8,000 cal. diet per day?!?! Give this a try......

bethinagain
bethinagain Posts: 282 Member
edited September 20 in Success Stories
I was amazed when I did this. Go to the Food tab, click over to the next day (you can always delete it) and type in everything that you used to eat everyday before you started dieting. I plugged in everything that I normally would eat and it showed me that I was consuming over 8,000 calories per day!!!

Eggs benedict for breakfast
Hot turkey sandwich w/ mashed potato for lunch
Pasta w/ alfredo sauce for dinner

And all the beverages, appitizers and desserts!!!

I'm proud to say that I am averaging 1,500 cal. per day now. But it makes me sick to think that I ate all that. This gave me more power to watch what I eat and understand how easy it is to pack in the calories and also to understand nutrition. Give it a try!

Replies

  • So I tried it.... Wow. Who knew there was 1,000 calories in a Quizno's Salad!! Salad is healthy, right?? I was right about 4,000 calories a day!! No wonder I'm fat! I'm averaging about 1,100 calories a day. I used to eat 3 days worth of calories all in one day....
  • guidosgal
    guidosgal Posts: 581 Member
    Amazing isnt it. I really believe that for most of us we were doing this everyday without the knowledge of what we were consuming.:noway: It is so amazing to me to be awhere of what I eat I think know (Hum do I really want to sacrafice my calories for that :grumble: ) I Love have the power over the food :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou:
  • I know, now I'm tracking my food, it also makes me sick to think how many calories I was actually eating a day, just from thinking about it without writing it down! I've found it relatively easy to cut down, although It still needs a bit of work! I'm not going over my calories but my fat intake needs more work as I'm going slightly over each day!
  • One of my favorite foods is Reese's Peanutbutter Cups (notice I said food not candy lol). Anyway, I was looking at this amazing reese's sunday at basket robins that I really want. It has 1200 calories!!!! OMG really? That's an entire day's worth of calories. I don't think I could ever even enjoy it now that I know how many calories in it. Knowing how many calories are in your food really ruins the fun of splurging. lol. Maybe in six months when I've been stable at my goal weight I'll treat myself.:laugh:
  • ebh1024
    ebh1024 Posts: 186
    OMG That is so scarry! I have not done mine yet,but I will. I'm a Reese's Peanut butter cup lover too...yes that is in the food group! Reading jawhwilson's post, know the calories does take the fun out of splurging! I am eating 1200 calories now a day and totally can't believe the there are so many calories and things you don't even think about, like the salad. That's crazy! Glad we have MFP to keep us where we need to be!!
  • cdickey
    cdickey Posts: 230
    I did this last year when I first signed up. I wanted to know exactly what I was eating a day so for 3 days I logged my "normal" foods. I was eating well over 3000 calories and was still hungry. Didn't take long to see a problem. Those were 3 work days. That doesn't even count a weekend where we would be eating out. Ugh...no wonder I was swelling up like a balloon.
  • I did this the other day.. And I was well over 5000 calories, especially when figuring how big of a serving I was getting compared to a real serving size. Lots of sugar and fat in there as well. Kind of disturbing, especially considering when i'm watching my calories now,and i'm satisfied for most of the day.
  • stormieweather
    stormieweather Posts: 2,549 Member
    My problem was the reverse. What I used to eat would barely hit 700 calories on a GOOD day and many days were closer to 300. Then, I might go out to lunch once or twice a month on Friday with co-workers and have 6,000 calories of fat/carbs. Or out to dinner with hubby and scarf 7,000 calories worth of pasta, bread, and desserts. Every one of those 'spurges' packed a pound or three on me.

    After a year, I am still struggling to reset my metabolism by eating enough food and being consistant at it. It isn't easy to lose weight because you just can't "cut back" and the pounds disappear. There is no where to go when your intake is at 700 calories a day. Going from 3-400 calories to 1,400 calories is tough, becuase that much is a truck load of food, for me.

    The moral of my story is....make dang sure you eat enough to fuel your body.
  • youngs
    youngs Posts: 250 Member
    :blushing: This is the totals that i use to eat..on normal day:sad:

    cal carbs fat prot. sodium sugar:noway:
    4,960 752 185 85 10,100 254


    OH MY GOD,,,What a eye opening experiance that was.....
    now i am lucky to get 1200 cal in..Just cannot belive that is what i use to eat..and that was on a good day would hate to see what my bad days where.....
    Thanks you for opening my eyes even more as to why i need a life style change..:flowerforyou:
  • Disturbing is all I can say - what an eye opener -good idea!
  • NurseMisty
    NurseMisty Posts: 312 Member
    I did this too out of curiosity. Mine was well over also.

