I think it’s worth pointing out that the OP is currently battling anorexia, hence her low daily intake of calories.
I’m guessing that the purpose of this thread is to get a sense of what a ‘normal’ diet is?
I hope you don’t mind me pointing this out, I Have Hippos In My Garden, but I don’t want folks to start talking negative to you about your diet, as that’s probably the last thing you need right now.
A lot of times, people think there’s a failure of willpower (“terrible with the follow-through”), when all they need is to adjust their diet. You’re probably eating a lot at dinner because you’re hungry, because, objectively, you don’t eat much during the day. Eating when hungry isn’t failing on the follow-through; it’s natural. Not that you asked, so feel freet to ignore, but if you bulked up your lunch (salad greens or veggies – something high-fiber that you can eat a lot of for few calories) and added some protein to your afternoon snack (low fat string cheese, a handful of almonds), you might find yourself less hungry at dinner. 
This jives with what I found after experimenting with my daily diet. Loading up on fiber and protein during the middle of the day makes it easier to be sensible about dinner. Eat too little and I’m miserable and will go into snack attack overload around seven at night, justifying it with, “I ate so little during the rest of the day. I deserve this!” And then I’ll manage a twelve hundred calorie “snack.”
I’m not normally a soda drinker, but the inclusion of the occasional Diet Coke makes an amazing difference, too. I get the sweet I’m craving without the attendant fat and calories of, say, a bag of doughnuts.
Actually keeping track of the fat, carbs, and protein I’m eating every day, along with the calories, has helped me tremendously in balancing out my diet. If I’m planning out my meals and see that by the time I get to dinner I’ve only eaten 800 calories and 20 grams of protein, I know there’s going to be a problem and I better fix it before then.
Yes, but how old are you? I never worried about eating anything until my 40’s. At age 28, I was 5’9" and 140 pounds—today at age 49, I am 155 pounds and I struggle to maintain that weight. When I was younger I ate whatever I wanted, through my teens, twenties and thirties. Once I hit 40 though, suddenly things…er…weren’t so smooth sailing.
Luckily I have hit the gym hard and both my wife and I watch our portions, etc. We aren’t as regimented as people here are, but we are careful. If I didn’t I would easily get up to 175 pounds quickly–as I found out a few years ago! But 155 seems to be my natural weight now, and as long as I don’t overdo anything is a weight I can sustain.
My typical meals (I don’t care for the term diet since I am not dieting)
breakfast–usually oatmeal with dried fruit and a teaspoon of brown sugar, americano, black and a yogurt drink.
snack–a banana, apple or other fruit or 1 oz of almonds, lots of water!
lunch–jimmy john sandwich w/o mayo, or subway sandwich, or sushi, or a salad or something similar. Sometimes a protein bar, occasionally I go out for a burger and fries, again depends on my day.
snack–fruit or almonds, occasionally a candy bar or a protein type bar
dinner–usually a salad with shrimp or salmon, or a wrap with some protein, or a nice 4 ounces of a steak split with the wife and kid, or just about anything—but very careful on the portions.
I honestly think that is the key–portion control and watch the fat content of what you eat and NOT delude yourself on calories. A slice of pizza is great–have one, but only a slice. Don’t have 2-3 slices and then think you have had a healthy meal, you haven’t. But have a slice the way you like it, make a nice salad to go with it and you are good to go. But don’t put a ton of dressing on it, in fact put the dressing on the side and use your fork tines to dip into it for each bite. I have seen people eat a salad with tons of dressing and then complain they are eating healthy and can’t lose weight. With that amount of dressing you might as well have a cheeseburger and fries-they have the same calorie count.
anyways–if you are older then 40 and can still eat anything you want–you are rare bird indeed!
Ah, I see. I hope Hippos finds balance and health soon.
I’m trying to follow that English dude’s ideas:
When you are hungry, eat. (Not when you’re bored, stressed, ticked off…)
Eat what you want.
But slow down and truly enjoy it by eating it slowly and consciously.
And stop when you think you are full.
I also second the ‘good lunch’ idea–I try to have a half of a chicken breast and some veggies for lunch quite often, and sure there might be some additional ingredients for flavour. But having a decent hot lunch really helps me not walk into the house at 5:45 p.m. and devour my husband’s cache of snack foods before even making dinner.
Here’s a typical day for me lately, because I’ve been tracking my eating:
Breakfast:
Tea with skim milk
Toast with peanut butter, 2 pieces
Snack:
Coffee, black
Gum
(I obviously didn’t want my 11 a.m. snack that day!)
