Anyone Look Back At What They Eat In Shock

COliver416

When I was eighteen or so, my usual Saturday, was no breakfast, a lunch of Supersized Big Mac Value Meal, an extra Big Mac, and an extra Double Cheeseburger. That means that my lunch was 1,000 calories in soda in fries, 1500 calories in sandwhiches, roughly 2,500 calories just for lunch. Then, I'd go to the movies, eat a medium popcorn by myself, with butter in the middle and butter on top, another coca-cola (usually a bottle), which was another 1,000 calories. Then, I'd come home, eat some chips, probably. Then have Steak, Pork, or Chicken Parmesan, with pasta, broccoli casserole (three cheese broccoli) and or mashed potatoes, and have 2 to 3 plates, at least another 2,500 calories, and another soda.

Once I've done all of that, eaten all of that, stuffed myself silly. I'd have another soda while watching a movie and eat some chips. All in all, I was probably consuming 5 to 6,000 calories a day.

Today, my calories are between 1,200 and 1,500 and that's hard to stick to. I still eat whenever I want. I still have pizza, I still have cake, I still have chips as well... but, not often.

AnnACnd

I totally do look back and wonder how I got away with eating what I did when I was younger. I used to live on carbs. Seriously all I wanted to eat. Bread bread bread. Now I eat it very little! It was a slow year long change but I feel the better for it!! I also still indulge in breads and desserts and wine, just WAY less often.

hazelovesfood

Oh yes, if im not counting its bad, at least 3-4000 .Its what you choose to eat that's the problem really, burgers etc all packed full of calories but we all like them. quick type of food are always bad,

wildflower_kls

Yes, everything had bread or noodles. Slowly learning to substitute healthier things. Instead of muffins making egg muffins, instead of spaghetti noodles making spaghetti squash. Eggplant pizzas instead of dough!

tesstcool

Totally. I was a junkfood junkie! I love to bake and would make cupcakes for me and my roommates pretty much weekly. I'd eat French toast with tons of syrup for breakfast, pizza consistently for lunch, go out for dinner, come home and grab some baked goods, candy, or ice cream. Looking back I'm like how the heck did I eat all of that?! If I go out to eat even once a week now I have trouble finishing half of my meal!

smittybuilt19

Yep. I did a mock log of what a day in my life used to be. It amazed me how much food I would consume every single day.

smittybuilt19

I wouldn't quit eating cause I was full, I'd quit eating when I got tired of eating. ha

smantha32

I think all of us had a bit of a shock when we got here and figured out how many calories were were eating.

Dnarules

1200 to 1500 calories is generally not enough for a man. I think you need to re-evaluate your calorie goal.

1two3four

There was a time that...

I woke up and drank a can of Pepsi or Mountain Dew

For breakfast I ate 2 fried eggs, 3 slices of bacon and 2 pieces of buttered white bread toast and drank a glass of orange juice.

For lunch I ate two cheese burgers and a large order of fries.

I'd come home and eat chips and salsa or crackers and cheese.

I'd eat two heaping helpings of some homemade dinner: meat loaf and mashed potatoes, nachos, lasagna. IF I was lucky it was roast chicken and baked potatoes, or Greek salad and bread but it was mostly high calorie homeade meals.

Then I'd end the day with a pint of ice cream and a few drinks of water.

The thing is, at the time I knew that the full breakfast every morning was shocking and the amount of fast food and the high calorie snacks and the pints of ice cream but to be totally honest I had no clue how calorie filled the plates of homemade food were. So that shocked me but the rest of it didn't because I knew at the time when you add it all together how bad it was.

Now, I do the full breakfast a couple times a month, the fast food in smaller portions less often. And the homemade foods are all present in smaller amounts with homemade lower calorie options more often.

The pints of ice cream are still present, I just make sure I log them and don't eat the entire thing every night.

Zoeybird_2012

I just recently starting eat right and i wonder how i walked around after some of the things i ate. I hate getting the bloated like feeling. When i first started this i thought i was dying one soda a day and small portions. Now i know when to stop eating without measuring and i can live on hardly any soda. I look back and see the bad habits i put in my life and will do anything to correct.

Spewze72

Oh yes. I would think nothing of eating a family sized pack of giant chocolate buttons/minstrels/maltesers or whatever after dinner, every night. I think that alone represents maintenance calories, plus whatever I was eating during the day which likely included sandwiches, frappucinos, cake, sweets...and an ordinary evening meal. Sheesh.

xscat

YES.

