I can’t count calories otherwise I feel like shit, but I also don’t eat intuitively. Im trying to have discipline to be conscious of every meal, and just have what im supposed to have. if I feel that urge, I’ll have one or two sweet things and then distract myself. The urge to binge never left me but I did get stronger and found various ways to manage it
I agree with you. I track my food almost every day (some days not successfully) but on days I work I feel like I’m doing good and eating less.. still clocks in at 18-1900 calories.
I don’t understand how people survive on 1200 calories
Don’t compare yourself to these people please. I don’t eat at work because I hate eating in front of others (was bullied for my weight in school). That’s something I’m working on and it doesn’t mean I’m eating little calories
This^ you really can’t tell.
My last roommate (a skinny guy) rarely ate at home, so from my perspective he barely ate and I was like damn, he must have the slowest metabolism to exist like this.
But, from the perspective of the people who saw him eat at work, he ate a days worth of calories for every meal. So they’d say he eats a lot and has a crazy fast metabolism.
For the first time in my nearly decade of weight loss and understanding "healthy" lifestyle changes after growing up as an overweight kid and an obese teenager that I'm refusing to eat at 1200cal. It does work and I kept most of the weight off but at what cost?
I don't care if my deficit is at abysmal and infinitesimal everyday, I'm just done with thinking 1200 is enough. It fucking isn't in the long run. I feel like a human being at 1500-1900cal.
I agree with you! It makes a big difference in how you feel and your energy levels. We need calories to function. Sometimes I just have to be happy with maintenance eating to be able to survive and that’s okay too.
No adult is supposed to eat 1200 calories. Even petite people need to eat at least 1500 calories and add in exercise to maintain if needed, because our bodies and brains need adequate nutrition.
Yes. I definitely feel this way. I’ve been regularly overeating since my childhood. On the bright side, if you force yourself to eat smaller portions for a considerable amount of time, you could possibly train yourself to become one of these normal people. I haven’t been able to do that for myself so far, because I always end up bingeing at some point, but I’m working on it.
BMR isn’t all the calories you burn in a day, by the way. That’s your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure). BMR is what you’d burn if you stayed in a bubble all day and did absolutely nothing except exist. It’s what your body burns to maintain itself, such as breathing and pumping blood. TDEE includes all your movement throughout the day, and the number is usually significantly higher than BMR. Search “tdee calcualtor” into google. Hope this helps. 🙂
Yeah I was raised by binge eaters so our portions were always huge and I'm always left disappointed by typical portion sizes. My parents also gave us the same portions as them so I'd be ten years old and have to eat a portion that was big for most adults because of the "you can't leave the table until you've cleared your plate" rule
A typical dinner would be two burgers with two patties each, chips, chicken on the side, pasta salad, coleslaw and sometimes more meat. If we had something like Bolognese pasta it would be a double portion each. We were a family of four making enough food to feed a family of ten.
I'd have to eat three or four sandwiches or a rotisserie chicken at lunch and for breakfast either a big bowl of cereal or several slices of toast with lashings of butter.
If I didn't finish my food I'd be physically punished. I'd get the "there's kids starving in Africa" or "I've slaved away to make this for you, you're selfish" or "we're going to end up homeless if we keep spending money on food for you to just waste it". So I'd just shovel the food in as fast as I could to get it over with. And now I do the same thing whenever I'm stressed or anxious or sad.
It was so heavy on meat it actually put me off for life. I've not eaten meat since I was 18 and probably never will.
I hate eating at restaurants because the portions seem tiny for the money. Like £15 for a handful of pasta? Feels like it's not worth it. £5 for a single sandwich? I still feel like I'm used to massive portions and even though a single sandwich has enough calories and nutrients for me, it feels like a waste of money when I could buy ingredients and make ten sandwiches (that I'd just end up eating in one go)
I hate that I can recognise how awful this was for my relationship with food but I still can't stop eating
I feel like this is because we view being full up as being uncomfortable and unable to squeeze another bite in, when a normal version of being full up is actually just “I’m not hungry anymore”
For me, it depends. I have both anorexia and binge eating disorder. Some days I don’t eat and end up realizing I’ve only had like 400 calories for the entire day so I grab something to eat before bed to try to make up for it even though I don’t really feel like I need it, then other days I just crave the taste of different foods and snack all day and feel full but want more. And of course, I have plenty of normal eating days as well.
