People cannot visualize reasonable portion sizes
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Ah yes. I have a coworker who is constantly starting conversations with me about food and "dieting", yet she consumes at least 2 plates of food on days when lunch is catered. If there is more than one choice of dessert, she grabs one of each.
She and another coworker got into a heated discussion because she claimed our Qdoba catered meal was really healthy. My other coworker tried to explain that the queso and the extra rice and the overflowing bowl of chips was not healthy. She got really angry when faced with the truth.
I used to try to have knowledgeable, enlightening conversations about portions, eating less and moving more. Now I don't even bother. I've hit my head against that wall too many times with her.
I have one of these, too. She keeps asking me and another co-worker what we do, and hates the CICO answer. She eats a bowl of yogurt for breakfast, and adds fruit and nuts to it, and insists it's healthy. There's so many nuts it's probably at least 900 calories for breakfast.6 -
In general, I think recommended portion sizes are silly. Give me the per 100g and per package numbers and let me go from there.
An appropriate or healthy portion size depends on a lot of things, the food item in question being relatively low on the list. People who need to have portion sizes recommended to them don't care enough to listen (generally speaking, obviously), and people who care enough don't need recommendations.
IMO.6 -
Totally agree, most overweight to obese people continue to live in denial as to what is the Real Portion size. They say they want to lose weight, but when they see the portion size, and hear the words food scale it can be sadly amusing the looks I see. I had one of my friends persistently ask me tell me what two things this time have been your biggest helps in steadily taking off pounds. And they did not want to hear MFP and logging everything. So I took a picture of my food scale, and the smaller cute plates I bought that I use now. And sent them. And said I weigh everything first, and all food goes on these plates. No more standard dinner plates for me.3
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In general, I think recommended portion sizes are silly. Give me the per 100g and per package numbers and let me go from there.
An appropriate or healthy portion size depends on a lot of things, the food item in question being relatively low on the list. People who need to have portion sizes recommended to them don't care enough to listen (generally speaking, obviously), and people who care enough don't need recommendations.
IMO.
agreed
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JeromeBarry1 wrote: »Some years ago I had a revelatory conversation with an obese co-worker. Both he and his wife were obese and waddled on land like walruses. He, particularly, had ruined his ankles with the abuse of walking on them. He told me that he focused his restaurant food choices on getting the most calories possible for the fewest dollars necessary. It turns out, that is the mental calculation made by lab monkeys, too. Primates want the greatest reward possible for the least effort necessary. As global food production has incessantly grown to exceed the rate of population growth, more and more people around the planet are finding it possible to get more cheap food than they need for survival. The unconscious choice many people make to maximise their food reward for their effort or money expended is the ultimate root cause of the global increase in rates of obesity.
"The struggle is real" isn't just a meme. It's not just the body. It's the brain. The executive brain has to overcome the reflexive brain. Portioning properly has to be learned and is a lesson which runs counter to our natural tendencies. It is hard.
Spot on my man! I think it was Winton Churchill that said, " why run when you can walk? Why walk when you can stand? Why stand when you can lounge? Why lounge when you can sleep?" I think we are the same way. I get the exact opposite at work. I often take in 2 lunch bags with my food. People are like, are you going to eat all that? Well... my quinoa, veggie, avacado, lean protein plates take up a lot of space. When you eat a Hungry man dinner that's 900 cals for 225 grams, it's a small package. I start to talk about caloric density.... blank stare. At office parties same thing. If I eat small amounts of stuff, I get made fun of because they all tell me I am afraid of "good" food. Oh well.3 -
That too! I hate the idea of "serving sizes", as if people 1) need to be told how much to eat 2) should be told how much they can eat 3) care. And I'm grateful I live in a country where labels show values of 100g of a food. But I think the discussion at hand is more about "portion sizes" - how much a person chooses to serve himself/herself in one sitting. And people often choose more than they need, more often than is healthy.In general, I think recommended portion sizes are silly. Give me the per 100g and per package numbers and let me go from there.
An appropriate or healthy portion size depends on a lot of things, the food item in question being relatively low on the list. People who need to have portion sizes recommended to them don't care enough to listen (generally speaking, obviously), and people who care enough don't need recommendations.
IMO.4 -
psychod787 wrote: »JeromeBarry1 wrote: »Some years ago I had a revelatory conversation with an obese co-worker. Both he and his wife were obese and waddled on land like walruses. He, particularly, had ruined his ankles with the abuse of walking on them. He told me that he focused his restaurant food choices on getting the most calories possible for the fewest dollars necessary. It turns out, that is the mental calculation made by lab monkeys, too. Primates want the greatest reward possible for the least effort necessary. As global food production has incessantly grown to exceed the rate of population growth, more and more people around the planet are finding it possible to get more cheap food than they need for survival. The unconscious choice many people make to maximise their food reward for their effort or money expended is the ultimate root cause of the global increase in rates of obesity.
