Anyone else average 2000-3000 +++ cals a day on plan?

I know I shouldn't compare myself to others and I should just focus on my own journey but it's weirding me out to read soooooo many posts about people struggling to "force" themselves to eat 1000-1200 cals a day! People who eat one meal a day, if that. Like, oh my gosh, I need to start calorie counting? (No, I know I don't!).

I'm doubting myself. I promised myself I would go this whole month eating as much as I want on plan and if I continue to lose weight, even two pounds, I will trust myself and keep eating that way forward. But I am getting distracted by the conversations mentioning such low-cal numbers. Maybe on Low carb I am "supposed to" default to eating fewer cals because of the satiation effect...but that doesn't seem to be happening to me. I'm losing but I'm eating, happy to eat.

I read an old thread where ojoj said she ate close to 4000/day while losing and I just have to hope that there are some of use who need that and can eat but continue to be successful, even if slowly.

Any other high- cal eaters out there?

I probably eat between 1700- 2400 calories a day. I also don't experience that lack of hunger that some people talk about. If I eat a lot less than that I am hungry. I certainly couldn't exist on 1000-1200 calories a day. It puzzles me too, how little some people seem to eat, but I have been successful so I try not to stress about it as long as I stick to the plan. I don't want to feel like I am starving myself.

Jean

I find the leaner I get, the harder it is to push my calories much under 2000. Above 2000 calories, weight loss is pretty slow for me. But I'm talking about more recently--probably when I weighed 190, I would have lost decently with more calories. I went from 190 to 170, about a decade ago, just eating low carb to appetite and not worrying about anything but carbs, and that weight stayed off as long as I stuck to those rules. Getting down further for me involves eating a bit less, but more ketogenically--1800 calories with a bit more carbs or a lot more protein will make me hungrier than very low carb with protein closer to minimum requirements. I don't really struggle to eat less though, because struggling doesn't work for me even a little bit. Even with keto, there are limits--around where I am now, it starts to take maintenance calories, somewhere around 2500+ calories, to keep me satisfies, if I want to get any leaner, I'll have to make some sort of personal breakthrough.

Some people can just eat low carb to appetite and get right where they want to be, all the way to goal. But some people can achieve the goal of never gaining weight in the first place while eating at McDonald's. There's just so much human variation.

I would consider myself a high calorie eater, certainly on a per meal basis. I've only done the math a few times but extrapolting that, especially when I was staying around 25 NC and eating 3 large meals a day I was easily into the 3000-4000 range. I didn't loose much but I didn't really gain either. This was where I think I stalled for about 4 months. My body got a lot stronger during this period and after that when I started eating less frequently per day and exercise ramped up again weightloss accelerated.

My summation and experience thus far is this; If you are restricting carb intake and getting the vast majority of calories from fat you (me) will find it extremely difficult to over eat as long as you (me) don't eat a lot of protein. I lost interest in food so now I take advantage of that fact for me and am able to eat one meal a day most days of a high fat nature and feel completely satisfied. No struggle, No force, No fight, No crave, Just Food. - IMO it IS about the calories but it's more about the type of calories you eat to keep hunger in check. Almost a magic trick but not quite.

Good luck with your experiment!

I don't count cals but going by eye I must be over 2000 most days which makes me very unusual from what I see on intermittent fasting sites as well as here. Because I am a 60+ female. Maintaining. I eat one generous meal a day usually within a one hour window.

Thought I would add that I don't count calories either. I count carbs and use portion control with protein. Fat just gets added in amounts that seem right. I do record everything I eat on Cronometer and like all food apps it let's you know the calorie count along other info.

Jean

I seem to do well with LOTS of protein. Like you, I read a lot of posts where people are successfully cutting protein and I think I must be messing up... but no, if I try to cut down I'm hungry all the time.

My years-ago vegetarian experiment proved to me that I must be on the very lowest end of "ability to get protein from plant sources." This is a function of our body's ability to manufacture enzymes, which is in our genes, and that's that.

So knowing this, I strive to keep my carbs low, indulge in fat as much as I want; butter on steak, generous salad dressings, and so forth: and it seems to work quite well. I'm doing at least 2000 a day this way; haven't tracked lately.

Effortlessly have a breakfast of tea and coconut oil.

People sharing their experiences is very valuable. But when we read so many contradictory paths of success, it just confirms we have to go by what our body responds to.

And not worry about the rest

Amen. Developing a personal history over time as to what works and what doesn't helps establish the correct approach. It does take some time, but the information acquired by the individual has the most value in achieving results.

Thanks everyone, for sharing so quickly. All your posts are reassuring. It weird how I can get stuck inside my own head and doubt what I'm doing. This has been a high-stress week for me, with several late work nights and regular eating times messed up. And it's been a hungry week. I've eaten on plan foods only, carbs higher than the last month ... Trying to figure out if I'm hungrier because of the increase in carbs (under 50 total, don't count net) or just because I am. Im looking at the protein, which is really high. But I'm not gaining, in fact am down 1.5 lb...so why am I doubting?

(Deep, calming breath)

I'm scared that I'm fooling myself and that, unbeknownst to my conscious mind, I'm on the knife edge of falling off plan. I'll take this back to my journal...but thank you for all for responding.

