Portion sizes when you were young

dandy-candy · 2 August 2015 at 11:17PM

I was chatting with a friend tonight about portion sizes now compared to when we were kids. At the moment we are both overweight!

When I was young my dad used to cook a smallish roast chicken (the size that takes just over an hour to cook) and between the five of us we would eat on side for dinner one night, and the other side the next day. When he made a bolognese sauce we each got one tablespoon of mince.
We never had sweets or crisps in the house, and going to grannies house was a treat because she would get her biscuit jar off the shelf and you were allowed to choose one biscuit.
A takeaway was something we only had as a special treat when it was someone's birthday.

Nowadays I will eat half a packet of biscuits in one sitting, have a takeaway once a week and have as many helpings at dinner as I fancy - no wonder I'm too big!

What were your portion sizes like at home when you were young?

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maman · 2 August 2015 at 11:25PM

I remember when we were satisfied with a small cone of chips or 2 ounces (50g) of sweets and crisps only ever came in small bags (with a twist of salt in blue paper). Now we don't even get the exercise of shaking the salt!!:rotfl:

suki1964 · 2 August 2015 at 11:40PM

Mine are possibly the same as when I was young

I couldn't eat a pile of meat and veg. I have a small plate and eat the same size meal or less then I serve my grandson aged 9

If we are hitting McD's then I'll have a happy meal or take a wrap and share hubby's chip and coke

A packet of biscuits will soften before I get to eat them ( still have shortbreads and Christmas cake from Christmas )

No I'm not a health freak. I am carrying an extra 2 stone

I can't face a big meal, just seeing it on the plate turns my stomach. Today I cooked Sunday dinner and just couldn't face it so went without

I've just finished work and now I'm hungry. The cheese and biscuits will be my downfall

But seriously as a general rule I don't eat more then I did as a child. We as a family don't snack. We have three meals a day and if someone is still peckish an hour after dinner, the ice cream will come out ( we don't do dessert as a rule). My hubby has been the same size the past 30 years. He and I like you grew up where sweets and biscuits and cakes were a treat, not something freely available. A coke was a rare treat indeed, usually if mum and dad stopped off for a drink on the way back Christmas shopping and we were stuck out in the car park waiting on them lol

HappyMJ · 3 August 2015 at 12:12AM

dandy-candy wrote: »

I was chatting with a friend tonight about portion sizes now compared to when we were kids. At the moment we are both overweight!

When I was young my dad used to cook a smallish roast chicken (the size that takes just over an hour to cook) and between the five of us we would eat on side for dinner one night, and the other side the next day. When he made a bolognese sauce we each got one tablespoon of mince.
We never had sweets or crisps in the house, and going to grannies house was a treat because she would get her biscuit jar off the shelf and you were allowed to choose one biscuit.
A takeaway was something we only had as a special treat when it was someone's birthday.

Nowadays I will eat half a packet of biscuits in one sitting, have a takeaway once a week and have as many helpings at dinner as I fancy - no wonder I'm too big!

What were your portion sizes like at home when you were young?

I had quite large portions much bigger (about double) than the ones suggested on here for children. Then again I was a lot more active and burnt off all those calories quite easily so never in the overweight range. I could easily have had 3,000 calories per day and now have about 2,000-2,500 calories not that I count them every day just bored one week and counted them based on what I normally ate that one week. I'm over 6ft tall and weigh 13 stone within the healthy weight range for me. My waist is now 34 inch and was only 30 inch when I was 16. The largest waist I've ever been has been 36 inch and technically that was a little too big but not quite overweight.

moneyistooshorttomention · 3 August 2015 at 6:32AM

Still finding it useful to remind myself of what normal portion sizes are - rather than present-day ones - and the weight is very gradually coming off.

Re waist sizes - I do bear it in mind that normal waist sizes are 24"-27" for a woman and that my own is supposed to be 26" - so will keep heading in that direction (as its probably around 32" at present). Fortunately - I took my measurements back when I was normal size - so I know I'm supposed to be 36-26-36 (ie because that's what I was).

barneydee_2 · 3 August 2015 at 7:10AM

Yes I'm with you here portion size we had smaller portions of meat & more veg as I am dieting I have gone back to this way of eating, we always had to eat at a table & were never aloud to have the tv on while eating & you could not get down until your plate was clean.