"The struggle is real" isn't just a meme. It's not just the body. It's the brain. The executive brain has to overcome the reflexive brain. Portioning properly has to be learned and is a lesson which runs counter to our natural tendencies. It is hard.
Spot on my man! I think it was Winton Churchill that said, " why run when you can walk? Why walk when you can stand? Why stand when you can lounge? Why lounge when you can sleep?" I think we are the same way. I get the exact opposite at work. I often take in 2 lunch bags with my food. People are like, are you going to eat all that? Well... my quinoa, veggie, avacado, lean protein plates take up a lot of space. When you eat a Hungry man dinner that's 900 cals for 225 grams, it's a small package. I start to talk about caloric density.... blank stare. At office parties same thing. If I eat small amounts of stuff, I get made fun of because they all tell me I am afraid of "good" food. Oh well.
So true. If I eat something small or make a "healthy" choice, I get "Oh come on, live a little!" But if I take a second helping, I get "You are so lucky being able to eat like that and stay slim". And it's the SAME PEOPLE. They see that sometimes I indulge and sometimes I take small portions but they don't want to see that I make it balance out. To me it proves that people just don't stop to think about what to eat and how much. They want indulging to be normal, but with no consequence.7 -
Several years ago I took my family home to Minnesota to visit. We live in Italy and my husband is thin. We were taken to an "All you can eat" restaurant. My husband was horrified. He looked around at the dinners, spread his hands out straight from his sides and said "All you can eat!"2
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I was reminded of this (I think there's a lot of denial around food, but because I refuse to think I was in denialSo true. If I eat something small or make a "healthy" choice, I get "Oh come on, live a little!" But if I take a second helping, I get "You are so lucky being able to eat like that and stay slim". And it's the SAME PEOPLE. They see that sometimes I indulge and sometimes I take small portions but they don't want to see that I make it balance out. To me it proves that people just don't stop to think about what to eat and how much. They want indulging to be normal, but with no consequence.
, I call it a "disconnect"): Slim people around me, who of course would eat small portions of food whenever I saw them eat, or just one food for a meal (an apple or a yogurt), or pick a low cal version, or eat just one piece of chocolate etc, I used to think they either didn't like food, or were starving themselves, or ate more when they were alone. But I was also aware I ate larger portions than them, and made sure all my meals were "well rounded", and never missed an opportunity to eat, I was aware I was heavier, but I also sincerely belived I needed that much food, that it was unhealthy to "starve" myself, that the "stop" button is "I really can't get down anymore". The light bulb just didn't come on. 7 -
When I weighed 275 pounds at 5'2" I couldn't figure out why I was heavy. I didn't eat that much... or so I thought. After I started tracking I can see that I often ate 2500 or even 3000 calories a day. It's a miracle I wasn't 375 pounds with the portions I ate. Two or three 32 oz Dr. Peppers a day really add up. You don't need much "food" when you're on a sugar high 24/7. Why have one lean grilled pork chop when you can have 2 or 3? They're small (probably 6 oz each), a giant plate of spaghetti a TON of parmesan cheese, and garlic texas toast? No meat so it's "healthy". Fried cookies sprinkled with powered sugar - GO! Rice Crispy treats - GO!
You get the idea...5 -
I've been on both sides of this coin. At my heaviest, I couldn't imagine not filling my plate with a bunch of potluck goodies. I didn't understand after first joining MFP that someone could just have Greek yogurt and fruit for lunch. That's not a meal--that's an appetizer!
People don't tend to comment on what I eat any more, and it's not that I don't ever overeat because sometimes I do. I just don't do it every day like I used to (like the days when breakfast, lunch, and dinner were all from the drive thru).7 -
I can eat the portion sizes I want and maintain my weight easily. Problem is, the weight I maintain while doing it is 50 pounds more than is healthy for me 21
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All the time.
I get the question of why am I eating so little. Yet, what I am eating is an adult portion size.6 -
psychod787 wrote: »JeromeBarry1 wrote: »Some years ago I had a revelatory conversation with an obese co-worker. Both he and his wife were obese and waddled on land like walruses. He, particularly, had ruined his ankles with the abuse of walking on them. He told me that he focused his restaurant food choices on getting the most calories possible for the fewest dollars necessary. It turns out, that is the mental calculation made by lab monkeys, too. Primates want the greatest reward possible for the least effort necessary. As global food production has incessantly grown to exceed the rate of population growth, more and more people around the planet are finding it possible to get more cheap food than they need for survival. The unconscious choice many people make to maximise their food reward for their effort or money expended is the ultimate root cause of the global increase in rates of obesity.
