to think that no one has any idea of reasonable portion sizes?

[Mallorie]

The amount of food I see people eating at work is just mind-blowing. I batch cook most Sundays - nothing special or particularly healthy, just stuff like veggie pasta bake or sweet potato chili with rice, and I see people in the office microwaving similar food at lunch - but they're eating the amount I make for 5 meals over the week in one go! The guy sitting next to me will bring in 4 entire ham sandwiches and eat them at noon - AFTER having a sausage butty at 10am.
No one I've noticed ploughing through this food is obese, no more than I am, so maybe they don't eat much at home? If I ate those portions I'd be sick but if I got used to it I'd be the size of a house in no time.
Interestingly, I rarely see the people at work who ARE obese eating much of anything, which is odd.

@TeeniefaeTroon maybe he's hungry and wants more? I would let him choose how much he eats.

Yeah, when I was obese I rarely ate in public - Secret Eaters could have had a whole series on me!

Some of you are such pissy little buzzkills, with your biscuits and your 'get a hobby' and 'it's none of your business'. I'm just amazed/curious/flabbergasted at how much some people can eat. I'm also amazed/curious/flabbergasted that some people can run five miles without stopping or wear high heels every day or enjoy competitive reality shows on television. It's a big wide world with lots of different sorts of people and if you're upset about what I've said here maybe you should examine your own food issues.

OP don't mind the flamers, lots will get what you mean.

Some will agree, some won't, but don't take it too personally :)

YANBU. I was fat because I ate stupid sized portions. I didn't know atvtge time though. Once I started weighing portionsbout I was shocked by how much extra I was eating without thinking about it.

I work with a girl who is constantly on a diet but sent me a picture of her dinner the other day....9 sausages, 6 in two of those pitta thin things and then 3 just on their own. That made me laugh but if she's happy on her "diet" then who am I to judge.

What is reasonable depends on the person. A large 20 year old male who goes to the gym everyday could get away with eating twice as much as a small 50 year old woman.

If someone is eating too much food, they will put on weight. If they are in shape, they are not eating too much.

I agree. I think at some point many of us have unconsciously over ridden the signal from our bodies telling us we are full hence your stomach becomes stretched.

I know this because the reverse is also true-if you fast your stomach shrinks and the “full up” message comes loud and clear.

People seem to have a fear of being hungry and need to eat every few hours. How can that be true hunger? It’s not

You sound so pleasant, OP.

If you find those kind of things hard to imagine maybe it's you who needs to broaden their mindset

Have one more for good luck

I'm borderline unhealthy on the skinny side. I need to eat three times as much just to not lose weight

My ex was 20 stone and I would easily out eat him.

Some people do need to eat more

Some of you are such pissy little buzzkills

😂 very good insult!

If they’re not fat then surely their portions are more or less reasonable. I sit next to a young bloke at work who eats huge portions of reasonably healthy but calorific meals, tops up with snack bars and is not averse to a few pints of beer. I’m constantly worried for him in stormy weather because a he looks like a stiff breeze might blow him away. Clearly his portions are perfectly reasonable for him.

We’ve been cutting down since new year, doing the 5:2, so very aware of portion sizes two days of the week, this is filtering through to the rest of the week as we’re not eating as much at all anymore.

Quite eye opening really.

I agree OP, I am 5'9'' and 9.5 stone, so fairly thin. I have to cut down on carbs now thank to the menopause. By carbs, I mean pasta.

When I lived in Rome, pasta portions were half what I would consider normal for me!

Italians have pasta but teeny tiny plates of it. Certainly not with garlic bread (that is unbelievable to me)

People eat a lot in the U,K!

When I was younger, a fray bentos pie would serve 5, with some potatoes and veg on the side. Flash forward 20 years and husband and I would share a fb pie between the two of us plus lots of mash and some veg.

Similarly, what was considered average size in the 70s/80s/90s would be considered v skinny today.

I find everyone’s eating habits interesting too. Regarding your co-workers who have quite large portions (8 slices of bread!) and who are thin, I wonder if they follow the old adage of ‘breakfast like a king’ etc? My elderly neighbour ate a large breakfast, elevenses, mid sized lunch and a very light evening meal. He was always a thin man. I like a cooked breakfast, but I also like lunch, tea, snacks etc 😂

People have triple carbs here
Lasagne, chips, garlic bread
Sandwich, crisps, chocolate
Curry, rice, naan, poppadums
Make that quadruple carbs-a coke too
No wonder most people have a big gut

You could play a good game of bingo with these MN threads:

'I weigh 2 stone and...'
'Afraid of being hungry'
'In random other European country [with an actually similar obesity rate but a better popular perception] they do it better because...'
'I would be sick if I ate [a pretty commonplace meal]'
'I just can't believe that anyone can eat [a pretty commonplace meal]'

You lost me at "batch cook".

Lasagne, chips, garlic bread

I'm totally having that tomorrow.

LOL @ your colleague having a 'bread bill'

punish seriously? You would eat that?

To me, that is not normal at all.

I'd have lasagne and a salad.

YADNBU. No one know what a normal portion size is anymore, the UK population has completely lost sight of it. I recently posted here to say I don't give my kids 3 full meals a day, and they don't have a lot for breakfast because they're just not that hungry and I won't waste food - to say I got lynched is an understatement. People told me I was malnourishment my kids then proceeded to rhyme off lists of what sounded like gargantuan portions they feed their kids. It's no bloody wonder we have an obesity crisis.

Well good for you Wendy 🙄

lost not 'good for me'. I find that combination odd, that's all.

I'd have lasagne and a salad.

Would you like your medal in the post, or will you be collecting it in person?