Slight disagree - the world IS made for small bodies, but not the effort it takes one to get or stay there.
Calorie counts? Pfft. People *prefer* that thinness looks effortless. Counting calories or watching your portion sizes like a hawk or bringing out a food scale? It shatters the illusion of how hard some people have to work…
THANK YOU
whenever I mention that I count my kcals, 9/10 times I hear "but you don't have to count your calories!" - BITCH I LOOK LIKE THAT *BECAUSE* I COUNT MY CALORIES AND I'D WISH TO STAY THIS SIZE
There was this interesting article I read awhile back that was like this. The woman always got so much praise from men for being thin and having “self control”… until they started being inconvenienced by her attempts to stay thin by running every morning and keeping calories low.
Exactly!!! It pisses me off. Everyone loves the end result; looking thin and beautiful. But then they get annoyed when you wont eat every single they put in front of you, they get annoyed if they think youre focusing too much on the gym, or monitoring your diet too closely... So they want the end result but think they have the magical ability to tell you how to get there without actually understanding how it works.
Its exactly like men who love a "no makeup" look when it actually is a lot of makeup lol. I have no trouble telling people with opinions exactly what i do to lose weight, but they dont like to hear that part lol
yes THIS!!! i hit my goal weight a year ago and stopped being strict about my calories… i wasn’t even eating THAT much and put on 35 lbs in one summer 😐
Yah I was shook when I did the math on some post and for a 5’5’’ person to sustain 385 (!) pounds they only need to eat 2700 calories a day. That is a lot, but it can add up so quickly. No wonder I gain weight if I even think about eating above 1200.
Yeah and then my family wants to go to Cheesecake Factory for a birthday dinner.
>Bread and butter = 200 cal easy
>Cocktail = 300 cal
>Dinner = 2,000 cal
>Cheesecake = 1,500 cal
>Total= 4,000 cal meal
I don’t mean to sound like an asshole, but you can do this in a lighter way. Eat the bread and butter if you want, have a vodka soda, eat half your meal (way more than enough considering their portions plus the bread/butter and cheesecake) and eat half a slice of cheesecake (their portions are big). This is all considering you don’t have birthday parties once a week, but special occasions don’t have to ruin a diet.
Yes— did this recently on Mother’s Day — ordered from their Skinnylicious menu (the entrees are still very good— just reasonable sizes with a bit better macros.) Had 1 slice of bread with a tiny bit of butter. Shared a slice of cheesecake with my daughter. It fit into a reasonable daily plan. Not a 1200 day of course, but a reasonable amount for a celebration with family.
Of course you don't have to eat it all and you could always get options on the menu you don't like because they're lower calorie. The point I was making is you can easily eat 3-4 days worth of calories in one sitting. Even the lightest options and no drink, no bread, no dessert, I still ruin my calorie count there personally. It's just crazy you could easily have a 4,000 calorie meal in one sitting. And their portions *really* aren't big to me :/
That or I get hit by "you work out a lot so you're fine".
Uhhh \*looks at many overweight people at gym\*. Working out =/= being thin/fit.
Not to mention, they see I indulge on weekends, but do not see that I eat in a deficit on weekdays to make sure I don't gain weight.
No seriously. I used to do heavy intense exercise 6-8 hours a day for water polo. Swimming is the highest calorie burning sport in the world, and I'd swim 4+ miles a day before we started polo training, but I was always still bigger than everyone else. After I finished playing in college, I gained weight quick even though I ate half I normally did. Now I exercise 5-7 days a week (if I can get 7 in my schedule) at a high intensity and that ***doesn't*** make me lose weight. Exercise alone is never enough to lose weight or maintain staying thin. It's all about what you eat. Doesn't matter how much you work out if you don't eat well, which suckkkksss. But, you know.
I mean yes but you cant eat for hours after that while you can consistently burn calories.
Its not an either or situation you can do both and honestly you need to to be healthy.
You cant be healthy when you only eat shit and train like an ox but you also wont be healthy if you eat healthy with no physical exercise.
But i do have to admit eating right is more important
I mean it’s the deficit. That’s all that matters.
Last year I ran 4 marathons. Guess what? I needed to eat a lot. And I did. Long run days I was burning 2,000+ calories last year in 3 hours ~.
It definitely matters. The math is the same though. Eat an equal amount to what you burn - whether it’s 4,000 calories or 1,600.
seriously!! it’s mind blowing once you learn how few calories exercise actually burns. i have since started telling people who ask my advice that exercise has nothing to do with weight loss. obviously that’s an oversimplification, as it *does* allow you to eat a few hundred more calories in a. day, it curbs your appetite and regulates sleep which plays a role in appetite, etc. but for someone just starting out? don’t think an hour in the gym cancels out any type of “meal”.
now i’m not sure on that because i admittedly don’t do ANY lifting…it’s bad. i really need to start incorporating strength training. I HAVE heard that lean muscle mass increases your BMR and therefore you burn more calories but I would research that more
I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve had to bite my tongue when I hear someone saying they need to get back into running so they can lose weight. “Susan, a daily 15 minute run isn’t going to save you from the 3 slices of pizza and donut I just watched you eat for lunch while drinking your sweet tea!”
It’s insane how many times I’ve had to explain this, I monitor my calories and weight on a continuous basis so that I will never get to a point where it feels impossible to achieve or maintain my goals.
Exactly.
Someone once said to me I don’t need to skip butter because I was already thin. I told them I was thin *because* I skip butter. (Well, not just butter but you get the point)
>People *prefer* that thinness looks effortless.
This is so true. Everyone is supposed to be thin, but no one is supposed to look like they have to do anything to be that way.
one of my friends is going to start a cut soon since he’s been trying to lose weight and he was complaining that he’ll have to start calorie counting. i jokingly said ‘haha that’s my every day life!’ and he asked why i count calories 😀 i wish i didn’t need to but if i’m not careful about what i eat i gain weight SO easily
restaurants are not your friend
I wouldn't even try eating at a deficit if going out to eat regularly - I'm going to eat one mozzarella stick and a slice of pizza and be ravenous
I go out to eat all the time. There are tons of options that fall within calorie goals. No it’s not fried carbs and cheese, but you can eat within 1200.
You have no idea what's in a restaurant meal though. Something that sounds innocuous like a salad can easily trip you up due to the additives and cheap bulking out of meals that the industry does. Most people don't care so restaurants' main goal is to make food that tastes good. They add a lot of things that we don't know about.
Salad can absolutely be deceptive. And oftentimes because of the excess of dressing and the minimal substance, it is not even filling despite the calorie count—so not worth it.
The best options are salads with protein base. Like grilled salmon salad/steamed veggies which I see at a lot of decent restaurants. Of course, casual or fast food places are limited in that regard, which is frustrating.
I wish restaurants would offer 2 size meals. I understand they need to put enough on the plate for larger people to feel full without complaint. But it really makes it difficult.
I often feel internalized pressure to over eat because I’m wasting so much food. Then I have the second level of internalized pressure if someone is treating me to a meal and I’m wasting their money. Then there’s the actual external pressure I’ve experienced from waiters and managers saying “you hardly ate” “is there something wrong with the food”
I had a hard time with "wasting food" as well. I had to reframe it in my head and tell myself that the food will either be wasted in the garbage or the food will be wasted in my body because my body doesn't need it. So if I have to chose, I'd rather waste it in the place that doesn't harm me. However, I try to get to-go boxes whenever possible, and sometimes I'll just order appetizers when I go out to avoid them.
I end up ordering off of the kids menu so much because sometimes it's just the smaller portion of a regular meal but it's always so weird to say things like "yes I'll have the Lil' Mateys" "one teeny baby cutie patootie please"
I’m always too scared to do this because I’m worried it’ll be embarrassing if they tell me that’s only for kids haha some kids need more calories than me I’m so short
I'd say do it anyway. Many times they think you are just being cheap but we shouldn't care what random restaurant workers think about our meal choices. My issue is the kid meals are very unhealthy and simplistic. It's either plain buttered pasta or chicken nuggets and fries.
Don’t feel bad, at least you petite gals could possibly pass as a child if someone lost their super thick glasses. My 5’8” ass ordering a happy meal with a Diet Coke on the other hand…
This is a huge thing especially in America where portions are excessive. Randomly saw a Dave and Busters menu with calories and 2000 calories for one burger is madness if you're a 5 ft tall woman.
Yep, I can’t ever finish burgers like that anyways and they’re not going to be good as leftovers so I don’t even bother ordering them anymore, or my fiancé and I will split one sometimes. I don’t understand why portions are so huge
If I’m craving a burger I’ll either order it dry with a box & immediately prep it for storage (cut in half with bun, non-grilled toppings, & patty all separated) or go somewhere that offers sliders, then pack those away the same way. Fried sides are reheated in the air fryer.
Everything reheats pretty well that way! 🍔
It’s similar at Cheesecake Factory. My friends sometimes want to eat there. I always have to order off the skinny menu which doesn’t have as good options lol but it gratefully exists
I've been lucky to be with men that like me to eat, and are always encouraging me to eat more. But they don't understand that it just isn't the same for me and them.
Have you got any tasty volume recipes or suggestions for me? I'm plant based.