At the age of 14 I used to eat 8 poached eggs in one setting (proudly) with 4-5 drumsticks deep fried and a giant bowl of rice... Or half a chicken BBQ all by myself... Sometimes one pound of pork or beef stew easily with a giant bowl of rice. My parents were pleased and encouraged me to eat more meat, pizzas and fries because "I needed those calories of nutrition". And yes they measure nutrition in the unit of calories...

So I bloated from 95lbs to 135lbs in two years and in high school my lunches were always twice as big as most of the boys' in my class. Good thing I put a stop to that after I started to learn about nutrition... But looking back at it.... OMG....

And all those times I was hopelessly trying to convince my parents that you don't count nutrition by calories and you don't need that many calories when they were forcing me to eat a giant plate of sweat&sour pork or a cream stuffed bread for dessert... Sigh

kwantlen2051

Yeah. Amazing what I consumed for my 5 ft 2 in frame. I ate mindlessly. Thanks to MFP, I am more mindful now and would never wanna go back. Thanks to all the inspiring stories here.

meganeileenmc

I was just thinking about this! I didn't eat those things everyday but I definitely had my moments. On a regular day I would try to make "healthy" options but realize now that by quantity intake was way too high! I am doing about 1,300 a day and of course sometimes I still get hungry but I manage it with reasonable snacks. When we are eating all the crap food it creates an awful mess of just stuffing our face for no reason!

COliver416

1200 to 1500 calories is generally not enough for a man. I think you need to re-evaluate your calorie goal.

On average, you're absolutely right. However, my massive nutrarian take on my diet, makes it all very much a fully functioning diet that let's me gain a very good deal of muscle (currently increased my bench press from 40 to 90 in 5 weeks, increased my pull down from 30 to 42.5, and went from 7 push-ups in perfect form to 20 push-ups), while trimming down my fat in a quick and steady fashion (5 inches off my waist, 6 inches off the hips). Also, things I'm noticing, my complexion is healthier (the red blotchiness on my forehead has lessened). On average, I consume about 20 to 24 servings of vegetables, which is about 600 calories. I consume 400 to 600 calories of lean protein (chicken, turkey, and fish). Then breads, butter, and other simple carbohydrates, usually before a workout, to get the body going and let me workout intensely.

Along with that, my cholesterol, blood sugar, blood pressure, and cardiovascular health and endurance has improved.

Every two weeks, I hit the gym as a test day (I workout six times a week, two or three times at the gym, but, I test my progress once every half a month). I went from running a 12 minute mile and having to stop, to running a 9:40 mile and continuing on to run a second mile in 15 minutes, and then run .5 miles in 5.20 seconds. So, from only doing 1 mile and having to stop because my legs hurt, my heart rate was erratic, and I was completely out of breath, I was able to cut 2 minutes and 2 seconds from my first mile, and keep running for another 20 minutes and 20 seconds for another 1.5 miles.

But, you're absolutely right, if you're not going to watch your nutrients, supplement appropriately, and feed yourself to how you're working out calories become very important.

TriShamelessly

Although I am sure I had an occasional day or two a year where I might exceed 4,000 calories, my weight gain was more gradual and occurred over a 15-year period. My diet then was probably 2,700/kcal day on average. I now eat about 2,000-2,100 when not training as much as 3,200 in a day when training (maybe 2-3 times per month). So, in the end, my diet has not changed considerably (except for less rice and pasta), though I tend to make lower calorie and/or healthier choices on a more regular basis. What really changed for me is that I got up off my rear-end and started moving like crazy again.

nataliesweet19

3 years ago I ate Mcdonald´s like 3-4 times a week without a second thought. No wonder I started gaining weight then

coconutbuNZ

Oh I know what you mean. Back when I didn't count calories I'm sure I would have clocked up to 5000 or more in one day! Cake being my biggest weakness which I have only very occasionally now and yes junk food and processed foods, the biggest weight gainers of all.

christopherphillips1983

When I first got back out of the military, I actually measured my freezer to see how many Totino's Party Pizzas I could fit into it at once. Do I really need to elaborate further?

Frankly I'm sometimes surprised I'm neither dead nor diabetic after the way I ate and lived until I was about 25.

JazmineYoli

Yeap. Just had Cookout today. I chose some of the less calorie options and still ate about 1000 calories. Normally I could eat the higher calories things for lunch and dinner. I was stuffed.