Kindly returned in favour, my dear!
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A lot.
I eat a lot.
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I just eat whenever I feel hungry until I feel full lol.
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Damn! LOL!
I have bad food allergies so I pretty much follow a strict vegan and gluten-free diet (not by choice). My portions are actually pretty big but itās because its primarily vegetables and rice and tofuā¦some variation of thatā¦just so I can get in calories. I eat five meals a day about 300-350 calories each but they fill entire plates. Not a bad lifestyle even without the allergies. Iām a normal weight.
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I usually donāt end up eating much (Iām a slow eater, which apparently makes your stomach feel full faster?), so I keep my portions relatively small. Unless I feel extra hungry that day, or its my favorite meal and take a bit more XD
I do eat 3 meals a day + snacks in between. Snacks vary between fruits (mainly bananas, apples, kiwis, grapes), chocolates or cookies, yogurt, mixed nuts (peanuts, almonds, pecans, cashews, etc.), granola or protein bars, nutrition drinks, and so on.
Iām a normal weight bordering on underweight, if that helps.
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I used to have an incredibly disordered relationship with food, and I used to work in complete extremes. So, I would overeat until I felt ill and then I would feel like because of the overeating I wasnāt supposed to eat and then Iād sort of flip flop unhealthily between the twoā¦ it was justā¦ not good.
Iām religious, and so I recently tried fasting (as a form of prayer), and that was also a shift for me as well. It helped to differentiate between that kind of hunger where you feel like you need to eat but itās really just you want to eat, and genuinely feeling hungry and needing to eat. (The first kind of hunger was really what led me down to overeating/undereating cycle that I used to be in.) But I think the experience of fasting helped me to actually learn myself a little better when it comes to my discipline with food.
Now, Iāve been trying to eat more intuitively, so I am flexible, but I always start off small to prevent me from overeating. I tend to eat smaller portions to give myself time to really process āam I full, or am I still hungry?ā If Iām still genuinely hungry then Iāll eat a little bit more. (I eat 2/3 meals a day and I donāt snackā¦ because snacking is a rabbit hole for me.)
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I like the practical aspect of fasting in religion, as well:
this is being chewed out for fasting religiously while oppressing others
Isaiah 58:3-7
3 āWhy have we fasted,ā they say, āand you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?ā āYet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers.
4 Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists. You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high.
5 Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for people to humble themselves? Is it only for bowing oneās head like a reed and for lying in sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD?
6 āIs not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelterā when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
A lot of people take this to heart, when they fast, that they do it more than for themselves. Itās a big selling point to fasting for health benefits in religious circles, especially those older than me.
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Whilst I was discerning whether it was suitable for me to fast, I actually heard a priest who talked about this. He said, āif youāre fasting and your motivation is to get fit, then youāre dieting. Health benefits are a plus, but it shouldnāt be like a 2 for one deal.ā Which I found very interesting.
I actually had to do a lot of research a lot of preparation, I had to get supervision to do it because of my previous situation. It was really an eye opener to meā¦ Like there are rules on who can fast and who canāt, and oh my goodness just so much I didnāt know about.
I actually donāt like to talk about my fasting like at all. I only mentioned it above because that was sort of the catalyst for me to get to the point that I am at right now with my eating habits. 
Itās still new to me, and honestly, I wasnāt expecting it to change my relationship with food (I did it for discipline in another area of my life.) But yeah, I kind of find it embarrassing to talk about because people act weird when you bring it up (happened to me once at work) and I donāt want people to feel like they have to make an exception for me, or if Iām setting myself apart.
It was definitely a humbling experience, and I think a huge part of fasting is having the wisdom to know when to stop fasting too. But I learnt so much from doing it, it was really interesting.
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Well, itās doublely hard for those who are very strict on ānot letting their left hand know what their right hand is doingā. Charity isnāt supposed to be for uplifting me and my brand, so the aspect where someone fasts to feed the poor, to send someone to school, to buy rabbits for widows to raise, for teaching people (especially women in 3rd world nations) to read are lost.
But it makes a lot of opinionated older people sound like Karens who do not care because they wonāt be open about the things theyāve found works for uplifting others.
So, I approach it with generalities and without any interest in gaining merit from what I do, mostly. Well, as much as a human can. Lol
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sometimes i just have 2 meals per day. like idk i just get full from the littlest shit possible
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Do you find that annoying or not at all?
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I just try to wait till I am truly hungry, use small plates, eat slowly and finish as soon as Iām okay. For me, stopping the weight gain means fasting and I am not willing to mess with my head for the sake of my waistline again.
