Can you tell me what you (honestly!) eat in a day?

[nethunsreject]

I'm getting blood tests for weight loss this week - yeah, yeah, I know, poor me, huh? This isn't stealth boasting though - I am concerned and so is GP. However, I do wonder if I am actually eating enough or if I have lost sight of what is 'normal'. Or if I'm just busy and burning it off?

Today:
Breakfast: Fruit smoothie made from 1/2 papaya, 1/2 mango, 1 large slice pineapple, 1 banana, large handful grapes, about 300ml orange juice

Mid morning snack- 1 slice leftover toast with butter

Late morning snack- 1 slice more toast as first lot was bloody delish

Lunch- 1 lindor chocolate and about 5 pieces of chocolate-covered ginger Felt sick- DD3 had lunch at neighbours who were babysitting her for an hour or I would have had proper food when she did.

Mid afternoon snack- 1 rather sticky caramel snackajacks that I had brought along in the car for DD3's snack but she didn't want, 1 more straight from packet as first was so yum.

Supper: pea and ham soup, jacket potato with small amount of cheese and butter, endive and avocado salad

Quite a bad snacking day really. No wonder I'm about 8-10kg overweight.

Haberdashery -if it helps, when I was on a monitored weight gain diet (in hospital for an eating disorder, but the same cals would apply I should think as all had bmis in the region of 16/17 and we were all aiming for a bmi of 18.5-20 depending on what our "natural" weights and shapes wuold have been - I remember my "goal" was 19.5, which took a LOT of eating!), we used to eat 3,000 cals per day. Good tips are:

• fruit juice or smoothies with meals for drink;
• full fat everything, obviously;
• 3 snacks per day (morning, afternoon and evening), with each snack worth about 300 cals (but some of that can be from a juice or smoothie drunk with the snack, if that makes sense);
• random handfuls of brazil nuts(!);
• pudding (even if its just a yoghurt) with lunch as well as dinner;
• always have two breakfast items (eg bowl of cereal as well as, say eggs on toast - I am actually smiling, if you can beleive it, over the absolute hab dabs I pulled for days over having to eat that!!! Not funny at the time, but fairly amusing in hindsight!).

When we reached our "goal" weight, diet gradually reduced to 2,000 cals per day - my body seemed to lose weight on that though, so I think I ate about 2,300 cals per day to maintain. I no longer count cals, but now probably eat about 2,000+ per day. I don't lose weight on that amount now, but did lose a lot eating around that post-pregnancy and breast feeding.

And Jajas, I do appreciate that that seems like an impossibility! My first day as an inpatient, I went from eating 350 cals one day to 3,000 the next. I thought I would explode and/or go insane!

I was ill though, so just had to do it.

I would say that if you are well and have a healthy relationship with food, I wouldn't worry too much about being thin (and I do mean that - if you do secretly diet etc, then this does NOT apply!). My mother has a great relationship with food and eats more than most men (although she is 6 foot, so I guess she needs more than tiny women!). When she had me, her bmi was, totally naturally, about 17. Now, aged 50-60 and after 5 kids, its more like 19 or 20. If you are well and have good energy levels and menstruate normally etc, I wouldn't worry too much.

The same goes the other way - if someone eats normally and healthily and that makes them a size 16/18 say, then I would guess that is their normal weight and trying to change that, in my (admittedly very, very clouded) experience, is not a good road to be on.

This is what I mean about criticism and comparison. If we all ate broadly healthily and happily, enjoying eating with friends etc and not being harsh on oursleves, we would all be very different sizes, but that really should not be a problem. It emerged in many group sessions that I attended when "fixing" my problems, that women care an awful lot about what other women think - about their size and also about being viewed a "greedy" or "lazy" etc. We as women really shouldn't perpetuate that!!

Hope that helps!

Jajas From your post above it seems clear that the reason you can't gain weight is that you don't eat enough calories - you know that. But you also have a small appetite, which you also know. I understand that as I also have a small appetite. I can't eat very much at one sitting and often get comments when in restaurants because I don't finish things and either people I am with or the staff comment (staff ask if everything was okay etc). However, I am a healthy weight - I weight 8.5 stones (sometimes 8st 5) at 5ft 6. My BMI as I have said above is 19.2. I eat what I want when I want. But I def get more than 1200 calories. From looking at the above what strikes me is that you eat quite a lot of toast etc. Can you try and eat things that are the same physical size as a piece of toast but which are higher in calories - ie more calorie dense?

As legally blond has said, things like nuts are great for that. Soup for lunch is very healthy and something I eat too but it is a bit of a "diet" food, as it were. Can you try eating something like a bowl of pasta (a small one, with protein pasta fills me up terribly )? Same with dinner - steak and veg - what about the heavier carbs, chips or jacket potato? I know it's hard but if you eat steak and some veg and some jacket potato rather than all the veg?

