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?

Really moving? I struggle to hit 50 calories some days..

I stick to my maintenance calories which are 1630 and then I exercise to create a deficit to lose weight. One I am at my ideal weight I'll increase the calories depending if I've exercised that day or not

The point is professional that it is individual, you cannot give a recommended number of calories for 'people' or 'men' or 'women'. It's a daft way of managing weight anyway because if you cook ingredients then life is too short to make every meal into a maths exercise.

I'm not missing the point, thanks, I was merely correcting your apparent confusion over recommendations for men vs women. Fwiw, I actually agree that generic reccommended calorie allowances are fairly pointless and, in some cases, damaging - simply because they will inevitably be too high for many.

The previous poster who I was replying to said 'the average person' . Why not save your education for those who are actually confused....!

The previous poster who I was replying to said 'the average person' grin. Why not save your education for those who are actually confused....!

Well then why did you go on to talk about men and women together on 2000 cals? Why not correct her? The previous poster could have made a typo, you were simply incorrect.

springtrolls

As I expected. You're reaching 1200 calories then. The problem is you're using a crap calorie counter.

The fillowing post is probably going to seem incredibly prosecutory. I apologise, but I had the misfortune to grow up seeing the physical effects of longterm malnutrition close-up. It is a matter of principle with me to intercede when I see nutritional misinformation being spread, however unwitting and well-intended the speaker. To let this pass is not fair on you, and it would be beyond unfair on the lurkers, some of whom will have eating disorders and little insight into their condition.

1200 calories is the nutritional minimum. It really is.

Breakfast 2 pieces of wholemeal toast with some butter

Wholemeal bread is generally about 100-140 calories a slice, depending on brand. We'll go with 103 (Co-op wholemeal) as an estimate.

2 slices = 206

You had butter, but didn't specify how much. I'll assume you were really sparing with it (were you? Realistically, if you're not actively dieting and weighing food meticulously, people put on 10-15g per slice) and put 15g butter for two slices. 111 calories.

Total: 317 calories

Beef and horseradish sandwich from coop

That's 311 calories according to myfitnesspal calorie counter.

Dinner Homemade beef stew. Although more veg in than beef

Vegetables have calories in. And a good thing too, otherwise you'd be very unwell on the calorie allowance you thought you taking in.

100 gram beef casserole steak Between 145 to 197 calories, on myfitnesspal, depending on retailer.

Garlic 1 clove? 3 calories
Onion x 1 A small onion is quoted as 29 calories
Leek x1 I don't have a leek to weigh at the moment, so I'll let that pass.
Carrots x 3 I weighed 3 and got 360grams. Lopping off 120g for peeling them, is 240g- 98 calories.
Sweet potato x 1 I weighed the smallest one in the cupboard which was 128g. 125 calories
celery x 3 18 calories?
Parsnip x 1 I don't have one to weigh, so I'll be conservative and say 50g after peeling. 37 calories
tin of tomatoes I used Tesco Everyday Value Chopped Tomatoes - 74 calories a tin

Total: 529-581 (due to the beef variance) calories and I have been very, very, very careful with totting this up. It's more than that if you weighed the leek and the parsnip.

Cumulative total: 1157-1209

haven't read TFT but 2,000 seems huge to me!

Oh gosh, moving, I know we're all different but the thought of eating as much as you just makes me feel sick...

Calories are weird and I don't understand them at all. On a normal day I eat around 2,500 to 3,000 a day and I don't gain any weight.

When I restrict calories to 1,000 to 1,500 a day I lose a few pounds in the first couple of weeks but then don't lose any weight after that. Last year I spent 8 months eating around 1,200 calories per day and only lost a few pounds and only in the first month. When I eat less I poo less and my body just adjusts to whatever it is given.

I don’t think a one size fits works fine r calories. The guidelines accordingly the NHS are 2000 for all women.

But this doesn’t take into account height weight or activity level.

So a woman who is short who lives a inactive lifestyle 2000 calories would be too much.

Or a woman who is very tall and very active 2000 would not be enough.

I think more emphasis should be for everyone to check there TDEE and see how many calories they should be consuming for them.

NameChanger22 I don't believe any of that for a second. I follow regular bulk and cut cycles and can predict my weight loss and gain with near perfect accuracy just by modifying calorie intake.

2000 calories could easily be a meal out with a pudding and glass of wine. How ever 2000 calories of veg, salad and fruit ks hard to achieve.

I used to love secret eaters on channel 4...some people on the show swear theyre eating 1200 calories and cant shift thr extra 10 stone...but whrn filmed it turned out that they ate 5/6000 a day with bites here and there, massive portions and snacks betwren meals.

