I know it sounds like common sense, but I think a lot of us grew up with parents that made us finish our food even if we weren’t hungry. So eating more than we needed was normalized, and it became difficult to just stop mid meal.
Yeah, seems obvious but when your entire childhood is filled with shame because "there are starving kids in Africa so finish your plate", it's not so simple. Or when you realize that eating is the basically the only joy you have in life, it's not so simple. Or when you have to take medications for your mental health and the side effects are that you over eat, it's not so simple. Or when you have no time to exercise bc both you and your wife have to work to afford anything in this stupid economy, it's not so simple.
Quantity of food: weight.
Quality of food: health.
Remember you can still get diabetes being slim.
Also I guess health can be quantity if you become morbidly obese.
Artificial sweeteners and highly processed foods can shut off your "I'm full" safety valve.
Read the labels on the foods you eat, educate yourself.
Corporations want you to eat to excess, it's profitable.
So many people don't want to accept it really is calories in vs calories out. Yes, even if you have PCOS, or whatever the fuck else. If you are somehow a genetic anomaly that does not meet this rule, please donate yourself to science after you die.
Get the Lose it app, scan in what you eat and go for a damn walk. You'll drop.
I lost 120lbs and have managed to keep it off for almost three years now. I came to the same realization as OP. Problem is I don't have that thing, I can eat so goddamn much before I feel full that calorie counting will probably be a lifelong thing for me. Wish there was a pill or something to help because it's a case of constant self-control.
I've read its also a cultural thing. As in, in China it's considered rude to finish your meal, as that means your host didn't provide enough food. Hence you always leave something left over. Contrary to that, in western cultures, it's considered rude to leave something of your meal, as that means you don't like the food.
IMO it would have a lot to do with parents teaching their children to "finish their meal" even if they're full, you know, as if there's no such thing as refrigeration.
Literally genetics, some people produce more ghrelin than others, and it happens within every racial and ethnic group so people can't be CHUDs about it