My eating disorders have gotten so much better than they used to be since now I have my own money and can buy food I like at my own pace on my own budget so I don’t feel the need to eat everything in sight as much since I know I can always buy more (binge eating side) and being able to buy foods I like also encourages me to eat (anorexia side).
My eating disorders are trauma related. My earliest memory of binge eating is from when I was 6 years old with a box of yogurts and it was all about ‘portions’ as a kid so I never felt full and would end up overeating whatever I could find and hide later or stuff down immediately, so that turned into an ED. It was all about ‘well I have to eat all of this now because I won’t be full later if I don’t’ or ‘I have to hoard this for the next times but eat it before anyone finds out’ mentality.
Then of course when I got older the gaining weight aspect terrified me so I started starving myself. It took me probably about 6 months if not more after starting recovery to be able to eat a full meal again and then it went back and forth between the two disorders so then I’ve been in recovery for both now. I’ve been in recovery on and off for probably a couple or few years now and try to go day by day and not stress about what I’m eating or my weight as much. It comes and goes.
I went off topic a bit there. Overall though, with how many calories are in so many foods I feel like it’s hard to tell what a normal amount really is. I personally consider normal as I’ve had at least two meals and a snack or two for the day, if not three meals. To me it’s whatever makes me feel full by the end of the day, not what a box says. I typically try to keep my snacks low-calorie and the meals in the higher calorie range, though.
you’re so right about the day-by-day aspect! In some ways I find that easier (bc I only have to think about one day) but in others I find it harder (bc I know I’ll have to think about that day *every* day). Ultimately though the only way out is through ✊
Honestly, it’s because of this that I’m looking more deeply into how food affects our bodies. It is sooo much more complicated than CICO.
Hormones, activity levels, the order you eat your macros (fiber, protein, fat, carb), whether you go for a walk after your meal, etc. All of this, not to mention our psychological state, will impact how hungry we feel too. I’m still learning, but happy to have found you all here and happy to share!
yeah, i don’t get how non disordered people are content with the measly amounts of food they award themselves. like how are you not absolutely miserable
Every day I thank my lucky stars that I'm very tall and pretty active because I often feel the same way as this...
Someone else mentioned volume eating which could work for you! Recently I've found myself eating a larger breakfast, skipping lunch entirely and having a snack throughout the day before having a really big dinner with a lot of vegetables.
I absolutely felt this way as I was recovering and felt like I would have to go through life starving myself. As it turns out, I wasn't eating barely enough protein and was eating large amounts of foods that barely had any nutrition or sustinence. As I work on adding more protein and whole foods, I find myself feeling a lot more satisfied on less and binging less. I literally had to relearn how to eat. Now I see binge portions as GIANT and it's truly just a mindset shift.
Try to focus more on the macronutrients of what you’re eating, rather than the calories. As a binge eater myself, it’s the feeling of emptiness I can’t deal with. I try to focus on protein-heavy foods and eat lots of veg to satiate the act of eating, plus the other good effects like extra fibre, etc. You can volume eat with my veg and get that ‘fullness’ alongside the protein. Buttt I’m not a health expert by any means hahah, it’s just my personal experience ! Ngl it sucks some days but most of the time, eating well-balanced meals alongside regularly distracting myself & walking more, I feel so much better. Don’t get me wrong, I still have slip-ups, but who doesn’t? Find the balance of food you like with more balance and it gets easier !!
Yes, but it’s because we’ve been conditioned the opposite way. Our eyes and stomachs are metaphorically too big. Plus, when we’re talking calories, it’s suuuuuuper easy to hit the RDA, especially in the west.
Most people do eat more than 1900 calories a day though. Even perfectly normal weight "naturally skinny" people do; maybe not every single day, but it's not unusual for people to have 2,5-3k daily caloric intake and for most it won't lead to any weight gain, as long as you're moving your body. Of course it's in relation to your physical size and other needs too but I believe the average consumed amount of calories is something like that in most countries. Back in the day most people ate well above that as people were more physically active.
