How many calories did people eat in the war?

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isabella96x
isabella96x Posts: 8 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Ww2 maybe? I'm just wondering.. I know they had rations:)

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  • majope
    majope Posts: 1,325 Member
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    Are you talking US? I remember seeing a WWII-era cookbook that surprised me with how high the recommended calories were. Don't have it handy, but I was curious enough to search around, and found that the National Research Council recommended the following (1943):

    Sedentary man: 2500
    Moderately active: 3000
    Very active: 4500

    Sedentary woman: 2100
    Moderately active: 2500
    Very active: 3000

    The recommendations for very active men today top out at about 3000.
  • vanguardfitness
    vanguardfitness Posts: 720 Member
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    Wow those numbers are high
  • Casstevens133
    Casstevens133 Posts: 142 Member
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    They may seem high by today's standards but most people either walked or cycled everywhere, you had to go to several shops to get shopping - not just one, most ordinary people grew their own vegetables which involves quite hard manual labour, housework was harder with few labour saving devices - hand washing, sweeping etc, .... At least that us how it was in the UK and I can't imagine it being much different anywhere else ... Life was much tougher physically.
  • karenhray7
    karenhray7 Posts: 219 Member
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    Wow those numbers are high

    But think about all the additional activity that was part of day to day life in 1943. Sedentary jobs were the exception, not the norm. People walked and rode bicycles instead of driving. People didn't spend time watching tv or staring at their computers. Most people raised at least some of their own food and gardening can be pretty strenuous. Not to mention that the calories were by necessity from real food. People cooked their own food and the plethora of processed food that we have now simply wasn't available. And obesity wasn't an issue at all.
  • Gemz321
    Gemz321 Posts: 64
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    A lot of the foods they had to try and bulk up like bread etc. They only had limited amount of butter, cheese etc and everything else. They were encouraged to try and grow their own veg, to at least make the family feel fuller. People were a lot more active then, than they are now. I know my grandma said here in the uk, that there was a time during the war that she became very unwell, so her father managed to get her some grapes, which must have been from the black market.
  • khall86790
    khall86790 Posts: 1,100 Member
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    Wow those numbers are high

    But think about all the additional activity that was part of day to day life in 1943. Sedentary jobs were the exception, not the norm. People walked and rode bicycles instead of driving. People didn't spend time watching tv or staring at their computers. Most people raised at least some of their own food and gardening can be pretty strenuous. Not to mention that the calories were by necessity from real food. People cooked their own food and the plethora of processed food that we have now simply wasn't available. And obesity wasn't an issue at all.

    ^ This.
  • MsPudding
    MsPudding Posts: 562 Member
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    In the UK, rationing worked on a daily intake of 3,000 for men.

    In the UK rationing went as follows:

    Per Week; per Person
    Sugar, Bacon/Ham, Cheese, Butter - 8oz of each
    Lard - 3oz
    Margarine - 12oz
    Meat - 1.5 lbs approx
    Tea - 4oz

    There was then a 2lb monthly ration of preserves and a 16oz monthly ration of sweets.
  • EricNCSU
    EricNCSU Posts: 699 Member
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    Also, for Military personal you're talking about daily activities such as marching and PT. My dad told me once that if I joined the military (even in modern times) that they would feed me 5000 calories a day and I would still lose weight. He wasn't joking. Could I have survived Basic at 350 pounds no matter how fast I lost it? No, probably not.

    Soldiers in the Civil War were basically starving and still marched 20+ miles a day. That's insane to think of now.
  • witchy_wife
    witchy_wife Posts: 792 Member
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    Wow, this is really interesting. I've always thought that although exercise is great for fitness and overall health it isn't really needed for weight loss (I do exercise before any one jumps on that, but it's just something I have seen mentioned in various sites and books).

    But I guess that just goes to show that if we got off our butts and moved so much more, what a difference that would make!
  • WendyTerry420
    WendyTerry420 Posts: 13,274 Member
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    Wow those numbers are high

    I don't think they are any higher than today.

    ETA: Maybe for men. I haven't looked at that. But it looks about the same as today for women.

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