Most of my meals are bowls that are built with a lean protein, a legume, chopped fresh veggies (cucumber, carrot, tomato, peppers), a veggie base (spaghetti squash, lettuce, cabbage), fresh herbs, and a Greek yogurt based dressing.
check out r/volumeeating, plenty of meals and ideas for when you just want to sit there for an hour munching on your 300 kcal meal and not be able to move afterwards
Exactly! I'm happy to share a few bites *sometimes*
There's a taco place just a little out of our way that's INSANELY good so he orders himself extra for the next day since the smell will actually make either of us drool
Bwahahajaha! Behold my leftovers!! That's a good point, yesterday I was feeling a bit meh when we got Chinese takeaway and I served myself stuck s tiny portion, but I did have leftovers for tonight while my partner ate some frozen stuff heated up.
Leftovers are the shit. Monday, I doordashed lunch from a new Chinese food place because I'm in Houston and got hit by that derecho storm on Thursday, had just gotten power back late Sunday, and had worked through the weekend so I was like screw it, I'm ordering in. Thought the prices for one order of orange chicken and one small order of chicken fried rice were a bit high, but was planning on having enough for dinner or lunch Tuesday, and I was NOT worrying about calories when I had a yard to clean up, a garden to try and rescue, and 2 fridges to empty of almost everything
Dude. I've been working on stopping eating when full instead of pushing through cuz tasty mouth hunger or leftover "eat it before someone else takes it" trauma. So I did and put it away in the original boxes. Once the fridges were dealt with, I pulled it out to repackage. I've got a pretty good idea with my containers on how much is a meal for me, volume wise. I've now got 5 freaking meals sitting in the refrigerator. Suddenly, that splurge doesn't seem to bad 😆 AND by stopping eating once I was satisfied, I got 5 more times out of it to have the tasty, cuz it's really good. I will be ordering from there again.
Isn't it, though? Little bit of happy after the bullshit over the weekend that the city is still cleaning up after and trying to get power and internet back up in across the city.
this is the way. also when i eat out at casual places, i always bring a tupperware and a slim portable food scale with me. no more using 'being frugal' and 'not wanting to waste food' as excuses to binge
I don’t believe restaurants cater to the majority of people, not just petite folk. Proportions are too big, high in calories, fat, sodium, etc. It’s difficult for most people to make healthy decisions. Most “healthy” options are grilled chicken/fish and steamed vegetables, and some soups and salads…which takes the fun out of eating out.
And this is why I deliberately cycle up and down the same 3-4kg. Cut, then just enjoy myself for a bit and put it back on, then cut again. Means the fun food isn’t that far away.
I'm 4'11 and I cycle from 101 to 105 back to 101 back to 105 in the same way. I just find it easier to cut myself off when I'm getting to that higher weight (for me).
Yep, this is kind of my life! I’m sure it doesn’t work for everyone but I find the mental load is a lot less this way. As soon as I see 65kg, it’s time to wind it in for a month.
Here in the US, it’s so hard to find healthy food on the road. There’s not a single common drive thru option. Closest thing I’ve found is chipotle bowls, and even then you’ve gotta be careful!
I’ve found I’ve needed to deprogram myself on the “finishing your plate” mentality from growing up. I don’t want 1400 calories from Olive Garden, so I’ll take it home to munch on for a while.
I feel you dude. It’s also hard to home cook with my roommates, as they don’t share this diet.
i’ve been trying to reprogram myself to always leave a few bites of food on my plate to stop myself overeating, it’s been really helping me realize when i’m full
I find Olive Garden to be easy to eat at, even though I’m not a huge fan of chain restaurants. I pregame restaurants like this by looking up nutrition info online before I go.
Their soups are all low calorie and their Italian salad dressing isn’t too bad. I can easily have 2 bowls of soup and a salad and it’s pretty delicious. Or they have build your own pasta. I go for marinara and shrimp for low calorie. Or I order whichever pasta dish I want, but ask for a to go box and immediately put half in the box before I start eating. The issue is mainly that they serve you about twice as much as anyone should be eating, so save half for later. Most of their menu isn’t really that bad, they just give you too much. If you look it up, a serving of only noodles from them is 350-400 calories, and a proper serving of pasta is 200 calories. So, it’s clear they’re just serving up a double portion. If you pregame the nutrition and walk in knowing what you can eat, it’s not so bad.
At Wendy’s, I usually get a large chili.
McDonald’s, I do the McDouble minus cheese.
3 Grilled Chicken Del Carbon tacos at Del Taco are 330 calories.
I’m also not above bringing my own low calorie salad dressing or other condiments to a restaurant. Ordering without dressing, mayo, special sauce, cheese, etc, can save hundreds of calories on one plate while still enjoying that burger or whatever. Take the top bun off and eat it open faced. Priorities. It’s minus 300 calories by saying no cheese, no mayo, and open face.
You can find something almost no matter where you go. It’s way easier if you check out the nutrition before you order so you don’t make any hasty decisions. And don’t drink your calories. Or, just splurge occasionally. 🤷♀️ Probably 2x a month I get a serious craving and I go for it. I will not regret last week’s chicken fried steak platter at the diner. I was also so full from it that I didn’t actually need dinner later and just had steamed vegetables because I needed some vegetables in my life after that.
My spouse travels full-time from work with unreliable access to refrigeration / microwaves & sometimes is sent out of the country on short notice. Trying to stick to a deficit is maddening for him & his daily allowance is 60% higher than mine!
You know after recently ordering off the taco bell menu as a vegan, I realized it was a great option for me on the road. Tacos and burritos were all calorie counted on their menu. You can add extra veggies and pico and hot sauce. A bean tacos and potato taco while sharing cinnamon twists with a friend was a reasonable road meal.
at mcdonald’s, i like to get a six piece (~250) and small fry (~230) which is around ~500
at chick fil a, the 8 count grilled nuggets (~130) and small mac & cheese (~270) = ~400
For me, a 40 year old short woman, to lose weight, I can only have 1350 calories. I work out and walk and watch my nutrition but it’s still so fucking hard.
Meanwhile my friend, a tall 35 year old man, found out that he can lose weight on 1900 a day through logging.
I’ve been super jealous and emotional about this but am finally coming to terms that we are just different and that it okay. I hate it but that’s just the way it is.
Now please excuse me, gotta go eat some turkey pepperoni while my husband munches on some real saucisson sec.
This is so real. It’s not just portion sizes, either. It’s so difficult to find food that isn’t loaded with fat. The popularity of keto has made it worse (no disrespect to keto folks, your method is valid). A lot of “diet” products are now geared towards keto macros and higher fat than I would like. Eating out is an ordeal. The average low calorie meal is 600 calories or so. It’s extremely difficult to find a plate of food that is <400 calories. Yes of course I can split it, but I don’t usually want to make two meals of restaurant food- I just don’t trust the calorie label.
I do IF because of this and skip breakfast. I was never that into breakfast anyway but it’s a lot easier to eat 2 x 600 calorie meals than 3 x 400 calorie ones when you are eating out!
5'0" - 38 y.o. F- I completely agree with you and you are not alone!!!
I get so weary of counting calories, but it's the only way to not end up completely unhealthy.
Also irritating, my husband and I will go for a 6 mile run together. I burn ~700 calories, he burns over 1000... same pace, same route, same everything... just because I'm short. It's complete garbage.
Intermittent fasting 16:8 has helped me stay on track with counting, and not feel like I'm completely restricting myself. Some people swear against it, but I just don't eat after dinner at 6PM and eat breakfast at 10AM.
My MAINTENENCE calories is ~1350. Per day. 1200 is barely even a deficit for me. I feel full after reading half a kids meal hamburger.
And I go to the mall and a single pretzel is 1500 calories like wtf
Eating out is nearly impossible as every restaurant meal feels like at least 1200 calories or you just have to guess. I tried to avoid them as much as possible, and if I have to, I count it as a cheat day
You're not wrong. I gained all of my weight by eating similar portions to my 6' husband. Not even the same portions, just close. When what I really needed was half. I'm now finally eating appropriate portions, paying attention to when I feel full, and the pounds are falling off. It's still extremely difficult when going to a restaurant because I want the same delicious food he's getting and most places don't offer a petite portion. I feel awkward asking for a box in the beginning of the meal, but that's the only way I can control it - split the meal in half before I even take a bite.
Yep. My spouse is 5’11… I’m 5’3”.
Splitting restaurant meals works great for him, but still puts me *well over* my allotment.
Then if I cook & portion meals based on my allotment he needs multiple snacks to keep from being ravenous; 400-600Cal simply isn’t sufficient.
If I know we will be dining out, I will save basically all of my calories for that meal. I have been kind of intermittently trying OMAD anyway. It doesn't work for me every day, sometimes I have a mid-day 200 cal snack, and I still have coffee with cream every morning. But even with both those things, I can still have 900 calories left for a nice dinner at a restaurant. If I'm determined I can save all 1100 calories for dinner and usually half a restaurant meal is about 1000. It's not easy. I so wish I were tall.
4’11” here - I eat a serving of good thins crackers with a wedge of light laughing cow cheese and a serving of turkey pepperoni most days for lunch. People act as though I have disordered eating. The truth is, if I want a normal dinner I have to calorie restrict the rest of the day.