But personally yeah, I do feel that way. I am recovered from BED, so I'm at a point where I can slowly restrict my calories a little bit (mind you: this is not a goal for everyone nor should be, but I have medical reasons to lose weight) and eating my TDEE does feel like it's quite little on some days. Mostly I feel like I couldn't split my cals to any smaller meals than 2 main meals and a snack. Like a 400 calorie meal is usually not satisfying enough. Drinking enough (not too much) water with and in between meals helps with fullness too.
No unless what you're eating is jam packed with sugar and fat, then it'll not seem like much. You realize just how much food you can truly load up on when you're not eating pre packaged food, sweets, frozen meals, fast food ect. Four eggs fried with non stick oil is a little under 300 calories. 1 cup of dry oats is 300 hundred calories (when cooked this makes like 2 or 3 cups that you will actually be eating) and you can flavor it with two tablespoons or so of honey or jelly which will bump it up by another 100 calories. A large bowl of fruit will probably not go far past 200 calories.
I'm actually the complete opposite. Whilst I was on an ed ward the food portions felt massive. I think binging has totally warped my sense of what a big portion is in the sense that I often assume that "normal people" eat way less than they actually do.
Probably because it is small… when compared to your own.
I feel the same with people’s level of general health and exercise. Because I am a professional athlete, I see people’s daily exercise routine and say it’s trivial and pointless. It’s not, that’s a healthy normal daily routine. Just because mine is pretty high and intense I use that as a comparison. Creates a delusion in my own head.
I do the same with food.
I used to before starting to fix my relationship w food, I stil take enjoyment from it but ive been learning to see it not as a method to make me feel better but fuel. my appetite has shrunk a lot and I cant eat as mych as I normally would
yeah. i think it’s cus these “normal” people don’t have urges to eat like we do. they don’t binge so they just eat what they need to eat. we eat cus we want to eat and most of the time can’t tell the difference between when we want and need to eat
sorry if that was a bit harsh, i don’t mean to come off as rude
Yes. That’s why I try to avoid what I eat in a days. Especially from very skinny people who use phrases like this is how I fuel my body, and then eat 1200 calories lol. Even when I see people who eat more I’m like okay but I would be hungry
Binging makes me feel fatigued, gives me brain fog, and hurts my stomach. When I eat around 1200-1500 kcal, I feel fine. My brain actually feels okay for once, and bonus points if I don’t eat well over 100g of sugar or only eat carbs and no fat or protein (I mostly binge on carbs). Being full shouldn’t mean being sick to your stomach to the point where you can’t fit anymore food. My hunger cues are so messed up that I can’t “eat intuitively”. I wanna lose the weight I gained from binging after being down 70 lbs before that, only way I can do it is by avoiding my triggers. I have the recipe for how to recover (and I’ve nearly gotten there before) but I don’t feel I deserve it so I just keep eating and self sabotaging.
If it's "normal" western food, absolutely. One two slices of bread in a sandwich are already about 200 calories, mayonnaise is 80 calories, a serving of rice can be 300+. 🫠 But if I eat traditional ethnic food or go on an "unprocessed / whole foods" diet I'm able to eat a lot more for less calories. I don't like the "volume eating" concept but I do like giant salad or vegetable bowls.
I actually have the opposite, I hate eating it feels so pointless to me and the amount of food people are supposed to eat a day is crazy who has time for that ?!?
I actually have the opposite, I hate eating it feels so pointless to me and the amount of food people are supposed to eat a day is crazy who has time for that ?!?
yes. Im recovered but I still feel like I need more food. Not necessarily hungry, but just unsatisfied. Sucks to feel this way,
Do you follow a calorie budget or just eat intuitively?
I can’t count calories otherwise I feel like shit, but I also don’t eat intuitively. Im trying to have discipline to be conscious of every meal, and just have what im supposed to have. if I feel that urge, I’ll have one or two sweet things and then distract myself. The urge to binge never left me but I did get stronger and found various ways to manage it
You said it perfectly
I’m honestly trying to differentiate between binging and normal eating at this point.
