Does this sound like a lot of food?

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After a strange conversation with my 78yr old Mum, I thought I'd come on here and ask for opinions on this. Since Saturday, I've been taking my healthy eating very seriously. I was at a party on Saturday and the image of my fat face, in the photos, has spurred me on to trying to lose a few pounds.

So, I was telling my Mum what I had been eating and she said that it sounded like an awful lot of food. I was flabbergasted. I'm actually feeling a little hungry and think I might be eating less than I should be, to lose weight at a reasonable rate. I think if I went to WeightWatchers, they'd tell me that I wasn't eating enough calories. I can't imagine I'm consuming anywhere near 2000kcal.

So, here's what I told her I ate (each day will vary slightly, but this is a good example):

Breakfast - small bowl of home mixed muesli with soya milk and glass of orange juice
Mid morning snack - banana and herbal tea
Lunch - small bowl of home made soup, made with veg and lentils
then some salmon or prawns, broccoli and rice noodles (very small helping on a side plate)
Dinner - another bowl of soup
then salad (lettuce, tomato, cucumber) and omelette or falafel wrap or tomato risotto, etc, cup of tea
Supper - muesli with soya milk

I've had no biscuits, sweets, crisps, chips or desserts and no drinks other than water, orange juice with my breakfast, herbal tea and the occasional ordinary tea, with soya milk. The soup I make is just veg (courgette, pepper, onion, sweet potato, carrot, tomato, etc, I vary what I put in it), lentils or beans and a veg stock cube. My dinner plate is half filled with the salad (no dressing). The only fat/oil I'm consuming is in the fish and the nuts/seeds in my muesli (which is mainly oats, with sunflower and pumkin seeds, almonds and raisins) and the occasional egg and I use a tiny amount of oil to make an omelette, risotto or falafel. My omelettes are made with 4 eggs for the 3 of us and I eat about a third of it. I only have these once a week. And I'm not taking a huge bowlful of muesli, only enough to fill a cup (not a mug). I'm taking 2 courses at my main meals, to try to fill myself up. But, the soup isn't calorie laiden, contains minimal fat and is also full of nutrients. I snacked yesterday. I ate 5 pecans! I'm having muesli at supper time, because this time is my downfall and is when I might normally have a packet of crisps and some chocolate.

Is my Mum being daft? I'm actually a little upset that she thinks I'm over-eating. She is double my age and obviously needs to eat less than me, but I think she thinks I need to be starving myself to lose weight, when I know that is not the way to go at all.

Would not sound that much for me, but it depends on how much oil you use for the prawns/omelette/Falafel and so on and how big the portions are.

If your mom is used to high calorie food, it may look very much to her, because one normal evening meal with high calorie food or a McDonalds Menu is enough for the whole day.

I have some food issues, so many already prepared meals from restaurants or processed food from the supermarket are not my kind, specially with falvor enhancers, making things taste overwhelming for me. Fat also enhances the taste of food, so i´m not as sensitive as with flavor enhancers, but if there´s too much and the taste gets to intense, I also cant stand it. I am also a bit lazy, so i do not cook that much often as I should, which leaves me to unprocessed food as vegetables, fruits (But not too many, because i feel weird if eating too much sugar.), nuts, Milk products, whole grain bread and so on... Actually, I am eating half of the day and using my working break not for eating, but to cut everything in small pieces so i can eat afterwards during work. ^^

It seems to other people, that i would be eating very much because of me eating every second time they enter my room ^^, for example today i had during my first 5 working hours a slice of bread with a cottage cheese spread, a small strawberry yoghurt, a kiwi, a green paprika (?) (Dont knwo the word, like a Chilie plant, but not hot/spicy.), two carrots, a boiled egg, half of an cucumber and some cashew nuts and so on...

If i wanted to eat my day amount separated in only one or two meals, as most people are used too, my stomach would collapse because it would be undersized to the amount of food. Also, if you eat much salad (or unprocessed vegetables), you have to make smaller portions because crudites are harder to digest for your system. If you eat too much of it in the same time, the body cannot exploit all of it, letting many of the ingredients just go unused through your body, so you would again have to eat more to receive the same ingredients.

