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?

When at work I sometimes get a little portion of spread and it's 9g so I have a fair idea of how much that looks and it's not much!

You’re right - it’s prob a quarter of my total cals - but the afternoon latte is a ‘snack’ and the smoothie with lunch is instead of a bag of crisps, so far more nutritious (and I make it myself, so it hasn’t been pasteurised or anything). Plus the morning lattes form part of my breakfast (usually have the coffees before school run and then something solid when I get back - I am rarely hungry first thing). I am happy with how I eat - I just thought I’d post it as it was nearly bang on 2000 cals for the day and that’s the number under discussion!

I have 1300 a day - if I had anymore I would start gaining weight. Obviously on days I go out to eat I have more than this but these are special occasions. I’m not particularly active (on my best days I manage to do 10,000 steps) it would be ridiculous for me to eat 2000 calories as my body will put on weight quickly. It very much depends on your metabolism and the amount of exercise you do.

As of yesterday, because of reading this thread, I have got the My Fitness Pal app. I am weighing out and looking at everything. It's actually a real eye opener. I am over eating and can see this now. My half bowl of granola looks small, so guessed if portion size is 30g maybe I have 50g. Wrong, I measured it and it's actually 100g and 467 calories. I've been eating this for breakfast for about 2 years. Now I know, I will have to change to another breakfast.

it's amazing isn't it iMogster? I have porridge with some berries and little bit of jam most days or a Special K type of thing so usally about 200-250kcals. A thin Bagel toasted with bacon medalions and poached egg is only about 260kcal. Fruit juice can be high too, if i want a larger drink I just add some water rather than more juice. Seems obvious when you say it though :o

Definitely agree that 2000 can be startlingly little food in terms of physical amount on the plates - depending on what it is of course.

I have a HUGE dinner in terms of volume - but it's only 300 calories:
100g chicken breast - 106 calories
Pack no carb, fake, 'God-knows-what's-in-them' noodles - 30 calories
100g mushrooms - 25 calories
50g babycorn - 25 calories
25g mangetout - 12 calories
200g pepper - 52 calories
200g carrot - 70 calories

That is as big (or way bigger!) a dinner as many that would total 3 times the number of calories. And the feeling of satiety afterwards would be the same - it's crazy and must make it so hard not to eat too much if you like to get a good variety of foods.

I'd beware of letting weighing food become a habit rather than a reality check while you adjust to correct portioning though. I've been targeting trying to stop weighing food and listen to my body for over a decade - hasn't happened yet!

That’s not a HUGE dinner at all? 100g of meat isn’t much.

Sprinkles - no, it isn't a huge amount of meat (average, I'd say?). But the meal also contains 2.5 servings of noodles, a huge carrot, 2 whole peppers, about 10-12 mushrooms, 5-6 babycorn and a handful of mangetout. Taken altogether, that is a huge volume of food. But it's not enough in terms of calories. That's my point - equally, it's easy to eat too many calories in a very small volume of food.

As of yesterday, because of reading this thread, I have got the My Fitness Pal app. I am weighing out and looking at everything. It's actually a real eye opener. I am over eating and can see this now. My half bowl of granola looks small, so guessed if portion size is 30g maybe I have 50g. Wrong, I measured it and it's actually 100g and 467 calories.

Same here. That's how it all started for me with MFP, and the only way to lose weight is to know what's going in. Real eye opener as you say!

Sorry, 😂 it’s just the language seems very exaggerated.A HUGE carrot. Like the size of your arm? 🥕🥕

haha - no, not that big. But a 200g gram one is pretty big for a carrot - one of the biggest loose ones you usually see on the pile. I don't buy the packets; the carrots in there are measly little things.

Kaybush "Calorie counting makes you think about food all the time, which tends to make you want food all the time. Stop calorie counting and food fades into the background, where it should be."

This is so true. The only time I've ever dieted I became so obsessed with weighing myself and calorie counting that I worked myself up into a really serious eating disorder! When I finally found my way out of it I vowed to never look at calories or weigh myself every again. The only time I've been weighed in the last 10 years is at my booking appointment for my last pregnancy. Now I eat whatever I want, whenever I want. If I feel like I'm gaining weight I lay off the crisps for a bit, but don't make any changes to my regular meals. And I never think about food. I love food, it's not just fuel to me, but I don't crave sugary food or sit hungrily wishing it was dinner time. Actively refusing to diet really minimised the power food had over me and has made it much easier to maintain a healthy weight.

This is so true. for you.

I don't crave anything really and don't sit sweating waiting for dinner time either but for me and many others you need the discipline of logging and measuring to reset yourself. I quite enjoy feeling hungry but it's good to feel a little hungry before a meal. I'm not going to bed at 7pm because I'm too hungry and have no spare calories for a snack :o

When I stopped consciously logging, I didn't gain much weight but I did stop losing it and I still had about 2 stone to go. I've lived with that extra 2 stone for a couple of years but now I am consciously weighing and tracking again and I've lost over half a stone and i'm on track to be more or less on target by the time my holiday is here.

I appreciate it isn't the way that some people work but not logging it at all doesn't work for loads of people either. I think you just have to find something that suits you and put effort in or otherwise.:)

100g of pasta for one person seems an enormous amount to me. No way could I eat that. I usually do 250g for six people.

When I logged I lost 3 stone. Stopped logging, put on 1/2 stone already.

Unless you know what's going in, it's impossible. Unless you're blessed with a fast metabolism and it doesn't matter what you eat those were the days

everyone is different my ex eats McDonald's and chicken burgers and chips fizzy drink ext every single day and he is skinny as anything looks malnourished tbh and he has good skin and teeth
some people are just born with good genes

ferrier I could easily eat 100g of pasta. I’m calorie counting and am having 75g of pasta when I make it as a main meal but it is a much smaller portion than we’d normally eat. Must receipes would suggest 100g person so it’s not an outlandishly large portion. But horses for courses.

We do 60g of dry rice or pasta per person as a portion. That was the recommended weight watchers portion when I did that and I'm just used to it now.

I usually do 250g for six people.

Really? That's just over 40g each, less than half the recommended portion. Are 5 of those people babies and toddlers? What are you having with that? If that is just with a tomato based sauce then it would be under 200 calories for the meal. That is not enough for most people.

I'm going to calorie count and record everything I eat and drink for the next few days as an experiment. I'm going to guess it comes in around the 1500 mark, but thats really because I'm already roughly aware of calories in different foods.

Unless you know what's going in, it's impossible. Unless you're blessed with a fast metabolism and it doesn't matter what you eat those were the days

I disagree that it is impossible. If I feel I have put on a few pounds e.g. after Christmas I will watch what I eat for a couple of weeks until I can see the weight has gone. I'm not saying you should do that, just that it isn't impossible unless you have a "fast metabolism".

Ok, so I have worked out how many calories I should be eating to loose 0.5lb a week (I only have a few lb to loose) and it’s set just over 1500 but this increases on days I go to the gym/swim. Today I will be 300cal short (I have been to the gym so I had around 200 extra cal) so it looks like I’m already eating around what I am meant to be, sometimes less, occasionally slightly more (if eating out) so why am I still overweight?

I just can’t seem to loose the last nit of fat which is stuck on my thighs and hips , if I eat any less I get people telling me I look ill (my face looks thin and pale). I eat healthy food and cook from scratch.

love what's your BMI?

My BMI is 22.2, I weight 9st3 and am 5ft 3. I’m not overweight as such, just carrying weight in the wrong places, been going to the gym for 2 years in hope to tone and loose the thigh fat but can’t shift it. I am a size 10 but have to wear a 12 in jeans to get them over my thighs.