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?

I think 2000 isn't very much and can be used up very very quickly.

But generally the threads on MN go like this:

'AIBU to say 2000 is WAY too much food to eat'

'No YANBU. I eat 500 calories a day and I struggle to hit that some days! If I eat any more, I will put on weight'

When I was on a diet I was eating 1500 calories, and they went very very fast. Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner, no snacks, no alcohol, no treats.

Using My Fitness Pal is an eye opener on calories.

How do people manage to routinely eat less than 2000 calories? For me to achieve that I would have to record everything I eat.

It is the only way to lose weight, you have to know what's going in. My Fitness Pal is great for that. You do have to weigh food etc but it's worth it. I lost 3 stone doing this.

I think 2000 calories is loads (without wine) 200 for breakfast, 400 for lunch that leaves 1400 for dinner which is impossible. Unless you add wine 🍷

In terms of how I would eat less than 2000 calories.

Breakfast:-
Bowl of cereal (often only half eaten as didn’t leave enough time to finish it)
Snack of a Kit Kat or something, fruit
Skip lunch as CBA / forget to eat / sandwich or something quick
Normal dinner
Tea and coffee in day

That isn’t my current diet as I am consciously trying to eat a lot more.

I think 2000 calories is a huge amout of food depending on what your diet is like.

I'm currently weight loss and training so eating 12-1400 calories per day depending on my training.

My diet today was ....
B - cup no fat yogurt, half cupof blueberries and a half a banana
S - pepper and homemade hummus
L - cauliflower pizza (cauliflower low fat moz and cheese) rocket and mixed salad) and an apple
D - feta, spinach, and mixed veg pasta
E- spag bol with cauliflower rice.
S - tangerine

I could easily eat 2,000 calories a day yeah, but I'd put on a stone within a month!!!

If you're eating out and/or not preparing your own food then it's very easy to go over 2000

I calorie count and with chocolate I eat 1700 calories on average. That includes a couple of hot chocolates and a small glass of wine but my good is all freshly prepared. I'm never hungry until I'm approaching my next meal time and always feel satisfied. But even eating that many calories I seem to have stalled losing the rest of my baby weight, probably due to the glass of wine and chocolate! I think with things like this the 2000 calories is a vague, general guidance that's been simplified so more people can understand it. Of course it's not going to be exactly correct for everyone, but it's clear that additional guidance on food for many people is needed but they can't provide information tailored to each individual's needs.

It's like in a similar context, I read a little while ago that we should really ideally have 7 portions of fruit and veg a day. But that simply just isn't affordable for so many people that they made the guidance 5 portions, as more people are able to afford this so people are less likely to disregard the idea completely (I don't know how true this actually is, it's just something I've previously read in passing). So again it's the idea of reaching out to as many people as possible

2000 is loads

I eat 1200 made-from-fresh protein skewed kcal/d and struggle tp do anything but gain

5ft10
Breastfeeding
Weight training 4x/wk cardio 2x/wk walk or cycle everywhere
40s
Hypothyroid

I agree with you op that 2000 cal add up very fast. Especially, like you say, when you add in the things we forget contain calories, like lattes and alcohol etc. I'm sure I pass the 2000 mark most days, and I think we eat healthily. We never drink alcohol or eat dessert, we don't have lots of snacks lying around, and we don't eat meat. We're not dieting or abstaneous, our food choices are more about watching our money than our waists, but I'll bet we go over 2000 most days.

@HaudYerWheeshtBawbag

It's not really though, if you swapped your cauliflower pizza base for a dough base, cauliflower rice for white rice and your no fat yoghurt for full fat you would be eating the exact same quantity of food but your calories would be over 2,000

2000 is not much if you eat out but loads if you are cooking at home.
I think it must be the amount of oil they use or something because I could never get that many calories out of the same dish if I made it at home.

I think it balances out over the week if you do a combination of eating out and staying in because you use less calories with non pre packaged or home cooked foods then go over calories when you eat out or on the go.
I think its a more accurate picture to look at your whole weeks intake rather than each days.

I ate a cheese salad from asda the other day when I was out. Looked at the calories out of interest and it was over 600.... more than a bloody big mac!! If I made a cheese salad at home theres no way id manage to get that many calories into it.

2,000 calories is far too much for the average person.

So yes, YABU. There is loads of evidence to suggest that the biggest contributing factor to the obesity epidemic is increasing portion sizes.

