So, How many calories did you actually put away?

vamaena

I did a quick count and found that I was easily between 8000-9000 a day. Before I had assumed it was only between 3000-4000. I had a notorious habit of eating chocolates almost steady at work. It's horrifying to think that I used to buy those huge boxes at Costco (that would have like 48 boxes of smarties in them) and go through that within two months at work. I would also snack on the cakes that would be brought in, grab a donut in the morning and again at lunch. That wouldn't include the chocolate I used to eat at home and on weekends. I went out alot with friends (several times a week) and would order things like the spinach dip, french fries with wings (I'd often order 2-3lbs of wings at a time). When I would get home I used to sit on my butt and watch TV. It's no wonder that I made it to nearly 340lbs. It's actually a miracle I didn't end up weighing more than I did when I decided to give my lifestyle an overhaul. I'm also lucky that I haven't developed any serious problems because of my weight.

I think about my old habits and I feel disgusted with myself. I have trouble actually believing that I used to do that and honestly, it's something that I never want to forget. It also serves as a reminder to keep doing what I'm doing.

vamaena

Honestly I'd be scared to know. There were a few days a week where I would eat out for EVERY meal. Yikes.

Same thing for me. Even now, if I visit some of my out of town friends, all they want to do is eat out for every single meal. I've started bringing my own food with me to their place and when we do go out I'll order something much smarter. For instance, for breakfast a poached egg. Lunch/dinner, a garden salad, with a vinegraitte dressing on the side. The rest of the food I bring and reheat at their place.

Cathalain

When I first started tracking calories, I came here and put in a typical day's worth of food, snacks, sodas, treats... anything that I would eat within a 24 hour period, including midnight snacks.

The tally was 12,000-13,000 calories per day.

ETA: Check out my open diary on 10/17/14 and I put in what a typical day would have been for me.

Wow.... holy sodium, Batman! :noway: I bet mine was even worse - I ate so many chips and crackers and salty stuff that I'm surprised my blood still flowed through my veins.

I'm VERY lucky that I have low blood pressure, or that would've been added to my diabetes as something to battle.

When I think about the things I used to scarf down... (shudder) The weekend before my diabetes diagnosis, I had eaten an entire Sicilian square pizza from L&B Spumoni Gardens in New York. It was the size of an entire cookie sheet and at least two inches thick. Sixteen slices. I kid you not.

And I wondered why my leg infection wasn't getting better that week.... wow, wow, wow. :noway:

jescamp9481

I dont know but I wish I did. It varied from day to day but I was 252 and maintained that for a year. I am going to guess 2200 was a usual day and the weekends were closer to 3k with some days being 4-5 especially if I was drinkning.

now I am at 1500 that I log knowing that I eat about 150-200 cals that are not logged, workout 3-4 times a week and lose about 1-1.5 lbs a week. I think when I get to goal I will go back to the 2200 a dy and see if that is my maintanence.

lemurcat12

I was inclined to go with the "not sure, never counted" crowd, but on further reflection I know how fast I gained (and it was really fast--I'd guess I put on nearly 20 lbs per year over the 5 year period I was gaining, ultimately gaining about 90 lbs). I also was pretty sedentary during a lot of that period. So looking at the numbers, my TDEE would have varied from about 1600 when all that started to about 1750 at my heaviest (using Katch-McKardle and estimated body fat). So if I was putting on about half a pound a week, I would have averaged about 1850 to 2000 calories.

All estimates, of course, but ones that seem consistent with what I recall.

Pretty scary numbers, and it definitely shows why my abruptly going from an active lifestyle to a sedentary one (related to some personal issues I was struggling with), plus just careless overindulgence from time to time and emotional eating added up so rapidly.

Zerodette

When I first started tracking calories, I came here and put in a typical day's worth of food, snacks, sodas, treats... anything that I would eat within a 24 hour period, including midnight snacks.

The tally was 12,000-13,000 calories per day.

ETA: Check out my open diary on 10/17/14 and I put in what a typical day would have been for me.

Kudos to you, I wasn't brave enough to keep my sample day visible- I deleted it immediately.

ChrisS30V

I was obviously eating enough to maintain/gain weight at 250+ lbs, so not an insubstantial amount. I've toyed with the idea of trying to log a "typical" day of my old eating habits for laughs, but when I look back at how I ate (around the clock, with numerous high-calorie snacks throughout the day) it makes calculating all of it a headache, because there was so much randomness. Plus, since I've been on more or less the same kind of structured meal plan for over a year now, I can't accurately think back to how I used to eat.

Probably one of those things I'm better off not knowing.

C5North

Sadly I really have no idea. But if I were to hazard a guess I would say 3-6,000 calories a day. There were days I'd have Mc Donald's for breakfast, 2 if not 3 McMuffins, A whole Domino's pizza for lunch or pizza buffet or China buffet and then generally some huge dinner.

DAMN! Any wonder I hit 365?

Today we went out. To Applebee's. I had the chicken freschada and water. 460 calories and I am full, almost more than full. How times change.

missbirrell

My worst day on here has been about 3500? Which was either Christmas Day or a day with takeaway pizza in. So probably 4000 is my limit, when I was drinking heavily at uni a few years ago.

rand486

I have no idea as to a daily total, but back before my new lifestyle, I still cooked most of the time. I just had no real clue as to what was a reasonable portion size, or what things were really worth. I'd have days where I'd have a box of fudgeeo's (sp?) as a drunken treat back in university.

