If you're overweight, how much do you spend on food?

[MarinkyDinkyDink]

I suppose my AIBU is 'To think I can't afford to put on weight'... but I MUST be! I'm not on the breadline. But eating any more just looks SO expensive!

This is my question:

1. I really want to put on weight
2. Every time I go to buy excess food (thinking calorie surplus) I think of my bank account
3. But when I go food shopping, I see soooo many overweight people. Some of whom MUST have less disposable income than me
4. How have they got to that weight!?
5. My jazzy banking app tells me I spend £700/mth on food (+3kids, no other adult).
6. That's 350 on food shop and 350 on eating out (we live in a very cafe-y area, but it's like fancy quiche deli salad places. Ain't nobody getting fat on this stuff)
7. Apparently UPF is great for putting on weight but I really don't like the taste and texture of processed food (which is apparently fab for making anybody overweight)

I like homemade, pure food. Like, if I want a sausage roll, I'll make sausage rolls. I don't like the taste of pre-made or cold food. I only really like hot and fresh, made on site etc.

1. Food is so expensive! I don't buy snacks or crap for the house because it's just.. more money. But discussing snacking with school mums, I'm starting to think maybe I don't keep enough snacks in.

I only eat 3 meals, I can't dream what would happen to that £700 spend if I started snacking too!

If you are overweight: HOW!? Do you spend £700+ on food/mth?

I just want to understand the balance I need to make between my spend and my weight. Is my food spend unusually low? Do I need to start splashing out on the calories?

I get that being overweight for many isn't desirable. But being underweight is no treat either.

We spend the same now we are normal BMI as we did when obese. What we spend it on has just shifted slightly.

Not sure it’s really a pricing issue, but about adding healthy calories to your diet, not necessarily volume and increasing sheer quantity of stuff. Adding stuff like nut butters etc isn’t really going to break the bank.

Your user name is a DISCRACE - every right-thinking person knows it's muffins AND cake.

I’m going to answer sincerely because despite coming across as a bit pompous OP I think you are actually asking a serious question.

Do you like carbonara-can be made from scratch but full of calories if you make it with a good slug of double cream.
Cheese is also a good suggestion. As was avocado. If you like nuts they are high in calories but not bad for you.

It’s not that you need to spend more, it’s that you need to change what you are spending your money on.

It is not a long of money to spend on 3 for a month of it includes cafes as that will be the expensive bit.

I spend that on 3 which includes 1 takeaway a month maybe if we fancy. Active slim household but child especially loves fruit and it is expensive!!!

sounds like you need more food tbh - not easy if you’ve been brought up that way.

Thank you all re. basically, white foods suggestions. Dairy and carbs. I hear you.

I am NOT joking when I say I wish the cafes round here sold this stuff. It's so easy to eat out when busy and it all just sells fucking salads 😂😫

I do eat full fat everything. Fat coke, blue milk, butter on everything. This is why I'm thinking it's going to be EXPENSIVE to gain weight. Because I'm already eating all the high fat foods. But it will be so expensive to eat (buy) MOOOREEE of it.

But then OP will need to decide which of the Krispy Kreme doughnuts, are the most calorific?? 🤣

OP - have you ruled out having any parasitic bugs?

When my FIL was very ill and loosing weight the dietitian told to add double cream to things eg stir it into yogurt and soup, pour it over fruit.

I lost a lot of weight due to an illness at the end of last year and my GP told me I needed to regain weight fast. I've put on over 10 Ilbs since the beginning of February and these have been my go-to foods:
Avocado - large - 3 a week
Smoothies - 2 large glasses per day
Pate - meat or fish - two per week on wholegrain biscuits
Sausage sandwiches - two per week
Complan drinks - handy for when I've not felt hungry but need the extra calories
High protein yoghurt - daily
2 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil per day
Evening meal - a pasta dish, pizza or occasional fish and chips
I'm also adding sugar free blackcurrant cordial to the water I drink (about 6 glasses per day).
Good luck.

Trying adding a fourth meal. It could just be a bowl of pasta with pesto or extra virgin olive oil with seeds and pine nuts sprinkled on top if you want to put on weight cheaply without eating processed food.

