People often talk about sticking to a recommended daily intake of calories in the 2000 range but many people, myself included, find it very difficult to actually visualise how much food this actually relates to.
If you are one of those people then have a look at this great video and see if you could correctly estimate the amount of calories in each meal. I think that you’ll be surprised as to how little food two thousand calories is in the real world.
So what do 2000 calories look like in the real world?
Not much really. It actually surprisingly little which is why it’s so easy to see how difficult it is to not gain weight.
For example eat one large pizza or two and a half cinnabons or four large portions of fries or just 6.5 doughnuts and you’ll be on the limit.
Watch the video below and you’ll get a better idea.
But where does the 2000 calorie limit originate?
Actually the 2000 calorie limit is just a ball park figure. Obviously the exact amount of calories required by each individual various based on many factors, such as gender, muscle mass and metabolism. Men typically require more calories than women with children somewhere in the middle.
When the FDA wanted to address the consumption of saturated fats and sodium they needed to needed to compare these values to a daily intake of calories so as to make nutrition labels consistent. Obviously this is not an easy thing to do considering the differing range of calories consumed across the population but a value of 2350 calories was suggested based upon some USDA survey data.
This value went out to nutritional educators for their opinion at which point it was felt that this number could lead to people over eating and that a value of 2000 calories would be better adopted as it was easy to remember and use in calculations.
So while you may be able to take another bite of your Cinnabon without having to worry about putting on some extra pounds it’s always best to take a realistic approach to your calorie consumption. Jump on the scales every now and again and if you see your weight increasing then reduce your food consumption.