Also the ones who eat loads of chocolate and crisps seemed to eat them in lieu of a meal.
This is me. Im not arsed about ‘nice food.’ Im vegetarian and lazy in the kitchen and describe Most of the hot food i eat as gruel 😂 (Lots of stews). However, like most vegans / vegetarians i make the most awesome salads.
Another habit ive noticed when eating with others is sauces. Some cover their meals with sauces of some kind. I only ever, apart from pepper sauce on a portobello mushroom, use vinaigrette or Vinegar.
I think a lot of people add calories to otherwise healthy food, like people who add butter to their veg, or cream to a slice of cake, or full fat milk in their coffee. Or have huge portion of the main food of the meal and small portion of veg. They might look at their ‘naturally slim’ friend eating with them and see the same amount of food on their plate, not noticing that their friend’s plate has an appropriate size portion of the main food And a huge amount of veg. They might not notice their friend didnt use mayo etc. They might not have seen their friend order coke zero instead of original Or a milkshake Or wine. Or their friends lunch That day might have been a ham sandwich or a salad, compared to their own full plate meal lunch.
There are many ways to turn the same meal into plates of vastly different calories.
A friend makes all her meals from scratch as she enjoys cooking, and would seem to be good healthy food, but her portion size is about half a plate more than id consider a normal amount, and she will also often eat it with a bottle of wine. And she doesnt understand why she has put on weight.
A more appropriate amount of food (not fish. Fish is larger) would fit happily on a Side plate. Today’s dinner plate sizes are much larger than they used to be, and people fill their plates with food. If you want to maintain a healthier weight, change to large side plates.