Re. The Google comment: yes. Diet wise, this could totally be answered on Google. That's why I'm here instead.

I get, I think, what to eat. And the quantities.

What I don't understand, is how that is meant to be affordable!

That is why I'm here trying to get some context on what others spend on food.

I.e am I spending too little and need to suck it up?

Family of 3, about £500 per month grocery shopping and yeah, shamefully possibly another £200 on takeout and eating out.

cheese.
That’s it.
that will help you put the weight on

Whenever there's a thread asking how slim people eat, it's always about volume rather than actual diet.

People (including myself) who have never been overweight, tend to eat much less than those who are.

The threads normally show that slimmer people only eat 2 or 3 small meals per day, and rarely snack.

So I wouldn't worry too much about what you actually eat, you just need to eat a lot more of it.

Bigger portions and keep snacking between meals.

If you can't afford the extra cost, look at other ways you can save money to put towards your shopping bill.

Excuse me while I grab the world's tiniest violin 🎻

Seriously, how judgmental presuming that because someone is big that they spend huge sums of money on food!

It’s my massive brain - weighs a LOT. Yours obviously doesn’t weigh anything. Sucks to be you.

It’s not cost, it my refusal to eat anything that is not topped with an iced Madeira cake that is the problem.

I honestly don't understand this, the post is well written, literate etc and yet the OP seems to lack the basic intelligence to understand that calorific food makes you lardy.

Interesting.

Edit: written by self-confessed lardypants

I am very thin and I understand what you are saying OP. I am also fairly poor and spend 500/month on me and a 16 year old. Both of us a) eat very well and b) find it hard to put on weight.

When in hospital a few years ago (for something totally unrelated) they added eggs to EVERYTHING. Soup, an egg cracked in. Lentils and chickpeas,an egg cracked in. Always a snack in the afternoon plus a disgusting protein drink at night. You could just have a milky drink? Always 2 yogurts and fruit at breakfast.

Nuts is a good one.
I am lazy and force myself to eat.

Tuna and pasta/rice is high protein/carb.

I don't spend any extra money on food as to maintain my overweight 2 stone frame. I just snack on performative undereaters.

It’s not about how much you’re spending, it’s about what you’re buying. Start snacking more - have biscuits, nuts, crisps, cakes. All calorie dense. Eat bigger portions at meal times. Have milkshakes or high calorie drinks. Have a dessert after dinner every night.

I don’t understand the faux exasperation about the local cafes being ‘too healthy’…just go to Tesco and buy a meal deal instead? Would be cheaper and more calorific than a fancy quiche from a cafe. Unhealthy food is generally less, not more expensive!

Younare really missing what people are telling you. The reason us fatties are fat is because we can't afford to spend £700 a month on food 🤦🏼‍♀️. With £700 I could buy salad, fresh fish and meat and fruit etc. Instead, I spend around £300 a month (give or take) for a family of four. The cheaper filling food is not healthy but it means nobody goes to bed hungry.

What a bizarre question. The answer seems very obvious to me. Don't eat out. Spend the other £350 on food shopping. You'll get loads more food for your money.

I can't believe you're claiming you can't afford to buy more food when you spend £350 in cafes. My budget is £70/week for two teens and one adult. Eating out/takeaway is a rare treat.

Butter. Proper block butter. Slather it on everything. Buy fatty meat, eat the fat. Eat lots and lots of bread. With butter (see above). Make pasta dishes with creamy sauces. Lots of cheese. Stop eating out so much, stay at home with your feet up. It’s really not hard to put on weight, I’m excellent at it.

I am a lanky streak of piss myself, OP. I was once seriously ill and dropped to seven stone (am 5'7). To regain, I just ate more of the simple things, more milk, two boiled eggs instead of one, an extra slice of toast, bananas, slightly bigger portions of pasta, rice and spuds, one extra Weetabix etc. The physio helped me to start building up muscle too.

Do best in mind that many people become obese because they cannot afford good quality food or lack the skills/equipment to cook it. Such people will likely spend less than average on food because they simply cannot afford any more.