How to eat less

[mondaypolomint]

It's obvious isn't it? I'm 2 stone overweight and basically - honestly - it's because I'm greedy and my meals are too big, I eat too much, that it. Simple

I know about diets: low carb and calories and 5 : 2 and intermittent fasting and slimming clubs like weight watchers I've tried them all but what it comes down to is that I eat too much!

I eat a healthy diet mainly home cooked and fresh unprocessed food as far as possible. I know about healthy eating and eat a good healthy diet But too much of it. .

I realised this morning that my breakfast oats used to be in a small bowl and now it's in a bigger soup type bowl and I put yogurts nuts fruit seeds o top of it now.

So mumsnetters give me some ideas on how I can eat less and lose weight without me feeling I'm deprived or starving

Smaller plates?

I bought much smaller, but beautiful and pleasing, special bowls for things like pudding and cereal. There are some lovely small dipping bowls and shallow cereal bowls at Oliver Bonas and Anthropologie at the moment. I feel like... I don't want to give up these things because they are pleasurable and satisfying, but I also don't want diabetes? So I bought special and beautiful things and am a little more deliberate about when I eat them. I don't feel deprived - the opposite - I feel more nourished.

Use something like My Fitness Pal to log what you eat so you can learn what a portion is and weigh everything. It will be eye opening when you see what foods are packed with calories but offer very little nutrition and you can see what a carb portion looks like on your plate. For example, I have 60g of rice (uncooked weight). It doesn't look like a lot, but it's enough. Protein will keep you feeling fuller for longer, make sure you have plenty of it in your diet. Around 1g of protein for every kilo you weigh, so if you were 70kg, eat 70g of protein a day.
Once you start eating less your stomach will shrink and it will become harder to eat more before you are full, provided you listen to your body when it tells you that you are full.
Watch the drinks, especially alcohol. I have switched to no alcohol and spirits while dieting and have ditched the wine.

I make my own granola and as soon as it's made I portion it out to small Tupperware containers. I've really had to adjust my portion sizes for all food as I was just guessing before.

Get busy. I am so busy that food is secondary to all the other shit I have to do. I get up at six and get the children up and give them breakfast, today the kitchen, make the beds, makes sure the children are dressed and teeth done etc, then have a shower and get ready for work, then do the school run on the way to work.

Only once I'm at my desk do I eat breakfast- a small pot of kefir with a handful of granola plus a piece of fruit.

There's no time for any more and then I work solidly til lunch, when I try to go for a walk or a run, before having something vaguely healthy.

Then it's work all afternoon (green tea and a handful of sweets maybe halfway through) and home and I eat with the children early (6ish) and go to bed early.

In my youth I obsessed about food and I still love it and love cooking but I am too busy to get fat. I never stop.

Not sure if this helps but I think what I'm saying is you need other things to think about.

Thanks for the ideas.
Any more?

Stir fries are great. I use prawns and then loads of veggies, chilli, garlic, ginger and the like and will sometimes stir a beaten egg in to finish. You can eat a lot of bulk for few calories with veggies and so long as you have enough protein in there it should hold your hunger.

I eat earlier and sleep earlier now so no temptation to eat a heavy meal last thing or snack. Previously I ate around 9pm, now it's around 6pm.

@Spodge great idea, do you only add veg or do you add noodles etc

Re: too many oats for breakfast

A shot glass full of rolled oats is around 40g - a perfect portion size. I keep a shot glass in my oats bag as a scoop for 1 portion.

Another top tip:

If you're an evening grazer, try a bowl of ice. I know it sounds odd but the crunchy freshness is a fantastic texture to 'eat with zero calories! I usually follow with a hot coffee and the contrast is ace.

I weigh everything - realised a while ago that portion control is my downfall!

You just have to go through the short term pain of hunger to re set your body to want fewer calories and a less full feeling. It's hard but I find after a week your body does adjust and it gets easier.
Otherwise as others have said weigh everything it's a shock how small portions should be compared to what modern life tells us we should be eating

Some great suggestions here. It's a bit daunting to embark on this eating less plan but I'm going to try. I thought I'd plan what and how much I eat before each meal and keep a food diary so I can keep an eye on it all
I've read that it takes up to 30 days to change habits so I'll try it for a month and see how it goes. Wish me luck

When you did low carb, how low did you go?

Have you tried keto?

Smaller plates/bowls so smaller portions.

Eat slowly - like ridiculously slowly and chew everything til it’s complete mush to extract every bit of flavour and texture from each mouthful. It feels like you’ve eaten a bigger portion.

I adore food and lots of it, my heart soars when I eat. I go to Slimming World and if you follow their 'eating plan' correctly, you can eat loads and lose weight too. SInce 1st October last year I have lost 24lbs by eating a lot of pasta, rice potatoes (along with other things too obviously) I hate the thought of small portions so I would definitely recommend joining up

1/3 of your plate should be veg or fruit before you put anything else on it.
You can buy portion plates on amazon but they had some in Poundland

@Eesha - I don't add noodles as I do much better on minimal carbs. Things like sugar snap peas add good texture and make you feel like you're eating enough. And if you are really desperate add tinned bamboo shoots. You can stuff yourself on those for next to no calories. I now understand why pandas have to spend so much time eating!

I make a pan of homemade vegetable soup with nothing bad in and have a mug of soup before I eat a meal to fill up a bit. Obviously not possible for breakfast.

Also if get smaller bowls and plates. Trick your body

Drink water before a meal.

Try the Fast800 - it's a combination of fasting, low calorie and low(er) carb.

Makes you really focus on your portion sizes.

But, because it's also lower carb, you'll find that you're really not hungry.

Overnight oats for breakfast with fat free yoghurt and frozen fruit. Really keeps you full all morning.

Change your set weight by increasing the ratio of omega 3 (good found in fresh foods) to omega 6 (found in factory processed foods) in your diet- it just using olive oil , butter, grass fed meat, fish and avoiding processed ‘food’ made in factories).

I started this 6 weeks ago- no calorie counting, no diet, and it’s the first time in my life I’ve felt I can actually’hear’ no body’s hungry/ full signals properly.

It was in a book ‘why we eat (too much) - there’s quite a lot of science but it’s basically a couple of switches in the fats you use and avoiding processed crap, which would all should do anyway.

Try it- I feel so much freer and more confident about just eating decent food without stressing about too much / too little.

Just ditch the sunflower/ rapeseed oil and grain fed meat and switch to olive oil, butter, fish, grass fed meat

Oh and I forgot- eat a lot less sugar- it basically acts as a kind of drug and messes up our appetite system and shifts our natural weight set point upwards, sabotaging any long-term weight loss.