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Honestly college has thrown my eating habits off course so I canāt even say that I eat regularly. In fact, just yesterday I didnāt have a single full meal unless you count those chocolate nutrition shakes you find in the grocery store 
Anyway, my general eating schedule is lunch followed by dinner. I may have a small ābreakfastā consisting of either a Twix candy bar or cup of hot chocolate, but on a lot of days I donāt eat anything in the morning. I also donāt eat any snacks in between. I may not lose weight due to not eating snacks, but at least I donāt gain extra weight. If Iām really not feeling hungry that day, I might even skip dinner or lunch. It depends on my sleeping schedule too because I am sometimes nocturnal
When it comes to the actual portions, Iād say I donāt eat a lot unless Iām at a buffet or am feeling super hungry. I didnāt have breakfast this morning and had been walking and jogging to classes, so when lunchtime came around, I treated myself by eating a bowl of ramen with an extra serving of noodles and a bottle of soda. I forgot how big the portions were though so I had trouble finishing the whole bowl 
but donāt worry, I managed to finish everything. If I werenāt feeling extra hungry I would be having a bowl of ramen with no extras and just a cup of water. And if Iām at a buffet, Iād usually grab two paper plates full of food plus a dessertāusually yoghurtāand a drink. Again, not my normal portion 
So what does my normal portion look like? A main course and a drink. Thatās it. No appetizers, no desserts, no extra side dishes. Sometimes when I order, I even ask them to reduce the portionsāthereās this place on campus that sells fresh rice bowls, and I would always ask for just one cup of rice instead of two cups because I legit canāt finish the rice bowl if itās the normal size. Sometimes I donāt even finish it with the reduced portion because yes, I usually donāt eat that much.
Also Iām an Asian in the US. Yāall have gigantic portions compared to what Iām used to back home so in some restaurants, what youād call an appetizer, Iād consider it a full meal portion. Iād just order an appetizer and a drink, or eat half a main course and take out the rest I canāt tell you whether itās big or small because itās honestly subjective, in one country I could be a big eater and in another I could be dieting.
As for flexibility, I am more flexible during the weekends and during holidays. And by flexible I mean I can also eat way less if not eat way more 
Iām more strict with it during schooldays.
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For me, portion control has changed a lot over time. When I was younger (teens/twenties) I was lucky I had a fast metabolism and could eat as much as I wanted and never gain weight.
For the last 10 years (my thirties) my partner has been a rugby player and needs to eat A LOT so he can crash into people. As we mostly ate together, I would eat a lot too. But with a slowing metabolism, that wasnāt good! So about 3 years ago I started fasting, meaning I just eat one meal a day (dinner with my partner) and fast for the remaining 22/23 hours a day.
It means I can still have enormous portions during that one meal a day and get the right amount of calories for my size/activity levels. Iām a healthy weight for my height.
Fasting can be controversial with lots of polarising opinions, so I wonāt start trying to convert anyone, but I personally love it.
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Well, part of it is when itās incorrectly done, it actually leads to weight gain, and the other side of that is people pretty instinctually fear starvation. Weād like to think that food insecurity is just from a lack of food.
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Oh definitely - I used to have a phobia of being hungry. Not starvation, just not eating for a couple of hours!
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Thatās what my husband does, but I can only skip breakfast. I just get too hungry and canāt work through it. Overall, I think one meal a day is where I should be at. But then it would mean in a few years, I would have to stop eating every second day and so forth and so on, to keep the weight down. And that just doesnāt sound normal.
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Thatās why a lot of plans start talking about nutritionally dense, but calorically low options. And anything from various flushes to at least drowning in drinking water.
Some people DO release fat stores when they balance out the vitamins and minerals they are low on: not just eating things with those vitamins but making sure they eat things that help it bind, like D and A isnāt going to absorb without fat, and thereās a connection between D and Calcium, as well.
Itās also fairly well known that environmental toxins and other waste products often get stored in fat tissue, and so at the least increasing water helps the kidneys flush it out before it goes to fat, which allows the fat stores to release more than what they retain.
Then thereās food allergens. Of course, most people wonāt think of anything but hives, swelling, anaphylactic shock, severe itching as an allergic reaction, but thereās more reactions out there than the common ones. For example, I get a chemical burn from overexposure to Coriander/Cilantro. I doubt much weight gain has come from that reaction, but itās possible.
At the very least, anyone not worried about any of this type of meticulous obsession should probably read up on sugar and inflammation. At the very least, joint pain and swelling will keep you from moving around more.
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Oh, I know all that.
The only regimen that worked for me was incompatible with living. It was carb cycling with workout regimen. I slimmed down yes. But psychologically and physically it was too hard. I knew that on Thursdays I would hit black depression. I knew that I would be out of it on Saturday while refeeding.
The kicker is, that even at 114 lbs, my lowest, my body wasnāt exactly attractive. Thatās not body dysmorphia talking. I just donāt have that long-limbed, pretty form that looks good. I am average height and I have hips. So, even with heavy lifting and preserving muscular mass, I looked like a twig growing out of an old stump.
The good thing is that it takes care of ugly skin and def no gut, butā¦ still not pretty.
So, yeah. I am 47, and I am gaining steadily, about 10 lbs away from crossing Normal to Overweight line, but I certainly look slightly overweight. And about 20 lbs over what I think I look the best at (125-128 lbs).
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