To think 2000 calories a day really isn't very much

[Drqedwa]

I was sat in a restaurant today and noticed almost all the dishes were around 500-800 calories for the salad and low calorie options. The normal dishes (pasta, grilled dishes) were around 1000 calories. This wasn't a greasy take away but a Greek restaurant which uses only fresh ingredients.

I eat healthily but I eat more than 2000 calories a day. I maintain a healthy weight which may be due to the fact I'm fairly active and the calories I eat are from healthy food.

I can easily see how do many people are overweight as it's very easy to go over the 2000 calories mark.

A bowl of porridge with fruit, rice salad, protein bar and banana and for dinner lamb roast dinner and I'm already over the 2000 mark. That's not factoring in the lattes I had or the flapjack after dinner!

I would be so hungry if I reduced how much I eat. How do people manage to routinely eat less than 2000 calories? For me to achieve that I would have to record everything I eat.

Obviously I'm a healthy weight so I'm doing just fine. But AIBU to think 2000 calories a day really isn't much and we've lost sight of what a normal days worth of food looks like?

Very quick question we are discussing this in the pub.
The stew thing. The calories would that be for the whole pot or would it get divided by portion?

I agree that my Fitbit must be wrong by the way!! I can only suggest that it counts every step as if it was a high energy, great big stride, and not the little ‘pottering’ steps I actually do as most of the time I’m looking after the dc. So while the actual step count might be accurate, the energy used is over-estimated massively!

If I ate what I wanted I’d average at least 3500 pd.

Just to cut to 2000 takes a monumental effort and feeling uncomfortably hungry almost all the time.

does a calories sourceactually make a difference though
yes of course it does, eating 1500 cal of chocolate a day isn’t going to beniffits you in the way eating 1500 of fruit and veg is it?

I actually meant in terms of weight gain/loss, not nutrition

You didn't specify whether you were batch cooking the stew, so I just estimated the calories for the whole pot.

A whole pot with about 6 decent portions. So is that 600 or whatever calories per person or 100? Figures estimated as cannot be bothered scrolling up

I suppose that it does make a little difference (harks back to school days) as some foods give energy in different ways i.e. sugars are used for instant energy but if you don't use that straight away then it will go to fat. Other foods are digested more slowly so can be used by the body without turning to fat over a longer period. Ultimately though if you eat more calories than your body needs they are going to be stored and that store is fat.

I think 2000 calories is a lot and find it hard to eat/drink that much. I am trying to gain weight and counted calories for a bit to keep track of things. On the days I felt I ate the right amount for me I had about 1200 calories. I'm not a big person naturally though, 5'4 and quite a small build.

I always find food discussions on MN a bit concerning. A lot of borderline or full blown eating disorders become quite apparent.
I have not a clue how many calories I eat a day. I don't count them at all. It seems really obsessive to me to do so.

I don't count them at all. It seems really obsessive to me to do so.

...unless of course you are actively trying to lose (or gain) weight. It's easy to mis-guess or not include everything when you don't actively track, certainly initially.

I've never counted even when aiming to lose a bit though.

springtrolls

If there are 600 cals in the pot, and you divide it between 6 people or eat it over 6 days, that's 100 cals a portion.

If you are doing that, eat it with Asda tiger bread. It is both additional calories and it is incredibly more-ish.

I've never counted even when aiming to lose a bit though.

Do you want a medal or a trophy?

People have dieted for years, successfully without counting calories. It is possible to diet and not log everything. I do think it’s become a bit obsessive and yes some people are border lining on having eating disorders. I’m not sure why people have become so obsessed yet there are still more and more obese people. I think it’s obvious why people are overweight, food has changed so much over the last 50 years, there’s more choice, more take aways, people cook from scratch less and eat out more, supermarkets are full of different foods that are often on offer and convenient.
50 years ago people would go to the butchers, the greengrocers and the bakery to get their weekly shop so their diets were mainly fruit, veg, meat, fish and bread, now people fill trollies with processed foods and eat a takeaway most weekends. Most people are overweight due to our life styles. The easiest way to diet is to eat the right foods and cook from scratch, cut out the rubbish.

People have dieted for years, successfully without counting calories.

Yes and people have dieted for years with counting calories.