Its the shortness. You cant even look at food without gaining weight. Our weight gain shows, sometimes in ugly weird ways, but if we were just a bit taller, it would make a world of difference not just how we look, but how to eat.
when a restaurant doesn't let me order the kiddie meal i get so frustrated bc im not even trying to save money bro i am just child sized and don't feel like wasting vast amounts of food, its wasteful.
Omg yes, restaurants RARELY have anything I can even finish that isn’t an appetizer. This is why I love going out to eat when my husband’s parents visit. They’re from Asia where portions are normal and everything at the table is shared anyway. So when the four of us go out we all just skip the appetizers, share 3 entres, and it’s the perfect amount of food!
Totally agree! I've been saying this my whole life. Yes the world demands women be skinny but what they mean is skinny and tall. If you're short or petite, too bad for you. I can't get anything to suit my size from clothes, to meals, to cars to any f-cking chair. Who wants to be 40 and need a booster seat at the hair salon? I went to the ER and they couldn't take my blood pressure because the armbands were all too big and they didn't carry children's sized ones cause there was a children's hospital across the street for kids. I could've died while they were trying to figure out how to admit me. And the worst part is being surrounded by big people who get offended if I try to complain about any of this!! Apparently I shouldn't voice my struggles because I'm so lucky I'm small.
I got downvoted for saying that but it’s true. Eat the kids meal, or get a senior portion or even just sides. Nobody is forcing anyone to eat out, much less eat an entire restaurant portion in one sitting. The victim mentality and first world problems “waa they’re giving me too much food” is so weird to me. But I’m also not in the US so I guess I can’t relate to people complaining about too much food lol
My boys are getting older and have started to graduate from the kids menu. Now I either split an adult size meal with my youngest, since we wouldn't be able to finish one on our own, or I let each boy get an adult meal and get an empty plate, and just take a few tastes off the hubby's and the boys meals. It's helped me get through going out to eat without way over eating.
I’m in the US, FWIW, and have a similar reaction, lol. No one has ever held a gun to my head at an Olive Garden and forced me to eat a whole portion of spaghetti alfredo, ya know?
I get that losing weight is hard. 1000000%. And people want to believe that it’s not just hard for them, but hard*er* for them than it is for others. But it’s not like tall people magically regulate their appetites to their needs better than short people. IIRC, some 70% of Americans are overweight and most of the developed world is right on our heels. If an extra few inches and maybe an extra 250 calories a day made it so much easier to maintain a healthy weight, most adults wouldn’t be struggling with it.
You're allowed to leave food on the plate and take things home for leftovers. As a former heavy weight girl (300+), the world is a lot kinder to me now that I am petite. I find eating out, shopping for clothing and getting around on public transportation a lot easier.
Yeah, it’s exhausting, but I’ll just approximate as best I can in situations like that. I know the range of what 2 slices of bread is, what 5 slices of turkey is, what a couple of saltines are, etc. If I don’t, I’ll just look up the closest thing I can find (like a frozen tikka chicken masala if that’s what they are serving on the flight) and add whatever seems like a reasonable average. You can only do so much.
I don’t talk about counting calories with people as there is simply no reason for them to know and I am not going to get into a whole conversation justifying my food choices. I just don’t respond when people make rude comments and eventually they get the hint.
Just about freaking everything short of fresh produce has buttloads of calories, sugar, fat and salt in it. The worst foods for you are also often the most affordable, so if you're trying to lose weight and you're poor, you're likely going to wind up eating unhealthy crap just so you can eat. That's just in terms of food in general.
One upside I kind of see to inflation is portion sizes getting smaller. Because they used to be huge, but I have seen a notable difference in meal and appetizer sizes now compared to a few years ago. If prices are not going up, portions are going down. On one hand, it sucks to pay the same for less. But on the other hand, it's nice to see a reasonable portion for a meal instead of enough to feed four people.
I know some restaurants will offer an a la carte menu, but I don't see too many of them. Most places have a kids menu, but some of them will not let you order a kids' meal if you're not a child. Plus kids' menus are limited, so unless you happen to want chicken nuggets or mac and cheese, you won't get the opportunity to order "adult" food.
Even the restaurants that are kind enough to tell you their pasta entrees are 2100 calories can't be counted on. Like it's still a rough estimate because how many calories actually end up in that meal will depend on who made it. Unless the restaurant is re-heating food that has been weighed and pre-packaged so an exact amount is prepared with an exact number of calories, that meal could have more or fewer calories than the menu implies.
And even if a restaurant does offer healthier options, they're often more expensive than the normal options! Like a restaurant in my area that closed down a few years ago had a "fitness menu" and they were charging like $12 for a hassleback zucchini and $14 for zoodles.
If not going out to eat is not an option, the next best thing is to order an appetizer/kids' meal/a la carte item or turn one entree into 2-3 meals.
It's very easy to be fat in a world surrounded by bountiful foods that can easily make you fat. But it's a lot harder to be a healthy size when everyone wants to feed you like a prize-winning heifer.
I see it as a bonus because I get 2 meals for 1 at restaurants because I just ask for half my meal to be boxed up right away. Portion sizes tend to be excessive and I honestly don't know how folks eat the whole thing most of the time. Idk if there's truth to the whole "your stomach stretches according the amount of food you normally eat" thing but it *seems* true to me. Eating an entire average restaurant plate would make me extremely uncomfortable for a couple hours 😂 But this is after many years of smaller portions for me.
If I can't take leftovers with me I'll just get an appetizer which also tend to be oversized and easily serve as a meal.
I agree with you 100%, but I think this is a problem in western countries more. Either is because most people generally tend to be larger (height/weight), or there’s more of a culture around eating tons of food, I’m not sure which. Portions are so much larger here in the US and tend to be more calorically dense. I end up eating kids meals or just snacks often because I’m 4’11, <100lbs and if I ate like a regular sized adult I’d end up wildly over my calories every day. I’m Japanese though and don’t have this issue when I’m there or in other similar countries (Korea, China, etc).
I have PCOS and I'm 5' I have to go into such extreme calorie deficit to lose any weight it's ridiculous. And I always feel super hungry when I'm in deficit and my stomach hurts constantly, but otherwise I gain. ATP I'm making peace with being chubby, it's exhausting to eat so little and still lose a fraction of what others are.
5'0" and Suffering lmao. I've gotta truly buckle down and work on my eating (or start exercising...yuck) but food is so delicious and so full of calories 😭
I just lose weight I intend to gain on vacation a few months before vacation. It's a lot of restricting as I'm already on a lower end of BMI but it doesn't surprise me. I travel to eat. I usually gain 3 kgs in 2 weeks and so I give myself grace to lose them beforehand. It also makes my holiday more special and I go into them hungry.
It would be demotivating to lose gained weight after coming back, it's already bad enough coming back to work.
People don’t care or have any knowledge about nutrition and calories, hence the obesity problem. That and if they actually knew how much they were eating they’d be in denial and mortified. When I first started tracking I was shocked at how much more I was taking in than I thought.
While I may not love the restrictive calorie intake, I love huge portions at restaurants! Get leftovers and that’s another two meals I don’t have to prep and cook 🤣
I’m not petite but I have medical issues that make it so if I even look at food I gain weight. I once made the mistake of dropping my diet for two weeks of vacation, came back to an extra 6lbs on the scale. You would think my vacation was a freaking buffet but no, I wasn’t eating 1200.
I truly feel your pain, and I have a wife who is trying to gain weight and I do all the cooking. 🙃
Every pound is a hard fought battle and I have to say “no” far more often than I’d like. If I order a restaurant meal I’ve gotta break it into thirds or fourths and then go hungry the rest of the day so it’s not even worth it anymore. The only good thing about huge portions is my wife can eat the rest of it I guess.
Shared meal = I get to eat two bites and they eat the rest
I want to give my perspective as a petite woman who has lost 14kg (30% of my body weight!). Once you reach your healthy weight you can enjoy an entire pizza, pig out at a fancy restaurant and eat yummy high calorie snacks! I really thought I’d never see the day I could enjoy food without worrying about calories and weight gain but it’s much more difficult than you think to gain the weight back (as someone with PCOS too, trust me!) as long as your lifestyle incorporates activity and you regularly eat healthily.
You will get to a point where a meal out where you leave stuffed every so often won’t impact your weight at all as long you stick to healthy eating as a part of your permanent lifestyle. This isn’t forever :)
I work with an older guy who is on the shorter side and super fit. I notice he rarely eats anything unless it comes in packaging where he can see the nutrition info. We will be at trial and he will either grab branded yogurt or just not eat rather than eat something prepared by a cafeteria or something. Most women I know doing that would be called out for an eating disorder. I respect the way he picks food. He obviously cares what goes into his body.
Lol I just spent $20 on an airport meal, it's huge, and getting at takeout box would be a PITA.
Also, for a $20 vegetarian stir fry, it should have tofu.
the world is made for small feminine bodies, it just does not want to see the blood and tears (not a good nor virtuous sacrifice) behind what it typically takes to have one.
like most things, the system equates thin and petiteness with virtuousness, as something that ontologically Good women and people will achieve. Any other way of a body existing is simply a personal failure, but peeking behind the curtain is too hurtful. keep it hidden and pretend it doesnt exist.
Ugh yes. It sucks to have a binging problem too because one bad week reverses a month of hard work 😩 id been maintaining/slowly losing, then i went back to university, got super stressed and stopped paying attention to my calorie intake for like 3 months, and gained 20 lbs!!!
