To think you can't be 'greedy' if you're not overweight

[LaurieFairyCake]

Seems simple to me

If you're not overweight then no matter what you consume you can't be 'greedy'

As you are a healthy weight and BMI and you're just eating to maintain that

What a weird, shame-filled thread.

Enjoy life, OP. And don't worry about policing others'.

To me, 'greedy' implies that another person is being deprived of food or some other commodity. Eating half the birthday cake at a party so half the guests get none = greedy. Hogging a 2nd sun chair to put your bag & towel on at a crowded pool = also greedy.

But buying and eating too much of something by yourself or hogging 2 chairs at the pool in your own back yard is NOT greedy. You are depriving no one of nothing.

Eating too much is certainly unhealthy, one might say it's 'self-indulgent'. But it's not 'greedy'. I think people use that word because it has such a negative connotation and they want to 'shame' the person who over-ate.

Creme Egg thread - 48 in a weekend

Can I get a respectful silence, ladies.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/1681226-to-have-eaten

Completely disagree our best friends are greedy and when we go out have to finish other peoples meals and drink too many for the sake of it, but both skinny. When we cook they always have seconds and have massive plates.

I snack and eat chocolate and biscuits partly out of bad habit and partly due to boredom during the day but I don't think I'm greedy. I never have seconds rarely have pudding and rarely drink but yes I am very over weight

I'm greedy. I want to, and can, eat much more of something than I should, whether should is "for me to maintain a healthy weight" or "than is my share". I can eat and eat and eat and eat. And I want to, constantly. When I've just had a full meal, or when I have already had my pudding. I still want to eat, even when I don't need to. That is greedy.

Adding:

So it has nothing to do with the weight of the 'consumer' as long as it doesn't deprive another person. A skinny person can deprive others just as much as an overweight person can.

Yep, you can greedily eat the whole tub of ice cream, even if it is all yours and even if you eat lettuce for the rest of the day.

I often eat things out of greed rather than hunger, need, or even enjoyment.

Greed = "an excessive, extreme desire for something" "
"a selfish and excessive desire for more than is needed"

We are all greedy in my house, except maybe DH who does eat a lot but knows when to stop. None of us are even slightly overweight and are probably all more likely underweight!

We eat loads of biscuits etc whenever we can and if we don’t have any someone makes a cake! But we do eat proper healthy meals also, with huge portions.

All the kids eat a lot. We’re quite active though.

How ridiculous - and why the focus on weight/BMI? Greed might not make you put weight on if you are lucky enough to have a fast metabolism but it can certainly result in health issues. I say this objectively as sadly am currently both greedy and fat, working on both though and have already lost one stone out of four to lose in total.

My dad was a professional sportsman. So it was required for his job to be in perfect shape.

Greediest bastard I've met. Even takes food off kids. (And I wonder why I have food issues)

Acrossthepond, yes to all your post.

My mil has some sort of issue over this. It's weird but clearly not unusual. Oddly it's my DH not the children who I really have problems with regarding food hogging/ failing to share. I'd love them all to go to get therapy😉!

If my husband has left his chocolate in the fridge, and when he goes back to it, it has disappeared due to my teen nicking it, then...

The reason my teen nicked it can't be that he's a greedy little so and so as he isn't overweight?

However, my husband who managed not to eat all the chocolate in one go and left some for another day is greedy as he is overweight?

Hmmm

I'm sure it's unhealthy to eat a pack of Mars Bars for the average person but NOT a builder

Sorry but that's just bonkers! It's almost as if you are saying that whether a food is healthy or not is purely down to how many calories it contains, which is very obviously untrue. 5000 calories of Mars bars (on any kind of regular basis) is horribly unhealthy for anyone, regardless of what job they do or how much exercise they do.

5000 calories of processed sugar and fat are not equivalent to 5000 calories of nutritious, filling meals. Being a builder doesn't make you immune to diabetes, tooth decay or the various other diseases you risk by eating a shit diet.

I am a normal weight but I eat lots more than everyone else. I get away with it because I get lots of exercise.

Some people would definitely think I am greedy. That said, I have self-control about things like chocolate bars and don't eat it all just because it's there. But if we go out for a meal I'll be the one who finishes both courses while my colleagues pick at theirs and say they are not hungry.

I think greed implies selfishness. So if you eat more than your fair share that is greedy. Fair shares may not be equal shares. If your partner is over 6ft with a physically demanding job and you are 5ft 5 and not as active then it may be greedy to eat the same as them if they or the children then go without. If you spend grocery money on treat foods for yourself and fail to feed your children as well as you otherwise could then that is also greedy.

Yes you can. In my teens when my metabolism worked better I was 5ft7 with a 22 inch waist, ate kfc more lunchtimes than not, plus lots of crisps, chocolate, then a big main meal in the evening. And still stayed the same size. My metabolism has slowly drifted off abit as I’ve got older, and I’ve crept up to abit bigger. But still not overweight. And before anŷone starts on me I don’t eat that badly anymore!

Greed is (like all vices) the failure to maintain appropriate choices between excess and deficiency. If you work a hard manual job and consume 4000 calories per day, you're not greedy. If you eat more than you need because you are enjoying the pleasure of food beyond what is required (nutritionally) or what is appropriate for the situation (sharing food in social situations), you are being greedy.

It is perfectly possible for a bulemic person to be greedy, because greed isn't about how much food you consume, but about your self control. In short greed is a defect of temperance rather than how much you've eaten. A teenager that "eats to fill their hollow legs" despite not being fat can still be greedy, just because genetics or some other quirk permits them to avoid being fat in the short term. Virtuous food habits are more to do with creating a measured and controlled attitude towards food rather than an outright desire to eat everything or an absent minded eternal graze, or the rather more worrying binge/purge cycle of bulemia or hyper rigid control of anorexia.

I am not greedy but I am obese (bmi 33), the tdee calculators and nhs calculator say my bmr should require 2900 cals to maintain, I eat 1200 or just under and struggle to lose weight even then. I exercise every day, hard cardio, I also do pilates - total between 8-11 hours a week. I do have hashimotos and under investigation for lipadema.
Am I therefore greedy even when eating 1200 cals per day and exercising daily?

You can't be bloody 'greedy about fucking food, it's disordered, stupid orthorexia speak. FFS, you do you and let others do themselves.

I think greed doesn't mean eating a lot, it means eating too much - either too much in the sense that it's far more than your body needs (which would make most people overweight), or too much in the sense of more than your share. I don't think anyone would say that a person eating a large amount of calories was greedy if they actually needed that much to maintain a normal weight.

I think you are conflating greed with gluttony

What's the difference between greed and gluttony in the context of food?

@Peanutbutterblood

Yabu say I make a cake, to share between 8 people but one person eats 4 slices, then the others dont get their fair share and the other person is greedy

This - I was about to say the same!

Yes I agree with you op - if you have a normal bmi and arent achieving that through bulimia or drugs then you are not overeating. And dh tried this on! If I have saved my calories for a blowout takeaway and then eat more or it that he does he makes a fuss. He woulď sooner see it wasted. And says I'm being greedy. Sod that when it is him not me that is overweight.

Two people could be the same height and weight but one has unfortunately missed lunch and breakfast that day the other hasn’t

it would be greedy of the person who has not missed any meals that day to eat the lion’s share of the cake