Apparently there is more than one way to do everything and we all have free choice and I guess a free opinion about it too.

Counting calories and logging everything helps a lot of people to lose weight.

You can eat the right foods and cook from scratch but you also need to know what a portion of that looks like. Once you've logged and weighed it a few times you do get a good idea of what it should be. Plates and bowls have gotten larger over the years.

I disagree wax. I think that if you consistently eat the right stuff your body self regulates. There is no need to eat tiny portions and eating more of the right food leads to less snacking.

I agree wax there are many ways to diet. I get quite disgusted about the size of meals people eat. I only use small plates, I can’t eat huge portions as the thought of that much food in my stomach makes me feel disgusted. A lot of restaurants dish up huge portions (my local pub does), sometimes more than double what a person should eat. I worry that I eat too much but when I see what some other people eat I think my portion sizes are tiny.

I have never needed to count calories as I don’t eat loads and I have lost weight just by eating the right foods and exercising more. I can see why it would work for thoughs who are used to eating a huge amount though.

Snaking isn’t always bad if your snacking on the right foods, this also means you don’t eat huge meals? Depends what type of eater you are, some people are better having lots of small meals rather than 3 larger meals a day? I find it hard to stick to 3 meals, it means by dinner time I am starving and am more likely to eat a larger portion (I then feel bloated) but if I have a snack mid afternoon I might only want something small for dinner.

I don't snack, I eat well, I am still a stone and a half overweight. I used to be more overweight. I counted calories and lost weight. I then stopped counting calories and I didn't lose anymore, I put a few pounds, but not much, back on. However I was still 2 stone overweight as I'd never gone down to what i should have. I now count calories again and I've lost another 9lbs in 5 weeks. I'd like to lose another stone and a half over the next 17 weeks.

It's what works for me, I also count because I am cooking for DH and DS1 who need about 2400 calories a day and DS2 who is also needing to lose weight who is on 1600 a day. if I didn't log then I couldn't keep track and it makes sure that I don't put too much on my plate.

We have full filling meals. Though at times it's starting to feel like 100 ways with chicken :) It's not fad dieting, it's not tiny portions of high calorie food, it's decent amounts of normal meals just without using cheese/fats/cream/sugar.

Actually, I'm not a stone and a half overweight, i'm about 4lbs overweight. My BMI is 25.6. I'd like to get to a bmi or about 22ish

Everything depends on how unaware you want to be.
Food, money, it doesn't matter.

Did the stew for 6 have 100g of beef in it for 6 portions? That's an unfeasibly small amount of meat each! I would think about 100g per portion would be a normal amount of meat/fish per meal?

Ok so some more questions since I have been out.

I don't have an Asda near by, but when I am passing by I will pick up some bread. They don't deliver here, but I pass by every month or so.

I am within the lower realms of normal weight. It did drop last year, BUT this was a side effect of some meds. I changed meds and everything stabled back again.

The stew was one of those meals where you want to get rid of things. 3 of us ate it and had meat. I then gave some away on the proviso that there might be a grain of meat in there still. But even without the meat still tasty as I've had it in the past the following day, and in total got 6 good size portions. The bowls the 3 of us had were 17oz (I have recently bought some new ones from amazon) . The other 3 were not full but in foil containers with lids that you chuck away. Not exactly sure how much they hold. Will have to check another time.

On the back of this thread, I am actually bloody worried now about my eating habits. Even though like I said it's been normal for me all my life (obviously increasing as I've aged etc). I have another health assessment due so will start measuring and recording everything in my book to get someone to re-look at it.
I still have everything from last year when I had to monitor so will have something to use as a comparison.

I know some will shout even more, however in the interests of full disclosure. When I used to smoke weed years ago, even then my appetite didn't change. Everyone would have the munchies apart from me.

I'm surprised to be honest you're within a a normal weight range spring trolls, from what you say you eat. That casserole for six people sounds extremely parsimonious , I don't think I've ever heard of six people sharing a hundred grams of meat, never mind one very small pototo and one small parsnip for their dinner. It's like something out of Dickensian times.

I can't say it's normal no, and I can't say it's healthy either. As said, I don't know how you've managed to reach adult hood and not know this as you must occasionally see others eat.

I suppose between 3.. just about, but it's not much meat!