Just For the Hell of It....

springlering62
springlering62 Posts: 8,396 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Because of an earlier post by someone asking how to basically go from lots to naught, I decided to enter what would have been a pretty typical day of eating for me before I started counting calories. Mind you, I was being very conservative here, and it could have easily been a couple thousand more. I ALWAYS had something my mouth.

I went “cold turkey” Sept 2018, setting myself a 1470 a day limit, which I later increased several times. I am at 2300 right now, experimenting with recomp.

How about you? Have you ever sat down and calculated this?

1rrzat6zffaw.png
ai8wfylr0z03.png

Replies

  • corinasue1143
    corinasue1143 Posts: 7,464 Member
    The Wendy’s- 100s of times. The rest, not so much.
  • puffbrat
    puffbrat Posts: 2,806 Member
    Every once in a while I still have a day of eating close to how I used to. I think it generally comes to about 3000-4000 calories.
  • LaReinaDeCorazones
    LaReinaDeCorazones Posts: 274 Member
    I work at a restaurant so before I was always snatching fries, a breadstick every now and then and tons of other goodies. I also had dessert at least once to a few times a day. Now no more fries, no more bread and no more sweets for me
  • New_Heavens_Earth
    New_Heavens_Earth Posts: 610 Member
    Yes. Came out to about 3000 to 4500 calories. I'm such a volume eater that even eating "healthy" foods unchecked results in at least 2100 calorie days.
  • lgfrie
    lgfrie Posts: 1,449 Member
    Interesting idea! I can't help but play along. Below, I logged how I "typically" ate before I started dieting - not hyperbolically to see how high I could jack up the numbers, but an honest picture of my typical food day when I was just eating whatever I wanted to eat.

    My diary page shows brunch, snack, dinner, nite, which is how I now organize my food day with intermittent fasting, but prior to revamping things, I was doing the traditional breakfast, lunch, dinner, nighttime binge method.

    I estimate I was eating ~ 5,000 calories, which makes it easier to understand how I had ballooned up to 320 pounds. Oh, and 7,800 mg of sodium and 301 g of fat. Oy vey, guess I'm lucky to still be here. What blows my mind is how easily I got to the 5,000 - you could say there's a lot of junky food on my list, and there is, but it's actually just fast food breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and some night snacking, nothing I didn't do or exceed a thousand times in the past.

    I won't lie - I miss those foods. I'm not one of those "Nowadays I prefer kale" people. I really, really miss Chick Fil A morning biscuits. It's just that I'm in a different place now in terms of life priorities.

    6wnc2x0dks74.jpg




  • pink_mint
    pink_mint Posts: 103 Member
    I think that was me :)

    Yeah, I think tracking your intake when you're not consciously trying to eat with any sort of restraint can be eye opening. I think everyone could benefit from it actually. It lets you get to know yourself at your "worst" for lack of a better word.

    It's hard to do though. I think The majority of people don't want to know what their intake really is. It's a hard thing to face.

    This reminds me... has anyone seen the British TV show "Secret Eaters"? Here in the US the only place I know of to watch it is YouTube. But the premise of the (reality) show is not really that the people featured are "secret" eaters (I think it just makes for a catchy title) they just claim they have no idea how they got so overweight because they really don't eat that much.

    Then the show sends private investigators to track all their food intake at home and out of the house. The results are always 'shocking' because their intake far exceeds what they thought.

    It's just interesting because I think that's very common. People's intake so often exceeds what they ever imagined. I know mine did.
  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
    I have never tried to go back and log a day. I do know that my starting TDEE was about 3600 and at the time I started losing I had been more or less weight stable for 3 years. This means I was averaging my TDEE. I have always had very low and high days though so if I logged a high day it would probably be 5000+ calorie. A low day would probably be somewhere from zero and 1500 calories.
  • pink_mint
    pink_mint Posts: 103 Member
    edited March 2020
    Lasmartchika wrote: »

    Yeah definitely!! People just think "I'm going on a diet" and because of what they read online or whatever they think 1200 calories is a MUST to diet, and because of that it's interesting to see some people come to the forums to say "OMG!! I think MFP gave me too many calories" and they're scared they're going to gain weight. But what they don't realize or think about is the huge amount calories they have been consuming right before they decided to diet. Some just think of the "bad food" they've been eating and now want to avoid, but don't visualize the number of calories they ate. This is a great idea to see where you were before and how things are changing now that you're aware of calorie amounts in the food. I'm pretty sure I could consume 5-6000 calories a day easily!!

    That's a good point. And I know not everyone will agree, but I think it is really worth something to have an understanding of where you're starting from/ coming from with caloric intake so you can get an accurate picture of what is changing when you start lowering calories. I am not so much of the "all or nothing" mindset when it comes to eating and fitness as that has caused me problems. Everyone is different.

    But I think someone should be applauded and encouraged if they are "only" eating 3,000 calories instead of 3,500 to start their weight loss journey. Of course they can adjust over time. But the number 3,000 means nothing unless it's understood where they started.

    In the other thread I was trying to figure that out for myself. I'm trying to have some grace for myself even though it's hard.
  • springlering62
    springlering62 Posts: 8,396 Member
    pink_mint wrote: »

    In the other thread I was trying to figure that out for myself. I'm trying to have some grace for myself even though it's hard.

    Damn right it is. That’s why I was curious what my starting point was, and why, by the grace of God I wasn’t morbidly obese when I started. I keep thinking back and mentally adding even more to that count. “Hi, I’m Spring, and I’m a recovering glutton”. And that’s why I will always count calories.

    You do you, honey, No one else knows what goes on in your head, or what will motivate you, or flip the switch for change, although it is fascinating to read others’ stories.


    I have to admit, the dozen Entemanns being more calories than the family sized sack of M&Ms was a surprise.

  • cupcakesandproteinshakes
    cupcakesandproteinshakes Posts: 1,128 Member
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    M&Ms, 39% of calories from fat. Entenmann's chocolate covered donut, 58% of calories from fat.

    Fat: So deceptively compact, so deceptively invisible, so calorie-dense. :lol::lol::lol:

    (And there's a bunch of it in most foods that some people describe as "addictive carbs". Heh.)

    And just makes food taste so damn good...,

Categories