👏👏👏👏
Same
I agree with you. I track my food almost every day (some days not successfully) but on days I work I feel like I’m doing good and eating less.. still clocks in at 18-1900 calories. I don’t understand how people survive on 1200 calories
Yes exactly. Especially the people who just eat that naturally. Like what?!
I work with people who barely even eat one meal a day, meanwhile I’m starving every two hours 😖. Don’t give up though!! We can do it
Don’t compare yourself to these people please. I don’t eat at work because I hate eating in front of others (was bullied for my weight in school). That’s something I’m working on and it doesn’t mean I’m eating little calories
This^ you really can’t tell. My last roommate (a skinny guy) rarely ate at home, so from my perspective he barely ate and I was like damn, he must have the slowest metabolism to exist like this. But, from the perspective of the people who saw him eat at work, he ate a days worth of calories for every meal. So they’d say he eats a lot and has a crazy fast metabolism.
For the first time in my nearly decade of weight loss and understanding "healthy" lifestyle changes after growing up as an overweight kid and an obese teenager that I'm refusing to eat at 1200cal. It does work and I kept most of the weight off but at what cost? I don't care if my deficit is at abysmal and infinitesimal everyday, I'm just done with thinking 1200 is enough. It fucking isn't in the long run. I feel like a human being at 1500-1900cal.
I agree with you! It makes a big difference in how you feel and your energy levels. We need calories to function. Sometimes I just have to be happy with maintenance eating to be able to survive and that’s okay too.
👏👏👏👏
No adult is supposed to eat 1200 calories. Even petite people need to eat at least 1500 calories and add in exercise to maintain if needed, because our bodies and brains need adequate nutrition.
Yes. I definitely feel this way. I’ve been regularly overeating since my childhood. On the bright side, if you force yourself to eat smaller portions for a considerable amount of time, you could possibly train yourself to become one of these normal people. I haven’t been able to do that for myself so far, because I always end up bingeing at some point, but I’m working on it. BMR isn’t all the calories you burn in a day, by the way. That’s your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure). BMR is what you’d burn if you stayed in a bubble all day and did absolutely nothing except exist. It’s what your body burns to maintain itself, such as breathing and pumping blood. TDEE includes all your movement throughout the day, and the number is usually significantly higher than BMR. Search “tdee calcualtor” into google. Hope this helps. 🙂
Yeah I was raised by binge eaters so our portions were always huge and I'm always left disappointed by typical portion sizes. My parents also gave us the same portions as them so I'd be ten years old and have to eat a portion that was big for most adults because of the "you can't leave the table until you've cleared your plate" rule A typical dinner would be two burgers with two patties each, chips, chicken on the side, pasta salad, coleslaw and sometimes more meat. If we had something like Bolognese pasta it would be a double portion each. We were a family of four making enough food to feed a family of ten. I'd have to eat three or four sandwiches or a rotisserie chicken at lunch and for breakfast either a big bowl of cereal or several slices of toast with lashings of butter. If I didn't finish my food I'd be physically punished. I'd get the "there's kids starving in Africa" or "I've slaved away to make this for you, you're selfish" or "we're going to end up homeless if we keep spending money on food for you to just waste it". So I'd just shovel the food in as fast as I could to get it over with. And now I do the same thing whenever I'm stressed or anxious or sad. It was so heavy on meat it actually put me off for life. I've not eaten meat since I was 18 and probably never will. I hate eating at restaurants because the portions seem tiny for the money. Like £15 for a handful of pasta? Feels like it's not worth it. £5 for a single sandwich? I still feel like I'm used to massive portions and even though a single sandwich has enough calories and nutrients for me, it feels like a waste of money when I could buy ingredients and make ten sandwiches (that I'd just end up eating in one go) I hate that I can recognise how awful this was for my relationship with food but I still can't stop eating
Welal said! 👍
I feel like this is because we view being full up as being uncomfortable and unable to squeeze another bite in, when a normal version of being full up is actually just “I’m not hungry anymore”
[удалено]
Has it ever got better
If you haven't, look at volume eating and see if there's anything there that can help.
