7 secrets of highly obese people

[ny biker]

If you can't get a small plate (if you're in a restaurant, or for whatever reason), it's still useful to be aware of the size of the plate and the way it masks the large amount of food you've been served, so you can eat the right portion size anyway.

Last year I started to really focus on eating only until I felt full, even if there was still food left on the plate. It worked to help me lose some weight, and I'm also saving money -- instead of sandwich for lunch and snack in late afternoon, I eat 1/2 sandwich at lunch and other half in late p.m., so I'm not buying snacks anymore. I'm eating less for dinner too.

When I had to buy a new refrigerator last year, I was amazed at all of the gigantor models they had in the stores. When I was growing up there were 8 people living in our house (2 parents, 5 kids, 1 grandma) and we got by with a fridge that would be considered on the small side today.

[Tuckervill]

The other thing I do in restaurants is divide my food in half before I eat it, and then only eat half. Some people I know ask for a to-go box right away and divide it up and put it in the box so they're not tempted. I'm okay with it being on the plate until I'm done.

Karen

[OakLeaf]

Interesting about fridge size... we bought a smaller fridge (18.2 cf) for the energy savings when our old one died, and I HATE it. A large bunch of greens or celery won't fit in the crisper, so they just have to get covered with a couple of plastic bags and jammed into the main compartment, where it's likely to get crushed. Holidays or dinner guests? Forget about it. Not enough room for the ingredients for a meal with more than three courses, on top of the flours, oils and condiments that ordinarily live in the fridge, plus a bottle or two of wine.

[Eden]

Yeah - ours gets a bit jammed if we do a big holiday meal, but that's so seldom that I don't mind. We do have two crispers that fit things just fine - well celery might have to go in diagonally, but it fits. The shelves can all be moved around. Its a very well designed fridge. The freezer compartment is small - its on the bottom and so is the compressor, but I don't freeze much so its no big deal to me.
It really hasn't changed much at all since we got ours - http://www.conservappliances.com/moreinfo.asp?id=60

[Crankin]

I use the salad/dessert sized plates for my breakfast and lunch. I use it for dinner when we are having a sandwich/salad type of meal.
It used to be hard for me not to eat everything on my plate, but about 2 months ago I started not eating anything after dinner; somehow, that has allowed me to feel full more quickly and be able to stop eating when I am out for dinner. Of course, I am not perfect about this, but it just seems easier. My weight, which while normal, has been fluctuating within a five pound range, despite exercise. Now, it is very stable, within a pound of where it should be. It just took the one simple change of regulating my food intake in the evening to do this.

[GLC1968]

Oh man, don't get me started on fridge sizes! We just had to replace the 30 year old one that came with our house and we had a hell of a time finding one that would fit. In fact, we couldn't! We ended up having to remove the overhead cabinet AND we paid a premium for a counter-depth fridge.

Seriously, there is something really wrong with the fact that the smaller counter-depth fridges are all WAY more expensive than the big ones! Why should I be paying more for less?

And while we are talking over-sized...try finding a smaller house on a little bit of land. That's like asking for diamonds from the tooth fairy....totally impossible!!

[KnottedYet]

I am a nerd, I had to measure my Fiestaware. (Made in the USA, which is the main reason why I bought it. That and it's pretty darn tough and cute.)

The dinner plate is 10 1/2 inches across. The part where food can actually sit is smaller than that, of course. Looking at how they fit in my cupboard, I don't think 12 inch plates would fit in the cupboard at all.

Wanna freak yourself out? Watch the Sesame Street clips from the first couple seasons (60's). Man, everyone was so skinny back then!

[shootingstar]

Maybe I'm just not seeing things completely: I would have thought at least having the freezer part abit big is helpful to those who garden veggies/fruits and have to freeze alot.

Our freezer part of fridge is abit underutilized..about only 1/4 full. What we have right now is cut pieces of fresh frozen salmon (I bought whole, cleaned fresh salmon and cut it up into meal size portions for freezing), fresh blueberries and raspberries that we bought & froze, dearie's bagels, and less than 8 small meal serving sizes of fresh chicken breast. I am the one that tends to buy any meat, divide it up and freeze. At other times of year, we may have 2-3 meals worth of frozen homemade soup or a few small bags of frozen chopped up pumpkin or butternut squash.

That's all that we will probably do in terms of using our underutilized freezer.

Fridge came automatically with our unit.

I never knew about new homes having cabinets to fit bigger dinner plates. Nor smaller fridges as more expensive. Things one learns on TE.