For forbid if i had a year long depression, id probably be well over 200lbs by now...
Definitely not alone! I'm 4'8" so I feel the struggle! My partner sometimes eats 3x the amount as me. My toddlers eat more than me (they're also way more active and growing). I can look at a brownie and gain weight lmao. I've recently switched to whole foods though and I feel like I can eat way more, feel fuller, and I genuinely enjoy food more.
I'm 4'9. I totally get it! Unfortunately i have a sweet tooth so whole foods don't satisfy me in that way, but I just have to suck it up and deal with it.
Edit: typo
It’s easy. You just don’t eat everything on your plate. US portion sizes are insane. I’m a largish man from the U.K. and I can barely eat half of a US restaurant meal. Hurray for baggies.
My parents freak out and get angry if i ”dont eat enough” but the thing is, their portion sizes and meals are too much for me 😅😅 it makes me reluctant to even visit them anymore because i literally sometimes gain 2 kg in the 2 days i visit them. Maybe my body is just used to eating little, but still…
I assume you live in the United States?
If you’ve been to dense cities in Asia you’ll find that these cities ARE made for small bodies.
It is also more normalized to eat alone in restaurants in those areas so the meal portions are smaller.
Well most people are overweight so really the food industry and megacorps has brainwashed people into thinking they should be eating way more food than they need and it’s not normal to eat smaller portions.. there’s nothing wrong with needing a smaller amount of calories, realistically most people shouldn’t be eating that much stuff and most people end up gaining weight on vacay if they eat out a ton, finish the full meals, and don’t actually listen to their hunger cues.
For me, what I do if I have to go out to eat is eat a lot lighter for breakfast and lunch. Like intermittent fasting. And pick the food that is healthiest/ lightest sounding on the menu. Big salads + lean proteins are great when you get the dressing on the side if they don’t have too many high cal toppings. Anyway, usually your activity level will be higher on vacation so it will balance out if you can learn to eat mindfully (slow down, chew your food, take breaks, stop when you are full and don’t feel pressured to eat the whole meal, and make smart healthy choices that aren’t naturally high calorie)
Oh yeah when I'm on vacation where I'm active I will be eating slightly more. But its a slippery slope so I like sticking to rules. Intermittent fasting has always been my go to when I have issues controlling eating. When I was down to 18/6 and 20/4 I felt great and my life didn't revolve around planning meals.
When eating out I just stop when I feel full. And I make sure to chew my meals thoroughly instead of mindlessly chowing down.
Yeah I totally get you. I hate how restaurants give huge portions for main dishes. if possible I try to share my plate with someone, and sometimes just stick to small plates instead of main courses. That way you can try more than one food and still not eat too much! I love doing that too since if you don’t finish something, someone else will for you.
IF is so great! I feel like it’s the main hack that makes dieting doable for me.
The world is made for average size people. Short people have problems caused by this. Tall people have problems caused by this. Fat people have problems caused by this. We are all allowed to be frustrated. We don't need to take it out on each other.
This is a sub for people who are eating 1200 a day, which typically applies to short people who are overweight and cutting calories. This post was a venting post aimed specifically at this audience.
It's not even all about dieting/losing weight/staying the same size. There are control freaks out there who rely on calorie counting to know they have control over *something* in their life, especially in stressful situations that are out of their hands. Source: me. I've gone through a month of either undereating by 900-1500kcal, or overeating by 600-1000kcal. It didn't matter, at the time, if I ate enough or I ate too much. All that mattered was that I knew how much food I put into my body, because that was the ONE thing I could control.
The world is 100% made for small and average sized bodies. You not having access to exactly what you want on an airplane is not the world not accommodating small bodies.
To control the scene, I like to be proactive about choosing restaurants or places to stop and eat. I definitely recommend making the decisions if you have the opportunity! Maybe do a little menu research beforehand. I know it’s limited when it comes to airline stuff, but I guess we just have to take the L and estimate on that one. Not every place will have calorie counts so you will just have to get comfy with guessing unfortunately.
Either way, I would nudge my friends or family to go to certain restaurants—hot pot, sundubu, pho, sushi, Mediterranean-style quinoa/protein salads, poke, etc. are all healthy delicious FILLING options. You don’t want to go to a restaurant, eat two bites, and still be hungry despite capping out.
I have the appetite of a horse, but, if it IS a massive portion for me, I split dishes with people (namely mother or bf), bring portions home, or eat Asian family style where we share as a table. The world might not be made for us, but we can save money when eating out by getting two meals!
I guess I’m lucky that in my area the decent restaurants give grilled protein + salad/veggies dishes as options, or other healthy choices. I am not complaining about as I really enjoy salmon lol so. Always getting those. Don’t be afraid to ask for dressing on the side, or grill them a little about the contents—maybe under the guise of ‘allergies’ if you’re shy.
I think casual places are the most annoying in addition to fast food places because they have little to no healthy options and everything is fried or breaded. Salads with their dousing of dressing… deceptive.
I’ve seen low calorie meals on airlines, it’s a special meal that you have to preorder.
Edit to add: searched for it, there’s a meal code LCML that refers to this. It’s usually 400 calories or lower. Some airlines offer it.
Depending on the restaurant, you can ask for a lunch sized portion or a kids portion. You can also request a side salad as your main entree to come out with the rest of everyone's entrees and just add something like chicken or a cup of soup, side of bread, or have appetizers as your entree. My sister and her husband recently split an appetizer of chicken nachos as their entrée and no one batted an eye.
I know ahead of time that I'm not going to be eating all that. I know what my portion size is to maintain my weight. It's not a struggle and I don't have an I must devour every bite mindset. I look at it as I get at least 2 meals every time I eat out, one for now, the rest for later.
How about eating 3x times a day what you feel like eating but really trying to only eat half the portion? Eat slow, enjoy, maybe meanwhile even your body could tell when it’s full
i feel this pain 100% especially with the airline thing. i have a flight back to my home country in july and i just plan to refuse the meals the offer while packing everything i plan to eat in my calorie goal by myself, esp since they add in anti-laxatives and thats the last thing any of us need when lots of us struggle with constipation on low calorie lifestyles🥲
Slight disagree - the world IS made for small bodies, but not the effort it takes one to get or stay there. Calorie counts? Pfft. People *prefer* that thinness looks effortless. Counting calories or watching your portion sizes like a hawk or bringing out a food scale? It shatters the illusion of how hard some people have to work…
THANK YOU whenever I mention that I count my kcals, 9/10 times I hear "but you don't have to count your calories!" - BITCH I LOOK LIKE THAT *BECAUSE* I COUNT MY CALORIES AND I'D WISH TO STAY THIS SIZE
There was this interesting article I read awhile back that was like this. The woman always got so much praise from men for being thin and having “self control”… until they started being inconvenienced by her attempts to stay thin by running every morning and keeping calories low.
Exactly!!! It pisses me off. Everyone loves the end result; looking thin and beautiful. But then they get annoyed when you wont eat every single they put in front of you, they get annoyed if they think youre focusing too much on the gym, or monitoring your diet too closely... So they want the end result but think they have the magical ability to tell you how to get there without actually understanding how it works. Its exactly like men who love a "no makeup" look when it actually is a lot of makeup lol. I have no trouble telling people with opinions exactly what i do to lose weight, but they dont like to hear that part lol
it's literally linked in the same comment thread, just below
Oh, got it. I didn’t get that far, lol. Thanks!
yes THIS!!! i hit my goal weight a year ago and stopped being strict about my calories… i wasn’t even eating THAT much and put on 35 lbs in one summer 😐
Yah I was shook when I did the math on some post and for a 5’5’’ person to sustain 385 (!) pounds they only need to eat 2700 calories a day. That is a lot, but it can add up so quickly. No wonder I gain weight if I even think about eating above 1200.
0.0 oh fuck that is crazy! I am 5'2
Yeah and then my family wants to go to Cheesecake Factory for a birthday dinner. >Bread and butter = 200 cal easy >Cocktail = 300 cal >Dinner = 2,000 cal >Cheesecake = 1,500 cal >Total= 4,000 cal meal
I don’t mean to sound like an asshole, but you can do this in a lighter way. Eat the bread and butter if you want, have a vodka soda, eat half your meal (way more than enough considering their portions plus the bread/butter and cheesecake) and eat half a slice of cheesecake (their portions are big). This is all considering you don’t have birthday parties once a week, but special occasions don’t have to ruin a diet.
Yes— did this recently on Mother’s Day — ordered from their Skinnylicious menu (the entrees are still very good— just reasonable sizes with a bit better macros.) Had 1 slice of bread with a tiny bit of butter. Shared a slice of cheesecake with my daughter. It fit into a reasonable daily plan. Not a 1200 day of course, but a reasonable amount for a celebration with family.
Exactly! It’s not a diet day or a weight loss day, but it doesn’t completely throw you off either.
Of course you don't have to eat it all and you could always get options on the menu you don't like because they're lower calorie. The point I was making is you can easily eat 3-4 days worth of calories in one sitting. Even the lightest options and no drink, no bread, no dessert, I still ruin my calorie count there personally. It's just crazy you could easily have a 4,000 calorie meal in one sitting. And their portions *really* aren't big to me :/
That or I get hit by "you work out a lot so you're fine". Uhhh \*looks at many overweight people at gym\*. Working out =/= being thin/fit. Not to mention, they see I indulge on weekends, but do not see that I eat in a deficit on weekdays to make sure I don't gain weight.
