Anyone Look Back At What They Eat In Shock

mersaultg

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.

You just described my lunch on any given day back when I was a teenager! Just add 3 apple pies and you've got it.

Faemusic

A little different, but, Krispy Kreme is directly across from my gym. BAD!

There was a Coldstone Creamery directly opposite my old gym. I'd drive out and it would literally be the first thing I saw as I was leaving the parking lot. It always seemed really unfair somehow.

My gym has a McDonald's, Taco Bell, Burger King, and TWO supermarkets, all in the same plaza. Yikes! The other night I joked with my friend -- "It's healthy to eat at McDonald's if I'm walking there after the gym, right?"

onleethestrong

I started doing a mock version of what a "stressful" day's menu would look like, and stopped when I hit about 7000. And that was without adding everything.....

I think the sickest thing I used to eat on an almost daily basis was a soup bowl full of chocolate peanut butter ice cream with at least a half a cup of melted peanut butter poured over it. Maybe a handful of crunched up oreos sprinkled on top.... Nearly 2 days worth of calories in ONE SNACK!

seltzermint555

I look back in shock for a variety of reasons.

For a very long time, I was around 270 lb. Like from age 20-24 and 27-30...same range of weight. During those years I ate like this:

Breakfast: 3/4 cup of sugary cereal and 1 cup of 2% milk
Lunch: a few carrot sticks, a few blueberries, a turkey sandwich with light mayo & lettuce on 2 slices of white bread
Dinner: smallish bowl of pasta with chunks of chicken cooked in butter, topped with Ragu reduced fat alfredo sauce & steamed broccoli and some red pepper flakes
Dessert: 2 homemade chocolate chip cookies OR a tall cinnamon dolce latte from Starbucks

NOT good...but it's weird to me that I stayed 270 when really it wasn't THAT much different from how I eat now (granted I make a lot of tweaks from that, but still...that isn't crazy crazy tons of calories there...I logged it and it only had me "over" by 70 cal from what I eat NOW at 198 lb to lose 1.5 lb/wk)

Later on, after reaching my HW of 307 lb - there were many many months where I ate just cucumbers and hummus for lunch every day and no desserts at night. I did lose weight but it was at the rate of 45 lb in 4.5 years (with quite a bit of exercise). I know people say there is no starvation mode and you can't stay fat on too few calories but I actually have doubts. Since joining MFP I have never felt hungry and have lost 63 lb in 10 months.

As for shock at the "bad" choices I used to make, it's mostly restaurant food that shocks me. I used to think shrimp tacos from Chili's were basically the same as making them at home but there's a difference of almost 600 cal/plate and TONS and TONS of sodium.

Or some of the choices that I didn't think were all that "bad" like getting a small frozen custard concrete or a milkshake and then eating a restaurant dinner. Totally crazy calorie wise. Shakes are probably my number one shock. They don't seem nearly as indulgent to me as a mini DQ Blizzard but have about 3 times the calories in even just a small vanilla shake. Wow.

seltzermint555

Back in the day when I worked in a busy ER, my diet consisted of three things: Sara Lee Coffee Cake, Pepsi, and black coffee...that's when I found the time to grab a bite in the break room during a long 18 hour shift. We ALL ate that way, doctors, nurses, PA's, and oddly enough, we were all very thin. Too thin, in many cases. I guess we worked it off running from one patient to the next.

I shudder to think of what we would look like today if we ate that way...now that we are of a "certain age" and our metabolism is as slow as a clogged drain.

Truth is, the thought of eating Sara Lee Coffee Cake makes me feel nauseated.

