Tedious performative under eaters

[SlimPig]

The thread about the PIL's measly portions reminded me of this, and how iritating it is. I remember once at work they bought us all fish and chips on one friday afternoon. When it arrived the two other women started their bs as soon as they were handed their box - oohh the weight of that! I'll never eat all that! Hadn't even opened it and looked at it yet.

Then, once opened, both of them, oh my god, I'll never eat all that (measly takeaway cardboard box portion, not a massive, in paper, large portion) ooh dear, we won't need dinner, or breakfast tomorrow now will we! Don't think I can eat my peas too, I'm so stuffed. I'm going to need to go for two runs tomorrow now! On and on, through the whole meal.

I was starving and had to make a conscious effort to eat it slowly because they were fucking about and pushing it round the box and I didn't want to look a pig, I'm a fast eater anyway, but that meal was just so god awful! In the end I just ate it at my normal speed.

Why? Why do people do this? Why can't they just eat their food normally? Why does everything have to be justified and offset? Just strikes me as so sad that they couldn't just eat their food without a whole performance (infront of all the men in the office, only 3 women there, me and them) of how birdlike they normally eat 😥

Oh happy days!! The Ole & Steen (or Lagkagehuset as it’s called in Denmark which is SO much harder to say 🙄) ones are classic!

Enjoy every bite! (Because you’ll be able to eat nothing else all month as it’s sooo big…😉)

Have you ever met people who pick a crumb out of a sandwich and eat it, one at a time, instead of just taking a bite? I have, more than once. Very annoying.

After reading this thread I am going to buy a soup maker via our local MacDonalds to grap a double cheeseburger tomorrow 😂

I was starving and had to make a conscious effort to eat it slowly

Surely nobody made you do that, it was a choice.

Wow you have a lot of issues around eating, don't you? Chill, that's not what the OP is saying.

I have two friends I love going out for meals with
Last time it was a tapas place. We all eat anything so we just said "hungry, bring us whatever is good"
No debating starters, what we eat/don't eat, carbs, calories, hunger...

My mum took me to weight watchers at 14 so anyone commenting on my food can put me off eating for days. I won't eat in front of colleagues or people I don't know

I would prefer it if people did not comment on food
I have to avoid many things due to allergies and intolerances and get told things like ‘god why do you eat so healthily’ I don’t make a performance out of what I eat and don’t comment on others foods
Although I have been known to say something looks or smells good when it does
the food that set off the former comment was some chilli left overs with a salad and some salsa with sour cream

Never underestimate the extent to which women will go to make other women look bad.

Like, perhaps, starting a thread inviting people to bitch about women with small appetites?

It's this sort of stuff that makes like difficult for smaller eaters. I was in a position where my company sent round menus for a day conference we're having. Lunch menu consisted of a two course meal, things like steak pie, lasagne, macaroni cheese, full size portions. Evening menu was a three course meal of steaks and trimmings, chicken and trimmings, pasta dishes, that sort of stuff. I wondered how I was going to explain to them that I couldn't manage that amount of food in a day and could, there be a light lunch option without getting blowback from the person who organises this stuff. Others must have done though because later they changed lunch to a buffet. I'm sure there will be people on here would would accuse me of being a teeny tiny who is trying to shame others who would happily eat that much in one day. I'm not. I won't eat 3 courses either, but will duly take each course and quietly push the starter and dessert around my plate so others don't start to have a go at me for not eating 3 courses. I never have been able to. I'm far from tiny, I was just raised on only ever having one course, we had bugger all money when I was young, and as a result I can't eat a lot of food in one sitting.

I am recovering from an ED and honestly, I have to call these kind of comments out now. I just politely say that I am in recovery and find comments on portions eating very triggering (because I do - whether it's talking about eating too much or too little).

And yet here you are reading an entire thread about it.

But this thread isn't about small appetites.

Also, don't most people just have one course at home bar special occasions? We did

You don't have to push the food round your plate. Just say you'll only have one course, don't say why. No one cares. It's the pushing it around your plate looking mournful that's so annoying.

This one particular person who is very annoying, will be very proud of having just half a tin of soup and a yoghurt and half a banana for the whole day. And the next day, even more proud when they only have a banana and an apple. On the third day, they have two bottles of water and a banana, and they grin proudly and say 'I've been so GOOD today. I have only ate a banana! ALL DAY.'

You're talking about someone with an eating disorder.

She never ate more than one slice of Mars bar every day

This is actually a good tip for people trying to cut out chocolate, to help with that craving you get. It's my biggest downfall. I do find that having something smaller every day is easier than trying to limit myself to only having chocolate a couple of days a week. You might eat a whole Mars bar but do you do it every day?