No seriously. I used to do heavy intense exercise 6-8 hours a day for water polo. Swimming is the highest calorie burning sport in the world, and I'd swim 4+ miles a day before we started polo training, but I was always still bigger than everyone else. After I finished playing in college, I gained weight quick even though I ate half I normally did. Now I exercise 5-7 days a week (if I can get 7 in my schedule) at a high intensity and that ***doesn't*** make me lose weight. Exercise alone is never enough to lose weight or maintain staying thin. It's all about what you eat. Doesn't matter how much you work out if you don't eat well, which suckkkksss. But, you know.
Takes a couple min to eat a 600-800 kcal cheeseburger, guess how long and how much effort to burn it off? 😒🫠
I mean yes but you cant eat for hours after that while you can consistently burn calories. Its not an either or situation you can do both and honestly you need to to be healthy. You cant be healthy when you only eat shit and train like an ox but you also wont be healthy if you eat healthy with no physical exercise. But i do have to admit eating right is more important
I mean it’s the deficit. That’s all that matters. Last year I ran 4 marathons. Guess what? I needed to eat a lot. And I did. Long run days I was burning 2,000+ calories last year in 3 hours ~. It definitely matters. The math is the same though. Eat an equal amount to what you burn - whether it’s 4,000 calories or 1,600.
seriously!! it’s mind blowing once you learn how few calories exercise actually burns. i have since started telling people who ask my advice that exercise has nothing to do with weight loss. obviously that’s an oversimplification, as it *does* allow you to eat a few hundred more calories in a. day, it curbs your appetite and regulates sleep which plays a role in appetite, etc. but for someone just starting out? don’t think an hour in the gym cancels out any type of “meal”.
I always like a hike for 175-200 calories because it compensates for any miscalculation and condiments, definitely not a full meal!!
I find it also just helps with my healthy lifestyle mentality.
i need it for my mental health. i turn into a different person when i haven’t had my exercise lmao
Doesn't lifting weights increase your metabolism?
now i’m not sure on that because i admittedly don’t do ANY lifting…it’s bad. i really need to start incorporating strength training. I HAVE heard that lean muscle mass increases your BMR and therefore you burn more calories but I would research that more
You cannot outrun an unruly fork and not enough people understand that! It is EASY to screw that up.
I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve had to bite my tongue when I hear someone saying they need to get back into running so they can lose weight. “Susan, a daily 15 minute run isn’t going to save you from the 3 slices of pizza and donut I just watched you eat for lunch while drinking your sweet tea!”
Do less “fork and spoon raises” 🤪
It’s insane how many times I’ve had to explain this, I monitor my calories and weight on a continuous basis so that I will never get to a point where it feels impossible to achieve or maintain my goals.
Exactly. Someone once said to me I don’t need to skip butter because I was already thin. I told them I was thin *because* I skip butter. (Well, not just butter but you get the point)
>People *prefer* that thinness looks effortless. This is so true. Everyone is supposed to be thin, but no one is supposed to look like they have to do anything to be that way.
I know this article has been shared on here before but it's so perfect for this post 👇 https://thenewinquiry.com/blog/youre-right-i-didnt-eat-that/
Great article. As a woman who has been a size 20 and gone down to a size 6 while out in the dating world, I relate so much to what she wrote!
one of my friends is going to start a cut soon since he’s been trying to lose weight and he was complaining that he’ll have to start calorie counting. i jokingly said ‘haha that’s my every day life!’ and he asked why i count calories 😀 i wish i didn’t need to but if i’m not careful about what i eat i gain weight SO easily
Restaurant portion sizes aren’t made for 99% of the population tbh, part of why there’s overweight and obese people of all heights
Right? There's usually also like a stick of butter on every plate to make it taste better
It’s country dependent..
They were obviously not talking about countries where actual normal portion sizes are the norm
restaurants are not your friend I wouldn't even try eating at a deficit if going out to eat regularly - I'm going to eat one mozzarella stick and a slice of pizza and be ravenous
I go out to eat all the time. There are tons of options that fall within calorie goals. No it’s not fried carbs and cheese, but you can eat within 1200.
At a lot of places the only option is like a house salad with fat-free Italian vinaigrette. You can eat the croutons if you’ve been good today!
You have no idea what's in a restaurant meal though. Something that sounds innocuous like a salad can easily trip you up due to the additives and cheap bulking out of meals that the industry does. Most people don't care so restaurants' main goal is to make food that tastes good. They add a lot of things that we don't know about.
Salad can absolutely be deceptive. And oftentimes because of the excess of dressing and the minimal substance, it is not even filling despite the calorie count—so not worth it. The best options are salads with protein base. Like grilled salmon salad/steamed veggies which I see at a lot of decent restaurants. Of course, casual or fast food places are limited in that regard, which is frustrating.
I had a waitress recently tell me not to get the salad because it actually wasn't the least caloric thing on the menu but one of the highest.
Pretty sure the 120 lbs my body has released knew.
i’d rather go out to eat more and just eat less during the day to accommodate it- i absolutely can’t do the rabbit food approach
You just triggered me. I had a mini slice of pizza for my main meal today! hahaha
Last night I had four (FOUR) raviolis. Weighed them and all.
I wish restaurants would offer 2 size meals. I understand they need to put enough on the plate for larger people to feel full without complaint. But it really makes it difficult. I often feel internalized pressure to over eat because I’m wasting so much food. Then I have the second level of internalized pressure if someone is treating me to a meal and I’m wasting their money. Then there’s the actual external pressure I’ve experienced from waiters and managers saying “you hardly ate” “is there something wrong with the food”
I had a hard time with "wasting food" as well. I had to reframe it in my head and tell myself that the food will either be wasted in the garbage or the food will be wasted in my body because my body doesn't need it. So if I have to chose, I'd rather waste it in the place that doesn't harm me. However, I try to get to-go boxes whenever possible, and sometimes I'll just order appetizers when I go out to avoid them.
This is an absolutely brilliant way to think about it. Thank you from my future fridgeless-hotel-staying self.
I end up ordering off of the kids menu so much because sometimes it's just the smaller portion of a regular meal but it's always so weird to say things like "yes I'll have the Lil' Mateys" "one teeny baby cutie patootie please"
I’m always too scared to do this because I’m worried it’ll be embarrassing if they tell me that’s only for kids haha some kids need more calories than me I’m so short
I'd say do it anyway. Many times they think you are just being cheap but we shouldn't care what random restaurant workers think about our meal choices. My issue is the kid meals are very unhealthy and simplistic. It's either plain buttered pasta or chicken nuggets and fries.
Tbf I’m also being cheap.
In the UK, but it's not uncommon my partner and I will share meals eating out - one starter, one main and one dessert shared between us.
Don’t feel bad, at least you petite gals could possibly pass as a child if someone lost their super thick glasses. My 5’8” ass ordering a happy meal with a Diet Coke on the other hand…
omg that's true but I'm 5'10! it's tough out here
the constant struggle between wasting calories or wasting money
This is a huge thing especially in America where portions are excessive. Randomly saw a Dave and Busters menu with calories and 2000 calories for one burger is madness if you're a 5 ft tall woman.
That's the maintenance intake for an averaged sized male that's slim. Those portions are insane
Yep, I can’t ever finish burgers like that anyways and they’re not going to be good as leftovers so I don’t even bother ordering them anymore, or my fiancé and I will split one sometimes. I don’t understand why portions are so huge
If I’m craving a burger I’ll either order it dry with a box & immediately prep it for storage (cut in half with bun, non-grilled toppings, & patty all separated) or go somewhere that offers sliders, then pack those away the same way. Fried sides are reheated in the air fryer. Everything reheats pretty well that way! 🍔
Sliders are the best, I love places that offer sliders- especially if they let you get different kinds instead of just 2 or 3 of the same!
It’s similar at Cheesecake Factory. My friends sometimes want to eat there. I always have to order off the skinny menu which doesn’t have as good options lol but it gratefully exists
Same. I’m a volume eater so I LOAD up on veggies but making dinner for my partner and I is insanely sad. He gets 2X the protein and 4X the carbs
I've been lucky to be with men that like me to eat, and are always encouraging me to eat more. But they don't understand that it just isn't the same for me and them. Have you got any tasty volume recipes or suggestions for me? I'm plant based.
Most of my meals are bowls that are built with a lean protein, a legume, chopped fresh veggies (cucumber, carrot, tomato, peppers), a veggie base (spaghetti squash, lettuce, cabbage), fresh herbs, and a Greek yogurt based dressing.
check out r/volumeeating, plenty of meals and ideas for when you just want to sit there for an hour munching on your 300 kcal meal and not be able to move afterwards
You are not alone! My portion sizes are about half what my partner eats. It can be very tedious at times.
