Just figured out why I'm so fat

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just had visitors from Europe - ladies ages 31, 46, and 59. Ofcourse it took them days to get the plane food out of the system, but when they did, they only bought/ate fruit, salad, and wine. Few desserts like donuts and cupcakes, but not because they were graving but to taste local offerings.
Nothing sugary for morning, but coffee and small open face sandwich with cheese.
While I kept asking if they were hungry, food was not on their mind at all.

Sadly, food is always on my mind, and I always worry that whatever I'm eating "won't be enough" and that I'll be hungry.

Why do you worry? Being hungry for a couple hours before eating is a good and healthy thing because it helps regulate the insulin/leptin balance.

Quite the opposite, if you never feel hungry, you're probably headed for pre-diabetes.

No idea, but I know for most of my life I equated hunger pangs with "my stomach hurts" and panic. This is Brand New Information that I'm shocked to have never heard before.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just had visitors from Europe - ladies ages 31, 46, and 59. Ofcourse it took them days to get the plane food out of the system, but when they did, they only bought/ate fruit, salad, and wine. Few desserts like donuts and cupcakes, but not because they were graving but to taste local offerings.
Nothing sugary for morning, but coffee and small open face sandwich with cheese.
While I kept asking if they were hungry, food was not on their mind at all.

Sadly, food is always on my mind, and I always worry that whatever I'm eating "won't be enough" and that I'll be hungry.

Why do you worry? Being hungry for a couple hours before eating is a good and healthy thing because it helps regulate the insulin/leptin balance.

Quite the opposite, if you never feel hungry, you're probably headed for pre-diabetes.

No idea, but I know for most of my life I equated hunger pangs with "my stomach hurts" and panic. This is Brand New Information that I'm shocked to have never heard before.

There is a third hormone which regulates digestion, called ghrelin. It is literally only produced when your stomach grumbles. You need it and bonus - some studies suggest it makes you smarter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Met a friend at Cava for lunch last week. My bowl was bulging and I added rice, lentils, feta, a side of pita bread and two dressings. Hers was full of greens and I didn’t see a single extra starch-no rice, bread and she had a clear salad dressing of any at all. I was like oh, now I see how that works. She’s petite and compact. I’m post menopausal and weigh 200 lbs. She’s about a decade older in her 70’s.

My family teases me all the time, because I can usually stretch a Cava bowl for three meals. My attitude is that I just Need the taste of cava not necessarily all the substance. So I always double up on everything, take it home and add a third of the ingredients to a chopped head of Romaine lettuce in a big mixing bowl and drizzle dressing on top. It looks like I’m making a big salad/meal for a family but I actually sit down and eat it right out of the bowl. The secondary benefit is it’s makes eating out actually a financial deal.

I’m still not a skinny Minnie, but my weight is maintained, it’s delicious, and I feel full and less guilt when I do binge.

Double as in you pay for double meat, and double toppings?

[Anonymous]

I'm fat and eat 1 meal a day.

[Anonymous]

It’s actually slightly more complicated that that. It’s probably more like you eat a lot even when you’re not that hungry. Your coworker might eat a lot when she is hungry but when she isn’t, she doesn’t eat or doesn’t eat much. She likely listens to her hunger cues better and so she manages portions naturally in a way that keeps her body healthy- someone who is overweight doesn’t tend to do that so they eat even when they aren’t hungry, eat a lot of it, and eat nutritionally dense/high calorie food. So today she maybe had an English muffin and that’s it - another day it might be two slices of pizza. But it’s based on her hunger cues and what her body needs each day so she maintains a healthy weight.

[Anonymous]

I just eat a small breakfast and substantial meals for lunch and dinner and don’t snack at all. Seems to work for me. A small lunch like that would keep me going for an hour or two and I’d just end up eating more throughout the day. With the bigger lunch I’m not hungry until dinner time so don’t have to think about food all afternoon/evening.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just eat a small breakfast and substantial meals for lunch and dinner and don’t snack at all. Seems to work for me. A small lunch like that would keep me going for an hour or two and I’d just end up eating more throughout the day. With the bigger lunch I’m not hungry until dinner time so don’t have to think about food all afternoon/evening.

NP-This is what I do too. Some mornings, I’ll just have a few cups of coffee with half & half for breakfast, since I’ll still feel a little full from dinner. Im also 42 and I’ve noticed my appetite has naturally lessened as I’ve gotten older. Even with fast food where I used to be able to eat a large value meal once in awhile without issue, now I’m happy with a smaller burger and small fries.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just had visitors from Europe - ladies ages 31, 46, and 59. Ofcourse it took them days to get the plane food out of the system, but when they did, they only bought/ate fruit, salad, and wine. Few desserts like donuts and cupcakes, but not because they were graving but to taste local offerings.
Nothing sugary for morning, but coffee and small open face sandwich with cheese.
While I kept asking if they were hungry, food was not on their mind at all.

Sadly, food is always on my mind, and I always worry that whatever I'm eating "won't be enough" and that I'll be hungry.

This is me. I hate it so much.