    One of the whiskey river bbq chicken wraps from red robins is 1200 cals and 62 grams of fat! I'd eat that, then fries, and follow it all with a full calorie soda! That was just one meal out of the day. Although I miss some foods (because let's face it, even a bite of that thing is bad bad bad) I also like having the thought in my head that says "Do I think it's worth the cals?" You really have to be ready to commit to this to think BEFORE you eat!
  • mrsbeck
    mrsbeck Posts: 234 Member
    OMG. I was eating nearly 3500 cals a day.:noway:

    I clicked the finish button after I listed the food and it had me GAINING 35 pounds in five weeks, if every day were like that one. No wonder I got so fat.:frown:
  • bethinagain
    bethinagain Posts: 282 Member
    I love hearing back from everyone who does this. Makes me feel alot better to know that I'm not the only one that was packing in the calories like a horse! It's a great learning tool.

    If this is your first time reading this thread.....please give it a try and come back and share your report with us. We'd love to see it!
  • schel
    schel Posts: 5
    I would be scared to see... Makes me glad and reallllly feel good that I found this site and what good choices I made today.
    Schel
  • Oh geez that scares me. I remember one night with my roomie of eating 3 double cheese burgers, a large fries, a large regular soda.... just for dinner! Not to mention whatever we had for snacks, lunch, breakfast... and usually ate late at night after that.

    Calories: 2,090
    Carbs: 243
    Fat: 94
    Protein: 81
    Trans Fat: 3
    Sodium: 5,050

    That is INSANE!!!

    I just got home from the gym and got stuffed off of a small baked potato w/ toppings & 1/2 cup of green salad. w/ chicken and dressing.

    Calories: 262
    Carbs: 37
    Fat: 7
    Protein: 11
    Trans fat: 0
    Sodium: 525

    What a difference this site has made in my life. For the first time I'm excited about my weigh in and tape on Monday.
  • AmyMK
    AmyMK Posts: 164
    Oh My Goodness..i just put in what I would eat on a normal work day and came up to 4000 Calories...
    The Kraft Dinner I would have for dinner alone was 1200...that is revolting!

    According to this thing, I would be GAINING another 15 lbs in 5 weeks if I kept eating like that!

    My entire day today was only 1400, HUGE difference!
  • cvtga
    cvtga Posts: 118
    Talk about a revelation. I new I was eating more then I should and to top it off I would sit and have a few beers at night. No wonder I gained 18lbs from May to December last year.
  • DaveyGravy
    DaveyGravy Posts: 283 Member
    A typical day for me was anywhere between 3500 and 6000 calories. In fact, with all of the little snacking you 'forget' about during the course of a day i wouldn't be shocked if it was a lot higher. I used to eat pies all of the time, sometimes 4 at a time. Sausages, burgers etc. 4 or 5 at a time. I am a meat lover and it showed in my typical daily diet.

    I'm glad I did this idea now because I realised just how much rubbish I was putting into my body, without a care in the world.
  • I still get shocked at some things I fall victim to. The other day I had a box of bridge mixture (such a weakness for that), it was well over 500 calories! boo urns.
  • DaveyGravy
    DaveyGravy Posts: 283 Member
    Yeah, some things are just TOO hard to shake off, quite a lot of willpower needed to stay away from some things!

    If that does happen and you eat a 500 calorie snack, you have some serious cardio to do to earn it back ;-) If i do have something 'naughty' I can't help but go back to the gym or for a long walk/run a little while later. Too obsessed to let the calories stay there!
  • sineadmm
    sineadmm Posts: 190
    I was eating 2,500 .wow.
  • DaveyGravy
    DaveyGravy Posts: 283 Member
    I was eating 2,500 .wow.

    I still do sometimes haha ;)
  • kalmf
    kalmf Posts: 351 Member
    Holy cow! This is brilliant. If I ate the way I used to eat every day (don't you just love that part of the food diary!) I would be ten pounds heavier than my highest weight in 5 weeks. I didn't add in any exercise so it would probably take me 10 weeks (!), but still, what an eye opener.

    This is a great motivational tool for when I want to go unconscious and eat whatever.

    Thanks!!
  • cmw72
    cmw72 Posts: 390 Member
    I figure I was up over 4,000 calories before dinner. It's crazy.
  • workingitout
    workingitout Posts: 105 Member
    Ever since I found this website and have learned so much about nutrition and what your body needs, I'm kind of angry at the food industry and how they have perpetuated this notion that people can eat a big breakfast, go out for lunch, have a snack and have a big dinner. How could I have not figured this out sooner? I can't believe I thought it was ok to eat all that. Now I watch every bite, work out hard and I am loving the results. But most people don't seem to "get it". Thank goodness for MFP!
  • Alright, I have to tell you, I was quite frightened to even see what my numbers would have been-- you see, I'm a Five Guys Double Bacon Cheeseburger Junkie!!! And the fries, OMG!!! Just that is my 1200 calorie day now... I didn't even want to check breakfast and dinner... I knew it would be a sad, sad reminder of happier, unhealtly days. when I ate 'til I burst.
  • This is why I signed up, despite the fact I was growing out of all my clothes, I was consuming over 4000 a day!!! :sad:
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