The laws of physics apply, on average eating more or less then 300
calories per day per week above or below energy needs results in a gain or
loss of 1 pound. As to your self evaluation of calories consumed, when
studies which looked at what people ate and what they estimated they had
in calories, the two were usually different enough to account for
differences in weight status. The rule of thumb is that 10 calories per
pound of body weight maintains what is required for life and physical
activity, gender, age, and other things add additional calories be
consumed to account for those added factors. As for being too thin or
not, the current body mass index, the latest way of accounting for height
vs. weight, has 19 to 25 as the normal range. Find a chart on the
internet or one of the several calculators for it to see where you fit.
Quoted message said:I've been thin all my life (male, age 26, 5' 10", 150 lb), so I always
make sure I eat enough for fear that if I don't I may lose weight and
get unhealthily skinny. At the same time, there's something I've
never quite understood. For my age and weight I'm apparently supposed
to get 2000 or more calories per day, but I'm pretty sure that except
for days when I eat snacks or desserts, I don't. The only way I can
figure to reach that number is either by eating enough fat I'd have a
heart attack or enough carbohydrates my stomach would explode from
such a large mass.So basically all the nutritional guidelines I've ever seen make no
sense to me. Anyone care to explain? Do the laws of physics somehow
cease to operate in my kitchen?