Lunch:
Bunwich with deli chicken, cheese, mayo
100 calorie chocolate bar
Afternoon:
Bottle of water with Crystal Light for flavour
Dinner:
Homemade cheeseburger (lean ground sirloin)
Diet pop
100 calorie minibar
I wasn’t all that fabulously low-calorie that day, but each meal I had obviously filled me up so that I was thirsty, not hungry, between meals.
Breakfast: Piece of fruit and almonds or an energy bar
Lunch: Either Cheap-o sushi, Hummus and veggies, a local cajun place (gumbo and a side), or a salad
Dinner: Either indian curry, soup, hamburger helper, whatever-fish-was-on-sale-that-week or a meal out.
Snacks are either a piece of fruit, goldfish, tea or some chocolate. I generally have a snack between lunch and dinner and occasionally before bed. This diet varies a lot depending on whether I’m in class or working that day so its not uncommon to eat two snacks instead of lunch. Additionally, if I do a long run then I’m more likely to skip breakfast and have a really hearty lunch.
Good point. I haven’t hit 40 yet, but I don’t think what I eat will ever be that much concern to me. I’d rather die happily with a full belly than starving at 140 lbs and all… but I’ll check back in when I’m 40 and eat my words, if nothing else. 
Thank you so much for saying that. I should have pointed that out to begin with maybe but I wanted this to not be about me at all and just see what a normal/average diet and how much diet varies in a random group of different people.
For those who did comment on my diet. Yes, I know it is not healthy at all, and I am subsequently not healthy at all, but thats not what this thread is about really. I do function okay on what I eat though. I go to the gym and run 20km everyday, with anaemia, and work, so at the moment I still feel like I have some energy. I do know it probably won’t last and I’m in a lot of therapy so hopefully it will become easier to eat more without feeling guilty.
I’m a health freak, but there is one aspect of the health freak lifestyle in which I totally and wilfully fail: eating often instead of a lot at once. I have breakfast (low-fat sugarless yoghurt, low-fat cottage cheese and berries), have some fruit during the day, and then down a big dinner usually consisting of wholemeal pasta and either chicken, turkey or quorn. So two meals and some light snacking. I have recently gone up to the heady heights of 1500 calories a day (I’m a tiny person, but considering the amount of running and weight-training I do I’m amazed I can function on so low an intake).
That’s a normal day. Then there are the occasional cheat days. That’s for a thread entitled “Who is the worst gorger on the Dope?”.
I know I had to eat my words on this one. I had a coworker who I went to lunch with at age about 32 and he told me that one day I would have to watch what I ate, etc. And I remember thinking–yea right. Guess he was right after all!
I used to sit down and consume a full pizza and still be hungry, now I just can’t do that for two reasons. One I get full a lot faster since I have eaten smaller meals and two I think I would be sick! I NEVER worried about intake until I hit 40. And I will also tell you there is nothing worse then a ‘skinny’ fat person. Most guys get a belly and look pregnant–but skinny guys who gain weight look funny to me—more droopy I think. Skinny fat guy best describes what they look like. Not a pretty picture.
I don’t feel like I am starving now. I eat pretty much what I want, but am just more cognizant of what I eat. Before I would eat pretty much anything. Good luck and the words go down easier with a beer or two!
As someone who battled an ED since age 11 and wasted her teenage years and 20s never enjoying her youth being in the grasp of an ED, let me give you some advice:
You know you can’t continue down this path infinitely.
You have to either recover or die, sooner or later. And, the longer you go before you recover, the more painful that it will be and the bigger pendulum swing to the opposite side will be. Self-esteem and body perception is the very last thing to recover so it is all more imperative to go into recovery right away.
You can’t hide yourself in your ED infinitely. Trust me, you don’t want to get old and look at all the time you wasted in your ED instead of having fun on the beach, partying, wearing the cute clothes, seeing the world, meeting some nice young men and women, etc. Go get yourself a nutritionist and therapist.
As for what I eat… I eat whatever the hell I want and it comes out pretty close to what the daily calorie calculators show (which are NOT overestimating, trust me – it is your mind that plays tricks). I am at a perfectly healthy weight and haven’t gained any in years. I am not recovered yet. I still cannot wear a swimsuit in the public and I have to go into the bathroom to change clothes, even in front of my husband. But I am working on it.
Breakfast: right now, mostly homemade cinnamon coffeecake or homemade granola with cranberries and raisins.
Lunch: Dinner leftovers, usually. So, mac’n’cheese (usually with peas or broccoli), peanut noodles with bok choy and tofu, frittata, vegetarian spaghetti, roasted sweet and white potatoes, chili, or bread and very old cheddar. Juice. Lots and lots of water.
Snack: I am an idiotically prolific baker (I need to have five teenaged boys), so it’s usually muffins, cake, or chocolate cinnamon buns.
