To think most family meals are low enough in caloroes and the diet industry is not necessary?

[ElderAve]

Obviously not if you're going to deep fry everything but we know that. A standard family menu at home.

A grab and go breakfast of cereal, porridge, toast, eggs or fruit and yogurt will be no more than 400 calories.

A sandwich lunch will be about 4/500 calories

A home cooked dinner based around lean protein, some carbs and veg will be about 500 provided you go easy on the oil and butter . Even an M&S beef lasagne is only 620

So, 3 meals a day = 1500 calories max. We don't need special products or cookery books.

We do need to stop with all the junk we eat and drink between meals. But we have to do that whether we foĺlow a diet book or buy diet products or not.

My colleague eats two meal deals with McCoy's crisis and a bottle of coke most working days.

He's tall, but still. That's more calories than I eat in the whole day. Don't even start me on his vanilla latte habit.

Soon as he hits forty he's going to balloon. He thinks I eat like a bird but I'm actually stuffing my face.

Crisis is an excellent predictive version of crisps :)

Wow OP you SERIOUSLY underestimate calories. Most dinners are nearer 1000 calories

I've just eaten dinner. A small one, because I'm on restricted calories. 2 Quorn sausages, a small yorkshire pudding and a sachet of microwave veg, and I just worked out the calories as 620. It's hardly enough to stop me from waking up hungry in the middle of the night, a tiny plate of food and over 600 calories! So yes, I reckon that people seriously underestimate how many calories they eat.

I’ve seen a big change since my childhood in the way people eat and consequently their size.

A LOT has changed since then, good god, 1980 began forty years ago! People used to smoke a lot more, there weren't the imports, work patterns have changed, housing has changed, ability to diagnose and medicate things have changed, change the download (although records are making a comeback).

What’s your problem with my comment @eminencegrise ? It’s relevant to the OP’s question. 3 meals used to be enough. The changes started in the last 30/40 years.

@zaph I think those calories are wrong.

@lilgreen

Why? Sound pretty accurate to me

The packet says the sausages are 150 calories each, so 300 for those. 160 for the Yorkshire pudding (so it says on the packet) and 174 calories for a sachet of Iceland zesty bean quinoa. That's over 600 calories for very very little food. I was going to do without the yorkie pud, but it just wouldn't have kept me going past the top of the stairs!

2 quorn sausages are 125 calls according to Quorn. I doubt 1 frozen Yorkshire and veg account for 500 cals!

Ah you said veg.

My mistake! I should have put my glasses on. It's 150 calories PER PORTION, which is 2 sausages! Phew. I did wonder!

A jacket spud with beans would be less and more filling.

No way, 2 qorn sausages, roughly 85 cals each. Small yorkshire, maybe 80 cals. Sachet of steamfresh vegetables, about 50 calories.

Yeah but I hate potatoes with a passion, also rice and pasta. So it makes filling that 'carb' slot quite hard.

Not veg, was quinoa and beans.

I got the calories off the packet, Branleuse. Zesty quinoa is 174 cals for a tiny sachet. 160 for the pudding and (I now know) 150 for the two sausages.

Do you eat eggs? Shakshouka (sp) is filling and carb/protein.

Zap some Yorkshire puds are only 60 cals.

I had a type of bean or chick pea .

*add

Ah sorry i was going by what you said which was steamfresh veg, and a small yorkshire. Not bag of quinoa and a large yorkie, but even so, it wouldn't come to 620

I domt know why anyone is saying weightloss portions are normal family meals though.

It wasn't a bag of quinoa. It's the Iceland zesty veg with quinoa, so it's mostly bean (and only about a tablespoon at that). Shockingly full of calories. And the yorkshire pud wasn't a tiny one it was a bigger one than that because I didn't have any tiny frozen ones in. It's a fresh one. Recalculating gives me nearer the 500 cals mark (because I didn't read the calories on the sausages right). Still a lot of calories for a tiddly plate of food.

And I do eat eggs but can't be bothered to cook them when I come in from a late shift. I'd already cooked the sausages so just zapped them with the veg and the pudding in the microwave.

I think importance of exercise is often understated

I do an hour walk every morning with the dog, plus 1 hour cardio (getting out of breath and sweaty) 5 times a week

I can eat 2500 easily, to maintain BMI of 23

Am always astounded how little other people eat. Personally I don’t limit my carbs at all, they seem to get used up every day (touch wood have not made it through menopause yet)

On 1000 calls a day I’d trigger a migraine...