Another thing is that (and you probably know this!) your stomach can expand and shrink. Yours may have shrunk, so to get it a bit bigger and enable you to eat a bit more in one sitting you might need to try and expand it a bit - eat til you feel full and then have a few more mouthfuls?

Sorry if this sounds patronising in any way - just trying to give an objective viewpoint (from someone with a small appetite)!

And to echo legallyblond, as long as you are happy and healthy then that's fine! But you seem to want to gain weight. (And legallyblond would you say that 1200 calories as day is a healthy amount to maintain a weight? I would think that's pretty low, more like someone on a diet - not that I know much about this!)

1200 is, in my view, way, way under what is required to maintain, let alone gain. And most dietitians that I have come across have explained that even eating that kind of amoutn to lose is counterproductive - it is too low to maintain on a daily basis for most people and will much about with your metabolism and hormone levels, so even a hardcore dieter would be much better in the long run eating no less than 1500 per day, but EVERY day. I am no expert obviously and can only talk from personal experience, but I have had (unfortunately!) lots and LOTS of input from nutritionists and dietitians.

Jajas, if you are happy and healthy as you are, then really don't worry, but if, as you seem to want to, you do want to gain, I echo what Fleetwood says. Don't worry about "suffing" yourself, just go for calorie dense things and see what happens.

Bleurgh to complan - we had to have that if we had "refused" to eat what we were supposed to in hospital. Eating the unwanted food was a lot easierand more pleasant!!

But really jajas, be honest about how you're feeling towards yourself and food. If all is well, then relax. If not, then gently, gently try to make some changes.

Thanks for the tips, legally. I already do most of those things but will definitely aim for pudding at lunchtime and two breakfast items. Every little helps, I imagine.

Gosh - many people here eat very, very little!

I'm 5'2" and have no clue what I weigh. I wear a size 4-6 UK or 00US.

Yesterday:

Breakfast: Bagel with butter and jam, large mug of coffee with milk
Mid-day: very Large chocolate chip biscuit and white americano
Lunch: Maki sushi and seaweed salad with glass noodles
Mid Afternoon: handful of nuts and dried fruit
Dinner: Rice with stir fried broccoli, melted cheese sandwich (was still hungry), glass of wine

I do run 4 times a week (4-6 miles each session)

Read a bit further - 1200 calories a day even for someone as vertically challenged as me is far too little, and would be what I would take in to lose weight.

I too have a small appetite, but I get in the necessary calories by grazing (have 6 small meals instead of 3 smaller ones). You can add calorically dense healthy food to increase your intake - nuts, nut butters, avocados are simple things to incorporate. Avoid bulky low calorie things like soups, and instead go for chilli or stews.

Am surprised by how little you lot eat.

Endless cups of tea, lots of water, can diet coke.
2 slices of toast and a banana
grapes, packet of crisps, 2 finger mint kit-kat.
huge salad- lettuce, cucumber, spring onions, tomatoes, sweetcorn, beetroot, edame bean salad, chilli chicken.
nuts and seeds
2 pork chops, 4 new pots, huge amount of steamed brocolii,cauliflower & carrots.

Oh dear, yesterday was a bad day for me!

Breakfast- toast, butter, marmite and orange juice
Mid-morning snack- snickers bar
Lunch- feta and roast veg, pickled onion monster munch
Mid-afternoon snack- cheese on toast
Dinner- veg lasagne and chocolate cake with cream for pudding, blackcurrant cordial to drink.

To be fair, I'm pregnant. I'm not usually that unhealthy!

Jajas - I honestly know what you feel like - I also could happily just have a childrens' size portion in a restaurant. And for example, my 2 year old can eat more porridge in one go than I can. But I just order a normal main and shrug when they ask if everything was okay, I just say I was full (no doubt they think I am trying to starve myself) and think "I paid, I can do what I like with it - tip it over my head if I see fit" And of course, they are only trying to do their job and be nice. But I do sometimes feel a bit embarrassed. But I am not underweight and I just think that eating millions of sweets, drinking a glass of milk after dinner, a piece of cake, some cheese (could be good for you?), some crisps, are what stops me being thinner, and doing no exercise apart from looking after a toddler. (I am slim but not "thin").

If I ate as healthily as some people on here I might start to lose weight I think. Albeit my heart would probably be far healthier (as an aside I had my cholesterol done a few years ago and it was 3.3, which is classed as very low I think, which is good) So clearly I need to stuff my face with crap . It doesn't look like I eat much but if you add all the calories up it all adds up over the course of the day.

And remember jajas (and haberdashery and OP if you're still here), the important thing is not to focus on or get stressed about what you eat on any given day. The many nutritionists over the years have always said that it is more important to look at what you eat over a fortnight, rather than in a day.

If I ate as little as some people's example days all the time, I would definately be losing weight - not what I want at all! I think people (I was one of them, but to the extreme) can get very obsessive about controlling what they eat in a day, and that can often lead to undereating and then binging, or a "blow out".