"The struggle is real" isn't just a meme. It's not just the body. It's the brain. The executive brain has to overcome the reflexive brain. Portioning properly has to be learned and is a lesson which runs counter to our natural tendencies. It is hard.
Spot on my man! I think it was Winton Churchill that said, " why run when you can walk? Why walk when you can stand? Why stand when you can lounge? Why lounge when you can sleep?" I think we are the same way. I get the exact opposite at work. I often take in 2 lunch bags with my food. People are like, are you going to eat all that? Well... my quinoa, veggie, avacado, lean protein plates take up a lot of space. When you eat a Hungry man dinner that's 900 cals for 225 grams, it's a small package. I start to talk about caloric density.... blank stare. At office parties same thing. If I eat small amounts of stuff, I get made fun of because they all tell me I am afraid of "good" food. Oh well.
To Winston Churchill, I respond with Warren Zevon: "I'll sleep when I'm dead." I run so that I can be stronger and faster and do more and live longer and do even MORE. There are too many interesting things in the world and I want to miss out on as few of them as possible.
(I do sleep, mind you! ;D)4 -
I wonder how many of those people actually care, though. How many people want to lose weight, but not badly enough to actually control their intake? I fall into that category quite often. I wonder how many of those people, if you simply asked them what they thought a reasonable, healthy, serving size was... I wonder how close those people would be.
I guess what I'm trying to get at is this - are their portions that big because they don't know or because they don't care?9 -
I wonder how many of those people actually care, though. How many people want to lose weight, but not badly enough to actually control their intake? I fall into that category quite often. I wonder how many of those people, if you simply asked them what they thought a reasonable, healthy, serving size was... I wonder how close those people would be.
I guess what I'm trying to get at is this - are their portions that big because they don't know or because they don't care?
Both. I have a sister who is huge. She is much younger than me. I doubt she knows what a proper serving size is and she just doesn't care. Her husband and kids are obese too. Don't they want to be healthy? I just don't get it.4 -
Probably 5 or 6 years ago at least, most likely longer, I distinctly remember having a conversation with a close friend about calorie reduction for weight loss. I completely balked at the idea of reducing calories because I KNEW I was only eating 1500 calories and as a grown, active woman there was no way I could eat less. It was totally unacceptable to me that I would have to make a concerted effort to eat less than I was and clearly there was something wrong with me and I just couldn't lose weight.
Nope. Denial. I just refused to see that I was eating too much. I refused to acknowledge all the mindless bites and snacks I was eating during the day on top of regular meals because it was a habit.
I reminded her of that conversation a few months ago when weight loss came up again and totally admitted that I was full of *kitten* then. Some of us get so stuck in our own way that we will see what we want to see until we have no choice but to admit how full of *kitten* we are and really pay attention to what we're eating.12 -
I wonder how many of those people actually care, though. How many people want to lose weight, but not badly enough to actually control their intake? I fall into that category quite often. I wonder how many of those people, if you simply asked them what they thought a reasonable, healthy, serving size was... I wonder how close those people would be.
I guess what I'm trying to get at is this - are their portions that big because they don't know or because they don't care?
My take on the situation was it might be either case. I just observed that the coworker i was talking to thought I had plated a "diet" sized portion of food when it was in fact quite a generous portion from my point of view. I feel they just don't actually know how many calories they are consuming.6 -
I wonder how many of those people actually care, though. How many people want to lose weight, but not badly enough to actually control their intake? I fall into that category quite often. I wonder how many of those people, if you simply asked them what they thought a reasonable, healthy, serving size was... I wonder how close those people would be.
I guess what I'm trying to get at is this - are their portions that big because they don't know or because they don't care?
I fall into this category as well. I want to lose 5 vanity pounds...but not as much as I want that extra slice of pizza or second cookie.5 -
I can't help but be judgy sometimes at the lunch table at work. I get comments all the time on how, "you're always so good" and everybody has an excuse for why they can't do the same. We have a lovely cafeteria that serves huge portions of comfort food for cheap, and many of my coworkers buy it daily. There are always comments about how the portions are too big and how they always give too much, yet most everyone always clears their plates. The diet woo is fierce here as well. Someone is always trying some new trend or gimmick and telling everyone else to try it too! If I had a dollar for every time someone crashed and burned on a super restrictive diet I'd have many dollars. 4
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