My mom was a nurse and later a director at a nursing home. She consumed mostly coffee, cookies & crème ice cream and peanut butter for like 20 years. Along with laxatives twice daily. She was fairly thin (5'7" and ranged between 120-150 with a Kim Kardashian body shape) but now at 63 her body is all jacked up from lack of proper nutrition.

echoslug

Not so much with shock but longing. When I was a competitive swimmer I would eat 5-7k calories a day during season but I was also logging 15+ hours a week a pool. I liked buying milkshakes everyday and two steaks for dinner. I mean I ate plenty of healthy foods too, my family pretty much only cooks healthy. I just didn't worry about portion sizes or those extra treats XD

Needless to say I ate whatever I wanted. I was perfectly aware of what I was eating, all food just feel into the category of fuel back then. If I could go back to that I would in a heartbeat. I just don't have those 15 hours to devote to swimming anymore.

seltzermint555

The calories in alcoholic drinks does surprise me. I am glad I have never been a big drinker, even in college. I only drank maybe once every 2 months but when I look at the calories (and sugar) in cocktails (especially girly fruity cocktails) and even just in shots...wow

obrientp

Back in college, my best friend and I would eat a extra large pizza and share a whole dozen Dunkin Dounts every Friday night to celebrate the end of the school week. On Saturdays, I would have either Mexican or Italian platters for lunch or dinner. This is on top of eating breaded chicken sandwiches, and french fries nearly everyday for lunch and bucket size bowls of cereal for dinner during the week. Sometimes I would sprinkle extra sugar on the cereal, or sometimes dinner would be a bucket sized bowl of buttered popcorn. At least i always drank Diet Coke!

cwolfman13

Not so much at what I ate, mostly how much I ate. I've always been a foodie and enjoyed good quality food and never been much of a junk food guy...but being a lover of good food meant that I often went back for 2nds and 3rds long after I was satiated.

Awesomers

Some of my favorite shocking foods from the past:

Dairy Queen Blizzard - Georgia Mud Fudge size large: 1,180 calories!! I have not been to DQ in a long, long time.

Or this gem, from a food diary in 2008: FIVE cans of soda. I drink soda on very rare occasions, now.

ETA: and very little water. Ugh. Glad that's not me anymore.

seltzermint555

Dairy Queen Blizzard - Georgia Mud Fudge size large: 1,180 calories!! I have not been to DQ in a long, long time.

NOT saying you should go running back to DQ ;-) But I love their blizzards in the mini size, I find that more satisfying than almost any bad-for-you treat around and they're mostly between 370-520 cal. The fruit based (such as strawberry or banana) varieties are lowest. My husband and I get these once a month or so. Yummy.

Or this gem, from a food diary in 2008: FIVE cans of soda. I drink soda on very rare occasions, now.

ETA: and very little water. Ugh. Glad that's not me anymore.

Oh good call...I forgot to address water and soda in my post. I stopped drinking regular non-diet soda in college 15 yrs ago...BUT I used to drink 2-4 cans of diet soda every day and NO water at all. Now I drink primarily water, at least 64 oz per day and 2-3 cans of diet soda per WEEK. I gave it up for months but I find that 2-3 cans a week makes me happy.

zenalasca

I could eat an entire large Pizza Hut pizza by myself! I can't believe it! And the sad part is that if I went back to eating the way I use to, I think I could work my way back up to that within a few weeks. I ate fast food for breakfast, lunch and dinner and went to Dairy Queen every single night for a large double fudge cookie dough blizzard! I loved icecream! So glad I stopped ruining my body!

I'm just trying to wrap my head around what a large double fudge chocolate cookie dough blizzard is.

It's like a mcflurry (yum) but
It's all chocolate
it has double chocolate fudge cookie dough in it
double chocolate cookies are chocolate cookies that have choc chips in them as well
if it's choc fudge cookie it's probably made using a half ratio of melted chocolate in the dough