Dinner: We’re trying not to eat meat during the week. Pretty much the same things as lunch. Lots of pasta with a veg (mushrooms, peppers) and cream, bean tacos, some salads, fried rice, scalloped root veg.
Tea every afternoon.
I’m nursing, and so I can still eat entire boxes of chocolate bars with impunity. And whole chocolate cakes. There are weight-loss upsides to extended nursing.
Woah. Hang on a minute now. First of all, thank you for the advice, BUT…
I have already said I am in therapy, and I have a nutritionist, psychiatrist, psychiatric nurse and a good GP.
I am working hard to get better.
I was NOT asking for advice in this thread, and don’t appreciate being preached to by someone who does not understand me or my situation.
Your battle sounds long and hard, but I already know everything you have said. I think a bit more sensitivity would go a long way.
I hope you continue to recover, and i’m glad you can ‘eat whatever the hell you like’.
4 days a week, breakfast is eithre yoghurt and cold cereal or hot cereal with dried fruit.
Lunch at work is whatever I feel like eating. Today was yoghurt, apple & cookies.
Supper is usually a mixture of beans, pasta and vegetables, plus ice cream or chocolate if I want something sweet.
Satudays is a big breakfast–eggs, cheese, potatoes, buttered toast. Then a dinner of whatever I want.
My other two days off are two meals, one at 11 & one around 5 or 6. Whatever i want for the first one, and something healthy at night.
Lots of coffee during the day, and cocoa before bed.
Thank you for correcting that impression, and I wish you had brought out that information in an earlier post on this thread. And please do continue to work hard.
I must ask you a question, though… why do you feel compelled to post a thread that has high potential to be a trigger to yourself? Why post your diet information? You don’t have to answer that question, it is mostly something to ask yourself.
I’m sorry my post appeared to touch a nerve, but I feel it is the only moral thing to say something to people who do not appear to be in recovery (an impression, which, again, I am glad to be disabused of). It is a fatal disease, after all. If I had my life ruined by alcoholism, I’d tell posters obviously struggling with an alcoholic addiction to go to a therapist and doctor, too. Of course, as you point out, it is no good if the information is presented in a way that is insensitive.
If you can point out a part of my post that was insensitive, let me know and I will remedy that. I thought I had been safe by focusing on my own experience as a warning sign of a life wasted by an ED.
Breakfast is usually raisin bran cereal and an buttered english muffin. Some days I’ll have scrambled eggs or an egg sandwich (egg(s) with cheese and sometimes ham on eng. muf.)
Lunch: usually salad during the week (lettuce, tomato, cuke, cheddar cheese, fake bacon bits) with Catalina dressing. Once or twice I’ll go out for lunch and have a cheeseburger at Johnny Rocket’s, or a burrito at Border Cafe.
Supper: My missus usually puts on a startling variety of supper things, but the common theme is it’s all fairly healthy stuff.
Weekends are really no holds barred, but as a rule I tend to eat less healthy on weekends.
I work out 3-4 times a week for 60 to 90 minutes each time, and my workouts have become pretty intense. So it evens out. I look fit, but I’ll probably still die early from the effects of a poor diet.
There’s yer happy thought for the day.
I’m officially on the Weight Watchers core plan, but do “stray” now and again. When I am following it without departures, I eat something like:
morning: banana
lunch: some kind of whole wheat pasta with lean protein, low-fat cheese and vegetables
one or two snacks: hard-boiled egg or Fiber One bar or canned fruit or bite-size candy bar
dinner: two breakfast sandwiches (whole wheat Eng muffin, canadian bacon, egg fried in olive oil), or two egg salad sandwiches, or lean meat sandwich, or pasta dish if I had something different for lunch
dessert: Fiber One bar if I didn’t have one earlier, or pudding, or bowl of cereal
I have to eat every few hours to keep myself level and not get too hungry or full.
I have the same breakfast almost everyday. Oatmeal with blueberries and honey (and strawberries if they’re in season, num), 2 egg whites, an egg, a veggie sausage patty and spinach all scrambled together. Topped with salsa or hot sauce.
Lunch/dinner tend to be soup, sandwich, salad, pasta… one of those. With too much mexican food thrown in, because I love it. Plus apple every day, occasional banana and handful of nuts for snacks.
And too much sugar. I have such a sweet tooth 
I’m not Hippos, but I think perhaps your tone was a touch…brusk.
I say bravo for the progress you’ve made so far; however, as someone who’s still ‘not recovered’ it’s possible that you’re too close to the situation to post an objective answer without it coming accross as condescending.
Anyhoodle, I’ll back slowly out of here now…