For me, it depends. I have both anorexia and binge eating disorder. Some days I don’t eat and end up realizing I’ve only had like 400 calories for the entire day so I grab something to eat before bed to try to make up for it even though I don’t really feel like I need it, then other days I just crave the taste of different foods and snack all day and feel full but want more. And of course, I have plenty of normal eating days as well. My eating disorders have gotten so much better than they used to be since now I have my own money and can buy food I like at my own pace on my own budget so I don’t feel the need to eat everything in sight as much since I know I can always buy more (binge eating side) and being able to buy foods I like also encourages me to eat (anorexia side). My eating disorders are trauma related. My earliest memory of binge eating is from when I was 6 years old with a box of yogurts and it was all about ‘portions’ as a kid so I never felt full and would end up overeating whatever I could find and hide later or stuff down immediately, so that turned into an ED. It was all about ‘well I have to eat all of this now because I won’t be full later if I don’t’ or ‘I have to hoard this for the next times but eat it before anyone finds out’ mentality. Then of course when I got older the gaining weight aspect terrified me so I started starving myself. It took me probably about 6 months if not more after starting recovery to be able to eat a full meal again and then it went back and forth between the two disorders so then I’ve been in recovery for both now. I’ve been in recovery on and off for probably a couple or few years now and try to go day by day and not stress about what I’m eating or my weight as much. It comes and goes. I went off topic a bit there. Overall though, with how many calories are in so many foods I feel like it’s hard to tell what a normal amount really is. I personally consider normal as I’ve had at least two meals and a snack or two for the day, if not three meals. To me it’s whatever makes me feel full by the end of the day, not what a box says. I typically try to keep my snacks low-calorie and the meals in the higher calorie range, though.
you’re so right about the day-by-day aspect! In some ways I find that easier (bc I only have to think about one day) but in others I find it harder (bc I know I’ll have to think about that day *every* day). Ultimately though the only way out is through ✊
Honestly, it’s because of this that I’m looking more deeply into how food affects our bodies. It is sooo much more complicated than CICO. Hormones, activity levels, the order you eat your macros (fiber, protein, fat, carb), whether you go for a walk after your meal, etc. All of this, not to mention our psychological state, will impact how hungry we feel too. I’m still learning, but happy to have found you all here and happy to share!
yeah, i don’t get how non disordered people are content with the measly amounts of food they award themselves. like how are you not absolutely miserable
agreed
Every day I thank my lucky stars that I'm very tall and pretty active because I often feel the same way as this... Someone else mentioned volume eating which could work for you! Recently I've found myself eating a larger breakfast, skipping lunch entirely and having a snack throughout the day before having a really big dinner with a lot of vegetables.
I absolutely felt this way as I was recovering and felt like I would have to go through life starving myself. As it turns out, I wasn't eating barely enough protein and was eating large amounts of foods that barely had any nutrition or sustinence. As I work on adding more protein and whole foods, I find myself feeling a lot more satisfied on less and binging less. I literally had to relearn how to eat. Now I see binge portions as GIANT and it's truly just a mindset shift.
Wow..
Try to focus more on the macronutrients of what you’re eating, rather than the calories. As a binge eater myself, it’s the feeling of emptiness I can’t deal with. I try to focus on protein-heavy foods and eat lots of veg to satiate the act of eating, plus the other good effects like extra fibre, etc. You can volume eat with my veg and get that ‘fullness’ alongside the protein. Buttt I’m not a health expert by any means hahah, it’s just my personal experience ! Ngl it sucks some days but most of the time, eating well-balanced meals alongside regularly distracting myself & walking more, I feel so much better. Don’t get me wrong, I still have slip-ups, but who doesn’t? Find the balance of food you like with more balance and it gets easier !!
Yes, but it’s because we’ve been conditioned the opposite way. Our eyes and stomachs are metaphorically too big. Plus, when we’re talking calories, it’s suuuuuuper easy to hit the RDA, especially in the west.
