Is this a reasonable amount of salad for one person for their evening meal?

[Saveusename]

Two celery stalks
One chicken breast
Five baby potatoes
Half a red onion
Cucumber
Four small beetroot balls
One medium avocado
Watercress, rocket and spinach leaves
Chopped feta

With a dressing of anchovies, lemon juice, olive oil, mustard and honey.

YANBU - That’s definitely enough. On the large side, even.
YABU - That’s not enough.

AI has been mean with everything but the celery and the chicken. So double the potatoes, avocado and cucumber and add a bit more beetroot. That's a very filling salad.

@limescale

yes you do. For many women eating 2000 calories or over regularly would mean weight gain. Unfortunately for lots of us maintaining our weight doesn’t mean eating to satiety, it means being just a little bit hungry or certainly feeling able to eat more. But needs must if you wanna stay the same weight so 🤷‍♀️

The meal has close to 1000 calories, more than a Big Mac and medium fries.

If you ate it on the same day as having a cooked brunch (another 1000 calories) and coffee and cake (say 500), you'd have exceeded most people's daily calorie burn despite only eating two actual meals.

On the chicken breasts, we get ours from M&S and some of them are around 300 g.

Ok maybe I was going a bit far with six and an extra breast. I'd say three.

But I guess that's three of me and I'm not a massive eater. I'm definitely the opposite of your son!

That is genuinely too much food for me but I’m fairly short and I’m overweight according to my GP. I try to keep to 1500 calories most days. I’ve just started putting that ‘salad’ through my calorie counter - I’ve put the chicken, avocado and potatoes in and reached 771 calories already! The feta will be have a lot of calories as will the dressing so that meal is probably all I could eat in a day. I certainly don’t know why you need chicken AND avocado, one or the other surely.

The ones I get are 700g ish, I know this because DS requests 700g+ packs for his meal prep 🙄

Also... I wonder if our avo's are bigger too? I certainly couldn't imagine eating one whole avocado in a salad full of other stuff.

@Saveusename

the general consensus is that it’s too much, OP. Is that what you thought too?

I eat a whole avocado every day. Seriously questioning my life choices now

Oh I really don't care. I cannot think of a more boring joyless way to live than worrying that a fucking salad may contain too many calories, and then spending 11 pages discussing with other people online. I'll leave you all to it.

It sounds like a big dinner but when you work out the calories its perfect, assuming no bread is going to be eaten with it and its just a 30g serving of feta. I would personally probably have either the chicken or the feta but yeah a good dinner or split into two lunches.

It's not luck so much as lifestyle. I am 5'10 so that bit is luck. But beyond that, if I stopped having an active job, and stopped hiking so much etc I would start to gain on those calories.

The weight I am trying to maintain is also not a 'skinny' one - it's one with a healthy BMI that wears size 14 clothing. If I wanted to be a size ten I'd have to eat less, but my body suits me well for the life I live.

Back to the salad - i don't see anything wrong with it. But, one meal also is not very telling - you need to see the whole day, and how that fits into the whole week's meals and activities to really get an understanding of whether a person is eating too much overall.

If OP finishes eating and was neither too full nor too hungry, it was the right amount.

Something with a decent amount of carbs that leaves one feeling satiated.

Ditch the baby potatos and the chicken, and stick the rest in a baguette and I'd be happy!

That’s a lot of protein. Are you working out at the gym or something? A full medium avocado? You only need half - they’re full of fat but it is good fat.

It's got a serving of potato and a load of protein and fat. Why wouldn't that satiate you? Unless it's following a day of manual labour perhaps. Even then, it's probably still enough food for most.

It's the onion breath that worries me, not gonna lie.

Stick with it - MN can be very educational. I didn’t realise beetroot had balls until l came onto this thread !!

So do l. Love them. But leave out the shite that usually gets thrown at them. All you need is a sprinkle of lemon juice and a spoon !!

I need to know where to buy the Big Book of Salad Rules because all these long-established laws about a quarter versus half an onion etc. have completely passed me by, and I don't want to receive my invite to Buck House and make a complete fool of myself.

It's a LOT.

You've got chicken, cheese and potatoes, as well as avocado and loads of veg.

I'd have either chicken or cheese.

I can't stand raw onion, so half a red onion even if you like it seems a lot!

I will have an avocado( or half a one) for my lunch with a few prawns or tuna and some green salad.

I am exagerating somewhat, but I swear that if I don't eat a "proper meal" I need something much more carby, ideally bread. I swear that were you to give me a reasonably large cheese sandwich it would be a decent meal for me... but if you gave me a massive bowl of salad (maybe even a nicoise with tuna and egg) I'd finish it and still want the cheese sandwich so I actually get some proper food that touches the sides inside me.

My diet is pretty healthy in many ways (there are a lot of bad things I don't eat at all), but a meal that is neither a proper cooked meal nor has a siginificant amount of bread is incapable of satisfying me.

I'm probably also allowing myself to ignore the baby potatos and chicken in the OP (neither are things I like or eat) and the meal looks a lot less satisfying with those missing.

It’s a lot of fuck all.

Well put!

It’s a lot of vitamins minerals fibre and protein with some fats and a small amount of carbs - you know healthy food, generous portions for me as I amnt that big

Why do you ask @Saveusename
Has someone said it's too much?

How, as an adult , do you not know what to eat and what is a reasonable meal?

In terms of portions, it's large.

Two celery stalks I'D HAVE HALF A ONE
One chicken breast
Five baby potatoes
Half a red onion - YUCK- NONE OR A TINY BIT
Cucumber
Four small beetroot balls- REALLY? i HAVE ONE
One medium avocado- NOPE. WE SHARE ONE BETWEEN TWO OF US.
Watercress, rocket and spinach leaves
Chopped feta - NOPE- THIS IS PROTEIN AND WOULD BE EITHER CHEESE OR CHICKEN

Anchovy dressing? is this something you can buy or do you make it with the anchovies?