2000 Calories? Are you crazy?

One of the many sordid reality TV shows that K forces (she does too!) me to watch a few weeks back had all kinds of people trying to gain weight / lose weight / bodybuild and they were all talking about calories and how many they had to eat a day, etc… and K and I were discussing how much I eat in a given day. She recommended that I count calories one day, just to see.

That day was today. I picked today because 1) I don’t eat nearly as much on Tuesdays as the rest of the week, solely on account of not having time to eat much of a lunch and 2) I was sitting in a really boring class, looking at an empty coke bottle and thinking how hungry I was when I saw the label and thought “Well, there’s the sum total of everything I’ve consumed today” and figured I may as well start there.

So having done this little experiment (and it’s not exactly done yet, I’m bound to have a midnight snack of some sort) I’m absolutely convinced that 2,000 Calories (the “recommended” diet) is not enough to live enjoyably. It’s also not enough to keep me from withering away to nothingness, I’ve decided.

This Calorie counting business has been an eye-opener — I mean, what the hell… simply drinking the recommended daily intake of water is worth 600 or 700 calories if you get it from the tap! Sure you can have a salad, but you’d better not put any dressing on. Or bacon bits. Or cheese. And the hard-boiled eggs? Fuhgedaboudid! (Ref: Mickey Blue Eyes)

I’m not sure exactly what my point is here, but I think the 2,000 Calorie estimate is low. Who’s with me?


For the record, my intake for today was right at 3,450 ahem just above 4,000 5,000 — and I didn’t eat lunch