Is this too much?

[user1497545304]

Sorry, posting here for traffic

But here's the rundown: I'm 35, and I literally cannot stop eating, I'm always hungry. I realised the other day after spending 2 weeks with my friend and her family in France that well... I eat a ridiculous amount more than they do. I've also realised that I don't really know what a 'normal' intake is... (My bmi is just about in the healthy range... I could definitely lose some)

Here's yesterday, a fairly typical day (sometimes it's more though, especially if I night binge)

7am before work: 2 cups of tea (semi skimmed) 2 pieces of toast with butter and an apple

9am once at work: hot cross bun and a cereal bar

11am ish, hungry again: mars bar and cup of tea

Lunch break: foot long subway melt , subway cookie and banana

3pm, home from work: bowl of cornflakes with semi skimmed, 2 muller lights, cup of tea

5pm starving so made quick dinner of pasta, tomato sauce, a bit of frozen veg, and I won't lie lots of cheese
About 4 or so choc digestives for dessert plus another cuppa

7pm: bag of salt and vinegar crisps

About 9ish? Hungry as usual so had peanut butter sandwich

11 or so, straight before bed: handful of peanut m&ms

Please try not to judge, I'm well aware my diet is shite. But I just want your honest opinion? If you have a healthy relationship with food, what's a typical day of eating for you? Or what's a 'normal' ish intake? I'm dying to know!

It does sound like a lot and not much of it is nutritious, its very carb heavy. Try downloading My Fitness Pal on your phone and logging everything you eat. Youll get a calorie count and a breakdown of the food groups.

I am a massive overeater but I am also fat as fuck. I don’t think I could eat as much you have done over one day - plus I’m not ever hungry really, I eat too much out of boredom.

I think you need to see a doctor to rule out overactive thyroid or something else. Unless you weight train obsessively I genuinely don’t know how you’re not packing on the pounds.

I'm so jealous

How is your bmi still ok? I would so love to eat that much

So so so jealous

Oh advice ?!?- eat 10 times more veg ! You're barely eating any

I am amazed that your bmi is in the healthy range on that lot. I'm obese and I eat less than that in a day!

Is that a typical day for you?

Yes. That is a lot of food! You might not be over weight according to your BMI, but you have to think of your cholesterol and diabetes etc..

Your diet is shockingly high in carbs. Everything you eat in the morning through lunch is nearly pure sugar. It's no wonder you're constantly crashing and starving.

I think you should eat far more protein, especially in the morning. It will help keep you full through to lunch. Do try to stop all the junk snaking. Crisps, cakes, candy are a disaster in the making. If you're staving and must have a snack, try nuts. You might feel hungry for a while but your stomach will adjust.

My big concern for you if you don't get your diet under control, you will suddenly start gaining weight at a very alarming level. Getting older does us NO favours.

You can do this!

I don't think it's a lot of food as it doesn't sound very filling but it is a lot of calories. As every mumsnet thread suggests have you tried adding more protein? So scrambled eggs with toast for breakfast, Greek yogurt instead of muller light. I am not really a morning person and my morning queasiness has never gone away post pregnancy so you may want to condense your meals more than my example as I eat little and often in the morning. I have sugar free muesli with full fat milk at 6 for breakfast, then some Greek yogurt and fruit at work at 9. Mid morning snack at 11, usually nuts or a nutty cereal bar. Lunch at 13.30, egg sandwich, chicken salad or something similar. Afternoon snack maybe fruit or a cereal bar or carrots. Dinner is always quite high protein, stirfry or pasta with chicken or homemade burgers.

You say you’re hungry but I think you need to challenge that feeling. Unless you’re doing loss of physical work it’s almost impossible to still be full after each of those items, have you tried having a drink instead of eating? Or could you be eating out of habit/boredom? I’m definitely one for eating out of boredom. Could you also try eating wholemeal bread/pasta as that will fill you for longer.

That’s not just a lot of food, that’s a lot of shit processed food.

Do you eat consciously? Do you sit down and enjoy your food and take your time or do you just shovel it in mindlessly?

How much water do you drink? Lots of people mistake thirst for hunger.

Yeah thats a lot of food unless you are ridiculously active.

I am fat. A size 16 atm. Will be sorted after Christmas.