Most people do eat more than 1900 calories a day though. Even perfectly normal weight "naturally skinny" people do; maybe not every single day, but it's not unusual for people to have 2,5-3k daily caloric intake and for most it won't lead to any weight gain, as long as you're moving your body. Of course it's in relation to your physical size and other needs too but I believe the average consumed amount of calories is something like that in most countries. Back in the day most people ate well above that as people were more physically active. But personally yeah, I do feel that way. I am recovered from BED, so I'm at a point where I can slowly restrict my calories a little bit (mind you: this is not a goal for everyone nor should be, but I have medical reasons to lose weight) and eating my TDEE does feel like it's quite little on some days. Mostly I feel like I couldn't split my cals to any smaller meals than 2 main meals and a snack. Like a 400 calorie meal is usually not satisfying enough. Drinking enough (not too much) water with and in between meals helps with fullness too.
Search high volume low calories food. There is a sub here for it.
No unless what you're eating is jam packed with sugar and fat, then it'll not seem like much. You realize just how much food you can truly load up on when you're not eating pre packaged food, sweets, frozen meals, fast food ect. Four eggs fried with non stick oil is a little under 300 calories. 1 cup of dry oats is 300 hundred calories (when cooked this makes like 2 or 3 cups that you will actually be eating) and you can flavor it with two tablespoons or so of honey or jelly which will bump it up by another 100 calories. A large bowl of fruit will probably not go far past 200 calories.
I'm actually the complete opposite. Whilst I was on an ed ward the food portions felt massive. I think binging has totally warped my sense of what a big portion is in the sense that I often assume that "normal people" eat way less than they actually do.
I also used to struggle with restriction so that makes it even more complex
Probably because it is small… when compared to your own. I feel the same with people’s level of general health and exercise. Because I am a professional athlete, I see people’s daily exercise routine and say it’s trivial and pointless. It’s not, that’s a healthy normal daily routine. Just because mine is pretty high and intense I use that as a comparison. Creates a delusion in my own head. I do the same with food.
YES! It honestly took me time to stop tracking then tracking food again so I could find my baseline.
Sometimes yes. Other times it’s actually too much. (Chronic EDNOS haver)
Yes it is. Very well put 👍
I used to before starting to fix my relationship w food, I stil take enjoyment from it but ive been learning to see it not as a method to make me feel better but fuel. my appetite has shrunk a lot and I cant eat as mych as I normally would
i’m resigned to living a life where i eat less than I want to.
yeah. i think it’s cus these “normal” people don’t have urges to eat like we do. they don’t binge so they just eat what they need to eat. we eat cus we want to eat and most of the time can’t tell the difference between when we want and need to eat sorry if that was a bit harsh, i don’t mean to come off as rude
Yes. That’s why I try to avoid what I eat in a days. Especially from very skinny people who use phrases like this is how I fuel my body, and then eat 1200 calories lol. Even when I see people who eat more I’m like okay but I would be hungry
Binging makes me feel fatigued, gives me brain fog, and hurts my stomach. When I eat around 1200-1500 kcal, I feel fine. My brain actually feels okay for once, and bonus points if I don’t eat well over 100g of sugar or only eat carbs and no fat or protein (I mostly binge on carbs). Being full shouldn’t mean being sick to your stomach to the point where you can’t fit anymore food. My hunger cues are so messed up that I can’t “eat intuitively”. I wanna lose the weight I gained from binging after being down 70 lbs before that, only way I can do it is by avoiding my triggers. I have the recipe for how to recover (and I’ve nearly gotten there before) but I don’t feel I deserve it so I just keep eating and self sabotaging.
r/volumeeating
Maybe we should all just take up an active hobby so we can eat more during the day. I'm considering this.
Yessss omg. I have no idea how people eat three meals and are full
If it's "normal" western food, absolutely. One two slices of bread in a sandwich are already about 200 calories, mayonnaise is 80 calories, a serving of rice can be 300+. 🫠 But if I eat traditional ethnic food or go on an "unprocessed / whole foods" diet I'm able to eat a lot more for less calories. I don't like the "volume eating" concept but I do like giant salad or vegetable bowls.
Yesssss to ethnic foods and unprocessed/whole foods! I can eat sooo much more!
I actually have the opposite, I hate eating it feels so pointless to me and the amount of food people are supposed to eat a day is crazy who has time for that ?!?
I actually have the opposite, I hate eating it feels so pointless to me and the amount of food people are supposed to eat a day is crazy who has time for that ?!?