I visit family in other states and I get comments like “I can’t believe you are so thin.” For context I am a healthy weight and I eat what I consider a reasonable diet. I sit and smile while I watch them drink soda and eat pure sugar and salt. I don’t care about your life choices but don’t act surprised by someone that’s a normal weight.
I’m eating shitty delivered food (including mcdonalds) and I am losing weight. The problem isn’t “bad food” it’s all about controlling calories intake. The only moment where that might not work is if you have some issues - hormonal imbalance or some sort of other illness. But if you eat less and can maintain / withstand that, you will lose weight.
A part that complicates it is nutrition. Nutrients are related to food cravings, but if you don’t have access to food that has the nutrients your body is craving, you might eat other things in an attempt to satisfy that craving. But since they don’t contain what your body needs, the craving doesn’t go away, so the drive to eat more remains.
It’s like the difference between being satisfied and full. For the first one, your body decides it doesn’t need anything more and the desire to eat just isn’t urgent (comfort/habit eating can still be a thing though). When you’re full, it just means your stomach is full and you can’t eat more without discomfort. But once there’s room again, the hunger might return.
It was something I’d always notice with McDonald’s. One big Mac never felt like it was enough. I’d eat the food and then be disappointed because it was all gone but I still wanted to eat.
But a good meal with a variety of ingredients can satisfy even if the volume of food isn’t high. Like I’ve only tried fine dining once and went in to the 9 course meal expecting to need to stop for a burger or something afterwards because I knew the portions of each course would be tiny. I walked out of that restaurant with room in my belly but no desire to fill it with anything else.
It’s also why pregnancy cravings are so strong. The body needs more nutrients when building another body, plus the timing of accessing those nutrients is more important.
Yup, that’s what I’ve always said.
Top athletes eat loads and loads and loads of highly processed, high calorie food… and they have low body fat and are at peak fitness.
That’s because they treat food a fuel, and if people are eating food (fuel) as if they were a competitive athlete, but spend their day in a chair, they’re going to get fat!
But in terms of cost, it’s way more expensive to be eating delivered food than to make basic recipes.
Yeah, for sure. The problem is cooking for one. If you are inexperienced, you tend to overcook and then you either waste that or eat the same thing for five days. Also picky eaters sometimes can’t eat the same thing two days in a row, let alone more. Buuut if you treat cooking as “a job” that pays more than ordering out (where you don’t pay with your time), then it is really worth it for sure.
I honestly think it’s a shame that more people don’t learn how to prepare food, even if it’s just decent quality quick meals.
It’s a skill that everyone should know, not only to help save money, but to nourish the body without much effort.
Sure, if you like making extravagant meals, go for it! Cooking can be a hobby, too.
But so many meals can be made with less than 10 minutes of effort, and you can scale up the quantity to feed your entire family without adding more time and lowering the overall cost per portion.
It doesn’t mean extravagant, it means “a lot of food to eat”. I know how to cook. The intuition of how much I need to cook comes with more experience, but it means I’d need to go through months of me cooking too much and either throwing it away, or eating the same thing for a long time. When you cook for two or more, the dishes just disappear. You can skip a day, your partner will eat it though. So then you do, and suddenly four days worth of meals are gone.
I know exactly what you mean! Having raised kids, and now grandkids, this problem can come up often!
My only suggestion here (for anyone), is to make less than you think you can eat, and then have simple sides or snacks to cover any shortfalls. It’s far too easy to over prepare meals, so you do bring up a good point!