Today I ate:

Wheetabix with honey for breakfast
A pear and a breakfast bar
2 cheese sandwiches for lunch
Another breakfast bar
Veg chilli on baked sweet potato for dinner, with sour cream and grated cheese

The only unusual thing is the breakfast bars which I'm only eating ATM because they help my morning sickness. Otherwise that's a pretty normal days good for me. When I'm not pregnant I'm a size 10 and my only exercise is chasing a toddler and walking a lot because I'm too tight to pay for a bus ticket.

I used to eat like 3000+ a day as a teen but can't do that nowadays! Now it's like 1500. 2000 and I'd get a bit chubs.

1 Toast or scrambled egg for breakfast - 300
Salad/sandwich for lunch - 400
Modest portion of some rice/pasta dish like Thai Curry or spag bol - 500-600

Snack at work like crisps or fruit. - 200-300

B - Porridge with added blueberries = 220
L - Lentil & carrot soup with a small petit pain and low fat spread = 300
D - Hairy bikers spanish chicken tray bake = 370

Total 890 calories. I also had an apple and a low fat yoghurt for 130 and that left me with enough for a cornetto as a treat. Just under my 1200.

Most of the time I eat 10,000 cals a day so it's nothing. It's flipping hard to eat normal amounts. My stomach is huge though. A few packs of biscuits is like a starter to me.

When I have tried restricting it's amazing how it all adds up.

Most of the time I eat 10,000 cals a day so it's nothing.

What on earth are you eating to rack up 5 times the recommended amount for women?

I'm 5ft 5, in my 40s and weigh approx 9 stones. I think I eat around 1200 - 1400 a day. I eat a lot of high fat fish, only really eat meat/poultry twice a week, get through a lot of boiled eggs, some whole grain carbs, a tonne of veg, e.g. will often cook an entire bag of kale just for one meal for myself, don't eat sugar or processed foods. I can't even imagine eating 2,000 calories.

Well, as the daily guidelines for men and women used to be something like 3000 calories for men and 2500 for women and as a nation we were slimmer then, I think it goes to show how inactive we are as a nation, how crass guidelines are on an individual level, and what crap too many people eat... There was a programme on TV recently looking at the diets and lifestyles of 3 "naturally slim" people - and none of them counted calories or stuck to low calorie foods, but they didn't eat when they were not hungry and naturally ate less the next day if they ate a lot the day before, and they were also more active than they thought they were. So no surprises there, then! I've been a consistent weight for the last 30 years, because I don't use food to comfort myself, which many people do (I tend to go off food if stressed or unhappy) and do not like the sensation of being full up. I don't think asking people to count their calories obsessively is the way to create a narion of healthy eaters with a healthy attitude to food and nutrition, tbh.

I agree 2000 goes quickly if you aren't careful.

It's simple to argue for a 300 calorie breakfast, 600 lunch and 800 dinner and a couple of snacks but actually you have to watch everything.
A couple of extra dollops of something here, a larger portion of meat, more cheese on the top the odd sugary drink. Suddenly you are a good few hundred calories over. It all adds up.
I had cottage pie in a resturant today and it came in small ramekin. It was lovely and I wasn't hungry afterwards but I know if I'd made it at home it I'd have dished up twice as much of it.

I eat about 1200 calories a day. If I ate 2000 I would be morbidly obese

I have no idea how many calories I eat a day and frankly don't give a toss, as to have a vaguely accurate idea I would need to be weighing all my food and looking things up obsessively on charts, or eating nothing but ready meals - one behaviour being tiresome and neurotic and the other stupidly unhealthy.

OP I also think it's really easy to eat more than 2000 calories in a day . I often try to diet by restricting calories to 1200-1500 a day and I find this quite difficult.

I can easily eat over 2000 a day and that's without alcohol or cakes - I like high calorie foods like peanut butter and hummus, and enjoy snacking.

I've recently been calorie counting and have found that 16-1700 is quite sufficient. I'm not eating mountains of food, but I'm not feeling starved. I eat shedloads of fruit and veg which are low calorie but quite filling. Tonight for dinner I had a leftover lentil stew with an entire tray of Mediterranean vegetables from Lidl. That was less than 300 calories. I also ate some more veggies on top and had a bit of tomato soup. The volume of food was massive.

Calories are a thing that fat people watch. You can get low calorie food that's highly processed shit.

Eat a healthy, balanced diet and exercise.