What do normal sized people eat?

[phonetedt]

Posting for traffic and I'm being deadly serious.

Always had issues with food (abusive childhood and neglect started it I think)

I'm on a weight loss journey, doing well.

What do people normally eat? Those who are average sized and not gaining weight?

I feel like my portion sizes are insanely large but I also don't know what people would eat for lunch and stuff? I feel like porridge, sandwich, crisps, fruit and then tea (dinner) would be a lot of calories for me.

When I was a healthy BMI I didn’t eat breakfast, would have a couple of Ryvita with cheese and nuts for lunch and then a very low carb dinner, e.g. grilled chicken and veg. Any snacks, or too many carbs and I’d immediately start gaining weight (have PCOS and insulin resistance). Alcohol was a big no. I was early 20s at the time.

By contrast, my flatmate at the time used to eat sugary cereal for breakfast, supermarket meal deals for lunch and at least two takeaways a week. She’d get through a packet of Hobnobs two or three times a week. I walked everywhere to save money; she hated walking. As you can imagine, I was very jealous of her!

What I take away from this is that every human body is different, and thus things like TDEE calculations need to be used in conjunction with an understanding of how your own body works and what it needs to help maintain your lifestyle.

Well tonight I'm eating take away pizza. But at least twice a week I have a big lunch at work (rice, grilled meat and salad) and then just some toast in the evening. Today I've also eaten a donut (eat cake most weekends) and I drink a reasonable amount of wine. But I am pre menopause and very active. I am under no illusion I will not be able to eat like this forever! Seriously though, no gym, just regular activity in the form of walking and lumping a 2 stone toddler around!

(I have been very overweight in the past)

I'm 5"6 and 63kg, BMI of around 22.5. I walk 10-15k steps a day. I maintain weight with 1800-1900 calories per day and prioritising protein.

Typical day:

• Breakfast - 200g 0% fage yoghurt with 45g Dorset museli. OR a couple of poached eggs on wholemeal toast with low call spread. Latte coffee.
• Lunch - medium baked potato with homemade chilli (mince and kidney beans. OR soup and a sandwich with a good protein filling like ham or sliced chicken.
• Dinner - grilled chicken with noodles or rice, and veg. OR steak fajita with veg and wholemeal wrap.
• Snacks - a couple babybel lights, raw carrot or cucumber, small amount of sweet treat like sweet popcorn or halo ice cream or small chocolate bar, a meringue nest with berries and more fage yoghurt.

I use my fitness pal to monitor portion sizes and avoid any calorie-heavy non essentials, like sour cream with chilli, or using cooking oil (I grill or poach anything possible). I only drink water, a milky coffee daily.

You don’t have a takeaway much at all. That’s the answer. Maybe once every couple of months? And eat smaller portions of it.

Quantity is key so I'm not sure how useful this will be. I'm at the top end of normal bmi now I'm in peri but eating the same as when I was bmi 21 but younger.

Today

Small breakfast of 3 hovis crackers with crunchy peanut butter before workout

Snack - handful of marmite peanuts

Lunch - baguette with smoked turkey, bacon and avocado
3 square chocolate

Moderately active afternoon of garden work

Dinner 2 chicken fajitas with salad and tomato salsa

This evening I might have some fruit or non dairy ice cream (lactose intolerant).

Breakfast - yogurt, banana and tea
Lunch - tin of soup
Snack - honeydew melon and banana milk
Dinner - plain omelette made with 2 eggs

I'm not well so appetite has fled and food has to not make cough. Lunch would normally be homemade soup but too knackered to make it.

I'm very interested in this. I'm only slightly overweight since having DD but was always slim growing up. I have to count calories just to maintain my slight overweightedness as the moment I stop counting and try and eat intuitively the weight piles on

I’m a size 10-12 at 5’2”. Today I ate:

2 slices toast with peanut butter and banana
1 choc biscuit
cous cous with avocado, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, feta
big bunch of grapes
marinaded chicken breast, chips, salad
low fat yoghurt

I try to pack in the protein to keep me full for longer.

