If you’re eating less than 1500 calories, you’re not healthy.

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againwiththerelapsing
againwiththerelapsing Posts: 24 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Unpopular opinion from a former ED patient, but an average teen/young adult needs at least 2300 calories. Once you become and adult, that number only gets a couple hundred calories lower. I get that people have different metabolisms, but if you’re intuitively eating (eating when you’re hungry, stopping when you’re full) and you’re not gaining or losing weight, that means you’ve reached something called your set point weight. This is the weight that is predetermined by your genetics. This means that you can only gain/lose weight if you deprive/overfeed yourself. I see too many people trying to maintain diets of 1200 or lower, then binge-eating every weekend. It’s a vicious cycle of starving and bingeing, and it’s sad to see how normalized it is.
If you’re eating intuitively and maintaining a moderate exercise routine, you are healthy. If you try to change your set point weight, you venture into unhealthy territory.
Say it with me: All food is healthy in moderation and variety.
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  • againwiththerelapsing
    againwiththerelapsing Posts: 24 Member
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    cmriverside wrote: »
    Set point weight isn't an insurmountable thing. I mean, yeah, once I get to a healthy weight range I do have to under eat (in the strictest definition of that term) a little to lose more...but that goes for any weight. Being in a healthy weight range is the natural order of things. Doesn't mean people can't maintain comfortably at the lower and higher ends of that range without disordered eating. I lose weight at 1800 (net,) and I'm 21 BMI. I don't have to eat 1200.

    We've had this discussion eleventy seven times. Good luck with this.

    Also, 2300 calories is pretty random.

    Just do you, boo.

    Fair enough. I got the number 2300 from a former dietician at my old res facility.
  • ToffeeApple71
    ToffeeApple71 Posts: 117 Member
    edited November 2021
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    I'm interested in the idea of a set point. It's something my surgeon said to me recently when I had my annual follow-up from some major issues a few years ago. I've lost a considerable amount of weight since he first saw me and he wanted to know how I'd done it. When I said I'd pretty much been the same weight for around 3 months he said "oh, you've reached your new set point". I'd never heard that phrase before. Is it an actual thing? Can you change your set point? (Obviously...he said "new set point") how do you change it?
  • snowflake954
    snowflake954 Posts: 8,399 Member
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    Keep learning--this is the place to do it. There are many knowledgeable people that post.
  • russellholtslander1
    russellholtslander1 Posts: 285 Member
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    I don't think everyone is that different. I simply think many of us lie a lot.

    People have this idea that 1200, or 1500 is what a woman should eat, so every uses those numbers, but we all had a number we told people.. it was what you planned. 1800 calories, 2000 calories.. 3 excellent meals.

    And then 1-2 times a week, I would go to eat fast food, and consume 5000 calories at one meal.. adding 10K calories to the 14K I admitted to. So I actually ate 3,429 calories. Usually more.. I just picked some numbers for examples.

    How many of us actually track for a week, which includes cheats.. tracked accurately, so we know how many calories we consume to maintain our highest weights?

    If we had an actual calorie intake for when we weighed 300 lbs., we would now see that we eat a LOT less, even if we still eat 2,500 calories a day.

    So find out what you are ACTUALLY eating, and how that affects your weight.. and adjust from there, not from the 1500-1800 you admit to.. cutting even lower... it's a major reason why it's so hard to diet.. we go from 3,000 calories a day, to 1200, and tell ourselves we went from 1800 to 1200.. so why is it SO hard?

    Meanwhile, if we simply told ourselves the truth.. we ate 3,000 calories a day and maintained a high weight.. then cutting 500-1000 calories a day.. 2000-2500 still consumed, should lead to a pound or 2 of weight losss per week.. and you won't be starving.

    I get the OP was a bit misguided, and the proper amount varies by individual, but I think she was closer than many are, because at least she admitted to herself to a much higher caloric intake, when gaining weight, so when she cut, she came up with a number which wasn't ridiculously low.

    if nothing else, use a TDEE calculator to figure out what you need to be consuming daily.. it won't be 1200.. and then cut 500 calories to lose a lb. a week.. that should get you closer to a number based on reality. Then adjust based on results. Exercise will increase your TDEE of course, and allow even more calories to be consumed.

    One thing people need to remember is that all the nutrition is in the food.. when you severely cut calories, you also cut nutrition. We need to get to a point where we understand 2000 calories a day is normal.. and you can be a healthy weight eating that much.

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