Sweets, cakes,biscuits where treats it's a shame we carn't go back to these values

Dee x

GreyQueen · 3 August 2015 at 7:28AM

Yeah, I can remember a M@rs bar was an occasional treat, to be shared between brother and me. Parents had the wit to let one child cut it in half and the other choose which half to have. You are scrupulously fair when doing cutting in those circmstances, I can still recall the exact position along the side of the loop of the 'a' on the wrapper where you'd cut to get a perfect half. Probably doesn't work on modern M@rs bars as they've shrunk them a tad.

One of my acquaintances a few years ago had her MIL comment wonderingly about her giving the (small) grandchildren a whole (very large) banana each. The older woman thought it excessive.

We didn't have fizzy drinks as children, which probably accounts for the lack of fillings in my first set of teeth. Some squash, some things like Club biscuits, crisps very occasionally. Takeaways didn't feature, but we might have fish and chips if out at the seaside on a summer treat. Sweeties were limited to a 10p weekly sweetie ration, which would get you a small paper bag with your selection of ha'penny sweeties from the corner shop. The choosing of them was half the fun.

We were a very active family with no car and went everywhere, including the 28.5 mile round trip to the grandparents, on our pushbikes, which went on until we were 11 and 9. As a secondary school pupil I was racking up 5 miles daily on the bike getting to and fro school, plus leisure biking at the weekend, often 30 mile jaunts.

We always had plain meat and two veg type cooking, no cooked desserts but a piece of fruit to follow.

I'm pretty astonished at the sugary, salty garbage I see people giving kids, and the general lack of physical activity in both parents and children. Can't see it ending happily in the long term, healthwise, never mind figure-wise.

And you never ever saw the obesity that you see now. There might be one podgy child in a class of 35-40, but they'd be counted positively sylph-like by the standards of today. Look at old photos if you like, it's not just memory playing tricks.

moneyistooshorttomention · 3 August 2015 at 7:48AM

Old photos GQ and films from the 1970s for instance - and then you can see how people really should look.

I am also recalling sizes of classmates when I was young and I can really only recall 2 people that were overweight during the whole of my schooling.

These days - a typical day yesterday included walking past 3 generations of a family. Youngish granny, adult daughter, adult daughters daughter and all 3 of them were podgy (even the grandchild - probably around 5?).

Apparently - I was 3 stone something (3.5 stones?) at mid-primary school age. Nothing wrong with my appetite ever - that's just how things were then and I was pretty standard size.

I liked those old height/weight tables - you could instantly think "Right - I'm female/medium build/5.4" height - so what weight should I be?" and you would instantly see the weight range for that. As I recall it runs from 7 stones 9lb to 10 stones 2 lbs and the optimum weight was 8 stone 7lb and I was bang on optimum. That being - the correct weight from the looks pov.

GwylimT · 3 August 2015 at 8:40AM

We used to eat loads of those vesta meals when we were children, we also has boil in the bag meals, despite the fact that I have coeliacs disease!

When I went to live with my dad when I was seven I used to send my mum postcards which she would hastily shove back in the post box, one of them is being going on about this weird stuff I was eating, peas and runner beans!

My portions are large, I don't generally eat carbs and I only eat small amounts of fruit in the morning, I am considered over weight, however my body fat is 9%.

pelirocco · 3 August 2015 at 8:52AM

I was a very poor eater , but you had you. 3 meals a day and that was It, and we only had water to drink anything else was a very rare treat.....and you were never allowed to eat in the street

I was born in the 60s food was very very expensive ( people say it's expensive now. But it's still very cheap as a %of pay compared to back then )

kathrynha · 3 August 2015 at 9:33AM

Plates were smaller back then too. My mum has some plates from the 70's and the eating area (flat bit in the middle) has a diameter over 2 inches smaller than the new ones she has bought.

My new bowls I could easily fit a portion of cornflakes 4 times the packet recommended serving size in it without it looking too full.

When I'm on track with my dieting I am known to use my daughters old baby plates to help control portion size

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Portion sizes when you were young

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