Calories you were consuming before you started dieting?

Spiderkeys
Spiderkeys Posts: 338 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
According to MFP food database, I decided to check up on my old eating habits, I was consuming an average of 5000 calories a day, and that was just me living on just 1 meal a day, and my meal was at late at night just before bed.

I wondered why i was getting so big since, c'mon I only ate 1 meal a day?!

Now i'm on a 1600 calorie a day spread in 4 sections (breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks), and rarely use up all that, and my weight has been dropping faster than i could expected.
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Replies

  • guessrs
    guessrs Posts: 358 Member
    Yup thousands, most of it was fats and sugars. I'm so proud to say this ... Not.
  • ElsaVonMarmalade
    ElsaVonMarmalade Posts: 154 Member
    Probably around 2200. As a 5'4" lady it doesn't take much to make me gain.
  • frenchfacey
    frenchfacey Posts: 237 Member
    I think about this all the time. Like when I make a recipe now that I measure ingredients or when I think about when I'd eat fast food legit all day long or put whole sticks of butter in recipes like whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat hahahahah. Thousands. 5000 average,

    I'm lucky I wasn't heavier.
  • Vorenus85
    Vorenus85 Posts: 112 Member
    At least 3000 but probably closer to 4 or 5. I ate fast food daily and had giant bags of chips every night before bed. That awful feeling of sickness from eating too much is definitely something I don't miss.
  • Spiderkeys
    Spiderkeys Posts: 338 Member
    At least 3000 but probably closer to 4 or 5. I ate fast food daukt and had giant bags of chips every night before bed. That awful feeling of sickness from eating too much is definitely something I don't miss.

    I would eat a whole big bag of chips as I wait for my food to cook, then add a lot of bread with my meal and cheese, then eat till i was bloated then top it off with a 2 litre Pepsi.

    Always use to think fat people are the ones that eat too many meals in a day.
  • _TastySnoBalls_
    _TastySnoBalls_ Posts: 1,298 Member
    I'm curious how much I ate... I wish I would have tracked a few days at least but I was to ashamed too. I basically ate until I hated myself and literally made myself sick off from eating a jar of white chocolate peanut butter from PB & Co. Positive thing from that experience is, now I can't touch the stuff
  • MizSookeh
    MizSookeh Posts: 106 Member
    I would have been over the place. Anywhere from around 2000-2500 during the week, and up to 4000-4500 on weekends.

    My lunches have always been reasonably healthy, as I work in a small office full of skinny people. Also wasn't a breakfast eater, so most would come from snack / dinner / dessert (sometimes) at home, and then weekends of beer / pub food / more beer /hangover food /snacks snacks snacks.
  • mahanaibu
    mahanaibu Posts: 505 Member
    I'm not good enough at math to count that high.
  • ravenrxx
    ravenrxx Posts: 455 Member
    I probably averaged around 2500-3000 calories a day. Most of it was carbs, because i also eventually became pre-diabetic. Its so interesting to think back and remember how you use to eat... Its like i was in a twilight zone and never really gave much thought to what that food was doing to me.
  • thistimewillbedifferent
    thistimewillbedifferent Posts: 217 Member
    Probably around 2800-3000 on regular days and much more on special occasions (and believe me, I considered far too many events "special occasions"). I remember in the beginning when I started trying to cut back how proud I was to get a meal down to 700 calories (from 1000), only to have my nutritionist tell me that it should actually be no more than 500 calories (given how she wanted me to spread my total calories out throughout the day for blood sugar stability purposes). I thought that was IMPOSSIBLE.

    Like one of the above posters said, I don't know why I wasn't even fatter.
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
    Estimated 3000 + and I was extremely lazy too.

    Now I eat an average of 1886 calories per day to lose weight (my activity has increased by a lot).
  • thesophierose
    thesophierose Posts: 754 Member
    Estimated 3000+

    All freaking junk too for the most part...
  • piratesaregrand
    piratesaregrand Posts: 356 Member
    The last thing I ate before signing up on here was a 4000 calorie packet of biscuits, gone in 10 minutes and I was still hungry. And that was just a snack, so I'd hate to think what a daily total was.
  • ElizabethFuller
    ElizabethFuller Posts: 352 Member
    I didn't log my food unless I was dieting, but thinking about it it must have been at least 3000 a day during the week and then often 5000-6000 at weekends. Lots of snacks, granola, trail mix, plates of cheese on toast, Ben and Jerry's ice cream and bars of chocolate. I suffered from indigestion all the time - I wonder why? I find it difficult to believe that I was so careless about food, it was as though I didn't know what I was doing. It's very scarey that I might get into that frame of mind again. :noway:
  • Nix_Way
    Nix_Way Posts: 201 Member
    Oh good lord! I know I was eating at LEAST 5,000 cals. I too would only have 1 or 2 meals a day. It seems to be something in common here ;)
    I know that if there were grocerys in the house, they wouldn't stand a chance around me! :D
    Jeez.. why did I respond to this again??? :blushing:
  • bigcle82
    bigcle82 Posts: 134 Member
    i know at minimum 6000-8000.
  • metacognition
    metacognition Posts: 626 Member
    My pre-loss estimate is 1800 - 2400 calories a day. On some days I'm sure it went upwards of 3000.

