A young woman shared a deeply uncomfortable story on Reddit after her boyfriend of seven months ended their relationship on Valentine’s Day, citing the way she ate during their dinner together as his reason. What was supposed to be a romantic celebration quickly became one of the most confusing and hurtful nights of her life. She had put a lot of thought and care into planning the evening, only to find herself blindsided before the night was even over. The story struck a nerve online and quickly gained a lot of attention from people sharing their own reactions.
She described how excited she had been leading up to their first Valentine’s Day as a couple. “I was really looking forward to our first Valentine’s Day together,” she wrote, explaining that she had reserved a table at their favorite steakhouse for an early evening dinner. The plan included heading back to her place afterward to watch a movie and enjoy a heart-shaped chocolate cake she had bought for the occasion. It sounded like a perfectly thoughtful evening for two people seven months into a relationship.
The dinner itself started on a high note. He brought her flowers and what she described as a “really sweet” card, and she gifted him the Apple Watch he had been wanting. At the restaurant, she ordered a salad, a filet mignon and lobster tail entree, and a few shared side dishes, while he went with a bowl of soup and grilled salmon. She was footing the bill since he was a full-time student and she was working, and she wanted to treat them both to something special for the occasion.
My Boyfriend broke up with me on Valentine’s Day because I ate too much at dinner
by u/SomaliMN in BestofRedditorUpdates
Things started to feel off during the meal. “For most of dinner he seemed irritated and distant, but wouldn’t tell me what was wrong,” she recalled. After they paid and returned to her apartment, he told her he was tired and not feeling well and wanted to go home. When she leaned in to kiss him goodnight, he turned his head away. She was disappointed but told him she hoped he would feel better soon, not realizing that this was effectively the end of their relationship.
The next morning, a text message revealed what had actually been bothering him. He was not sick at all. He told her that watching how much she ate had disgusted him and accused her of behaving “like a pig” at the table. She pushed back on this, noting that she has a fast metabolism, is tall and slender, and needs to eat more than average to maintain her weight. “I don’t inhale my food and have perfectly fine table manners, so it wasn’t about that. It was definitely about the quantity,” she explained. He refused to pick up her calls and sent another message hours later saying he had thought it over and wanted to break up, adding that her eating habits had been bothering him for a while and he had tried to get past it but could not.
As if that were not enough, the story took an even more frustrating turn. In a follow-up post, she revealed that her ex later admitted the food complaint had just been an excuse. He had actually wanted to break up because he had been seeing someone else, and had even spent time with that other person on Valentine’s Day itself, right after their dinner together. To top it all off, he refused to return the Apple Watch she had gifted him. “All in all, it was an expensive and painful lesson, but it could’ve been worse,” she wrote. “I’m looking forward to a short break from dating, and after that, I hope to meet more mature people.”
The way she handled the situation with grace drew a lot of sympathy from Reddit users, many of whom pointed out that the real issue had nothing to do with how she eats. People noted that using someone’s eating habits as a cover story for infidelity is a particularly cruel way to end a relationship, especially on a holiday meant to celebrate love and partnership. The consensus was clear that she was well rid of someone willing to act that way.
Reddit has become one of the most popular platforms for people to share personal relationship experiences anonymously, particularly through communities like r/relationship_advice and r/AITA (Am I the Ass), where thousands of users weigh in on real-life dilemmas every day. Valentine’s Day, celebrated annually on February 14th, is one of the most commercially significant holidays in the United States, with Americans spending an estimated $24 billion on gifts, dinners, and experiences each year according to the National Retail Federation. Breakups around significant dates tend to hit harder psychologically, as research in social psychology has long suggested that emotional events tied to meaningful occasions leave stronger memory traces. Fast metabolism, like the one the woman described, is a real physiological variation influenced by factors including muscle mass, age, hormone levels, and genetics, and is not an indication of poor eating habits or health.
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