Is this normal eating behaviour?

[lucyboop]

I'm a 30 year old woman, I havd been single the past three years, however, have been seeing someone the past 4 months.

During my time single I developed a habit where I would cook a meal, eat half of it, then put it in the kitchen and pick at it for the rest of the night. So if I was going to the kitchen to load the dishwasher I would have a couple of bites, going to make a cup of tea - another couple of bites. Sometimes I'd finish it, but usually I wouldn't.

Anyways been with my guy for four months and when we cook together, I make a conscious effort to sit down and eat a full meal (even though that's a struggle for me to do all at once), although I usually end up leaving half on it and feeling hungry later on in the evening and just ignoring it.

However, he works later shifts so sometimes he will come over to my house around 8 and half my dinner is still sitting in the kitchen. When he questioned about why he couldn't put it in the bin, I explained to him that I usually liked to have half in one sitting and the other half over the course of a night.

He thinks this is very bizarre and nothing he's ever heard about before. So I'm wondering, is it all that unusual? Number 1 I couldn't eat it all in one sitting. Number 2 I get hungry later on so I have that to pick on otherwise I would snack.

AIBU?

No, I would describe it as having a small appetite/stomach & eating accordingly.

Lost of people prefer eg 4 or 5 small meals to 3 large ones. That's got nothing to do with anxiety, & everything to do with listening to your body.

This thread is really opening my eyes that I'm weirder than I thought. I really like most dinner foods cold! Some I think actually improves from when it was hot.

Would always put rice straight in the fridge as it's not safe. And I don't plate up and leave half the plate as OP does. But I often cook more than I need, put it in the fridge at some point once it's cooled, and snack from those leftovers both before and after that point.

It doesn’t matter how I would describe it. You said ‘the op said she has anxiety over finishing a meal.’

The op did not say that. You have decided that.

I mean I don’t eat most of those meals due to being vegetarian. But no, I don’t feel ‘really sick’ and think it would make me ‘heave’ to eat half a plate of my dinner at 5pm then have a few bites of it at 6.30. Honestly I think feeling ‘really sick’ at the thought of eating a bit of your pasta that you enjoyed an hour ago is much more indicative of weird ideas around eating than deciding to save some dinner for later.

I don’t think it’s weird, OP. I don’t always do this, but there’s certainly some meals I do this with (particularly pretty much any takeaway bar chips as it’s usually too much for one sitting).

And what’s wrong with cold food? Things like pasta are sold cold to eat in supermarket meal deal things. Cold lasagne is delicious! Cooked meats like chicken is just deli meat/ sandwich meat.

I’d keep meat based food in the fridge though. Pizza lives on the kitchen side to be eaten all night.

I xant eat huge meals in one go. I will serve my myself a smaller portion and eat some later more as supper.
I find large meals have me freely uncomfortable bloated and sleepy.
I dont gave a eating disorder, font snack and am moderately overweight.

The thought of cold lasagne is making me feel gross, but I'm weird like that. I hate scraping left over cold food into the bin 😖 if it works for you then I wouldn't worry, but I'd personally cook the same amount and dish myself up two smaller portions one for dinner and one for later and then heat it in the microwave.

It's uncommon and on the face of itvi can't see anything wrong however.....it does sound a bit restrictive. Let's assume you eat a half meal at 6pm then from 8pm to say 10pm finish the rest....what happens when you go out for the evening and haven't got your 'security meal' there? Does it spoil your evening?
An adult should be able to eat enough to keep hunger at bay for a good 4hrs. How do daytime meals work? I'd suggest if you can go from breakfast to lunch or lunch to evening meal without needing an extra half meal that the need is psychological not physiological. You say you had a few 'hungry' evenings at his so it's definitely impacting on your quality of life.
On the face of it, Meh, who cares but is this a form of OCD/ anxiety. Have you any conditions/addictions that could point to this?

I don't think it's rude. It's her BF snd he's asking her about something odd that she does because he's curious about her

I do this with takeaways but if I'm honest it's mostly because I've stuffed myself. Even when I eat more later it's because its delicious snd I'm greedy, not because I'm hungry.

@Felicity42
Good point OP, how would you feel?

The answer to his questioning is 'I don't remember asking for your opinion, my dear'.

I understand, it seems normal to me. I find it hard to eat large quantities at once, but I still need the same amount of food everyone else eats. I struggle to eat enough during the designated time I get in work, as a result I make up for it by grazing all evening when I get home.

As a one off, it’s fine.

But it’s weird to regularly cook yourself too much food, and then to plate it all up when you regularly only eat half of the plated meal. Most people would stop putting twice the amount of food on the plate when they know they won’t eat it, not make it a routine.

You’re essentially batch cooking. It makes more sense for you to only plate up the “50% portion” you actually eat, then keep the extra in the pot/fridge ready to be served for your next meal.

I think it’s gross because you’re giving the food a chance to oxidise when you unnecessarily leave half of it on the plate with no intention to eat it during dinner.

Some people prefer to graze rather than eat huge meals in one go. Mostly actually that is healthier. Stress can also affect your appetite. Do what you want! You're eating but doing it when you're hungry, arguably much healthier than forcing food down at set mealtimes: many people become overweight because they don't register their body's signals to stop eating when they are no longer hungry. If anything it's his comments about your eating habits - not your eating habits themselves - that are unhealthy because it's giving you a complex.

It's not "gross" as long as the food isn't left at room temperature for 4 hours or more, when food poisoning would become a risk.

Sounds bloody weird to me, not surprised your BF questioned it.

I have the opposite problem and just eat in one go. Wish I could be like you OP then I would be a few stone lighter😂

@lulucyboop - I think some posters are being very unfair

Some people like to graze

Some people like to graze on cooled food. It's obviously not harmful to your health as you've been doing it for so long

My friend , for example, cooks pizzas and deliberately leaves them to go cold before eating half and leaving the remaining half til the next day

I see no reason to change what you're doing unless you want to

It's not gross and its not weird

Just because I don't do what you do, does not make you wrong

100%

This!

I really don't think this is normal and I'm surprised by the comments. Once in a while, getting full and popping back into the kitchen later to grab something off a plate, okay. But making it a daily habit? It's not normal OP, and I suspect the fact you haven't come back to the thread to answer any of the concerns raised might mean that some PP were close to the mark with the disordered eating comments.

I eat little and often so I don’t think this is weird. I’d wrap it up and pop it in the fridge though or in some Tupperware. We always have lots of little bits and bobs from leftovers in our fridge and I love a little fridge picnic with them for lunch.

But she's not cooking too much food.
She's cooking the amount of food she wants to eat during an evening, she just doesn't want to eat it all in one sitting.

There is absolutely nothing weird about grazing-style eating. It's what humans evolved to do.

I think it’s gross because you’re giving the food a chance to oxidise
How is that any different from a buffet, or a picnic, or eg a large takeaway pizza that takes all night to get through?

It's nonsense to suggest OP has an eating disorder!

Her eating style is far healthier than many. She is aware of exactly when she feels full, & stops at that point. She returns to a nutrutious meal when hungry again later, instead of mindlessly snacking on junk.