I eat too much but not enough?

[cookiemonsterhelp]

Breakfast : pastry from a bakery
Lunch: shop bought sandwich, sometimes a bag of crisps
Dinner: usually pasta with veg and lots of cheese
Snacks: ice cream, family bag of dairy milk buttons, biscuits
Drinks: water

I feel so tired like I'm not eating enough but I'm full and the calories add up to quite a lot. Help me sort myself out please!

MNers talk like food is something magical

What’s with the word magic when referring to eating habits tonight!!! 🙈

Food is bloody magical. The very nutritional sustenance that fuels our body is pretty imperative to it working correctly. I went from a chronic case of CFS to being able to work full time again by cutting out sugar and limiting processed foods. If that’s not some kind of magic I don’t know what is!!

you can have the best diet in the world (not that there's any consensus what that best diet is) -- and still be exhausted all the time due to mental health illness, chronic physical illness, acute physical illness, lack of sleep, over-work, bullying, too much exercise, too little rest, toxin exposure, too many worries (including traumatic events), and a long list of other things ... but no, let's pretend food is magical and can always fix any and all that.

Pastry, crisps, lots of cheese, ice cream, a sharing bag of buttons, biscuits

I feel so tired like I'm not eating enough but I'm full and the calories add up to quite a lot.

Omg dude eat an apple!! No wonder you feel like crap there's hardly anything healthy in there!

Simple suggestions:
Breakfast: two Weetabix with sliced banana/porridge/two slices of wholemeal toast with peanut butter (calorific but filling)
Lunch: boiled eggs/mozzarella and tomato salad/avocado on toast/a healthy soup/make your own tuna and salad wrap...pack it out with lettuce/tomato/spring onions/beetroot/whatever
Dinner: roast salmon and veg/skewers of chicken, pepper and onion, oven cooked chicken thighs with garlic/tomato/potato/onion/bit of chorizo/homemade pizzas on pitta/add sweet potato mash to pad things out

Excluding the veg and the cheese, every single thing you are eating is a refined carbohydrate. This will cause your blood sugar to spike (giving you energy) but also cause it to drop fairly quickly causing your energy levels to drop very shortly afterwards making you tired.

You need more high fibre carbs (such as brown rice, wholewheat bread and pasta, more protein, low starch veggies and fruit (not fruit juice or shop bought smoothies).

Given your history of disordered eating, I'd recommend asking for a referral to a dietician focusing on how to eat a normal diet post ED.

And nutrients too! Most of what you are eating is just empty calories - no nutrients at all.

I think you need to include more protein and fruit and veg and fewer carbs.

You're not eating a massive quantity, but what you are eating is very calorific, fatty and sugary, especially the snacks. I'd be tired and sluggish too.

You need to look into healthy eating plans and change your diet quite drastically. You'll be able to eat much more and feel fuller and more energetic.

Easy protein/iron/zinc:
Eggs: omelettes, hardboiled eggs as snacks, in salads.
Bean salad and sprinkle on some tuna for good measure.
Tofu omelette (fry the tofu first) with tomato sauce.
I cook a brisket (easy to leave in foil for hours & slow cook) and then I've got sliced beef to freeze & take out bit at a time so I'm eating red meat regularly.
Chicken, prawns, mussels in rice-y things, stir fry or pasta dishes.

OP, you might think you have had variety in your daily food intake but if you consider for a moment, the main components are

Wheat (pastry)
Wheat (sandwich)
Wheat (pasta)

...and

Sugar + fats (pastry)
Ditto (snacks).

Also, all carbs (wheat, potato (crisps), any grain (including porridge!)), break down into sugars as they are digested. A bowl of pasta is just a bowl of sugar 20 minutes deferred, metabolically. Grain is traditionally what farmers feed their livestock to fatten it; somewhere along the way western thinking on our food decided it would be great for us to base our intake around it too 🙄).

On this kind of diet you will not feel full, because it is not satisfying you nutritionally.
So you feel the need to keep eating more. Sugar does nothing for you nutritionally.

Try to base each meal around something sustaining. So,

Breakfast - eggs

Lunch - tuna salad (skip starchy veg like sweetcorn and leave off the bread - these just leave you feeling hungry later because they are easy to digest and don't sustain you)

Dinner - meat or fish plus lots of leafy veg (cauli, broccoli, cabbage etc).

If your meals are nutritious then you won't need the snacks.

It sounds like you eat a lot of carbs and they do tend to make you crave more, or be lethargic/hangry if you don't get them.

I think you should try eating more protein, fruit and vegetables, fewer carbs and as little sugar as possible.

If you feel up to trying something a bit stricter, check out the Whole30:

whole30.com/whole30-program-rules/

You can't have grains, pulses, dairy products, sugar or alcohol for 30 days. Basically you can have meat, fish, eggs, nuts, seeds, fruit, vegetables (including potatoes, but not in the form of crisps or chips) and any kind of oil except peanut oil because peanuts are technically a pulse. You might think that doesn't sound very exciting but there are loads of great recipes online and it can be quite fun if you experiment. After 30 days you reintroduced the eliminated ingredients one by one and note whether any of them have any adverse effect on you - which could be anything from stomach ache to disrupted sleep to just having a craving for more and more of that thing!

If you feel up to trying something a bit stricter, check out the Whole30:

Suggesting a restricted diet to a person who has had an eating disorder? Please no.

I eat keto but would never ever suggest cutting out food groups to someone who'd dealt with that.