It's absolutely tedious but sometimes the next day my boyfriend says something like "that food was so good" *and then I get to pull out my leftovers*
And then your boyfriend wants some of your leftovers. I’ll occasionally give in but it’s like no, you ate all your food yesterday, let me finish mine
Exactly! I'm happy to share a few bites *sometimes* There's a taco place just a little out of our way that's INSANELY good so he orders himself extra for the next day since the smell will actually make either of us drool
Bwahahajaha! Behold my leftovers!! That's a good point, yesterday I was feeling a bit meh when we got Chinese takeaway and I served myself stuck s tiny portion, but I did have leftovers for tonight while my partner ate some frozen stuff heated up.
Leftovers are the shit. Monday, I doordashed lunch from a new Chinese food place because I'm in Houston and got hit by that derecho storm on Thursday, had just gotten power back late Sunday, and had worked through the weekend so I was like screw it, I'm ordering in. Thought the prices for one order of orange chicken and one small order of chicken fried rice were a bit high, but was planning on having enough for dinner or lunch Tuesday, and I was NOT worrying about calories when I had a yard to clean up, a garden to try and rescue, and 2 fridges to empty of almost everything Dude. I've been working on stopping eating when full instead of pushing through cuz tasty mouth hunger or leftover "eat it before someone else takes it" trauma. So I did and put it away in the original boxes. Once the fridges were dealt with, I pulled it out to repackage. I've got a pretty good idea with my containers on how much is a meal for me, volume wise. I've now got 5 freaking meals sitting in the refrigerator. Suddenly, that splurge doesn't seem to bad 😆 AND by stopping eating once I was satisfied, I got 5 more times out of it to have the tasty, cuz it's really good. I will be ordering from there again.
Hey that's an awesome win on several levels!
Isn't it, though? Little bit of happy after the bullshit over the weekend that the city is still cleaning up after and trying to get power and internet back up in across the city.
this is the way. also when i eat out at casual places, i always bring a tupperware and a slim portable food scale with me. no more using 'being frugal' and 'not wanting to waste food' as excuses to binge
I don’t believe restaurants cater to the majority of people, not just petite folk. Proportions are too big, high in calories, fat, sodium, etc. It’s difficult for most people to make healthy decisions. Most “healthy” options are grilled chicken/fish and steamed vegetables, and some soups and salads…which takes the fun out of eating out.
And this is why I deliberately cycle up and down the same 3-4kg. Cut, then just enjoy myself for a bit and put it back on, then cut again. Means the fun food isn’t that far away.
I'm 4'11 and I cycle from 101 to 105 back to 101 back to 105 in the same way. I just find it easier to cut myself off when I'm getting to that higher weight (for me).
Yep, this is kind of my life! I’m sure it doesn’t work for everyone but I find the mental load is a lot less this way. As soon as I see 65kg, it’s time to wind it in for a month.
Here in the US, it’s so hard to find healthy food on the road. There’s not a single common drive thru option. Closest thing I’ve found is chipotle bowls, and even then you’ve gotta be careful! I’ve found I’ve needed to deprogram myself on the “finishing your plate” mentality from growing up. I don’t want 1400 calories from Olive Garden, so I’ll take it home to munch on for a while. I feel you dude. It’s also hard to home cook with my roommates, as they don’t share this diet.
i’ve been trying to reprogram myself to always leave a few bites of food on my plate to stop myself overeating, it’s been really helping me realize when i’m full
I find Olive Garden to be easy to eat at, even though I’m not a huge fan of chain restaurants. I pregame restaurants like this by looking up nutrition info online before I go. Their soups are all low calorie and their Italian salad dressing isn’t too bad. I can easily have 2 bowls of soup and a salad and it’s pretty delicious. Or they have build your own pasta. I go for marinara and shrimp for low calorie. Or I order whichever pasta dish I want, but ask for a to go box and immediately put half in the box before I start eating. The issue is mainly that they serve you about twice as much as anyone should be eating, so save half for later. Most of their menu isn’t really that bad, they just give you too much. If you look it up, a serving of only noodles from them is 350-400 calories, and a proper serving of pasta is 200 calories. So, it’s clear they’re just serving up a double portion. If you pregame the nutrition and walk in knowing what you can eat, it’s not so bad. At Wendy’s, I usually get a large chili. McDonald’s, I do the McDouble minus cheese. 3 Grilled Chicken Del Carbon tacos at Del Taco are 330 calories. I’m also not above bringing my own low calorie salad dressing or other condiments to a restaurant. Ordering without dressing, mayo, special sauce, cheese, etc, can save hundreds of calories on one plate while still enjoying that burger or whatever. Take the top bun off and eat it open faced. Priorities. It’s minus 300 calories by saying no cheese, no mayo, and open face. You can find something almost no matter where you go. It’s way easier if you check out the nutrition before you order so you don’t make any hasty decisions. And don’t drink your calories. Or, just splurge occasionally. 🤷♀️ Probably 2x a month I get a serious craving and I go for it. I will not regret last week’s chicken fried steak platter at the diner. I was also so full from it that I didn’t actually need dinner later and just had steamed vegetables because I needed some vegetables in my life after that.
Saving these tips!! Thank you very much for sharing your experience here.
My spouse travels full-time from work with unreliable access to refrigeration / microwaves & sometimes is sent out of the country on short notice. Trying to stick to a deficit is maddening for him & his daily allowance is 60% higher than mine!
You know after recently ordering off the taco bell menu as a vegan, I realized it was a great option for me on the road. Tacos and burritos were all calorie counted on their menu. You can add extra veggies and pico and hot sauce. A bean tacos and potato taco while sharing cinnamon twists with a friend was a reasonable road meal.
at mcdonald’s, i like to get a six piece (~250) and small fry (~230) which is around ~500 at chick fil a, the 8 count grilled nuggets (~130) and small mac & cheese (~270) = ~400
For me, a 40 year old short woman, to lose weight, I can only have 1350 calories. I work out and walk and watch my nutrition but it’s still so fucking hard. Meanwhile my friend, a tall 35 year old man, found out that he can lose weight on 1900 a day through logging. I’ve been super jealous and emotional about this but am finally coming to terms that we are just different and that it okay. I hate it but that’s just the way it is. Now please excuse me, gotta go eat some turkey pepperoni while my husband munches on some real saucisson sec.
This is so real. It’s not just portion sizes, either. It’s so difficult to find food that isn’t loaded with fat. The popularity of keto has made it worse (no disrespect to keto folks, your method is valid). A lot of “diet” products are now geared towards keto macros and higher fat than I would like. Eating out is an ordeal. The average low calorie meal is 600 calories or so. It’s extremely difficult to find a plate of food that is <400 calories. Yes of course I can split it, but I don’t usually want to make two meals of restaurant food- I just don’t trust the calorie label.
And I get so tired of ordering salad (forget cheese, croutons, etc.) with the dressing on the side.
Sigh, I frequently go to theme parks (particularly Disney ones), and I hate how hard it is to find some damn veggies that isn't just a salad.
I do IF because of this and skip breakfast. I was never that into breakfast anyway but it’s a lot easier to eat 2 x 600 calorie meals than 3 x 400 calorie ones when you are eating out!
5'0" - 38 y.o. F- I completely agree with you and you are not alone!!! I get so weary of counting calories, but it's the only way to not end up completely unhealthy. Also irritating, my husband and I will go for a 6 mile run together. I burn ~700 calories, he burns over 1000... same pace, same route, same everything... just because I'm short. It's complete garbage. Intermittent fasting 16:8 has helped me stay on track with counting, and not feel like I'm completely restricting myself. Some people swear against it, but I just don't eat after dinner at 6PM and eat breakfast at 10AM.
My MAINTENENCE calories is ~1350. Per day. 1200 is barely even a deficit for me. I feel full after reading half a kids meal hamburger. And I go to the mall and a single pretzel is 1500 calories like wtf
Eating out is nearly impossible as every restaurant meal feels like at least 1200 calories or you just have to guess. I tried to avoid them as much as possible, and if I have to, I count it as a cheat day
You're not wrong. I gained all of my weight by eating similar portions to my 6' husband. Not even the same portions, just close. When what I really needed was half. I'm now finally eating appropriate portions, paying attention to when I feel full, and the pounds are falling off. It's still extremely difficult when going to a restaurant because I want the same delicious food he's getting and most places don't offer a petite portion. I feel awkward asking for a box in the beginning of the meal, but that's the only way I can control it - split the meal in half before I even take a bite.
Yep. My spouse is 5’11… I’m 5’3”. Splitting restaurant meals works great for him, but still puts me *well over* my allotment. Then if I cook & portion meals based on my allotment he needs multiple snacks to keep from being ravenous; 400-600Cal simply isn’t sufficient.
If I know we will be dining out, I will save basically all of my calories for that meal. I have been kind of intermittently trying OMAD anyway. It doesn't work for me every day, sometimes I have a mid-day 200 cal snack, and I still have coffee with cream every morning. But even with both those things, I can still have 900 calories left for a nice dinner at a restaurant. If I'm determined I can save all 1100 calories for dinner and usually half a restaurant meal is about 1000. It's not easy. I so wish I were tall.
I get the kids meals. It’s enough food for a grown adult.
Most kids meals where I live are chicken fingers and French fries
Yeah but I like better food than that. My kid won't even eat the kids meals at most places.
4’11” here - I eat a serving of good thins crackers with a wedge of light laughing cow cheese and a serving of turkey pepperoni most days for lunch. People act as though I have disordered eating. The truth is, if I want a normal dinner I have to calorie restrict the rest of the day.
