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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think my portion was too large (photo)?

381 replies

Ribrabrob · 29/07/2020 19:45

I’m living a bit ‘on the road’ at the moment (essential) and relying on eating out - trying to be as healthy as I can as I’m trying (!) to lose weight.

I have attached a photo of tonight’s evening meal, my only meal of the day plus a few snacks. My photo isn’t the best unfortunately but it was a bowl of spicy rice and a bowl of bean stew/soup (I’m vegetarian).

Aibu to think I had too much? Would you have eaten all of it? Unfortunately through years of dieting and binge eating I have lost sight of what a normal portion of food is and how ‘normal’ people eat.

Ps i appreciate it doesn’t look very nice but it was actually quite tasty!

To think my portion was too large (photo)?
OP posts:
Charleyhorses · 30/07/2020 03:56

I fail to see how 1 cereal bowl of wholegrain rice and 1 cereal bowl of vegetables per day can be too much?
Unless you are mainlining twix and Haribo as your snacks.......in which case lay off the twix and Haribo!

ambereeree · 30/07/2020 04:19

You won't lose weight having one meal a day. Have small healthy meals spaced out. If you can- I know you said you're on the road.
To answer your question no its not too much for your onedaily meal.

SchadenfreudePersonified · 30/07/2020 08:08

That's a very pretty bowl, catlady

Envy
Meatshake · 30/07/2020 08:09

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

Foodiefoodieyemek · 30/07/2020 08:20

Op, the portion is fine. if you are hungry eat. No point having a smaller portion and still being hungry!

Some posters here need to learn to cook. It is not rice nor lentils. That is bulgur wheat. If that food was served in a restaurant I would be a bit Hmm as I am in that industry.

Yes there will be oil in the food. If you went to a middle Eastern restaurant (my sector) the rice or in this case bulgur will be lightly fried in oil then boiled. But the water is only about half an inch above the grain and boiled on low with salt until the water is all gone. Lightly tossed with a fork. We also dry spare grain before this so it adds a bit of colour! The stew looks like it's lacking in colour but on a practical value it's fine. As you are vegetarian I would say it's fine.

But seriously posters learn to cook! Some of the replies to the OP are shocking.

Foodiefoodieyemek · 30/07/2020 08:21

Fry not dry!

LongPauseNoReply · 30/07/2020 08:23

@ambereeree

You won't lose weight having one meal a day. Have small healthy meals spaced out. If you can- I know you said you're on the road. To answer your question no its not too much for your onedaily meal.
Completely inaccurate! You will absolutely lose weight eating one meal a day.

Small meals spaced out will keep your blood sugar higher all day - that's not going to help you lose weight.

Meatshake · 30/07/2020 08:30

What's wrong with saying it looked like a post curry shite? It literally does?!

I followed up with some decent advice 😂 overly sensitive MNHQ this morning 🙄

SchrodingersImmigrant · 30/07/2020 08:47

@Foodiefoodieyemek

Op, the portion is fine. if you are hungry eat. No point having a smaller portion and still being hungry!

Some posters here need to learn to cook. It is not rice nor lentils. That is bulgur wheat. If that food was served in a restaurant I would be a bit Hmm as I am in that industry.

Yes there will be oil in the food. If you went to a middle Eastern restaurant (my sector) the rice or in this case bulgur will be lightly fried in oil then boiled. But the water is only about half an inch above the grain and boiled on low with salt until the water is all gone. Lightly tossed with a fork. We also dry spare grain before this so it adds a bit of colour! The stew looks like it's lacking in colour but on a practical value it's fine. As you are vegetarian I would say it's fine.

But seriously posters learn to cook! Some of the replies to the OP are shocking.

Interesting about it being bulgur. We usually have it crushed not whole.

Exactly as you say with the cooking. But there is big difference between cheap and mid range ime. The cheaper the more things were fried. The more oil was used. That's the only reason why I said it's absolutely fine on occasion, just not every day.

I remember seeing all veg for veg stew go through deep fryers then mixed into the sauce for vegan veg medley...

Gobbycop · 30/07/2020 09:04

No

SchadenfreudePersonified · 30/07/2020 09:14

Completely inaccurate! You will absolutely lose weight eating one meal a day.

I agree with this. It's a lot easier to overeat if you space outpour food. Eating sensibly (balanced plate, appropriate calorific value) once a day will enable weight loss.

