Is this really not enough??

[GoldieGal]

Breakfast: 1/4 cup of porridge

Lunch: Piece of fruit or salad

Dinner: veggies and a bit of chicken

I never ate much to begin with, just the things I ate weren't particularly healthy. Obviously I don't eat the same exact things everyday but it's around the same amount of calories yet apparently this isn't enough?

Will the consequences of this be that bad? Please help!

If this is what your body is telling you it needs you're fine. Sure fire way of acquiring and eating disorder is to eat what other people tell you you need to be eating.

Of course, I don't know what weight you are but I'll take your word that it's fine.

Take a multivitamin with minerals if you're worried.

@swabthenose I appreciate your concern but I promise this is t the case.

I think this thread can be extremely triggering for someone with eating issues. An eating disorder isn't necessarily anorexia/bulimia either, it can manifest in many ways relating to an unhealthy relationship with food.

Even if you feel fine on this small amount, your metabolism will be being destroyed. I think you need to increase calories, but slowly and gradually (similar to reverse dieting really), focus less on food amounts but food quality and having a balance of carbs, protein, fat and fibre.

I think you might have miscalculated on the app.

Certainly drinking milk a lot during the day instead of water, and smoothies as you say you do, eating ice cream etc would increase your intake a lot. You probably just hadn't eaten much on that particular day? I think you're probably a grazer and so listing your 3 meals a day isn't accurate.

If you're a healthy BMI, feel fine, good energy levels, regular periods there is no reason to be worried.

If you are as clueless as you say as to what constitutes a healthy "normal" diet then read up. You must know if you're eating lunch in company of others that 1 biscuit is not "lunch" If you want a family in the future it would be best to have some idea what to feed your children!

You haven’t stated what you’re trying to achieve? Are you trying to lose weight? Are you trying to put on weight? Are you happy with your weight and energy levels? I don’t see the point of your thread if you’re not going to disclose any information. It just smacks of pointless, self indulgent attention seeking. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I'm sorry you're getting battered on here, OP. Everyone is different and an app will be a blunt instrument, as is the BMI scale. I have always had a tiny appetite and grew up listening to others commenting on how a bird couldn't survive on what I are. (Later in adulthood I started eating like them and put on 2st so currently eating similar quantities to you to lose it again. The weight is falling at around 2lbs a week ie a healthy amount of weight loss.)
If your weight is steady you are clearly getting enough calories for you so I would focus on nutrients, not calories. Have a diverse salad with your chicken ie not just lettuce and tomato. You said you hate nuts - have you tried nut butter? Obviously there's peanut, but I really like almond butter with apple slices, so you could add that at lunch time. Or add seeds to your porridge.
Also bear in mind roughly 2/3 of adults in the UK are overweight or obese. If that simple statistic transfers to Mumsnet, 2/3 of the comments on here are from people who eat more than they need.

@Angelina82 I clearly stated it worried me when the app said I hadn't reached my daily calories, googled it to see people saying on a different site that metabolism would slow and that panicked me. I didn't know how much I could trust the app and know google can be unreliable so I came here to ask real people. I am trying to be more healthy which is why I swapped out cereal for porridge, biscuits for fruit ect. I wouldn't mind losing a bit of weight and toning up but not at the expense of my health.

@Powerlessstepmum Thank you so much for that. I do actually like almond butter, never tried it on apple but definitely will give it a go.

[quote Eckhart]@LadyH846

We need carbs to ovulate

Have you got any articles you can post a link to, please?[/quote]
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12790900/ (43% of teenagers on a keto diet lost their period within 6 months.)

There's more info here about who can benefit (and not benefit from) low carb diets in terms of fertility:

www.larabriden.com/have-you-lost-your-period-to-a-low-carb-diet/

What is your height and weight?

What dress size are you OP?

@SockQueen

Is this even for real? Or just one of those competitive undereating threads that pops up?

I also think it's 'one of those'. OP has said that she's put all this info into an app and 'they' told her it wasn't enough.. so she's come to check this here, of course. That's only natural, isn't it? Check with random women.

I dislike the faux wide-eyed thing too.

Best thing we could all do is roll our eyes and never post on these but, they are like catnip.

Breakfast: 1/4 cup of porridge - thats about 120 calories plus any calories from soya milk you add.

Could you add some nuts or seeds to your porridge.

Lunch: Piece of fruit or salad. An apple for example is about 95 calories and a salad can be anything from practically no calories to calories laden depending on if you add lots of mayo, croutons, bacon, etc.

Dinner: veggies and a bit of chicken. A chicken breast is about 100 calories plus any calories from the vegetables you eat.

Some people can eat larger meals and some prefer smaller but more frequent meals.

I’m sorry but it doesn’t sound like enough food unless you are having massive portions. If you have a big gap between either breakfast and lunch or lunch and dinner could you add another meal in. Maybe something like a full fat coconut yogurt with berries or honey?

Mumsnet should really take a firm stance on eating disorders and zap threads like these. There are already multiple comments from posters sharing just how little they eat in a day. Posters saying they have two cups of tea and a plate of chicken salad a day and are perfectly healthy are spreading pure pro-anorexia propaganda, and for women who struggle with disordered eating it is so dangerous.

@glowworm93

I am confirm that you are definitely going to die, sorry.

Not helpful on a thread where the OP could have a serious eating disorder.

How can anyone be more careful in their responses other than to ask for more information- which the OP won’t give. Won’t answer age, height, current weight, trying/not trying to lose weight etc.
The only thing the OP repeatedly says is that they do not have an eating disorder.
So, as many pp have said, it’s impossible to give a considered response, other than to say speak to a health care professional.
As for the “UK people overeat etc) - yep! Some do and many don’t. It’s irrelevant to whether this OP is healthy or safe. And none of us can tell from what they said.
It’s not like someone came on and said “I eat 3 stuff crust double cheese pizzas every morning for breakfast, is that too big for breakfast?”.

Stuffed

@LyingWitchInTheWardrobe Seriously? Not everyone has someone they can discuss these things with. I wasn't going to rush to a gp in the middle of a pandemic if I don't have to. Everyone knows if you put symptoms into google it comes up with the worst possible thing, so I wanted to check here.

Yes, I'm going to report this thread. Not saying that OP has an eating disorder, but the way the thread has gone a. isn't answering OPs question b. isn't helpful to anyone.

@DameFanny

If this is what your body is telling you it needs you're fine. Sure fire way of acquiring and eating disorder is to eat what other people tell you you need to be eating.

Of course, I don't know what weight you are but I'll take your word that it's fine.

Take a multivitamin with minerals if you're worried.

Nutritionally speaking if this is what OP eats day in day out, it isn't remotely sufficient.

Taking a multivitamin is not an ideal insurance policy either. There are micronutrients we need, that are not included in multivitamins.

@christinarossetti19
Thought police alert

@LadyH846 Much appreciated, thanks.

As for the “UK people overeat etc) - yep! Some do and many don’t

Most do...

For England alone, Public Health England published data in May 2017 indicating that 63.8% of adults in England have a body mass index (BMI) of 25 or over with the most overweight region being the North East, where 68% of people are overweight, followed by the West Midlands at 65.7%.

@Krazynights34 No one that I've seen has asked for my age, height or current weight. Height: 5'2
Weight: 50kg

I don't feel comfortable putting my age on here. But I did also give my BMI.

@Krazynights34 Its not "some do". The UK is one of the fattest nations in the world. Most are overweight.