Ask HN: Are YOU eating too much?

Have you calculated the amount of food you have to eat to get the required amount of nutrients while getting enough satisfaction out of the meals (in restaurants and so on ... )? Ridiculous question, I know.

I have the opposite problem. I am have issues eating enough. Despite doing things like drinking high protein shakes and putting extra olive oil on everything I am struggling to reach my burn rate on a daily basis. Just from a practical point of view, I am astounded that so many people, seemingly almost everyone, will eat 3000 calories a day or more if they're not careful.

Not a ridiculous question. I have routinely eaten too much throughout my 40+ years, in part as a reaction to adverse childhood experiences- eating was a way to escape. To be fair, I haven't quantified "too much" with measurements and numbers, but with how I feel and how my clothes fit.

Eating until uncomfortably full, rather than the "hara hatchi bu" ("to 80% full") I heard about in Japan, has been my norm, and I'm paying for it now with acid reflux, GERD, and probably an over-accumulation of toxins (micro-plastics, forever chemicals, heavy metals, whatever), along with the extra cost of buying more than I need to survive and feel good.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but my guess is that our bodies can only digest so much food before peristalsis moves it out. Were I processing my solid waste for the garden (with soldier fly larvae or heat, etc) we'd have some decent, though costly, humanure (I do use my urine for the compost pile).

I feel best when I eat a massive salad (with all sorts of good stuff in it- sprouted grains & legumes, nutritional yeast, homemade ferments, oil and vinegar, garden greens and roots, sometimes meat) for brunch, a smaller meal mid-afternoon, and nothing else; this way I feel full all day (fiber is important for this) and empty enough before bed to be able to sleep through the night. When I get too stressed I eat emotionally, but I forgive myself and keep trying. Eating a cookie feels good in the moment and bad later on, while eating a salad takes more effort to do but feels both good in the moment (I like chewing, and the taste) and great for my mental health long afterwards.

Because agriculture is a contributor to climate change, eating just enough, with occasional celebratory "harvest feasts", feels like a good thing to do.

> Were I processing my solid waste for the garden (with soldier fly larvae or heat, etc) we'd have some decent, though costly, humanure (I do use my urine for the compost pile).

Love this I'm not asking because of climate change, actually, even though it is indeed a relevant reason. I'm asking because there seem to be peculiar connections between functioning/high functioning people and over-eating and rationality vs rationalization, which some former acquaintances are keen on investigating scientifically.

Correct. I do not have a big appetite, if I don't set reminders on my phone, I could eat only two or even one meal a day and not even notice.