Equally, for you jajas, don't worry if you haven't eaten much on any given day, just think in the round about eating more, or more calorie dense things, over the course of a few days. Seriously, I learnt the hard way that food is NOT a thing to get stressed over. Relax and enjoy the small portions of lovely food if that is all you can manage! And there is no such thing as good and bad if you are healthy!

And millonthefloss - that is not at all bad! I would cite what you ate as a really normal way of eating.

well it's my birthday today so am going to eat whatever the hell I like .
I also think 1200 a day is SO low and I was about 500 calories over my 'limit' yesterday even though one of my meals was a (big) salad (and a quorn escalope)

so far today I've had 2 cups of tea and 2 slices of toast. haven't had time to eat anything else as been washing the sick out of DDs hair - lovely.

Liking this thread. Considering myfitnesspal but have never had any food-watching in my life so far and not sure I want to introduce it iyswim? I am not hugely healthy but not hugely unhealthy either (I don't think!) Post-preg weight is off (as it should be at one year on) and think am very average build (size 12 though sometimes a 10, then I feel ridiculously proud!)

Early family breakfast: big bowl of cereal
Late personal breakfast during naptime (love it!): tea, toast and marmalade
Lunch: sandwich (cold chicken or cheese or something equally easy) and a banana if I consciously think aaargh eat fruit
Mid-pm snack: this is my socialising time so if not at work have coffee and chocolate biscuits (2) or a bit of cake with a friend; if a workday have some sort of quick treat when arrive home
Dinner: I want this to be healthier as don't always have enough veg - prawn stirfry or chicken and veg risotto or pasta dish with garlic bread

Eek, really does not sound very healthy. Need to eat fruit instead of choc in the afternoon - this has hung about since my pregnancy when
I thought I deserved it :)! Do zumba 2x a week when dh's shifts allow.

So far today, bowl of special K, bowl of fruit and fibre, bowl of shreddies and another bowl of special K!!!! Also couple of chocs from my daughters Christmas box, 2 slices of chicken from fridge, crusts from my sons peanut butter sandwich, bowl of left over fruit salad, half a ginger biscuit and a piece of toast and marmite!!!! 4 cups of coffee, one cup of tea and a couple of spoonfulls of tonights spag bol sauce to check it's not poisonous! Normal height and weight! Love food!

Myfitnesspal is quite addictive! Unfortunately, it doesnt distinguish between you eating salad and. Outage cheese or six packs of quavers!

Yesterday:

Breakfast: bagel, salmon paste and avocado. Two soy-milk coffees.

Mid-morning: a few fancy crisps, few squares Divine orange milk chocolate, and one cup of tea with soy milk. A banana.

Two slices rye/seedy wholegrain bread, toasted, with goats cheese. Half a bulb of fennel, raw, half a red pepper, raw. An apple. Few green grapes. A few olives, various colours and sizes.

More posh crisps with a cup of tea with soy milk (probably had one large handful in total). A few squares of Divine orange milk chocolate and one chocoalte and hazelnut cookie.

Dinner: omelette with leeks, mushrooms, tomatoes, bit of feta cheese. Two slices rye/seedy wholegrain bread, toasted. Would usually have proper butter on it but had run out, so had to use housemate's Lurpak Spreadable.

Two squares Divine orange chocolate, cup of herbal tea.

Today: Same breakfast!

Mid-morning: latte with semi-skimmed millk, pain au raisin.

Lunch: Pret tuna bloomer, Choc bar, decaf soya latte.

Apple.

I'm only just back to work and sugary snacks are creeping back in already!

Crisps and chocolate. That is the foundation of my diet actually.

Yesterday was:

B: Oatbran made with almond milk and pumpkin puree. Walnuts, cinnamon and a little maple syrup on top. 2 x coffee with soy coffee creamer.

L: WW wrap with mashed salmon and avocado, gigantic green salad with peppers, cuke, broccoli, pepitas. Apple, Green tea.

S: Walnuts, Orange. Couple of spoon licks of choc. icing while making DS's birthday cake. Peppermint tea.

D: Chili made with ground turkey, chickpeas and kidney beans, 1/2 baked sweet potato sprinkled with hot sauce. Green salad.
Dessert was cup of dark hot chocolate cocoa and an apple while watching "I Don't Know How She Does It" (Total crap btw...don't bother).

Back again

Odd day today, as felt really peculiar around lunch
Brekkie - two bowls of museli and a pear and an earl grey

Snack - a pear and a latte

lunch - few mouthfuls of soup, then threw away. two apples

mid afternoon - two bowls of cereal, yoghurt, mango, some dried fruit

snack - crusts from DS' toastie, little bit fo fruit loaf, two apples

dinner - will be 2 chicken fajitas with salsa and teeny tiny bit of cheese, yoghurt, few mouthfuls of DH's ice cream

Camomile tea before bed