… to think this is ridiculous. (portion size)

[Elphame]

I fancied a Chelsea bun from the bakery this morning so asked for one to be added to my bread order. Didn’t really think much about it.

When I got it home I was staggered by the size of it.

Is this really what passes for the one serving of cake for one person? I’ll eat about a quarter. It will be stale tomorrow so the birds will get the rest.

Teaspoon for scale

I don't know. I'm one of those annoying people who's always been slim regardless of what I eat. I've never paid much attention to what other people eat but then a friend started commenting on how if she ate what I ate she'd be starving. She'd sometimes send me photos of what she'd cooked and I wouldn't be able to eat all that. She eats three cooked meals per day whereas I only eat a piece of fruit and/or some yogurt for breakfast, a small thing for lunch and a larger dinner, and I don't go hungry. I don't think either is wrong, we just have different appetites. My downfall is sweet things which I try to avoid buying.

I also don't assume overweight people eat shit tonnes of food. Maybe they have a health condition or have very stressful jobs so end up having to rely on high calorie convenience foods, or any number of reasons.

I think any obesity crisis is more likely caused by things like increasingly high levels of stress and pressure people are under, lack of money for healthy/wholefood options, and an increase in snacking, takeaways and convenience foods because people are so bloody tired from having to work so much, rather than portion sizes of pre-prepared foods.

Do you know what - my DD is battling what has been a crushing eating disorder which has stolen her teenage years and created a pretty hellish existence for her and the rest of her family. How did it start? Well despite healthy messages about bodies, self esteem, food etc etc from her family, she still had this idea that she needed to be the smallest she could be, that eating things like Chelsea Buns makes her greedy and disgusting. That's come from this twisted fucking society we exist in. Posters like this OP really do make me so angry, the perpetual fucking idea that women must be this size and this size only, if they eat something bigger than a teaspoon they must need a fucking crane to lift them into bed at night. This kind of "teeny tiny" bullshit continues to damage the self esteem of countless women, and Mumsnet is fucking flooded with it.

Sigh. Another competitive under-eating thread.

I am by no means a bun expert, but I think you might be referring to a Belgian bun.

But I think that handmade pastries and buns from bakeries have always been on the larger size, no? I remember my mum getting quite a few different ones on holidays in France or special occasions at home and her cutting them all up so we could have a little bit of everything.

Exactly. You get a larger portion from an ice cream parlour or from a dessert menu in a restaurant.

Wind them up and watch them go.

Good job OP.

That's it! The sugary glazed with icing buns are Belgian buns.

That’s massive, yeah. But I’m sure you’ve already had pages of competitive overeaters telling you that they could eat four, no, five of them in one sitting, no problem, and anyone who couldn’t has an eating disorder. 😂

I particularly like the ludicrous claim above that it only has 260 calories.

It’s just as much a competitive overeating thread going by some of the replies.

I'm so sorry. It's shit. And very few people would bat an eyelid over a bloke eating this Chelsea bun.

How do we know that? Do we have the weight and brand of thr bun? @Elphame?

Yes. Yes and yes. I’m tiny. I’m tiny because this week I’ve eaten about 2000 calories since Sunday and taken my Orlistat, (that I can buy easily online) that I don’t need on top of that. I cannot, despite medical intervention, that for women my age is as much use as a fart in the wind, stop. Just eat your Chelsea bun because I can assure you it’s less of a worry than my situation is. I’d love to be able to eat the lot but the guilt that would come from it renders me unable to do so.

Oh good, more MN competitive under eating

Chelsea buns are always that size aren't they?

@dunkdemunder are you saying you would get over 15 servings from a tub of Ben and Jerry's? (3 adults, 5 days, some left over)

I'm so sorry @protectoroftherealm.It's such an incredibly exhausting battle to be fighting.

Freeze it

Ugh. Cue page upon page of people holding forth about not being able to "manage" more than a few bites, disdainful comments about UPFs 😱 and "empty carbs", and lots of "scoffing", "polishing off" and "hoovering up". We've lost sight of what a boring orthorexic cunt looks like, so we must be grateful for these regular refreshers from the MN obesity police.

Just don't wash it down with a "sugary drink" OP, or you may just disintegrate into a viscous puddle of golden syrup on the floor.

15 servings would work out at 31 ml per serving if they ate the whole tub, and less obviously if there's some left. So about a UK single shot glass's worth.

who says it's for one person? Is that a rule?

A bread and butter pudding made out of 3/4 of a bun.

Well no because it's going to get chucked in the bin 😂. I suppose you could give some out to the neighbours.

Obviously you're meant to present it in the middle of the dinner table and carve it like a turkey. And be careful not to "overface" anyone, there's always seconds if you've got hollow legs.

I think we've all lost sight of what a normal Chelsea bun should be.

I think it’s pretty big - I’d probably eat half then wrap it up and the rest the next day. But I’m very slight and I’ve always said a buffet is wasted on me.

Also lots of people share a cake so I don’t see a problem with them selling it. They’re not making you eat it all in one go.