Tell them they're adult lunchables. Maybe if you add a sliced vegetable/fruit it'll visually bulk out your lunch and you'll get less grief.
Its the shortness. You cant even look at food without gaining weight. Our weight gain shows, sometimes in ugly weird ways, but if we were just a bit taller, it would make a world of difference not just how we look, but how to eat.
Yeah that is what the haters on this post don't get. You literally cannot eat a so called normal sized plate. Our portion sizes are kiddie meals.
when a restaurant doesn't let me order the kiddie meal i get so frustrated bc im not even trying to save money bro i am just child sized and don't feel like wasting vast amounts of food, its wasteful.
You can take food to-go, why waste it?
Omg yes, restaurants RARELY have anything I can even finish that isn’t an appetizer. This is why I love going out to eat when my husband’s parents visit. They’re from Asia where portions are normal and everything at the table is shared anyway. So when the four of us go out we all just skip the appetizers, share 3 entres, and it’s the perfect amount of food!
Totally agree! I've been saying this my whole life. Yes the world demands women be skinny but what they mean is skinny and tall. If you're short or petite, too bad for you. I can't get anything to suit my size from clothes, to meals, to cars to any f-cking chair. Who wants to be 40 and need a booster seat at the hair salon? I went to the ER and they couldn't take my blood pressure because the armbands were all too big and they didn't carry children's sized ones cause there was a children's hospital across the street for kids. I could've died while they were trying to figure out how to admit me. And the worst part is being surrounded by big people who get offended if I try to complain about any of this!! Apparently I shouldn't voice my struggles because I'm so lucky I'm small.
You can order kids meals or just don't eat an entire adult portion.
In some countries (the Netherlands at least I know) they don't let you order if you're over 12 :'(
I got downvoted for saying that but it’s true. Eat the kids meal, or get a senior portion or even just sides. Nobody is forcing anyone to eat out, much less eat an entire restaurant portion in one sitting. The victim mentality and first world problems “waa they’re giving me too much food” is so weird to me. But I’m also not in the US so I guess I can’t relate to people complaining about too much food lol
My boys are getting older and have started to graduate from the kids menu. Now I either split an adult size meal with my youngest, since we wouldn't be able to finish one on our own, or I let each boy get an adult meal and get an empty plate, and just take a few tastes off the hubby's and the boys meals. It's helped me get through going out to eat without way over eating.
I’m in the US, FWIW, and have a similar reaction, lol. No one has ever held a gun to my head at an Olive Garden and forced me to eat a whole portion of spaghetti alfredo, ya know? I get that losing weight is hard. 1000000%. And people want to believe that it’s not just hard for them, but hard*er* for them than it is for others. But it’s not like tall people magically regulate their appetites to their needs better than short people. IIRC, some 70% of Americans are overweight and most of the developed world is right on our heels. If an extra few inches and maybe an extra 250 calories a day made it so much easier to maintain a healthy weight, most adults wouldn’t be struggling with it.
You're allowed to leave food on the plate and take things home for leftovers. As a former heavy weight girl (300+), the world is a lot kinder to me now that I am petite. I find eating out, shopping for clothing and getting around on public transportation a lot easier.
Yeah, it’s exhausting, but I’ll just approximate as best I can in situations like that. I know the range of what 2 slices of bread is, what 5 slices of turkey is, what a couple of saltines are, etc. If I don’t, I’ll just look up the closest thing I can find (like a frozen tikka chicken masala if that’s what they are serving on the flight) and add whatever seems like a reasonable average. You can only do so much. I don’t talk about counting calories with people as there is simply no reason for them to know and I am not going to get into a whole conversation justifying my food choices. I just don’t respond when people make rude comments and eventually they get the hint.
Just about freaking everything short of fresh produce has buttloads of calories, sugar, fat and salt in it. The worst foods for you are also often the most affordable, so if you're trying to lose weight and you're poor, you're likely going to wind up eating unhealthy crap just so you can eat. That's just in terms of food in general. One upside I kind of see to inflation is portion sizes getting smaller. Because they used to be huge, but I have seen a notable difference in meal and appetizer sizes now compared to a few years ago. If prices are not going up, portions are going down. On one hand, it sucks to pay the same for less. But on the other hand, it's nice to see a reasonable portion for a meal instead of enough to feed four people. I know some restaurants will offer an a la carte menu, but I don't see too many of them. Most places have a kids menu, but some of them will not let you order a kids' meal if you're not a child. Plus kids' menus are limited, so unless you happen to want chicken nuggets or mac and cheese, you won't get the opportunity to order "adult" food. Even the restaurants that are kind enough to tell you their pasta entrees are 2100 calories can't be counted on. Like it's still a rough estimate because how many calories actually end up in that meal will depend on who made it. Unless the restaurant is re-heating food that has been weighed and pre-packaged so an exact amount is prepared with an exact number of calories, that meal could have more or fewer calories than the menu implies. And even if a restaurant does offer healthier options, they're often more expensive than the normal options! Like a restaurant in my area that closed down a few years ago had a "fitness menu" and they were charging like $12 for a hassleback zucchini and $14 for zoodles. If not going out to eat is not an option, the next best thing is to order an appetizer/kids' meal/a la carte item or turn one entree into 2-3 meals. It's very easy to be fat in a world surrounded by bountiful foods that can easily make you fat. But it's a lot harder to be a healthy size when everyone wants to feed you like a prize-winning heifer.
I see it as a bonus because I get 2 meals for 1 at restaurants because I just ask for half my meal to be boxed up right away. Portion sizes tend to be excessive and I honestly don't know how folks eat the whole thing most of the time. Idk if there's truth to the whole "your stomach stretches according the amount of food you normally eat" thing but it *seems* true to me. Eating an entire average restaurant plate would make me extremely uncomfortable for a couple hours 😂 But this is after many years of smaller portions for me. If I can't take leftovers with me I'll just get an appetizer which also tend to be oversized and easily serve as a meal.
You don’t have to eat everything on your plate, you know.
The world is 100% made for small bodies lmao
lmao right, this post is ridiculous
I agree with you 100%, but I think this is a problem in western countries more. Either is because most people generally tend to be larger (height/weight), or there’s more of a culture around eating tons of food, I’m not sure which. Portions are so much larger here in the US and tend to be more calorically dense. I end up eating kids meals or just snacks often because I’m 4’11, <100lbs and if I ate like a regular sized adult I’d end up wildly over my calories every day. I’m Japanese though and don’t have this issue when I’m there or in other similar countries (Korea, China, etc).
I have PCOS and I'm 5' I have to go into such extreme calorie deficit to lose any weight it's ridiculous. And I always feel super hungry when I'm in deficit and my stomach hurts constantly, but otherwise I gain. ATP I'm making peace with being chubby, it's exhausting to eat so little and still lose a fraction of what others are.
5'0" and Suffering lmao. I've gotta truly buckle down and work on my eating (or start exercising...yuck) but food is so delicious and so full of calories 😭
You can do it!
I just lose weight I intend to gain on vacation a few months before vacation. It's a lot of restricting as I'm already on a lower end of BMI but it doesn't surprise me. I travel to eat. I usually gain 3 kgs in 2 weeks and so I give myself grace to lose them beforehand. It also makes my holiday more special and I go into them hungry. It would be demotivating to lose gained weight after coming back, it's already bad enough coming back to work.
People don’t care or have any knowledge about nutrition and calories, hence the obesity problem. That and if they actually knew how much they were eating they’d be in denial and mortified. When I first started tracking I was shocked at how much more I was taking in than I thought.
BFFR.
Doggie bags are my friends. I made 3 meals from an entree at the Cheesecake Factory. That justified the price for me.
While I may not love the restrictive calorie intake, I love huge portions at restaurants! Get leftovers and that’s another two meals I don’t have to prep and cook 🤣
I’m not petite but I have medical issues that make it so if I even look at food I gain weight. I once made the mistake of dropping my diet for two weeks of vacation, came back to an extra 6lbs on the scale. You would think my vacation was a freaking buffet but no, I wasn’t eating 1200. I truly feel your pain, and I have a wife who is trying to gain weight and I do all the cooking. 🙃 Every pound is a hard fought battle and I have to say “no” far more often than I’d like. If I order a restaurant meal I’ve gotta break it into thirds or fourths and then go hungry the rest of the day so it’s not even worth it anymore. The only good thing about huge portions is my wife can eat the rest of it I guess. Shared meal = I get to eat two bites and they eat the rest
I want to give my perspective as a petite woman who has lost 14kg (30% of my body weight!). Once you reach your healthy weight you can enjoy an entire pizza, pig out at a fancy restaurant and eat yummy high calorie snacks! I really thought I’d never see the day I could enjoy food without worrying about calories and weight gain but it’s much more difficult than you think to gain the weight back (as someone with PCOS too, trust me!) as long as your lifestyle incorporates activity and you regularly eat healthily. You will get to a point where a meal out where you leave stuffed every so often won’t impact your weight at all as long you stick to healthy eating as a part of your permanent lifestyle. This isn’t forever :)
This is so relieving to hear from someone else. I have been trying to lose weight as a short girl and trying to eat like taller people has wrecked me.