I'm 47 and bmi is 19. I probably have a fairly rubbish diet. I am veggie and end up eating loads of carbs.
Typical day
Toast
Cereal bar
Sandwich
Oat cakes
2 x biscuits
Tea e.g pasta and sauce
Crisps or another biscuit.

I am exercising alot, probably running 30km a week and also do pilates and weight training.

I’m 51
5ft 6
weigh 9.13 ( this morning )
size 10

i rarely eat breakfast if I do it’s a few pieces of bacon or an omelette

I tend to eat a lot of takeaways as I hate cooking
so my go to is Nando’s 😂 chicken wings - five of those and some hallumini cheese sticks

or two chicken breast and salad

itsu rice boxes with either salad / chicken or sushi

a subway tuna or steak salad

I will normally eat one of these sort of meals a day and if I am still hungry later then an omelette / jacket potatoes

If I’m not eating takeaway then it’s steak or chicken grilled with some salad

I rarely drink and I’ve never smoked

I rarely eat cakes / crisps although sometime I can binge on crumpets 😂😂

today - no breakfast
lunch 1 x miso soups as I have been busy from 9am -till 1.30

bought itsu salmon rice box and the prawn dynamite box & miso soup total calories under 800

drinks Diet Coke
I generally eat around 800 -1000 calories

when I do eat shit food like pizza I just eat the toppings not the base
same if I eat McDonald’s I only eat the burger not the bread

I am 5ft5 and a very small size 8/10. Tonight we are having pizza and waffle fries with Caesar salad and a few beers.

A normal (week day) would be:

Black coffee
Yoghurt with fruit & seeds / nuts (lunch)
Dinner - curry with rice (small portion) or pasta or stir fry. We eat Gousto most nights.
Snack - banana or cereal bar or cheese & crackers. Probably a couple of biscuits with a cup of tea around 8pm.

I do around 15k steps daily and exercise 3-4 times a week (mostly cardio)

we still have takeaways however when me and my husband gets a takeaway it's a portion between us as we can't eat a full portion in one sitting chipper takeaway tonight burger each but a bah of chips between us. when we go out I can't eat 2 courses am full or I ask for a half portion or a starter portion as like what I see on the dessrt menu 😅. I do have a glass of wine however I can not and never have been able to eat big portions.

I would say that most people who have posted on here so far sound very healthy, so not really 'normal' compared to most of the population.

My BMI puts me in the slightly overweight category, which I would say is more 'normal' comparatively-speaking 😁.

I very rarely eat breakfast as I'm too busy trying to get the kids out to school/childcare. When I'm wfh (most of the time), I usually have a coffee and a biscuit and then a proper meal around 11.30 - something like eggs, bacon and mushroom on toast, leftovers (shepherd's pie/chilli/lasagne), baked potato or a sandwich. Around 2pm I have another coffee and something sweet - crumpet with jam/slice of leftover cake. Then I collect the kids - they have an after-school snack like a scone and fruit or something, but I'm not normally hungry.

Dinner at 6pm. What we have is quite varied - sometimes home-cooked like shepherds or fish pie, sometimes a quick stir fry, sometimes oven pizza/fish fingers and chips. Kids are off to bed by 8.30pm and then I usually have some more work to do so have another coffee to perk me up. If my willpower is low, this is the point that the biscuits/crisps/chocolate comes out.

Today I made breakfast for the kids when they woke up at 7 (toast/cereal) and ate some leftover cake when they weren't looking (no way I was sharing!), then we had 'brunch' (lunch for them) at 12 of home-made pancakes, bacon, eggs, toast and fried tomatoes and mushrooms. Then we were out most of the afternoon so limited snacking, only a coffee. Tonight, we've had grilled fish in lemon butter sauce for dinner (breaded fish for my fussy one who won't touch this) with rice and veggies on the side. Currently sharing a box of Maltesers with the DC.

Tbh I've never considered myself abnormal and I don't really stand out next to those around me. Lots of us have a bit to lose but struggle to find the time/will with young kids.

