To think we don’t need that much food

[Moonpiecake]

I feel portions in restaurants and takeaways are bigger than most of adults need and also majority of people buy and eat more food than is necessary for our bodies.

If you are over 30, fit, healthy and manage to remain within the healthy body weight for your age and height how much do to eat.

I want to save money on food but also loose a few kilos and look and feel good so looking for advice

Just buy what you need, don't worry about anyone else

Why does it bother you what other people eat? If you want to eat less or healthier then do so and stop concerning yourself about what other people are doing.

Not sure exactly what I need so looking for advice.

Do we need 5 pieces of fruit and vegetables? Do we need 3 meals per day or can we do we 2? Snacks? Carbohydrates? Do we need to eat little and often?

It’s hard re portions because everyone eats such different amounts. In a pub for example if I get burger or steak it normally come with chips, chances are I can’t manage them but then DP will hoover his and my leftovers.

We cook everything fresh and there’s normally enough from tea to do lunches too. We spend on average £80pm on food for two people. 3 solid, good quality meals a day.

I agree I'm in my late 50s and the only way I stay slim is by eating only when I'm hungry and always carrying fruit to snack on.
As a chef I'm amazed by how much people can eat tbf.
But it has been my livelihood for 35 years.

Eat out infrequently and don’t get take aways. That should save you money and calories.

Who is “we”?

Not everyone has the same bodies, metabolism, levels of activity, preferences and goal weights.

I totally agree, we (as a nation) are obviously eating far too much hence our problem with obesity.

I am 50 and have always been a size 8-10 and weigh just under 9 stone (I’m 5’6”).

I eat off a small side plate, I never deny myself any foods (other than those I know cause my IBS to flare) but I simple don’t eat loads, never have.
I have also, always naturally intermittently fasted way before it became a thing and that’s simply because I can not face food first thing. I usually eat around 10am-7pm.

The red plate is mine (from the 80’s!). I have always used this plate (I’m strange, I know lol). The white one is now classed as a standard dinner plate. The red plate was a standard dinner plate from back when I was a child.

We need to eat a hell of a lot less than we think.

I'm 5'7" and even if i was exercising a lot...if I ate 2000 cals a day I'd be overweight.

For me to stay the weight I like to be, I have to eat approx 1400 calories a day. If I'm exercising, this increases, but only to the region of 1600-1700.

Yes you need at least 5 portions of veg and fruit a day, ideally more. Adults (not elderly) don’t generally need carbs.

Lots of diet advice now is based on fasting. Basically skipping breakfast and eating two meals a day and no snacks.

Why don’t you just try a few things and see if they work for you? E.g. try 500 cals per day for a week and if you’re hungry eat more. Try 1000 cals and see if you lose weight. There’s no collective ‘we’ in any of this. Different people eat different amounts for different reasons, and see different effects. My sister eats like a horse (think 3 big meals and endless snacks) and maintains her weight at 55kg. I eat 1500 cals per day and maintain my weight at 75kg.

Exactly. I’m a vegetarian non-driver 51 year old woman who walks or cycles everywhere but has a sedentary job, so my calorie needs and food types will be different to a 25 year old male ballet dancer.

I'm of the opinion that people like me (aka- exactly me) don't need to eat 3 meals a day. I've stopped doing so last year. I skip breakfast as eating it seems to open the floodgates on my hunger and just eat a small lunch and dinner. It's certainly saved money- and I have lost a stone in about a year (I started off 4 stone overweight). I'm short (5 ft 1), dumpy (currently 12 and a half stone) and extremely sedentary. So that's been my approach. If I try and eat 3 smaller portions it doesn't seem to work for me psychologically. 2 meals not 3 does seem to.

500kcals a day for a week is starvation.

That's fucking awful advice.

It's disgusting watching the amount of food given out and eaten in some restaurants.
I was a waitress for years in the 90s and remember being shocked at seeing the difference between the piles of fatty carbs when I went to the USA. It's like that here now. So horrible.

You are absolutely right that as a nation we eat too much. Women should actively be cutting calories as they age due to our metabolism slowing down. If we continue eating the same size portions we will simply start gaining weight with age. That’s why many slim older women admit to having to actively reduce the amount they eat. People get sensitive about this subject but it’s a fact not just my opinion that we are getting fatter and fatter as a nation. While it’s everyone’s individual choice it impacts our health and puts pressure on our healthcare, benefit system, reduces productivity etc

Never has the phrase 'you do you' been more appropriate here.

Listen to your own body and eat sensibly when you're hungry, then stop when you're not.

If your body tells you you don't 'need' 3 meals per day then you don't need 3 meals per day.

£80 per month? Seriously?!

Food waste is disgusting but there's nothing wrong with fatty carbs as part of an otherwise healthy diet.

In terms of large restaurant meals and fatty carbs... I more often than not ask for my pub / cafe meals out to come without the chips. I just say to the waiter 'I don;t like them so it would be just a waste to cook them'. It's perfectly true. Sometimes they give me extra salad or ask if I want boiled potatoes instead but I'm fine without usually.

Where I am though there seems to be a trend towards lighter bites / smaller meals on the menu. I like that.

But the plate is the same size, you don't plate on the rim!

I think what the poster is asking is what is a healthy amount. It’s really changed since I was young in the early 1970’s.

There was a thread about smaller plates yesterday and its true plates were smaller so portion sizes were. Plus snacking was compeltley frowned on all of it healthy or not. So a handful of nuts versus chocolate, one has health benefits but it’s still extra calories. People also tended to drink just tea, coffee, water and squash. Fruit juice was a starter in restaurants, no fancy coffees with added flavours and also wine was sold in much smaller glasses. A glass of wine was 125ml now it’s 175ml.

So we ate everything but in smaller amounts and no snacking plus no fast food except fish and chips sometimes. A McDonalds opened near where I lived when I was 19 until then none of the trainees nurses I was on a course with had been in one including me.

Absolute goady rubbish. As often features on these kinds of threads.

I think your thread is a bit misleading. Yes, restaurant portions are large. Ideally eat until satisfied but not stuffed, then take the rest home for another meal.
If you want to lose weight, then portion control is good.
Think about what you actually like that's healthy, eat plenty of your fave fruit and veg. There is no limit to the amount of that you can have in a day really.
Take up gentle exercise, cook using less oil, make sure your plate is always 50% veg, stuff like that.

Portions have got a lot bigger over the years. Look at dinner plates from the 1959s and 1960s!
Our stomachs are the size of a fist but we stretch them with bigger portions and then feel falsely hungry when we eat less again.

If you imagine a modern side plate, full to the edges, that's how big an adult meal needs to be. But on a bigger plate so there is more room at the edges to manoeuvre. A third vegetables, minimal sauces. Rely more on spices and herbs instead of bottled sauces and cooking sauces. Rely on protein rather than carbs for energy, we eat carb heavy meals for a fast feeling of being full, and we don't need to.

An adult male or growing teenager will need a bit more than the above.

Weigh out cereals too - a portion of granola only just about covers the bottom of your bowl.

As you get older towards menooause age, you need less calories too...