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.

Look at the Sumo wrestler method - high calories of quality food mainly later in the evening

Have you had your thyroid tested? Maybe it's overactive. If this is even a genuine thread.

He's not saying mum, he's saying nom nom - clearly he's enjoying your cooking!

They’re full of UPFs. You need to offer something else

I have one word for you op: cheese.

Mine is actually my epileptic medication from a size 6 to a 16! I'd love to be a size 6 again 🫠

*Trust me, if you're overweight, lucky you in my book

Try Mirtazepine, good chance of piling on weight at an alarming rate. You'll need depression/anxiety that's been resistant to at least one SSRI, but the only financial cost is a prescription charge.

honestly sounds like you have very disordered eating.
eating is about consuming healthy food for a healthy body.
yup i'm overweight by 20lbs, what is my food budget like significant but proportional to my income.
i buy from the local butcher and the local baker (both higher cost) and a fair % from the farmers market, local produce, home made jam etc.
do you have a physical reason to be so underweight, IBS/chrons etc.

So my comment was deleted because i said this poster was a new poster …goodness gracious. Sorry if that has broken the rules 🙄

Nope it was the abusive personal name calling that you added after pointing out that they were a new poster.

If you are short of money STOP EATING OUT. Eat larger portions of higher fibre carbs at each meal, 3 portions of dairy each day, 2 servings of any proteins, 5 of fruit and veg. If you need to gain weight (BMI less than 18.5) then increase unsaturated fat intake. Butter has = calories to olive oil but is less heart healthy, don't compromise your long term health for short term gains. Don't drink high sugar drinks. Drink water and eat your calories. I'm a dietitian.

Mix everything you eat with melted cheese, butter and cream..

On the first few pages I was so excited to be sarky, but I think OP is serious and just had a first post that was …

okay OP, look up highly palatable foods. Usually an addictive mix of sweet, salty fatty. So cheap UPF are hyper palatable but so is a cheese and onion omelette with a whisper of sugar in the mix or served on a homemade buttered white bread. If you look it up you’ll get that part nailed down but I remember the omelette example.

Make chocolate chip cookies with a sprinkle of sea salt for after meals or in between.

Jam or honey on white bread with salted butter.

At the cafe get the salad that has fruits and cheeses and a good dressing and have lots of bread. Or get the quiche and scones on the side.

If you are snacking on nuts make sure they are salted and mix in dried cranberries.

Personally I’m gifted in that I can be fat cooking from scratch and/or eating beige and frozen. I usually cycle through based on hormones. Would have done so well at surviving winter.

I’m overweight 👋🏻

We spend about £400 a month on food (2 adults, 1 child) and as much as nobody in this house ever encounters hummus, we don’t eat that badly - last night’s tea was just chicken skewers, rice and salad.

Some nights are air fryer teas, but generally we’re neither living off cake or salad. Just normal folk with what I assume to be normal diets.

It’s my ✨ metabolism ✨, which you’re welcome to buy from me with your many £££s if you want?

They are, she's lying. There's no way she lives in a place that only has health food café's and not a single coffee shop that has any thing like cake or flapjack. Also, you can easily get high calorie foods at these health places. Avocado and eggs on toast, quiches etc
And she also claims she "won't eat cold food" but then tells us she eats salads and quiche 🤷‍♀️

Also, she hates processed foods and only makes her on sausage rolls yet takes a detour to Greggs ...

Oh sure 🙄

I had a Greg’s steak bake with a sugary coffee for breakfast. Three cookies, a banana and a small handful of haribo for lunch (I had five minutes to eat). A big plate of chicken legs, pesto pasta sweetcorn and cucumber for dinner followed by a cup of tea with about five custard creams and two malted milk biscuits. Money is tight atm and biscuits are cheap so I’ve been eating a lot to up calories. My bmi is underweight.

If I ate like that @DurbevillesGirl2 I’d put on the 3.5 stone I’ve lost. I’m a size 18. It’s your metabolism. Yesterday I had homemade chia pudding (small portion, half what the recipe said) and seeded toast with peanut butter for breakfast and dinner of homemade chicken, chorizo and butter bean stew on a small flat bread with some grated cheese. Had a few crisps with a gin while it was cooking. Couple of glasses of wine. No lunch at all. That’s a fairly typical day, though breakfast is usually a slice of toast with cheese, egg or meat and a salad. I live alone and food costs me roughly £60 a week from Aldi. Extra for alcohol and big household cleaning purchases when they are needed.

@DurbevillesGirl2 Greggs steak bake is 410cals. 3 cookies presuming the are the cheap small ones 150cals. Banana 100 cals Haribo 50cals. 5 custard creams 250cals. 2 malted milks 90cals. So you ate 1050cals+dinner. Is that loads?

It's not about what people spend. It's about what they eat.

If you have a fiver, you could buy a tuna salad or a McDonalds. Both cost the same but their calories and fats/carbs etc are very different.

You want to be "fat" in your words, eat less salad and more rubbish. Spend the same, get more rubbish.

Editing to add that I am a bit overweight and spend similar to OP, but we don't eat out at "healthy cafés", we cook most things from scratch.

I don't think £350 for a family of 4 is a lot to spend on food. Are your children underweight too? Maybe stop the cafe light bites and buy more things like a whole chicken or a pork joint to roast, bags of frozen lamb to put in tagines, hotpots and curries, cheese for omelettes and cheesy bakes. Pasta carbonara/bolognese is very filling and cheap. Chilli and baked potatoes.

You could ask for a referral to a dietician via your GP.

Why don’t you try my diet and I’ll try yours super size super skinny style? I think I’d gain weight on yours because of the alcohol!

I’m overweight, my supermarket bill for the last month (2 adults) was £260 and that included wine. I only have to look at food to put on weight! .

i make all evening meals from scratch unless eating out, we don’t buy snacks or junk, and yet we are both overweight.

if you are underweight it’s more down to genetics than supermarket bill. Remember cheaper food is more calorific often, I don't mean highly processed foods, just carbs like potatoes, rice, pasta …

I am overweight (currently losing).

When in the UK (we moved 6 months ago) my DH and I spent 100 a week on food.

If you genuinely want to gain weight then it isn't about spending loads of money, it's often the ingredients you choose.

Avocado, peanut butter, oils, steak, mayonnaise etc are all high calorie and not "junk".

I maintained being a size 18 with my days being similar to the following.

X2 scrambled eggs on two slices of toast made with a bit of butter for breakfast.

One chicken mayo sandwich with some veges and hummus for lunch.

A 250grm rib-eye steak with some baby potatoes and a salad with half an avocado for dinner.

It is a misconception that fat people eat "unhealthily" and it is also a misconception that fat people spend a fortune on food.

But 100 is of course a healthy budget for two people, I am not denying that.