The 4000 calorie vs 2000 calorie argument...:)

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  • athensguy
    athensguy Posts: 550
    I use to be a 160 lb. 6' tall, healthy athletic type, I gained over 100 lbs. after marriage... I have NEVER ate 4000 cal. in a day. The guy is cuckoo for cocoa puffs. Not even professional athletes should eat that kind of amount every day.

    I'm not even a professional :(
  • Nastasha915
    Nastasha915 Posts: 124 Member
    I agree, 4000 cals is primarily for athletes and extremely active types. If a normal person ate that much they would put on a couple of pounds a week.
  • love4fitnesslove4food_wechange
    love4fitnesslove4food_wechange Posts: 6,897 Member
    2000 is considered for an athlete maintaining their weight. So yeah, 4000 is ridiculous. .....

    2000 would be woefully inadequate for an athlete which illustrates the problem with making generalizations.

    My TDEE (at moderately active) is 2,821 and I'm losing approx 1Lb per week at 2200 to 2300. There are skinny little triathletes at my club that will go through more than 4,000 cal per day when their training is peaking.

    ditto.

    2000 is NOT AN ATHLETE maintaining their weight. WRONG!
  • bradphil87
    bradphil87 Posts: 617 Member
    My trainer showed me a bodybuilder at our gym and said that he eats 8 lbs of beef a day just to fuel his workouts! I was like holy crap!!!! But I'm not a professional bodybuilder lol, so I stick to the 1700 cals a day :)
  • grinch031
    grinch031 Posts: 1,679
    My trainer showed me a bodybuilder at our gym and said that he eats 8 lbs of beef a day just to fuel his workouts! I was like holy crap!!!! But I'm not a professional bodybuilder lol, so I stick to the 1700 cals a day :)

    Sounds like your trainer if full of crap. Why would somebody eat that much beef in one day?
  • iplayoutside19
    iplayoutside19 Posts: 2,304 Member
    I spent a long time eating 4000 calories. I had to come here to fix that.

    This^

    That's not to say some days I don't have TDEE of 4000 calories. If I spend a morning (4 hrs) Mt Biking you can bet I'll be close to 4000 kcal for the day. There is a misconception here. Calories don't care if they're burned by a "professional athlete" or even an "athlete". Calories are a measure of energy. If a backpacker (regardless of size) hikes up and down mountains all day they would easily burn 4000 kcal. What I'm trying to illustrate is that "normal" people sometimes DO burn that much, and it's not so far fetched.

    As to the original topic. Different people have different needs and I don't even see a reason to argue about it.
  • TK266
    TK266 Posts: 3,638 Member
    I don't know if 4,000 cals is a real average for an American as opposed to what our real nutrition needs are. But I know it can change depending on what you are doing. In HS when I was on the track team and trying to gain weight, I was on a high protein, low fat diet of about 7,000 cals a day. But I was burning though a of that and managed to gain 15 lbs of muscle in 6 months.

    I know when I stated using MFP i was shocked to see what a "severing" according to the nutrition label look like on my plate. it was so tiny compared to my "normal" portion at the time.

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