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.

As far as quantities, that’s why many of are overweight. A healthy portion of pasta (I buy wholemeal) is 50-75g which is around half what most of us would eat! Even salad depends on the dressing, pretty sure my (rather delicious if I say it myself) Caesar salad with steak last night was not low calorie especially as it was washed down with half a bottle of rose then a pint at the pub! I like life can you tell, yet my shopping bill is not high as I shop in Lidl

A low metabolism isn’t expensive, its a precious gift that is free!

Mine was a ‘push present’ when my thyroid gave up the ghost after DS1 was born.

I’m now in the apparently enviable position of being able to stay obese even while eating minimally/healthily/intermittently.

My food bill for 4 adults is less than OP’s, although sadly my finances don’t stretch to eating out often. And yet my scales refuse to budge from the 16 stone mark. I’ve given up trying now tbh and just enjoy my food.

Yesterday was an absolute carb fest if that helps with inspiration OP. I ate 2 hot cross buns with butter for brunch, a bowl of pasta with garlic and tomatoes and 3 pieces of garlic bread for dinner, then strawberries with meringue and cream. Maybe I’ll become a weight gain influencer and start publishing my menus?

My doctor put me on this ...i became obsessed with pasta and put on huge amounts of weight

I didn’t say how much alcohol. As it happens for various reasons I haven’t drunk any this month. No weight loss happened, so I doubt it.
Why the snark anyway? You allegedly want to put on weight and can’t. I’m helpfully saying it’s not the quantity causing your problem. By all means try my diet, but as I said I’ve lost 3.5 stone on it recently so I’m thinking it won’t work.
Lovely to call me ‘super size’ too (I know it’s a tv programme, but the implication is clearly there).

650 pot noodles and 50 loaves of white bread to be poor and fat. Hope that helps

What a twatty post. . You know it.. I know it.. everyone reading it knows it.

Stop behaving like a body-shaming twat

Because she isn’t asking how to gain weight and become healthy. She is asking how to get fat, and making herself sound like an arse in the process

What an earth are you buying that costs £700???

We are a family of two adults (I am overweight, partner is not) and two young children. I usually spend between £400 a month inc toiletries, nappies etc so probably only £300-£350 on food.

I just fallen in love with you Onions, hope you don't mind the public declaration.
Re OP fatty food spend - mashed potato is pure and cheap. If you eat enough home made sausage rolls with it, or home made chips and then apple pie drowned in home made custard, you're bound to be pleasantly round in the twinkle of an eye. 🥧

My conclusion is that weight is genetic in women. Calorie intake and exercise make very little difference. Just embrace yourself as you are.

There’s no correlation between the calorific value of foods and their price.

Cook more of your hot fresh food in butter or oil? Teaspoonful of oil is 40 calories

I put on weight on over 1100 calories a day (even with exercise) so if you can organise yourself an autoimmune response that destroys your thyroid, and pcos to give you some insulin resistance and a fat growth disorder such as lipodema then you can get away with eating very little and put on weight super quick

If this is a genuine post, I reckon the £350 on cafes should go!
if you’re trying to put on weight in a more healthy way, I would up your healthy fats such as nuts, nut butter, olive oil, avocado.
putting on weight when you’re naturally slim is actually very hard (not a problem I have lol) but I’ve heard it’s really hard so I would snack on cashews etc during the day. Re cost, like I said, stop the cafes so much?

OP, if you want to wait til you go through the perimenopause, you'll most likely gain weight for FREE!!

I get the whole underweight thing . I was size 8 until the late 90s. Felt unwomanly. Looked ill. Meet hubby to be, birth control, baby = weight gain!!

It was bloody difficult to get size 8 clothes back in the 90s and before lol

All I can say to OP is try deep fried crème eggs, or if they are out of season, deep fried Mars bars topped off with dairy ice cream! and drink full sugar cola! If money is tight, try own store brands!

OP you will thank me later for this helpful advice!

I think this is the most awful thread I have ever seen (but i’m enjoying all the sarky replies to OP).

You want to know how I got fat OP? I got cancer, and part of my treatment has forced me into an early chemical menopause. So that combined with steroids for chemo and ongoing endocrine therapy has caused me to gain 3 stone over 3 years.

I spend about £700 on groceries a month, but we barely eat out at all as we live in the countryside. I don’t buy loads of processed stuff but I do buy some snacks and things to make snacks (rice cakes, croissants, berries, wraps, fruit, biscuits, nuts etc) as we have two hungry preteen / teen boys.

If you really want to put on weight, why not try strength training to build muscle.

I spend slightly more than you a month on food (one extra adult) and I reckon I could get pretty fat on the food I have in if I really wanted to, so I think you’re full of shit OP.

This is a double-edged brag of I’m so skinny and look what spend on food a month, and it isn’t even subtle. Fucking yawn.

It isn’t rocket science: you want to gain weight? Pizza, doughnuts, fried chicken, crisps… The list is endless and delicious. Oh wait, you don’t want to actually eat that stuff - you just want to make some sort of fat-shaming point? Job done.

It's not your budget, it's the type of food you eat that is keeping you slim. Takeaways, processed foods and alcohol are the key elements of a 'heavyweight' diet. None of these things are healthy, and will shorten your lifespan. There are a smaller number of overweight people who eat better quality ie homemade, fresh, lots of veg. But portions will either be large or activity low. And typically still high in fat. Either option is doable for your budget. The latter is less likely to give you heart disease but in your case, requires you to add fat like olive oil to your meals, 'force feed' yourself bigger carb, fat and protein portions and you'll need to snack on nuts, yoghurt, buns! A bit of resistance training will help you bulk. Nutrition supplement shakes are available as you know but have to be consistently taken twice daily to make ant impact. If you're not willing to do these things, you'll stay slim.

Dietitian 20 years working in pre-surgical build up and specialist obesity management, if interested

Use some of your budget to see a nutritionist. Use a calorie tracking app to check what you are really eating

Alternatively, read diet books and eat all the things they tell you to cut out.

No, you are just not buying the right food! Make Google your friend and do some research. As previously suggested, cheese is good for weight gain and also plenty of carbs. It might be though that you are naturally slim, so just embrace it.

Assuming this isn’t a wind up post…. I think your issue is the balance of spending on groceries vs eating out. If you were spending £700 on groceries you could get a lot more food for your money (so could add in extra meals/snacks). £350 a month on groceries for 4 people is a low spend! Equally £350 eating out gets you very little. So less eating out, more groceries is the answer!

Yeah, I really struggle to put weight on, even though I spend a fortune. I guess I'm just lucky. Naturally thin.

🙄

You need to track your calories using an app like nutracheck then look on a TDEE calculator to see what your daily calories should be and what your bulking calories should be it's also.worth looking at what your loss calories should be too because you.may find you are eating closer to your loss calories!

I suspect you are eating in some sort of ED way due to your upbringing and your mums behaviour around food. You also have a very unhealthy and unpleasant way of speaking about people who are large and seem to have no understanding of how others are offended and triggered by you. I am trying to lose weight and you are trying to put it on you need to do the same as I do and become aware of yiur body signals and what you sre puttingin.

I personally feel attacked by your post not because of what you are trying to do but because of the way you clearly look at people like me. I feel like you may have some under developed social skills or perhaps you have lived in a world where you actually think it's ok to look at people like that. What lucky fat people we all are!

Bake more. You can make cakes & biscuits inexpensively, you’ll get the calories from butter & sugar, and cake is delicious.

People don’t necessarily get overweight by eating more food, it’s usually down to eating the wrong food.