Haven't RTFT but I think portion sizes are a big part of the problem. Most restaurants serve way too much for one portion. I'm sure I read somewhere that a main meal should have a portion of protein the size of a deck of cards, carbs the size of your fist and twice that of veg.
I also think drinks are a problem. I only drink water all day and have 2 cups of coffee with no milk.
I have always managed to maintain a healthy weight - I do have a fast metabolism though. People have always commented on how much I eat and how often and can't understand why I'm not overweight but I eat little and often so it's probably deceptive.

I checked the calculator at the link given above. For my height and weight and activity level, I'd need 1,669 calories a day so quite a bit less than 2k. To lose weight 1,169, which is less than the 1200k that some people are giving as a minimum.
When I've lost weight in the past it's been with aiming for 1200 a day, but as an average over the week i.e. a bit less during the week and more on the weekends so I can go out to eat with friends.

I'd need 1,669 calories a day so quite a bit less than 2k. To lose weight 1,169, which is less than the 1200k that some people are giving as a minimum.

You don't need a full 500 calorie deficit to lose weight. A 500 calorie deficit will result in a 1lb a week weight loss. If your tdee is low to begin with you could easily half that and lose 1/2 lb a week, which for a small person is more obvious than it would be on a larger person.

Crook - half a pound a week wouldn't be enough to motivate me. I'd need to see something on the scale after a week or I wouldn't know if it was working or not.

I love most of Secret Eaters, too. Not the bits where they feed people free hotdogs, but the moments when folk insist blue in face they eat very little... only to have to confront their vast calorie intake, later. So easy to not be self-aware.

TDEE calc doesn't work for me. I eat W A Y more than my TDEE calculation. I have no sure explanation for that.
Agree that 2000 kcal isn't very much. And 1200 kcal obviously very very not much. We should think of food as an occasional brief adequate refueling moment, not as a routine fill-er-up to satiation plus no limit snacks.

God I can have 2000 for my breakfast 🙈

I think it is easy if you eat healthy and not easy if you have a diet of carbs..,, I am a size 10 - 12 and I eat roughly 3000 / 4000 a day ... I don't exercise either ... I enjoy my food .... won't be swapping my diet for a low calorie diet anytime soon.

JustOneMe how old are you if you don't mind me asking?

I love Secret Eaters too, have known so many people who swear that they've eaten nothing all day and seem totally oblivious to the fact they've continually grazed. This misreporting is why so many nutritional reports are inaccurate as they're based on what people say they've eaten, rather than what they've really eaten/

Crook - half a pound a week wouldn't be enough to motivate me. I'd need to see something on the scale after a week or I wouldn't know if it was working or not.

But that's not a healthy mindset for a diet at all. Everyone gets weeks where they plateau - and although it's usual to lose more at the beginning, you can't expect instant results.

I think its about knowing when you are full, and if you eat a lot one day to eat less the next...

I don't watch what I eat - so friends think I eat whatever i want - but I would struggle to actually eat more than 2 proper meals a day - (normally a cooked brunch at 12 plus dinner at 6). But then I'm only 5 ft. On top of that I'd prob have a couple of full fat lattes. Have no idea how many calories this would be.

There was a program on C4 about what skinny people eat - I think the main thing was they ate home cooked food, would skip meals (without realising) if they had eaten a lot the previous day, and were quite active even if they didn't actually work out.

I love Secret Eaters too, have known so many people who swear that they've eaten nothing all day and seem totally oblivious to the fact they've continually grazed.

I've never seen secret eaters, but I've always suspected that this is why I seem to eat so much more than people around me do while maintaining a pretty constant weight that, while not ideal, isn't very overweight. If what many other people I know say they are eating is true then I'm eating double what they do, but the results don't bear this out.

I also think this about the many people I know (fellow academics) who insist they work 70+ hour weeks. I think they're discounting a lot of unproductive time - as otherwise, they have astonishingly little to show for all that time.

I'm a bit confused by your message. You're acknowledging lots of people are overweight but then seem to be saying 2000 calories isn't much - as though you think the advice should be a higher calorie allowance ...even though you know that with that current advice most people are overweight so increasing the calorie allowance makes no sense.
Most people with sedentary lifestyles don't need 2000 cals. For under 1000 cals you can have omelette for breakfast; soup for lunch; roast chicken for dinner.
Greek salads usually have high fat olives; cheese; dressings, etc. It's easy to have a filling salad of about 300 cals but not in a Greek restaurant.

2000 is quite a lot.

To lose weight effectively I have to eat 1200, that's fucking difficult especially as too much fruit and vegetables flares up my IBS