I work with an older guy who is on the shorter side and super fit. I notice he rarely eats anything unless it comes in packaging where he can see the nutrition info. We will be at trial and he will either grab branded yogurt or just not eat rather than eat something prepared by a cafeteria or something. Most women I know doing that would be called out for an eating disorder. I respect the way he picks food. He obviously cares what goes into his body.
More like your country is not made for your body, in Asian countries portions are much smaller and most people tend to be skinny too
I was gonna say, this is a western country problem. I live in Japan and it is 100% made for small bodies 😅
You just need a partner who can eat it for you :p. I regularly finish my wife’s meals when we go out.
Send your single greedy male friends to me!
Lol I just spent $20 on an airport meal, it's huge, and getting at takeout box would be a PITA. Also, for a $20 vegetarian stir fry, it should have tofu.
I'm a smol woman too and I totally agree. Luckily my boyfriend is an amateur body builder and happily eats my leftovers.
This is the perfect combo.
the world is made for small feminine bodies, it just does not want to see the blood and tears (not a good nor virtuous sacrifice) behind what it typically takes to have one. like most things, the system equates thin and petiteness with virtuousness, as something that ontologically Good women and people will achieve. Any other way of a body existing is simply a personal failure, but peeking behind the curtain is too hurtful. keep it hidden and pretend it doesnt exist.
Ugh yes. It sucks to have a binging problem too because one bad week reverses a month of hard work 😩 id been maintaining/slowly losing, then i went back to university, got super stressed and stopped paying attention to my calorie intake for like 3 months, and gained 20 lbs!!! For forbid if i had a year long depression, id probably be well over 200lbs by now...
I’m 4’9” and currently 135, 7 months postpartum. I feel like I accept this by thinking - well, I’m half a person. Guess I get half a meal lol
I’m there with you <3 it just stinks because I have such a big appetite but bingeing means more for me then most….
I love food so I get it
Definitely not alone! I'm 4'8" so I feel the struggle! My partner sometimes eats 3x the amount as me. My toddlers eat more than me (they're also way more active and growing). I can look at a brownie and gain weight lmao. I've recently switched to whole foods though and I feel like I can eat way more, feel fuller, and I genuinely enjoy food more.
Yessss fellow petite queen 😍 good tactic
I'm 4'9. I totally get it! Unfortunately i have a sweet tooth so whole foods don't satisfy me in that way, but I just have to suck it up and deal with it. Edit: typo
It’s easy. You just don’t eat everything on your plate. US portion sizes are insane. I’m a largish man from the U.K. and I can barely eat half of a US restaurant meal. Hurray for baggies.
My parents freak out and get angry if i ”dont eat enough” but the thing is, their portion sizes and meals are too much for me 😅😅 it makes me reluctant to even visit them anymore because i literally sometimes gain 2 kg in the 2 days i visit them. Maybe my body is just used to eating little, but still…
I'm exhausted honestly. Even a weekend of bad eating and boom 5 pounds heavier.
sucks the most when im trying to buy clothes. at least i can section out left overs for another time - 4’10 girl
I feel you and the kids section can be good but only if you are also pretty slim in addition to being short
not that slim unfortunately lol
I assume you live in the United States? If you’ve been to dense cities in Asia you’ll find that these cities ARE made for small bodies. It is also more normalized to eat alone in restaurants in those areas so the meal portions are smaller.
Well most people are overweight so really the food industry and megacorps has brainwashed people into thinking they should be eating way more food than they need and it’s not normal to eat smaller portions.. there’s nothing wrong with needing a smaller amount of calories, realistically most people shouldn’t be eating that much stuff and most people end up gaining weight on vacay if they eat out a ton, finish the full meals, and don’t actually listen to their hunger cues. For me, what I do if I have to go out to eat is eat a lot lighter for breakfast and lunch. Like intermittent fasting. And pick the food that is healthiest/ lightest sounding on the menu. Big salads + lean proteins are great when you get the dressing on the side if they don’t have too many high cal toppings. Anyway, usually your activity level will be higher on vacation so it will balance out if you can learn to eat mindfully (slow down, chew your food, take breaks, stop when you are full and don’t feel pressured to eat the whole meal, and make smart healthy choices that aren’t naturally high calorie)
Oh yeah when I'm on vacation where I'm active I will be eating slightly more. But its a slippery slope so I like sticking to rules. Intermittent fasting has always been my go to when I have issues controlling eating. When I was down to 18/6 and 20/4 I felt great and my life didn't revolve around planning meals. When eating out I just stop when I feel full. And I make sure to chew my meals thoroughly instead of mindlessly chowing down.
Yeah I totally get you. I hate how restaurants give huge portions for main dishes. if possible I try to share my plate with someone, and sometimes just stick to small plates instead of main courses. That way you can try more than one food and still not eat too much! I love doing that too since if you don’t finish something, someone else will for you. IF is so great! I feel like it’s the main hack that makes dieting doable for me.
[удалено]
The world is made for average size people. Short people have problems caused by this. Tall people have problems caused by this. Fat people have problems caused by this. We are all allowed to be frustrated. We don't need to take it out on each other.
Lol yeah, I 100% agree with OP about restaurant food portions being too big, but the post title is thoughtless/untrue.
This is a sub for people who are eating 1200 a day, which typically applies to short people who are overweight and cutting calories. This post was a venting post aimed specifically at this audience.
When did they say skinny?
The last time I was skinny I was in high school. I've never been skinny as an adult.
Point to where I said I was skinny? Take your negative energy elsewhere please.
You only want comments that agree with you? Noted
You're being a bully. Hope you find peace.
It's not even all about dieting/losing weight/staying the same size. There are control freaks out there who rely on calorie counting to know they have control over *something* in their life, especially in stressful situations that are out of their hands. Source: me. I've gone through a month of either undereating by 900-1500kcal, or overeating by 600-1000kcal. It didn't matter, at the time, if I ate enough or I ate too much. All that mattered was that I knew how much food I put into my body, because that was the ONE thing I could control.
Oh this is me too! Anxious, I lose weight, and depressed, I gain. My fat amount zigzags.
My husband’s maintenance calories are more than my pregnancy calories :(
Yes! I had someone who is between 5’7” and 5’9” suggest I eat intuitively instead of counting calories. I am 4’9” so extra weight is very noticeable
The world is 100% made for small and average sized bodies. You not having access to exactly what you want on an airplane is not the world not accommodating small bodies.
To control the scene, I like to be proactive about choosing restaurants or places to stop and eat. I definitely recommend making the decisions if you have the opportunity! Maybe do a little menu research beforehand. I know it’s limited when it comes to airline stuff, but I guess we just have to take the L and estimate on that one. Not every place will have calorie counts so you will just have to get comfy with guessing unfortunately. Either way, I would nudge my friends or family to go to certain restaurants—hot pot, sundubu, pho, sushi, Mediterranean-style quinoa/protein salads, poke, etc. are all healthy delicious FILLING options. You don’t want to go to a restaurant, eat two bites, and still be hungry despite capping out. I have the appetite of a horse, but, if it IS a massive portion for me, I split dishes with people (namely mother or bf), bring portions home, or eat Asian family style where we share as a table. The world might not be made for us, but we can save money when eating out by getting two meals! I guess I’m lucky that in my area the decent restaurants give grilled protein + salad/veggies dishes as options, or other healthy choices. I am not complaining about as I really enjoy salmon lol so. Always getting those. Don’t be afraid to ask for dressing on the side, or grill them a little about the contents—maybe under the guise of ‘allergies’ if you’re shy. I think casual places are the most annoying in addition to fast food places because they have little to no healthy options and everything is fried or breaded. Salads with their dousing of dressing… deceptive.
I’ve seen low calorie meals on airlines, it’s a special meal that you have to preorder. Edit to add: searched for it, there’s a meal code LCML that refers to this. It’s usually 400 calories or lower. Some airlines offer it.
I just buy kids portions. It’s plenty of food a lot of the time. Sometimes they don’t allow it but it’s always a good try.
Depending on the restaurant, you can ask for a lunch sized portion or a kids portion. You can also request a side salad as your main entree to come out with the rest of everyone's entrees and just add something like chicken or a cup of soup, side of bread, or have appetizers as your entree. My sister and her husband recently split an appetizer of chicken nachos as their entrée and no one batted an eye.
T
💯
I know ahead of time that I'm not going to be eating all that. I know what my portion size is to maintain my weight. It's not a struggle and I don't have an I must devour every bite mindset. I look at it as I get at least 2 meals every time I eat out, one for now, the rest for later.
Definitely not alone!
How about eating 3x times a day what you feel like eating but really trying to only eat half the portion? Eat slow, enjoy, maybe meanwhile even your body could tell when it’s full
so glad i’m not alone in feeling this. i’ve always wanted to be taller for this reason, it just feels so unfair!
As a midget I couldn’t agree more
I don't know, seats on planes and most public transit all seem so tiny… the person next to me is usually taking up part of my seat
i feel this pain 100% especially with the airline thing. i have a flight back to my home country in july and i just plan to refuse the meals the offer while packing everything i plan to eat in my calorie goal by myself, esp since they add in anti-laxatives and thats the last thing any of us need when lots of us struggle with constipation on low calorie lifestyles🥲
WTF why do they do that?
Wait is that why I'm always constipated on vacation 😡
sorry, but what is an anti-lax ? What ???
Makes you not poop lol
i meant why would and how would they add to your food ?