This is definitely a long-term experiment of one (N=1) but it helps to know I'm not alone as well!

I really appreciate this community. I posted right before sleep last night (PST) feeling worried and confused, and it was lovely to wake to all the support.

In addition, we all have Post-Dieting Traumatic Syndrome: or PDTS.

We tell ourselves we are going to buckle down this time! We know calories so well we can score a meal at fifty paces. We buy a membership at the gym so we have to go. We go to bed hungry and dream we have totally blown the diet at some junk food emporium. As time wears on we get crazy hungry and the scale has stalled and yet if we give in we won't have anything to wear and we are sick and tired and hate ourselves for not doing what apparently every one else does just by skipping dessert and taking the dog for a walk WE MUST BE CURSED.

Damned if we do, and damned if we don't. For years and years.

Takes a while to get over

Excellent posts in this thread.

I'm another high-calorie eater most of the time. I can relate to Wearbear on cutting protein: I've heard it said that you'll be hungry until you get enough protein, and that's been true for me. When I tried an 80/15/5 fat/protein/carb plan, I was eating upwards of 3000 calories per day to not be starving... and I lost weight.

Overall, I go with convenience, though. A huge piece of basa fish or chicken breast is probably too much protein and not enough fat, but I'm not performing surgery on my food every single day to make dinner. I'm going with what's easy and convenient.

Hunger is a subjective thing, and some people will feel ill while eating ketogenically. Some people, if they want to lose weight, have to drastically reduce calories and go hungry because of medications, thyroid disease, or other medical causes of really low metabolism.

So keep doing what you're doing unless or until it doesn't work, and remember that working slowly is still working.

Going hungry while limiting calories was what always put me on the knife edge of falling off plan. After 35 yrs of yo-yo dieting on 1000-1200 calories and falling off, I finally tried LC and have kept with it for 18 yrs.

Eating more calories while keeping under 30g carbs was what finally worked for me. I limited carbs, made sure I got enough protein and ate fat to satiety. I wasn't counting calories or percents, but my food logging software did. As long as I ate under 30g carbs, I was losing at the same rate on 1700-1900 vLC cals as I did while starving on 1000-1200 cals on high-carb diets.

I tend to find that low-fat proteins like basa and chicken breasts leave me hungrier sooner, whereas the same amount of protein in sardines or chicken thighs with mayo do not. Over the years I've played around with various protein:fat:carb amounts, while losing and maintaining. I need to keep the carbs at ~5%, and for protein:fat I can eat 15:80% to 25%:70%, but 20:75% feels best for me. Higher protein (>100g/day) makes me feel hungrier and a bit jittery. More fat keeps me hunger-free and calmer feeling.

During the weight-loss phase, when I was under high stress, I sometimes would eat 2500+ calories (still within my carb limit) if I was still hungry. My loss slowed or plateaued if I did it several days in a row, but I was satiated so I had no problem keeping on track until I was ready to lose some more. To me "success" is keeping within my carb limit, not being hungry and not thinking about food all day (which was the norm when I suffered on low-cal diets).

I am away for the long weekend with spotty wifi. Just to say-- these posts are so helpful! l find myself nodding and agreeing with the high fat, eat to satiation, and higher cal -- it's so reassuring. This is what I've been experienceing, working to lose and/ or maintain through the stresses of real life.

Were Bear, your PDTS made me laugh and read it aloud to my family. You are SO right!



Just keeping on keeping on.

I always watch and count carbs. I never think about calories, never. I do enter all my food into a program so I know carb and fat levels primarily, and in the process I will see calories. As I lose weight and the lower my carb levels, I find that calories do go down naturally. I eat so low carb, I just don't see how I could ever eat even as much as 2,000 calories in a day. My high fat-moderate protein-low carb foods tend to naturally limit how much I can comfortably eat each day. I eat when I'm hungry, and I eat to satisfy hunger. Over time, I've found that I just need less food than before (certainly less volume of food)...less of this LC type of food, that is! But if I ate carby type foods, I could easily eat 3,000+ calories a day, I have no doubt about that! But those extra calories would be totally worthless calories. I'm so happy to be out of that crazy way of eating.

As an illustration of how quickly I get full now, compared to even a few months ago, I always have eggs and bacon for breakfast. I would usually have 2 eggs and 3 pieces of bacon, and perhaps some sautéed mushrooms. As of now, that's too much, I can't eat it all. Yesterday I made a 2-egg omelet stuffed with 2 pieces of bacon, and a bit of sautéed onion and peppers, and about 1/4 . of shredded cheese, and I simply could not eat it all. Most days I'm happy with 1 egg and 2 pieces of bacon, and I'm stuffed.

I often go away for a week and don't have my diet software with me, so I write down everything I eat and enter it when I get home, always staying under 30g net carbs. I found that some days I eat as little as ~1200 cals if I'm really busy, but others I eat 2000-3000 because I'm hungrier (just like the way "normal" people eat). It always averages out to 1700-1900 (which is what one of those doctor's pamplets I was given in ~1970 said I should be able to maintain on - but it never worked on high or moderate carbs). Long-term vLCvHF eating has restored a normal appetite, which I hadn't had since I was 11. But it will derail if I eat more than 35g net carbs.