Normally i just care if my food is natural and unprocessed, and most of the things you eat seem fine to me. In your case, watching calories, there may be some "traps" regarding on the size of the portions. So Muesli and lentils are both very healthy and full of vitamins and important ingredience, but they have both very much calories. So it depends on how much muesli and lentuils are in the milk/soup. Same goes for the banana. As you mentioned yourself it makes a huge difference if the Salmon/prawns/broccoli/omelette/Falafel/Risotto are cooked with (too much) oil or even deep fried with bread mantle and so on. That can easily double the amount of calories of your food. There are also big differences with orange juice in the supermarket: There is normal orange juice, just pressed and added water and else there is "orange juice" wherein the water is reduced by mean so it tastes sweater and then with added sugar and extra flavor to make it taste even more sweeter. (Making my mouth tasting half of the day like some orange flavour shampoo. -.-) Same goes for the herbs tea, if you buy it processed in bottles there is often a huge amount of sugar/flavour in it.

But yes, the less calories your food has, the more often you have to eat. ^^

...Hm .

No it's not a lot at all.

Much of what you eat and drink, the vegetables and tea is like healthy filler which will help make you feel full while consuming a low amount of calories, well perhaps other than the carbs in sweet potato and maybe carrots but it depends on how much you are eating I guess. Most people could eat and drink all of that without problems. Does the tea have sugar in it? How much beans do you think you consume per day? Beans have a lot of carbs for such a small serving.

The whole diet seems pretty typical regarding calories from fat, carbs, and protein consumed by the average person I believe. Your diet sounds to be slightly in the high end regarding carbs, and that is not necessarily a bad thing or odd, but some people do really well by eating less like around 100-150 carbs to lose weight and maintain.

It is possible you can still eat this way, lose weight and maintain your weight lost just by doing exercise or exercising differently than now. But what about your sodium intake? Too much sodium retains water which can cause temporary weight gain and give off a bloated look. Soup broths are often times filled with sodium, milk tends to have a bit like I think 5% per cup, and meat can have quite a bit especially if it is canned.

Some people say carbs past a few hours before bed is not a good idea. I've read that it causes a spike in your insulin, which stops fat loss and can cause weight gain while you sleep basically. Milk and Muesli is usually a very carb dominant (a wild guess would be around 40 some carbs**)meal so who knows if changing your supper time, or making it up to have less carbs, or eliminating it altogether may help. I've also read that eating pretty much anything that qualifies as a meal after a few hours before bed can stop your body from burning fat. I never read into this stuff that much myself, since I can eat pretty much whenever I want with no ill effects, but perhaps as I get older I would be in better hands knowing more about this starting out at an early age.

I eat like this sometimes, if I'm like, unrestrained. So no, you're not eating all too much.

Anyway, I think your grandmother's impression probably comes from the fact you're eating like 5x a day. Lots of older people aren't used to such meal schedules. Scientifically, there's a bunch of papers arguing about this, but basically, I think the only advantage that comes from the whole "six small meals a day" thing is the psychological effect of satiety. Older people aren't used to those schedules. I remember reading of a person from USA that went to China, and was in a Chinese Olympic weightlifting training hall, and he told the coach about the whole six meals a day thing in Western culture, and the coach didn't get it. The coach didn't understand how they found time to eat. The Chinese team did just normal 3 meals a day. So I think that's partially where your grandmother's thing is coming from.

Anyway, your diet doesn't look bad, but I don't know if falafel would be too wise to eat, as it's deep fried, right? Also, you might do better with more eggs, your body needs some good fat (not veg oils like soybean and corn oil) and cholesterol to make hormones. Don't go totally Atkins/ketogenic/whatever, but a little bit of healthy fat is OK. Olive oil, butter, etc. The main thing too is besides diet, you should really try to get some sort of physical activity in, even just more walking or something.

there is a book . 'you on a diet'

I don't think thats a lot. Then again, some people eat very little and to them it would be. It sounds absolutely normal to me.