    I didn't eat often and my hunger would subside if I ate a lot in one day. My body did make a decent effort to slow the weight gain. But I ate absolute crap. I would leave box of chocolate chip cookies next to the computer and reach for them over an hour or two as I leveled in a video game. Later I'd cook a box of Velveeta macaroni and down it with some margarine and at least four glasses of (skim go figure) milk.

    The sugar head aches would come often. If a couple of handfuls of cookies are a thousand calories there is no way to maintain a normal intake over the course of the day.

    Now I eat small meals all the time, and it's mostly good food.

    I currently eat 1900 a day in order to LOSE weight at the rate of .5 lb / week. That's why I love exercise.
  • sweet_blasphemy
    sweet_blasphemy Posts: 129 Member
    Probably 3000 on a good day... surely up to 5000 on a bingey and/or drinky day. I keep putting it off or forgetting about it, but I've been meaning to log a "typical" day of my old eating habits just to get a tangible figure. Maybe I'll print it out and pin it to the fridge and pantry as a reminder for those times when my focus starts wandering...

    I used to do this disgusting thing... I'd make a "diet" cake by mixing a box of cake mix with 12oz diet soda (it's actually pretty good)... but because it was "diet," it apparently gave me the green light to go ahead and eat 1/2 of it at a time, not even bothering to calculate that it was over 1000cal of sugar and carbs. I would make probably 2 a week. I still make the cakes now and then, but I have a much smaller portion and only when I've worked out hard enough to earn it, hit my protein for the day and have enough calories left over for it :tongue:
  • slim4health56
    slim4health56 Posts: 439 Member
    Great question. Awful, embarrassing answer...1) 500-620 calories in Coca-Cola daily. 2) Lunch was always fast food or Subway - anywhere between 600-1500 calories. 3) Dinner was eating out or more fast food, about 800-1500 calories. Add in a candy bar, some popcorn and more Coke at the movies every weekend. Estimate would be 2800-3500 calories a day. More if stressed. Oh, wait...there's also the Doritos to go with the Coke....GOOD GADS!

    Sh*& - I forgot my addiction to salted peanuts in the shell. Another 500-600 cals easily. :sad:
  • geekyjock76
    geekyjock76 Posts: 2,720 Member
    As a former personal trainer, this was a task that I recommended be completed prior to restricting. I requested it for a few valid reasons:1) so that they could realize just how much they were consuming to either continue gaining fat mass or maintain their highest weight: 2) get them accustomed to being accountable by accurately weighing and tracking food intake; and 3) help them estimate their actual TDEE which comes in handy to establish a more suitable and accurate deficit when they are ready to restrict.
  • jimshine
    jimshine Posts: 199 Member
    I believe on average days I probably ate around 2500-3000. Then some days I may do up to 5000.
  • Cindyinpg
    Cindyinpg Posts: 3,902 Member
    That IS an excellent question and one I've never really wanted to know the answer to, but let's see: average day in my former life: Breakfast from Tim Horton's: bacon breakfast bagel, hash brown and an extra large triple triple:1100 calories, lunch: maybe grilled cheese and cream of mushroom soup 700, a Kit Kat for a snack, 200. Supper: often a big Ceasar salad with a steak, maybe corn on the cob with lots of butter, nice big chunk of garlic bread. 1500 or more? And like lots of others have mentioned, a big bag of chips, plus dip and a couple of glasses of Coke or a chocolate milk in front of a movie late in the evening.... Another 1500? Yeah 5000 at least! Wow, just wow. And with a sedentary lifestyle to boot.
  • chrisbulmer1
    chrisbulmer1 Posts: 13
    TONS, 2 bags of doritos, chips, food, all sorts
  • melodie1963
    melodie1963 Posts: 1 Member
    I hate to think! Iv always scoffed at my daughter when she counts calories...as I ate healthy! But the weight has crept on, while she looks trim...so for the past three days I have counted calories and am horrified ay how many I would of been consuming before hand! Fingers crossed this is the start of being more aware!
  • TattedInStilettos
    TattedInStilettos Posts: 331 Member
    At first I was consuming around 3000 maybe more idk I just ate... but now I eat nomore than 1200...
  • Ed98043
    Ed98043 Posts: 1,333 Member
    I'd say I was eating 2500 to 3000. I was sort of like you - I skipped breakfast, ate a light lunch and then thought that gave me a free pass to eat a big dinner and then a whole bag of something carbo-rific (Cheez-Its, M&Ms, Chex Mix, etc.) as a late snack.
  • Achrya
    Achrya Posts: 16,913 Member
    A bunch.
  • landodewd
    landodewd Posts: 43 Member
    4000-7000. My weekend was just a big party. 18-30 beers plus whiskey. I know exactly why i'm fat.
  • Coffeeholic8
    Coffeeholic8 Posts: 272 Member
    A lot but often less than I consume some days now.
  • SeriousBen
    SeriousBen Posts: 41 Member
    Probably around 2500-3000 (sometimes more obviously) but I'm a couch potato. I was eating only one meal a day too (dinner), but I was drinking calories during the day at work (coke, fruit drinks, etc)

    Most of the time I was lazy (and too hungry to take the time to cook!) so I would just grab fast food on my way home after work, then snack on chips and cakes or cookies before bed.

    I'm still having a hard time to eat several smaller meals instead of a big one. I do eat breakfast and lunch but I like to save most of my calories for dinner. Counting calories and eating healthier stuff works well for me so far, I dropped 30 lb in ~60 days.

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