Foodiefoodieyemek · 30/07/2020 09:15

@SchrodingersImmigrant we use different size bulgur for different dishes. So as a 'rice' dish we use whole bulgur. For some dishes such as içli köfte and çiğ köfte we use finely crushed bulgur with flour etc. There's different grinds of the grain

SchrodingersImmigrant · 30/07/2020 09:21

[quote Foodiefoodieyemek]@SchrodingersImmigrant we use different size bulgur for different dishes. So as a 'rice' dish we use whole bulgur. For some dishes such as içli köfte and çiğ köfte we use finely crushed bulgur with flour etc. There's different grinds of the grain[/quote]
Yeah. I had more versions. It's a delicious thing😁 I bloody love kibbeh! Now I fancy it😂

mrpumblechook · 30/07/2020 09:22

It's difficult to tell the portion size but certainly not huge. If I made it myself I would probably have more stew and less of the bulger. If I was eating out I would just eat the lot. Basically it's fine (N.B I've always had a low BMI and have never been on a diet so I'm pretty sure I know what a "normal" portion size is.)

Arsewell · 30/07/2020 09:38

It looks fine. It is a lot of rice but it's all obviously healthy food. Your average all day breakfast from a greasy spoon cafe serves larger portions than that. If you're hungry, eat. If you're full, stop. That always seems to work OK for me.

Foodiefoodieyemek · 30/07/2020 09:40

@SchrodingersImmigrant bloody lovely isn't it Grin

Quackersandcheese3 · 30/07/2020 09:44

I think it looks quite big but very tasty and nutritious meal choice.
Did you eat it all? Did you feel like you’d eaten too much after ?

AshenQueen · 30/07/2020 09:45

OP why are you so worried about your ONE meal a day being too big? That’s very unhealthy and so is anyone who thinks this is too much to eat for an entire day. Posters saying it’s far too much are enabling someone who clearly has a distorted view of what’s healthy

LoseLooseLucy · 30/07/2020 09:47

I think posters are saying it’s too much for one meal rather than the total food all day.

Bluntness100 · 30/07/2020 09:54

Totally bemused at people taking offence at folks saying rhe food looks very unappetising, it does. She didn’t cook it herself, she clearly bought it. And it certainly doesn’t look delicious to me. I genuinely wonder what other folks eat if they think that looks delicious.

The bottom line is the op is trying to loose weight so is asking if this is the correct portion size, however it’s hard to tell as she has not told us about her snacks, how many and what of.

For one meal it’s clearly way too much, there are about four recommenced portions of rice there, plus the stew on top, but as one meal for an entire day it could be fine, unless as said, it’s topped up with enough snacks to make it impossible to loose weight on.

The op is not asking if someone else would “polish it off” she’s asking if it’s a recommended portion size for a meal and rhe answer to that is clearly it is not, but if it’s all you ate all day then it’s three meals, and the snacks make the difference.

MissBaskinIfYoureNasty · 30/07/2020 09:55

Unusual looking rice! I want to try it. I think its quite a lot of food but in context with whatever else you've had in the day it might be absolutely fine.

@madcatladyforever I don't think your portion sizes are really relevant to this post when you've had a gastric band?

zingally · 30/07/2020 09:57

The stew looks okay, portion wise. But that portion of rice looks massive.

notanothertakeaway · 30/07/2020 10:08

For one meal, I'd say that's a lot of food

Since it's your only meal of the day, perhaps it's okay

I'm not a big fan of fasting as a lifestyle. I think sensible amounts of healthy food is better and more sustainable

mrpumblechook · 30/07/2020 10:13

For one meal it’s clearly way too much, there are about four recommenced portions of rice there, plus the stew on top, but as one meal for an entire day it could be fine, unless as said, it’s topped up with enough snacks to make it impossible to loose weight on.

No way are there four portions of rice. It's a cereal bowl not a huge dinner plate (I think).

SerenDippitty · 30/07/2020 10:34

@SchadenfreudePersonified

Completely inaccurate! You will absolutely lose weight eating one meal a day.

I agree with this. It's a lot easier to overeat if you space outpour food. Eating sensibly (balanced plate, appropriate calorific value) once a day will enable weight loss.

So you’d have to consume all your calorie requirement for one day in one meal? About 1200 calories?
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