[Anonymous]

I went to a Korean restaurant last night. We got a whole tray of food, including rice cakes in a spicy sauce. We were four middle-aged women of different ethnicities; one could stand to lose some weight (but not much), and three of us were pretty slim.
The meal included kimchi side dishes, including a tiny portion of potatoes. There was purple rice, beef bulgogi, two fried chicken, and one shrimp with kimchi fried rice. The "heavier" friend had a cocktail and a beer; the rest had only water.

None of us ate the whole food tray; we all took boxes home. So, the point of this post was that I asked my friends (two are Asian) if you were meant to get full-on veggies and then not overeat the caloric meal, and they said they thought so. When I eat my regular European meals, I have to watch how much I eat.

[Anonymous]

Are you all bored at work and have little to do? Days like that are rare for me at work. It is just non-stop work with no end in sight type of job.
So, I do not eat much at work, not because I don't want to, but because I just don't have time for it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, your lunch should not be as much food as your dinner.

Isn’t it supposed to be the other way around? I am a pp who are the bulging Cava bowl.

There is no such rule in either direction. Do what is best for you. I tend to be hungrier and more inclined to binge in the evening so I save a lot of calories for dinner. Often 1000+. I am fit and lean. It is overall calories that matter not when you eat them.

[Anonymous]

After a workout the other day I wanted to find a place to get some lunch, so I walked into this new Dig place, here's the menu:

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/6377acee19258c4978a8a37b/t/65dcd4056811671b72db3b59/1708971013593/Bethesda+-+Winter+2024+Menu.pdf

I couldn't believe it. Their bowls are all 900+ calories. The salad _without_ protein are 470-680 calories, then adding chicken is another 220 so you're are 700-900 calories... for a salad.

Instead, I walked to the SweetGreen around the corner and got my usual Guacamole Greens salad which already includes chicken, for 515 calories:
https://www.sweetgreen.com/menu

So glad restaurants are required to include calorie counts now -- it can make a big difference. You can thank Obamacare for that -- they slipped that requirement into it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:After a workout the other day I wanted to find a place to get some lunch, so I walked into this new Dig place, here's the menu:

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/6377acee19258c4978a8a37b/t/65dcd4056811671b72db3b59/1708971013593/Bethesda+-+Winter+2024+Menu.pdf

I couldn't believe it. Their bowls are all 900+ calories. The salad _without_ protein are 470-680 calories, then adding chicken is another 220 so you're are 700-900 calories... for a salad.

Instead, I walked to the SweetGreen around the corner and got my usual Guacamole Greens salad which already includes chicken, for 515 calories:
https://www.sweetgreen.com/menu

So glad restaurants are required to include calorie counts now -- it can make a big difference. You can thank Obamacare for that -- they slipped that requirement into it.

The first place looks pretty low-calorie to me. I'm not sure why you think it's a high-calorie place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:After a workout the other day I wanted to find a place to get some lunch, so I walked into this new Dig place, here's the menu:

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/6377acee19258c4978a8a37b/t/65dcd4056811671b72db3b59/1708971013593/Bethesda+-+Winter+2024+Menu.pdf

I couldn't believe it. Their bowls are all 900+ calories. The salad _without_ protein are 470-680 calories, then adding chicken is another 220 so you're are 700-900 calories... for a salad.

Instead, I walked to the SweetGreen around the corner and got my usual Guacamole Greens salad which already includes chicken, for 515 calories:
https://www.sweetgreen.com/menu

So glad restaurants are required to include calorie counts now -- it can make a big difference. You can thank Obamacare for that -- they slipped that requirement into it.

What are you looking at specifically that is low calorie? 700-900 for one meal is very high. It’s my same issue with CAVA. I think Cava is delicious but the bowls are 600-800 calories.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Also, set mealtimes. Breakfast, lunch and dinner, at a table. No snacking at all hours, because it's hard to keep track of intake. Like sceen time, no food before bedtime, it metabolizes differently.

I know people don't want to hear this, but it really is calories in, calories out. Most people who don't believe this don't know how to count their calories. When you cook your own food, it's actually really laborious to count ALL the calories. BTDT.

I mean…

CICO has been debunked. I’m someone with a genetically blessed metabolism (my mom is thin as well), low BP, excellent cholesterol and overall labs, and I don’t count calories.

I totally acknowledge genetics is a huge factor. But I also think it helps to not follow set rules about when and what I’m supposed to eat at certain times.

Since childhood I have just never been hungry in the morning. I’m glad my parents never pushed the whole “most important meal of the day” PR campaign from back in the day. To date, I still almost never eat breakfast. It’s 10 am and I’ve had nothing but coffee and water so far. I probably won’t have an appetite until noon.

Sometimes I am hungry for something in the morning and if I want a piece of leftover salmon or some cheese and olives, I’ll eat that. I don’t feel the need to have a cinnamon roll and bacon just because that is more breakfast-y.

I snack and graze throughout the day as I WAH. I feed my body what it is hungry for. Sometimes yogurt, sometimes a big protein like chicken or steak, sometimes bread. All foods can be good foods in moderation.

Dinner is my biggest meal b/c I’m eating with my family. But if I’m not hungry I’ll just eat a small portion and then heat it up at like 9 pm if I get a second wind to eat.

My eating habits would be so weird to most people but I’m still a size 2 in my 40s after 3 kids and my doctor says I’m super healthy. I think we all forgot to eat when we’re hungry instead of following a clock.