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Thanks for your input guys. I think my Mum was just confused because I mentioned the banana and, as it wasn't part of a meal, she saw it as another meal, when it's just a snack. And also because I'm having soup as starters, twice a day. But, my main course portions are small, so I really am filling up on veg. I think her meals tend to have more fat/calories than mine as well an she eats red meat, fowl, dairy and has chips (fries) a few times per week. The only animal products I consume are fish/shellfish and eggs and that would be once a day, at most and i don't even buy chips. I'm really not consuming much fat and I'm having minimal 'bad' fats. My unhealthiest day was yesterday, as I had dinner at my parents' house.

Schneekugel, you asked about my drinks. My orange juice is just that (well, it's pure orange juice concentrate, reconstituted with water, prior to being packaged). There are no additives whatsoever in it. My herbal tea is just fennel, nothing added. I really am a bit of a health nut at times and don't tend to eat many processed foods. I also have an allergy to a group of preservatives, so I can't take many soft drinks anyway, it has to be natural. The only processed food I've been eating has been the falafel, but it's one of those packs from a health food store, with no nasties in it.

Anyway, the proof of the pudding is in the eating (pardon the pun). So, far I've not lost any weight, but my belly has gone and I've lost 1% fat (I have fat analysis scales), which is quite a bit. I've not been doing any extra activities so far, as I've had a cold, so I intend getting more active this week.

ValentineWiggin,
I'm quite alarmed that you think my muesli is a sugar fest. It's just oats (low GI, very nutritious and proven to lower cholesterol), nuts, seeds and about 5 raisins, (I buy the raw ingredients and mix it myself). The soya milk is the unsweetened kind and my orange juice is the tiniest glass ever, and I have half orange/ half water. Lentils and rice noodles are not made of sugar, they are low GI and lentils are a very good source of protein, when combined with a grain. The bulk of my meal is just veg, so the majority of my food is plant based. Most of my evening meals are vegan, it's just lunch that might have some fish and I might have an omelette once a week for dinner, no more than that. As for the falafel, I've had it once only, and just 3 balls in a wrap. It was cooked in a tiny amount of sunflower oil (not deep fried) and it was the only fried food I've had.

ValentineWiggin
I really have to disagree with you on this one. I'm not eating a lot of sugar. Carbohydrate =/= sugar. The carb in oats, rice and lentils is starch. It breaks down slowly and they're considered low GI foods. I know about the myth of protein combining. I know you don't need to eat them together in the same meal, but you do need a good protein source in your diet. Grains and legumes provide that, whether eaten at the same meal or not. Do you only eat veg, nuts and seeds and no grains or legumes? That's too extreme for me, I'm afraid. I was vegetarian for 10 years and vegan on and off too, but I would never go to the extremes of excluding the best vegan source of protein. As I said, I'm not overloading on them anyway, my diet is way more than 50% veg.

Actually oats do spike your blood sugar - the same amount that white rice, white wheat flour or dairy and various products will (which is why those who have blood sugar issues are recommended to stay away or eat all of those sparingly). It's one of those things like wheat or dairy - a low glycemic index but a high glycemic load.

It will also be converted immediately to sugar in the body, and any excess that is not used in the next 1-4 hours is stored immediately as fat. A complex carbohydrate is still essentially sugar once converted. There is nothing wrong with that, but most people already eat too much of that sort of thing - unless you have a lot of muscle or are extremely active, there is not much need for those things at every meal, - but if they are present, they should be the minority.

The majority of your food is nutrient dense and calorie low. Your mother is probably used to nutrient depleted and calorie high foods, hence the confusion.

Peronally I think you would benefit from a little bit of things like coconut milk, avocado, nuts etc in your eating. As well as a little bit more animal product - I notice you have seafood but nothing else (unless there are ethical reasons for this?).
Fat and protein are filling, as is plant matter, and will stop you from being as hungry.

You should ditch everything except for what you ate in "lunch" and "dinner" if you ask me.

Especially the soymilk, nothing but poison.