TodaY
BreKfast
fruit smoothie with protein powder
dinner
white roll with salad
Tea
veggie curry with rice and small naan
2x packets if crisps
This is pretty typical
im 5ft 4, 8st 4 and a size 8/10

38, BMI 18.7

Today was:

Coffee with full fat milk
Breakfast - protein shake made with water (before exercise)
Lunch - half a salad sandwich
Dinner - One philly cheese steak ciabbata roll and homemade potato salad.
Drinks - water, diet orangeade.

An average day would be

Coffee with milk
Breakfast - protein shake made with water (before exercise) or cereal or oats and fruit if not exercising.
Lunch - half a sandwich, soup or a salad with tuna or chicken.
Dinner - Some form of prawns, steak, chicken for protein, with rice usually, and salad or vegetables. We had a burger last night, no chips for me, day before was chiken curry and rice. I don't eat big portions.

I don't really snack, on days where I am extra hungry I would have an extra protein shake if im exercising afterwards, or salad, soup, a couple of crackers with cucumber and black pepper etc if not exercising.

I do occasionally drink and eat chocolate or icecream etc but rarely, it's a nice treat when I do.

Breakfast: 2 weetabix with semi skimmed milk
Lunch: ham or cheese on wholemeal roll, packet of crisps, tangerine
Tea: various meals example tonight gammon with pineapple, peas, grilled tomato a fried egg and a small portion of oven chips.
Drink tea during the day and have a diet coke with my tea.
I don't put on weight and my bmi is low twenties.

Everyone requires a different amount of energy to maintain weight. The bigger you are the more you need.
I'm underweight and to gain weight at a pound or something a week I need to eat about 2000 cals per day. To maintain it's about 1500.

I tend to eat 2 meals a day, usually one big and one medium. With about 500 on snacks.

Today I had 1 piece of brown toast with pb,
2 teas with milk and 2 sugars
2 glasses white wine
1 galaxy ripple bar

Gonna have leftover Thai spicy chicken and spinach curry, and nasi goreng for dinner with lettuce, spring onions and cucumber.

I'd say portion wise I usually would only be able to eat half a restaurant portion for example.

I didn't have one today but often will have a can of full sugar cherry coke. 😄

Depends how much you exercise.

I walk several times a day, run 3 times a week, lift weights twice a week. I live a vegetarian lifestyle and am a size 10 but I do have large portions. I somehow appear to burn it off I think I will have to cut those portions down as I get older and everything slows down.

50kg 7st12 5’6”
I start the day with a coffee with milk, often with one sugar.

I either then skip breakfast until lunch or have a bowl of cheerios or similar with skimmed milk or a milkshake with a scope of protein again made with skimmed milk.

Lunch will either be the cereal I didn’t eat at breakfast or be snack of fruit with a brioche or something similar. Maybe a bagel with butter or a croissant or two if I’m hungry.

Dinner is whatever I want, ie curry, fajitas, pizza etc Followed by a big dessert!

I take a lot of vitamins to make up for shortcomings in my diet.

I think it's how much you eat, not what you eat

How can that possibly be true though? 500g of steamed vegetables has a vastly different calorie content to 500g of chips, but they are both the same amount of food!

Same, it's expensive. We would normally get an Indian takeaway and I would have a madras or similar with half a rice, half a naan, and an onion bhaji.

The small steak plan went out the window and I had:
Soup
Macaroni cheese
Muffin

Because someone offered to make me dinner 😎

I ate it but it was too early so I might have the steak later but probably no sides

Not very much as far as I can tell. I've lost 70lb in the last year. To keep it off I don't eat an awful lot, and slim friends have since confided in me that to stay slim they have to be obsessed with what they eat.

Very little of everything they want.
Very little.
Physical exercise.

BMI 20-21
No breakfast
Seandwich or soup for lunch
Normal dinner (burger, chicken with salad, pizza, pasta, meat and side etc.)
I drink beer quite a lot tho but no juices etc.
I am tall so always look slimmer than I am.