Smaller meal portions for women

[mynamefor2025]

Currently watching good morning Britain and they are discussing If smaller portions should be offered to women to help with obesity rates as women need fewer calories.

Er is there no obese men on the planet? I feel like given a few years, we will all be micro chipped and have every thing controlled for us by the government including our portion sizes.

The obesity epidemic is just in women from the sounds of it 🤔

It’s a good idea

The smaller option if anyone wants it is in fact what the original report says, it’s the Daily Mail which turned it into “women’s portions” for click bait and now everyone is talking about that because it is bonkers.

A useful lesson in how this disgusting rag stirs up nonsense debate and the effect this has on our everyday and political discourse.

Trouble is that a restaurant/cafe can't charge exactly proportionally less because of the fixed costs. The "cost" of the food itself is usually a very small proportion of the total cost. So a half sized main meal would probably have to be sold for say 75/80% of the price of the full sized one. The "raw material" cost of the basic raw food ingredients could be 20% or even less of the selling price of the meal.

Lots of places sell huge portions to justify the price that they need to charge to cover their overheads. I.e. often fish & chip shops have their "normal" sized fish and their regular chips incredibly large so that justifies their hefty prices. The prices need to be high to cover the wages, power, cooking oils, and other overheads, not just the raw material cost of a fish and some chips. All the other costs (oil, wages, power) aren't less if they sell a smaller fish or a smaller portion of chips.

I'd be very supportive of that. Not for the weight loss jab thing - but for the calories already used up in wine thing.

Joking aside though- as i have hit menopause my appetite is noticeably diminished.

Yes, we do. I see it everywhere too, in men, women and children. But there are other issues here as well - can’t you see that?

The diet industry is huge, and very profitable because diets don’t work. I’m sure in a few years we’ll hear that miracle jabs don’t work and actually have terrible downsides too.

I don’t think scolding women into eating smaller portions is the answer to the obesity crisis, and it certainly feeds into the self critical voices that keep many women hooked into the damaging narrative that we need to be constantly vigilant about our appearance.

If it saves me money, I'm OK with it. But I'm sure, like car insurance, everyone will end up paying more.

The local carvery (sadly now closed) had different plate sizes and actually had the plates on the wall so you could see the plate you were getting.

Or maybe, just maybe, we need to sack off this “body positivity” thing and accept that being fat isn’t healthy. I say this as someone who was 350lbs and is now 220 and still losing

A couple of pub chains offer smaller portions too. Not of every dish, but certain ones, such as all day breakfasts, fish & chips, gammon & chips, etc. When we used to take out MIL for meals on holidays, she always wanted a smaller portion. Very annoying when lots of places just pointed to the children's menu when she asked about smaller portions - an 80 year old woman really doesn't want chicken nuggets & chips or a child's size pizza!

I don’t subscribe to “body postivity” at all so not sure why your comment is aimed at me!

Nail on the head. Being fat ISN'T healthy. My weight hit 23 stones and I felt dreadful, not just physically but mentally too. My mind was as sluggish as my body. "Body positivity" my arse! It took a long time, in fact, 20 years, but I've halved it now, not by yo yo dieting or excessive exercise regimes, but just by being more active every day, basically walking a lot (10k per day) and using a standing desk. I'm 20 years older but feel 40 years younger. I feel more fit and active today as a 60 year old than I did as a 20 year old. I've reversed T2 diabetes and no longer need blood pressure tablets nor statins nor any other "crutch" to deal with the problems caused to my body by not moving enough and eating too much! My massive regret is all the wasted years when my life was blighted by being fat.

Unless it’s a cheap burger/pizza place, most restaurants don’t serve big portions any more. I’m not sure how much smaller they can make them! I had pasta last week, it was £23 and in a small bowl like a starter portion.

If they’re worried about obesity they’d do better looking at ways to reduce added calories. Wtf do they do to a side salad to make it contain 800+ calories? I’d prefer a big portion of veggies that aren’t dripping in butter, or salad that isn’t full of oil.

British people should stop eating junk like this. Never mind portion control - stop with the chips and all-day breakfast and the nuggets, for ever. Lots of empty upf calories.

Congrats on the weight loss! I wish we’d stop trying to pretend that being obese is a good thing

Trouble is that they need oils and dressings to give the salad some flavour now that most of it is imported and has been on boats/in storage for months and has lost all it's natural flavour.

If we want salad to actually taste of something, it has to be locally grown, which in the UK means a lot more cost and we have to move back to "seasonality".

When you go to places like the med, or even better, places in Africa such as Kenya, the taste of fruit, veg and salads is amazing and you really don't need the oils and dressings as it's nowhere near as bland as the crap served in the UK.

Fine if it is your choice and your decision to have smaller portions.

NOT fine for restaurants to take it upon themselves to give women smaller portions!

I eat a lot less than my young adult sons, and a lot more than my tiny petite female friends who do no exercise.

I might well have eaten a very modest lunch to enjoy a restaurant meal that evening.

And I am never prepared to have a restaurant police my eating choices!

@FollowSpot

NOT fine for restaurants to take it upon themselves to give women smaller portions!

Which was never even suggested in the first place in the original report.

I agree with a PP-if I am eating out, I generally do not eat much else that day, if anyting else at all. I would not be happy turning up for a pub lunch or nice restaurant and being given a small portion that I had to pay the same price for!

This is a bit 'nanny state' if that would be happening but, a lot of pubs and restaurants offer lighter options and smaller portions already, perhaps allowing you to order a 'lunchtime portion' rather than a dinner one, could be a good way forward. But NOT specifically for sex differences.

So many nuances too! I tend to eat a lot at mealtimes but I only eat twice a day and don't snack. If I ate breakfast lunch and dinner as per tradition that'd be different. My friend who is a lot taller and larger than me is the opposite, eats little and often. We're both women though.

On average, yes they do. That's a scientific fact
But we should all be trusted to make appropriate choices for our needs and having smaller options would be helpful, but they certainly shouldn't be mandatory

In which more men are obese than women.

But women need less calories. It’s a fact.

just ask for dressing on the side. Ask for plain veg - unless the butter is integral to it eg it’s sautéed, this shouldn’t be a problem.
It’s mildly irritating to pay the same for less but some of this is within the diners control.
I’ve also taken to asking for no potatoes and extra veg with some dishes eg if I fancy a pie - not a problem.

Surely a grown adult has enough self control to not feel the compulsion to cram every crumb on their plate into their gob. If they're already burstingly full? Why not just take a doggy bag?

I don't want to be given less food for the same price in a restaurant just because I look smaller. Maybe the fact I'm smaller means I need more food, not less?!

Nail on the head. A bit of will power and self control means you don't have to eat everything on the plate and can leave half of it if you don't want to eat it all.