But a typical day for me is a brunch of either a ham or tuna salad sanwich on brown bread with maybe a pack ot crisps (depends what's in the cupboard), or I might have a pitta bread and some humus, or an omelette or scrambled eggs on toast.

Dinner will be something homemade and a bit stodgy at the minute. Today we had a lamb dinner (roast lamb, mash and roast spuds, roast carrots and parsnips, broccoli and yorkshire puddings). We are having pie and peas tomorrow, probably pasta Tuesday.

If I ate what you did I would be like a house size. If I want to lose weight I swap carbs at lunch for salad and protein and reduce carbs at dinner and swap for more veg.

Well yeah, obviously that’s shed loads of food! I’d be obese on that.
Are you very active?

No idea what the current diet fads are but I think you're having carby sugary stuff over weighty protein.

I'll go with nowt but a cuppa til around 12 then have a load of tinned tuna with sweetcorn and a blob of mayo then nowt much til just before bedtime.

If you had bacon and eggs but with no bread or toast that might keep you going for longer. Steak but no chips. Opt for the substance and get Reid of the padding. It's probably on the Atkins end of menu choices and not sure how healthy that is but I just think you're not actually filling up. Protein isn't bad it itself and you've not got much.

Yeah you're diet is rubbish.

There's no protein before lunch!

You're very lucky not to be massive.

Your diet, not you're

I find I can go long periods eating a diet similar to yours and when I do I'm always hungry too.

There's not a lot of nutrition in that lot. It's mostly beige. Protein is what tends to fill people up and you don't have very much. Your body is probably also probably wanting more vitamins and minerals. Some complex carbs will help keep you fuller for longer.

If I'm at a place in life where I'm eating rubbish my diet looks much like yours, luckily have an active job so don't tend to put on much weight but also don't feel great either.

I feel my best when my days are structured like this, I tend to feel like I'm eating more, have more energy but can lose weight a lot easier.

Porridge with almonds and berries

Protein powder smoothie with almond milk and a banana

Chicken, sweet potato green beans

Handful of nuts and apple

Chicken and veg tray bake

Yoghurt before bed.

How much water are you drinking? You need to have much more fiber. It sounds like you are snacking out of habit. Can you train yourself to drink a green smoothie on a morning?

You need to address what you eat - you eat shit, so your body peaks and crashes, so you eat more shit, so it peaks and crashes, and so the cycle goes. Switch up what you eat to more nutritious food and you’ll find you don’t need to consciously cut back - you just won’t be as hungry.

I could have eaten that, but once I turned 36, it started to stick

You mention tea, but no other drinks. Do you drink anything else? If you had a litre of water, you'd probably not feel so hungry.

Ok so I’m 26
5’8 and 11 stone (about .5 more than my usual) I’ve been putting weight on recently and getting a bit upset as getting married next year.

My excerise level is pretty low- I have a busy lifestyle and cycle/walk the 1 mile round trip to work every day but rarely break a sweat!

Reading your diary- I do think I’d feel sick on the volume you eat- I really struggle to eat a lot in one go and often feel nauseous and you seem to be eating a lot of bulky food! I do eat more sugary sweets than you though. Often snack on chocolate and biscuits but tend to have small actual meals twice a day.

An average day for me would be like;

8am- A couple of biscuits and handful of choc
10am- Banana / yoghurt with granola
12:30pm- Chips/beans or a cheese sandwich (something grabbed quickly from canteen)
3pm- An item of Choc
5pm- Dinner (a small bowl of pasta with veg/ or sometimes just cereal)
7pm- A couple of biscuits/ sweets

Sounds like you might have a little sugar Addiction going on there miss

You say your bmi is just in the healthy range. However is it stable? Or have you been gaining weight? How long have you been eating like this.

You're consuming at least 3000 -4000 calories a day, which unless you have a medical issue, ie thyroid or am athlete, woild cause people to gain weight rapidly.

*its 1 mile each way to work so 2 mile round trip

Knightly you have no protein in your diet except a bit of cheese. You can actually eat a lot if you pick the right foods. My dd 25 eats a lot. If she was at a buffet she would pile it on. But its all healthy food with lots of protein and plate loads of salad/ veg. She has a low bmi but is very strong.

That’s about the amount I eat in a week, how do you feel ‘starving’ on all that?!

It stands out a mile, carbs the highs and lows. You should be eating a lot more protein, vegetables, fruit, you will have much more energy and not be as hungry.