Btw, I used to consume a whole 300g bar of chocolate by melting it into a cup of flour and guiltily consuming it / spooning it into the trash

eadebeaux

I've always been a big eater. I am finally at a point in my life where I am just disgusted with myself by the way I have been eating, and I am so done with it. Doesn't mean I can't enjoy a cheeseburger, blizzard, etc. ONCE in a WHILE...but I craved things ALL THE TIME...a lot of emotional eating going on from stress, boredom, etc. I would literally get excited at the thought of planning where I would go out to eat, or fix at home, and already had it in my mind that I would just eat and eat and eat. It was self-medicating for me, but it temporarily made me feel excited and happy. The downfall, was that I would wake up in the middle of the night, laying in bed, and beating myself up for gaining weight and engrossing myself in so much food each day, and feeling like a fat slob. (Not to mention heartburn, indigestion, etc.). Then I would turn around and do it the next day! I amaze myself at how smart and dumb I can be at times...LOL...for instance, I have so much self awareness, yet, I would start to watch my calories, and then if I ended up going out to eat and started thinking of all the yummy things I could order, appetizers, main course, dessert, etc. eating them, and then figuring that my day was shot because of how much I just ate, so I might as well not even bother to exercise that day. ??? This continued for a LONG time...I had this philosophy that if I was going to eat too much, or go over my calories in one meal, then why should I even bother to workout that day...Well...not anymore!!! So DONE with that nonsense! Totally mind over matter. I do very well when I have my mind in the right place and take control over the crazy cravings. It's the late night cravings for salt and/or sugar that are hard for me right now...but so far, I am doing good.

guenthcs

That is an amazing amount of food! But on a bet I could prob almost do it too. How much weight have you lost?

970Mikaela1

I will still eat an entire pizza from time to time, or the occasional dozen krispy kremes, or pints of ice cream, or......... The shock is gone for me now. I know what I can and can't do. I know the consequences. I know the time invested in weight loss and gain.

Cakewalk25

I was also terrible for going out with the girlfriends and getting dessert. I'd get a hot chocolate with whipped cream and Bailey's (probably like 400 calories) and a dessert like apple pie or cheesecake. My favourite was Apple Pie at Joey's, and when I looked that up on myfitnesspal it's 1050 calories and 55 grams of fat. Crazy!

On the other hand, some of the food I felt guilty eating weren't as bad as I thought once I started logging calories. Fat Frank's hot dog is only 230 calories and BLT (another weakness of mine) is only 370.

jlshea

Yes! Until recently I used to stock up each Sunday for the week and pack my desk drawers...hidden away of course, with junk. Double Stuff Oreos, Reese's PB Cups, Doritos, Cheetos, so much junk. Blows my mind. I'm shocked I'm not diabetic or on cholesterol/bp meds.

sloth3toes

TOPIC: Anyone Look Back At What They Eat In Shock

Do you mean, like, last year, or last night?

Dairy Queen Blizzard - Georgia Mud Fudge size large: 1,180 calories!! I have not been to DQ in a long, long time.

I cut back from a medium to a small Georgia Mud Fudge. And not every Sunday night, anymore. I don't think my family is too happy with that.....

dunnodunno

Sometimes. I remember eating a big bowl of ice cream & then I would put a ton of cereal on top. Sometimes instead of the cereal I would put two or three pieces of cake on it or a lot of cookies.

I could eat six pieces of pizza at a time & probably more.

I basically would eat a ton of junk food in general & would eat around three to four pieces of lasagna, big bowls of spaghetti, and tons of french fries.

AutumnFrostfall

Even in the last year I'm surprised. (I just found out I have a gluten sensitivity - guess what I was always having?)

Thinking about what I was eating to get to my highest weight.... I can't imagine eating like that ever again. All that stuff (Mostly fast food / junk food) wouldn't taste good to me now.

sarafischbach9

Yes. When we are younger we get away with eating bad things! I put on weight in 2013 because I was eating out at restaurants too much ( and not exercising enough ) and doing my horrible 1 hour commute twice a week to school. When I was 16, I ate way worse things at fast food restaurants and barely put on weight. Obviously I wasn't a stick but if I had a few months of triple cheeseburgers and large fries, my weight didn't change all too much. I maintained for the most part.

I would not maintain on what I ate when I was 16 lol.