How is it possible to eat 3000 calories a day and not put on weight?

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  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
    edited November 2014
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    lemonsurprise wrote: »
    3000 calories seems like a lot for a lightly active petite female. Generally the people I have heard of who eat raw (females) claim to be eating a huge amount of calories in smoothies. Litres and litres of smoothies through the day, but not be putting on weight. I just wondered if there was something within these diets that wiped out calories in vs calories out as I was having a debate with a friend who is convinced she won't put on weight doing this.

    My guess is that they're substantially exaggerating their intake and/or really don't know how many calories they are consuming...they are somehow equating volume with calories.

    As an example, right now I'm in a cut and trying to eat primarily a lot of nutrient dense whole foods...it's a ton of volume and most people look at my lunch box and say, "yeah right...that's a ton of food...no way you're going to lose weight." (This morning I had 1 egg and 5 egg whites scrambled with some coconut oil and added some asparagus along with one 1/3 cup (dry) oats (cooked) topped with 50 grams of berries and one ounce of almonds...tons of volume, but just shy of 600 calories...someone who didn't know any better would think it far more).

    So, I eat a ton of volume...but my calories only total up to around 2300 - 2500 for my cut which is just about perfect for me.
  • WalkingAlong
    WalkingAlong Posts: 4,926 Member
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    lemonsurprise wrote: »
    3000 calories seems like a lot for a lightly active petite female. Generally the people I have heard of who eat raw (females) claim to be eating a huge amount of calories in smoothies. Litres and litres of smoothies through the day, but not be putting on weight. I just wondered if there was something within these diets that wiped out calories in vs calories out as I was having a debate with a friend who is convinced she won't put on weight doing this.

    If blenders wiped out calories, none of us would have weight management issues. :)
  • wannabeskinnycat
    wannabeskinnycat Posts: 205 Member
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    Does being stuck on the toilet for most of the night, after eating unnatural amounts of fruit, count as calories out? :o
  • lolly715
    lolly715 Posts: 106
    edited November 2014
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    lemonsurprise wrote: »
    3000 calories seems like a lot for a lightly active petite female. Generally the people I have heard of who eat raw (females) claim to be eating a huge amount of calories in smoothies. Litres and litres of smoothies through the day, but not be putting on weight. I just wondered if there was something within these diets that wiped out calories in vs calories out as I was having a debate with a friend who is convinced she won't put on weight doing this.

    My smoothies are just over half a litre and less than 300 calories. That's including protein and fats, not just the (much lower in calories) fruit. Even a higher calorie widely available one is only about 300 calories per 500ml. You could have 2 litres of the stuff and only just meet the minimum calories for the day.

    Odds are they're simply not eating as much as they think.
  • peachyfuzzle
    peachyfuzzle Posts: 1,122 Member
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    Being a hefty guy, my TDEE is almost 3500, so I could lose weight eating 3000...
  • auddii
    auddii Posts: 15,357 Member
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    wannabeskinnycat wrote: »
    Does being stuck on the toilet for most of the night, after eating unnatural amounts of fruit, count as calories out? :o

    Ha, that was my thought.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,604 Member
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    lemonsurprise wrote: »
    I follow a few people on facebook who are on various diets that mainly make up of fruit. Eating 1000's upon 1000's of calories a day and not putting on weight.
    So what happened to calories in vs calories out?
    Well if they are burning up what they eat they won't gain weight. So it's still about calories in/out.

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  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,943 Member
    edited November 2014
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    lemonsurprise wrote: »
    I follow a few people on facebook who are on various diets that mainly make up of fruit. Eating 1000's upon 1000's of calories a day and not putting on weight.
    So what happened to calories in vs calories out?

    I'm a 52.99 year old woman, fairly small, and I maintain on 2000-2200 a day due to my activity level. Bigger you are, the more calories you get. Guys usually get more calories than us ladies do.

    By the way, fruit has no magic properties.
  • justalittlecrazy
    justalittlecrazy Posts: 88 Member
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    When I get to maintenance, it looks like I'll be at about 2300 calories per day. Add a couple hours of hard exercise on to that and I would easily be at 3000 calories per day.
  • J72FIT
    J72FIT Posts: 5,948 Member
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    MrM27 wrote: »
    I know people that eat 3000 calories and lose weight. I eat 3000 and gain. Why? Because CICO.

    +1
  • Kalikel
    Kalikel Posts: 9,626 Member
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    No way in hell anyone is eating 3000 calories worth of fruit every day.
  • williams969
    williams969 Posts: 2,528 Member
    edited November 2014
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    Back in my early 20's, I ate at least 3,000 calories a day (no, not just fruit, yuck), and easily maintained 130 lbs at 5'6". It helps if your feet are your sole source of transportation (no car :neutral_face: ) and you have an active job (I worked in a warehouse, stocking/cleaning shelves, then I worked in commercial laundry). CICO still applied.
  • williams969
    williams969 Posts: 2,528 Member
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    Kalikel wrote: »
    No way in hell anyone is eating 3000 calories worth of fruit every day.

    IKR? In my case, there wouldn't be enough time in the day to do so, unless I ate all the fruits while on the loo...more efficient that way, lol! Would that be FIFO (fruit in, fruit out) then?

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