MRE's...ONLY 1300 calories!!!!!

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JessesGirl05
JessesGirl05 Posts: 253
in Health and Weight Loss
OMG so my mom is talking to me on facebook and telling me about their dinner tonight.
The twins (5 years old) ate cereal. Mom is eating taquitos with sour cream. My 17 year old brother, and my father are eating MRE's ("Meals Ready to Eat"- or "army food" as my dad calls it). She says "Oh they are ONLY 1200-1300 calories!" WHOA!!!!

I told her that is an entire days worth of calories in one meal and shes arguing with me that its not! She says a days worth of calories is "like 2,000 calories or more" (without working out).


Ohhhhhhhh buddy! It makes me feel great about my dinner! Fried chicken (home made), corn, and a big salad totaling 419 calories!

They are not trying to maintain weight- they are trying to lose weight!!!

Replies

  • elliecolorado
    elliecolorado Posts: 1,040
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    If I just wanted to maintain my weight then a days worth of calories would be 2100 (roughly) without exercise. So if they aren't trying to lose weight, she may be right.
  • kathleennf
    kathleennf Posts: 606 Member
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    Knowledge is power! That's what i love about MFP.
  • TheNewStacie
    TheNewStacie Posts: 187 Member
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    ew MRE's I rememer those, there were only 2 I could stand, but they're so high in sodium and made to be so many calories because when military guys are eating them they NEED those extra calories. Good luck to them and great job on your dinner
  • Bunnyboo82
    Bunnyboo82 Posts: 42 Member
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    Sounds like you had a really filling awesome dinner with way less calories than the rest of the family. Maybe you can share your secret with your Mom on how you can have an awesome meal and not eat a day's worth of calories.
  • FabOma08
    FabOma08 Posts: 500
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    What is it we see on the nutrition labels everywhere? Recommended daily allowance base on a 2,000 calorie diet!!! And the world wonders why we Americans are so fat!!!!
  • Melimonkey
    Melimonkey Posts: 34
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    thats alot of calories in a single meal, but also those things are made for the army so they have enough energy to do the work that they do mostly phyisical. In a sadder day i remember the tequito and sour cream dinner. use to do that.
  • Oishii
    Oishii Posts: 2,675 Member
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    2000 calories a day is the recommended intake for a woman, a man 2500. After a while on mfp I started to think this was ridiculously high, but now it seems my maintenance calories are nearer 2500 than 2000. Now I have 1000 calorie meals from time to time too, in fact I almost have to in order to keep from losing weight.
  • JessesGirl05
    JessesGirl05 Posts: 253
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    If I just wanted to maintain my weight then a days worth of calories would be 2100 (roughly) without exercise. So if they aren't trying to lose weight, she may be right.
    theyre trying to lose weight. my mom is my height, but is less active then i am. so i know 1300 for one meal is way too much for her. not sure about my dad though. i know men are different.
  • JessesGirl05
    JessesGirl05 Posts: 253
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    Sounds like you had a really filling awesome dinner with way less calories than the rest of the family. Maybe you can share your secret with your Mom on how you can have an awesome meal and not eat a day's worth of calories.
    I'm trying. she lives out of state so its harder to teach her. but when i was there visit i did the cooking and they loved it. but i cant seem to convince them that cooking health REALLY is cheaper! so they wont even attempt to cook. 95% of what they eat is processed, frozen foods
  • JessesGirl05
    JessesGirl05 Posts: 253
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    thats alot of calories in a single meal, but also those things are made for the army so they have enough energy to do the work that they do mostly phyisical. In a sadder day i remember the tequito and sour cream dinner. use to do that.
    I'm guilty of that one too.
    Now when I see or hear about it though, I just think of all the grease and sodium. gross!
  • jeffrodgers1
    jeffrodgers1 Posts: 991 Member
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    2000 calories a day is the recommended intake for a woman, a man 2500. After a while on mfp I started to think this was ridiculously high, but now it seems my maintenance calories are nearer 2500 than 2000. Now I have 1000 calorie meals from time to time too, in fact I almost have to in order to keep from losing weight.

    Depending on size... a 5 foot tall man and a 6 foot tall man can have very different caloric requirements based on build and activity levels.
  • Swimgoddess
    Swimgoddess Posts: 711 Member
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    Ok, seriously... IN Marine Corps bootcamp, at peak physical fitness, we were issued 2.5 MREs to last us 54 hours of which we maybe slept 2-4 hours each night and the days were NON-STOP.

    All the dumb girls were trading their entree-type stuff for the candy crap that comes in them, while I tried to get my hands on as much peanut butter & meat as I could so it would fuel me longer. I didn't even >begin< eating until 36 hours into it.

    Edited to add we were told by our DIs that they held close to 3000 calories in total.
  • Bakins929
    Bakins929 Posts: 895 Member
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    I lived off of MREs for quite a while. The artic MREs in the white bags have larger ration sizes and are packed with carbs and calories that you need in extreme cold weather. They actually taste better too. I think they were around 3000 cals each, but it has been a long time.
  • millerll
    millerll Posts: 873 Member
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    He's the average for an MRE:

    Each MRE provides an average of 1,250 calories (13% protein, 36% fat, and 51% carbohydrates) and 1/3 of the Military Recommended Daily Allowance of vitamins and minerals. A full day's worth of meals would consist of three MREs.

    This is from the web site: http://www.mreinfo.com/us/mre/mres.html

    They have a 3-year shelf life. Yikes! Note the high carb ratio and relatively low protein. MREs are designed for troops burning massive amounts of calories in the field, carrying heavy loads, etc. They're not really appropriate for daily consumption, in my opinion, for the average sedentary American.

    Edited to add: I spent 20 years in the miitary, and I have eaten many an MRE in the field.

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