My Mum can be like this. It’s so annoying. If I eat breakfast or lunch in front of her she says “well, you won’t want dinner now!”

Believe it or not, I, like many people, usually eat three meals a day… Then she gives one of those judgy sniffs.

She made a comment about how she couldn’t BELIEVE my sister (who is in a very active job) was having a second helping of peas on Sunday. 🙄 I’ve never noticed men do this to each other, and she would never say it to my brother or Dad. Internalised misogyny has much to answer for.

That's because if you share something the other person gets all the calories in their bit

Like when my husband has cheese and biscuits, he makes an extra one and I take it off his plate then it doesn't count. 😆

This thread has been hugely entertaining.

My mother is another CUE. Ruins any family dinner by banging on about how little she's going to be able to eat before the food is even out. Takes a few bites then starts repeating various iterations of 'you're not going to eat ALL OF THAT are you?' for the rest of the meal. Yes, we will eat our meal, AND the food you wasted.

It'd be less annoying if she didn't have a giant arse and an ever-changing display of biscuits and cake out; she's quite obviously going home and stuffing her face afterwards.

@Bubblebubblebah We always have dessert after dinner, but not after lunch. Starters are more a thing for special occasions or when you go out, but I’d call two courses pretty standard.

We always had dessert as kids, just cheap things like jelly or angel delight because we were poor, but to this day I don’t feel like I’ve finished eating till I’ve had dessert!

Oh, my mum is also the only person I know who describes themselves as 'dainty'. She is a size 16, she loves telling us about her tiny little bones and tiny (size 6) feet.

This is my mother. She also talks endlessly about how she doesn't like sweet things they're just too sickly. It's all a lie btw.

She's always made me feel guilty about what I eat and I have a horrendous relationship with food.

I'm 41 now and she's 80 and she still will say 'oh I couldn't be bothered to eat today' but then will slip up and say 'oh Jane next door made me a curry for lunch so that was lovely with naan bread' etc etc.

These sort of people clearly have an eating disorder and feel the need l to justify every morsel they eat to themselves by showing that they cannot possibly eat more than a measly portion, implying that anyone who does is greedy or overeating. It’s obviously a disorder but unacceptable to voice these comments in a social situation where people are trying to enjoy their food without judgement. It’s the same as if you said: “I couldn’t possibly eat that crap you’re eating”, right? Just eat whatever you can/want and live and let live. I have 2 friends like this who I simply refuse to eat with anymore and anyone who mentions how “big” a portion is in my company, gets a retort along the lines of: “just how I like it. I love my food and it’s perfect for me”. I do feel sorry for them but they need to learn to keep their comments to themselves.

I don't get why people can't just accept that others have different appetites and eating habits and it is no one else's business.

I rarely eat breakfast and often skip lunch, my choice because I am a zombie in the morning and often dont think to eat at lunchtime. I will eat like a pig in the evening cos I am hungry then.

Some people feel terrible if they don't eat first thing; some people like to eat little & often. Who cares!

It is bloody irritating when people talk about their eating habits and are judgy about those who have different habits to their own.

Yes but if the poster pretends it is, she can tell us what a tiny appetite she has and how she couldn't possibly manage a normal meal.

It is bloody irritating when people talk about their eating habits and are judgy about those who have different habits to their own.

it's normally because an awful lot of people lack a social filter and happily bore people stupid about themselves without any realisation of how they come across.

Let's face it we all have to interact with people we wouldn't necessarily choose to socialise with eg work colleagues, being out in the general public, etc, so we're more than likely to come across them and have to be irritated on a daily basis.

I just tend to put on a painted grimace smile and nibble away at my "half a Hobnob" and hope nobody makes some wisecrack comment.

It cuts both ways, I have the reverse problem, people saying things like "ooo you don't eat very much, do you, is that aaaall you're having for your lunch" - um yes, what's it to you? I eat what I want at the time and if this is what I need now, this is what I have. (I don't say that, but it amazes me how people comment on an adult's appetite, it's completely embarrassing to have to justify it.

the other week, some kindly soul at work bought in a massive box of cakes they'd baked. I took one out of politeness and said I didn't realise they were going in for GB Bake-Off - then the box did a second round and I had to decline, no way I was eating two huge slabs of chocolate cake it would have made me sick, but you just don't comment do you.

It's the showing off that is annoying; not the portion sizes.

Another poster who has comprehension issues.

‘Like, perhaps, starting a thread inviting people to bitch about women with small appetites?‘

No. This is not what the thread is about. Read the OP again and perhaps the whole thread so you might understand.