The Parent Food Trap: 3,000 Extra Calories Eaten During School Holidays

Chips, pizza and sausages amongst foods we’re consuming most from our kids’ plates, with food waste, hunger and mindlessness cited as top reasons…

It’s no secret that parents often sneak a chip or two off their children’s plates, but new stats unveiled by leading intermittent fasting brand, LighterLife Fast, reveal that this extra eating is causing us to pile on the pounds, with the average Brit gaining a whopping ½ stone each year thanks to picking at their kids’ food alone.

Staggeringly, 1-in-10 of us admit to indulging in our kids’ leftovers every mealtime. The top reasons for parents treating themselves to their kids’ dinners? Not wanting to waste food (49%), doing it without thinking (29%), it tastes so nice (27%) and simply feeling hungry (26%).

This mindless consumption of extra calories is happening both during term time and over the holidays. The average Brit consumes an extra 443 calories a week from polishing off their children’s leftovers during term time, with this jumping to 506 calories during the school holidays. It’s no wonder that 2-in-3 Brits think they eat more in general during the school holidays when they’re off with their children.

So, when we are helping ourselves to our children’s dinners, what are we most likely to polish off? Chips (46%), pizza (42%), sausages (28%), roast chicken (27%) and roast potatoes (25%) come in top. But that’s not all, when it comes to dessert, 41% of us admit we’ve secretly hoped our child wouldn’t finish their pudding, so we could finish it!

If picking from our children’s dinner plates wasn’t enough, we’re also racking up the calories by sharing their snacks. 12% of us admit we eat our kids’ snacks every time we give them one, 22% say it occurs almost every time they give their children a snack and 14% say they indulge in their little ones’ snacks daily.

LighterLife Fast has commissioned this research as part of a wider campaign to delve into the nation’s dieting habits, encouraging more consumers to change their dieting approach and supporting the notion that mindful eating and intermittent fasting is the most positive and successful method to lose weight – and keep it off.

Mindful eating is a lifestyle change, not a diet. It encourages consumers to be in the moment when they are eating, focussing on what is in front of them. This brings the focus back to portion control, food groups and flavours on a plate, whilst also encouraging consumers to listen to their bodies and determine when they are genuinely hungry or full.

By combining LighterLife Fast’s “Fast Philosophy”, which includes consuming four LighterLife Fast products, providing 100% RDA of vitamins and minerals for the body, for two or three days per week, and mindfully eating two 300kcal meals along with snacks and a meal of choice on the other four or five “smart” days, consumers can lose or maintain their weight easily and efficiently.

3,003 people were polled by GingerComms for LighterLife fast.