My most vivid memory is back when I first started counting calories here on MFP - I used to make pad thai from scratch. As I said, I loved to cook, and always got rave reviews on a lot of my meals, but when I punched the pad thai recipe into MFP, it came out as over 1000 calories per serving. I was *blown away* - I thought "This is homemade, this can't be!".

The worst part is I used to go back for seconds... that would make it a 2000-calorie meal...

melimomTARDIS

I don't know for sure, but my meals were much denser and larger. Here's a sample normal day-

Breakfast
Cornflakes 2cups
Whole milk 1 cup
Coffee creamer 1/4 cup
Peanut butter covered banana

Mid morning
3 large homemade oatmeal cookies

Lunch
Chicken bacon ranch 12" sub with avocado from subway
2 subway oatmeal cookies
Sweet tea

Snack-
Buttered popcorn
Classic coke
Apple

Dinner
1/2 box of hamburger helper
Peas
Salad with lots of ranch
Buttered bread
Beer

Dessert
Share a pint of ice cream with hubs, while watching tv. Spoons in the pint, no bowl needed.

Ninkyou

Too many.

silentKayak

Over the years I've gradually decreased my intake as the weight kept piling on. The weight is due to decreased activity, of course - desk job, little opportunity for recreation, bad knees, walking at a snail's pace with little kids. But the decreased intake clearly wasn't enough to compensate for the massively lower level of activity. And since I didn't know my "budget", I'd go on these radical "I'm going to lose it all" diets eating 500 cals/day, and then of course give up and go carb-crazy a week later.

Doing the math:

I was gaining 12 lbs a year before I started counting - that's an excess 100 cals per day. I'm currently netting 1450 and losing just under 1.5 per week. That means my deficit is about 650.

So I was eating net calories of 1450 + 750 = 2200 of mostly healthy food. I say net because I was exercising a few times a week, but eating more on those days because workouts make me hungry.

It's actually possible to get very fat eating normal amounts of good quality food, and while trying hard to lose weight. I've been battling my weight my whole life but kept gaining. This site has been a true revelation.

silentKayak

I have no idea as to a daily total, but back before my new lifestyle, I still cooked most of the time. I just had no real clue as to what was a reasonable portion size, or what things were really worth. I'd have days where I'd have a box of fudgeeo's (sp?) as a drunken treat back in university.

My most vivid memory is back when I first started counting calories here on MFP - I used to make pad thai from scratch. As I said, I loved to cook, and always got rave reviews on a lot of my meals, but when I punched the pad thai recipe into MFP, it came out as over 1000 calories per serving. I was *blown away* - I thought "This is homemade, this can't be!".

The worst part is I used to go back for seconds... that would make it a 2000-calorie meal...

That's been exactly my experience. Your word "worth" hits the nail on the head to me. My question now isn't "can I have this?" but "is it worth it?" It's been great knowing how much everything costs for the first time in my life.

And, for the record, I'm furious with chain restaurants that don't publish their calorie counts on the menu. They know how much is in it because they publish it on their websites - why don't they tell us so we can make informed decisions? Yes, I know, now most of us can look it up on our phones. But that wasn't true before smartphones which was only, like, 5 years ago. I mean, we wouldn't put up with a menu with no prices on it that just said, "Look it up on the website if you want to know the price of anything before you order".

Case in point: I went to a chain pizza place the other day for the first time since starting MFP. I looked up their nutritional info. First, a plate of spaghetti and meatballs was 1800 calories per serving. And the individual pizzas: they have this "healthy" multigrain crust that I used to order. Guess what? It's 100 cals MORE than the normal one, which I like more anyway. Ugh.

persistentsoul

I am diagnosed with binge eating disorder though I alternated between bingeing and eating nothing. On my worst binge day i could total up to 15'000 - 20'000 :embarassed: . I would get heart palpitations and be very out of breath from over eating so much, i would wake up with hot sweats, I was many times unsure if I would wake up at all. It was bad, really bad :frown:

On a typical day It was probably 3'000 - 4'000 all in one big scoffing fest usually in evening.

At my worst it was full scale binge day after day for whole day :sick:

Every now and again when i was thinking darkest thoughts about my future and will to live, I would try extra hard to get a grip and live on salad for a while or stop eating altogether until my hands shook from lack of food. I found moderation eluded me because as soon as i ate anything it was like I became possessed by a little munching demon :devil: I would go out any time day or night to get my fix.

Thankfully that is over. Finally after decades of searching I found my freedom from the craving through high fat low carb lifestyle.
I have binged since I was a child. It got worse and worse over the years.
Sometimes i would order a family take away from two different take aways and do a binge shop from local store. I would frantically eat as if possessed until i could not force another bite then 20 min later would be ready to go again and so on until over a 24 hour time span it would all get eaten, every bit. That was some serious self abuse. I put in log on an unused day July 12, 2014, to see how bad it was. it is a miracle I survived but i built up to that level over decades. It probably could kill someone who had not adapted to such self abuse over decades.

RHachicho

Probably about 5-6000 But with a lot of variances. Some days i wouldn't be very hungry and probably ate like 2k. Some days i'm pretty sure i got neat 8.