102lbs and eat well, i feel full because i eat the right things at the correct portions. its a hard habit to learn though!

Rule should be - never eat anything which is bigger than your head!

Oh, good. My head is enormous

I don't go by portion sizes, I go by my own hunger. I use a sideplate now as I know that I will not eat more than that. I have been doing mindful eating for over 10 years and now buy any food I want and find that after a mouthful of two, that I am done. I stopped dieting 10 years ago too as I realised that for me, dieting made me end up bingeing time and time and time again. This way of eating led to weight loss and also totally enjoying every mouthful.

No, you're right, salad isn't fattening. I meant if that portion size reflected her general portion sizing then it explained a lot.

I use small plates for dinner and it keeps me from over eating. Otherwise my plate looks empty and I want to eat more. It's a little weird like that.

I do agree portion sizes are huge now. In the US we get a huge plate that can double as two full meals (and usually is).

Salad is mostly water, it's the dressing which has the calories.

I use a desert plate rather than a dinner plate unless I've been too lazy to wash up, they are a lot smaller. I also don't pile it high. The look of the plates at the 'all you can eat buffet' places makes me feel sick. Surely it's quality, not quantity?

I agree. Went to ikea to specifically buy smaller plates/bowls.

The ones I chose still hold masses of food! So much so that when I measure stuff properly it looks miserable. Food swimming in a sea of crockery!

Might go raid some charidee shops and find smaller dinner plates that way!

I always have the vegetarian option when out and I find portions are much smaller than meat meals. I wonder if places assume vegetarian = dieting or doesn't like to eat! I sometimes wonder about my DS2 as he eats quite small helpings, especially when compared to others, but then remind myself he is 3. He doesn't need huge platefuls and it is better for him to not get used to it. He is a healthy height and weight so obviously not starved. My grandma always used to serve herself less than grandad as "women don't need to eat as much" so possibly attitudes to food have changed too. I was reading my great great grandmas recipes and wondered how they ate all the Christmas food. The answer is small portions and wide variety, not the huge pig outs that people may expect now with half of it left.

Denby make desert/salad plates which are smaller than dinner plates (and come in the set), they are 22.5cm IIRC rather than 26cm. Problem with the large dinner plates, is that they look empty if you put a 'normal' amount of food on them, so you put more food on them. The more food on a plate, the more you feel obliged to eat it all. I reduce the amount of meat/carbs, and leave the veg the same. I'm not losing weight so I don't think this works

I understand the psychology and agree with the principle of smaller dinner plates, but my mum serves meals on tiny plates and it drives me potty sometimes when I want to dissect the fat off a pork chop or dismantle a chicken leg with a knife and fork, and end up catapulting peas all over the place for lack of space

Ah, I suppose it depends on what's being dished up. A roast on a small plate isn't easy, on a large plate you feel obliged to eat it all.

I love little kiddy plates, the ones with the sections for carbs, protein and veg. At least you know how much of each to put on it.

I also don't like my foods touching Not easy on a little plate. Give me my whitespace!

See, you need a kiddy plate too!

I totally agree OP

I feed the family as healthily as I can and mainly cook from scratch. Although, we do have chips once a week with sausage egg and beans. The rest of the time it is meat, three veg or meat with sauces i make myself.
We have no ready meals, no coke, crisps, biscuits, pies, cake etc.
Obviously, there is the odd occasion like xmas or birthday.
I looked at my dds plate tonight as she is putting on weight and is definitely overweight. She isn't obese and some is puppy fat as she started a while back. But she still needs to lose a few pounds I would estimate.
She eats healthily and we don't buy junk food/ have it in cupboards.
I have come to the conclusion that it is portion size.

I think we underestimate the effect of central heating. Keeping warm in the old days used a lot of energy.

I bought a new dinner service from Debenhams a couple of years ago. Found a few plates from a service bought mid '80s. The '80s dinner plates were only a shade bigger than the new side plates. And the new dinner plates look ridiculously huge. But if we go out to eat, this is the size (with matching portion sizes).

Reminds me of Alan Partridge sneaking his giant plate into the breakfast buffet

I agree portion sizes are part of the problem.

I watched a documentary a while back (the men who +made us fat I think?) - one thing I remember them saying on that was that back when McDonald's first opened, the standard size for a portion of fries was the same size as the small portion is now.

I know McDonald's isn't the healthiest of options, but it's interesting how the perception of how big a 'normal' portion of fries should be (assuming most people would consider the medium fries to be a normal sized portion) has more than doubled since McDonald's first opened.

" Add message | Report | Message poster LadySybilLikesSloeGin Tue 06-Jan-15 19:10:45
Rule should be - never eat anything which is bigger than your head!"

With or without the beehive?