Do people REALLY only eat half a carton of fresh soup?

[sprigatito]

I’m struggling to get my head around this! I’ve seen on MN several times lately that people eat half of a carton for a meal, and I know the calories are given that way on the packaging, so officially it’s a serving…but I’ve never met anyone in real life who doesn’t eat the whole carton! I’ve lost 4.5 stone this year and I eat soup most evenings for dinner. I don’t overeat generally. My soups are mostly homemade, but I do use fresh supermarket ones sometimes, and half a carton really would be a miserable little puddle in the bottom of the bowl! Is it really, honestly normal? And…why?

YABU: half a carton is ample. You’ve lost sight of what a normal bowl of soup looks like
YANBU: nobody actually does that. It’s soup, not golden syrup with extra chunks of pork fat.

I blame the bizarre 'portion sizes' information now on a lot of food products, where 1 finger of a 2 finger KitKat is a portion and so on.
Edited to add: portion, serving, whatever. You get the idea.

Whole one here.

Whole one for me, too!

About 20 years ago I was in a restaurant/cafe and ordered soup for lunch. When it came, it was half a bowl. I complained and was told "well that's the portion". I didn't accept that. They did top it up and didn't charge me any extra. I think they were just trying it on and seeing who'd complain. Soup portions are often tiny. I can understand why if it's a starter, but not if it's an entire meal!

Half a carton eh not for me always all but only rarely do i get them as hubby a fantastic soup maker and my mum lol

Little big of in the middle - for lunch then yes I would have half a carton. If it was my main meal then I would have a whole carton.

Without bread, I would have a full carton presuming you are taking about the fresh ones like Covent Garden? They are about 600g.

If I am having bread with it then I will I only have half a carton and spread it over 2 days.

If I have a tin like Heinz, I would eat the full tin.

I'd eat half if I was having bread or a sandwich maybe, but half a carton on its own does not a luncheth make 🧐

Lunchtime I would eat half a carton with a slice of bread. Main evening meal, without bread - maybe the whole thing?

I have half and feel like 2/3rds would be a good portion. I should just do that as I never fancy it the next day and throw it out, so probably should just eat 2/3rds!

1/2 for me! I’m talking an m&s soup though, not sure if they are bigger than usual cartons?

Yes, I mean the 600g ones! I have approximately the same measure of my homemade soup - it looks like a well-filled soup bowl, not excessive.

Sorry I voted YABU because I do usually just have half a carton- but it would be with some bread or cheese & crackers etc, and usually for lunch.

DH has a bigger appetite and I always make him a whole carton.

My DDs would only want half too, they’re 11 and 14 - we usually eat similar sized portions while DH has more

Yes, definitely would only have half, but with some crusty bread and butter unless it was a pretty hardy soup. A full one is definitely too much and I’m not a teeny tiny eater.

Half for me, I have a cup full, about 300ml?

Dh and I share a tin or carton between us. He'd have it with a sandwich and I'd have it with a slice of bread.

I have a mug with a toastie. So half.

Fresh soup? We share between the two of us but it’s only going to be lunch and we will have bread too

I split a carton of M&S soup purely because the bowls we have at work aren’t big enough for a whole pot. I need room in that bowl of tomato soup for my cheese sandwich!

I would have the whole thing AND bread.

however I actually think with Covent Garden about 3/4 of the carton is the right size portion. I just don’t want be left with 1/4 carton so eat the whole thing.

If I was having it for my main meal with no bread or anything with it I’d have a whole carton

I tend to have tins, which are 400g, or homemade. I eat loads but 600g seems like a little bit too much.

I'd eat half, but with a couple of slices of bread and butter.

Oh the whole thing absolutely

Half carton soup eaters at work leaving it in the fridge is a constant issue too as
it sits there and goes mouldy!

For lunch, I would use 2 of the Covent Ones for 3 lunches. One is too much, half isn’t enough. Same goes for those fresh filled pasta.

It's more the salt content in them rather than the calories for me. Much better to make your own I think.