do you always finish all the food on your plate?

[foodfinishing]

just that

Yes I do. I don’t like waste and I’ve always had it drummed into me rig get from childhood not to waste food. I can manage a big portion and usually would finish a take away or a meal out unless it was unusually large.

I’m not a snacker though and I’m not over weight, so I’ll continue to finish what’s on my plate.

How does stopping when you are full work? I didn't think you knew how full you were until 20 minutes after a meal? We serve what we are going to eat, usually having a snack later if hungry. Don't understand putting too much food on a plate then eating until full.

Always? No. Some meals I will plate up too large a portion (e.g. takeaway curry) and leave what I cannot manage. Other meals I manage to match my serving size to appetite, and clean the plate.

There's no rule in our house about leaving an empty plate. Both DH and I have horrible memories of childhood meals where we were left at the dining table long after everybody else had gone, told that we couldn't leave until we had finished. I chased cold peas around the plate for what felt like hours. I wouldn't put anybody through that.

I stop if I've had enough, no doesn't always take 20 mins. If it can't be used as leftovers it will go in the bin, it's a waste if it's in the bin or consumed as excessive calories, at least with the former it'll degrade quickly and not cause a health crisis. I frankly can't predict how much we all want to eat at each meal so don't always get it "right" and think it's a healthy attitude to have with food to know when to stop and not eat for the sake of it.

The OP said (in thread title): do you always finish all the food on your plate?

Completely agree it's not a good idea to eat for the sake of it, but surely that means when serving yourself you just put on the plate a sensible helping of all elements of the meal. Taking a big helping and then leaving a lot of it and throwing it away is extremely wasteful, and not a habit I would want to encourage in a child. 'Your eyes were bigger than your stomach' is a useful phrase here.

Obviously if you start eating your meal and it's not nice, you can leave it! (I've had this happen a few times in 40+ years of cooking, always a disappointment for a greedy person like me.)

Equally obviously, if you've misjudged how filling something is, or if you feel unwell, you stop eating.

Eating out is different as somebody else decides on portion size for you.

Takeaways - you decide how much of what's delivered to put on your plate.

Cooking - the quantities I cook are what we need for one meal, and where it's efficient to do so, e.g. casserole, I cook extra to have an extra meal I can freeze or leftovers to eat for another meal in the next day or two. I hate throwing away perfectly edible food.

Nope but I will if possible put in fridge and eat the next day

At restaurants I generally finish everything, unless there’s something I dislike, because a) I love food, and b) I only eat out 2 or 3 times a year.

Takeaways, I sometimes eat everything if I’m feeling greedy, but if not I’ll save the leftovers and eat them the next day.