How do people eat so much?

HamburgerBoy

Lifer
Apr 12, 2004
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Seriously. I ate what I thought was a considerable amount today (two bagels + cream cheese = ~700 calories, protein bar = ~250 calories, soda = ~300 calories, and Chipotle burrito = ~700 calories) but that still only touched the supposed normal 2000. Granted, I don't exercise so I won't judge athletes and construction workers and other physically active individuals, but HTF do others manage to eat so much? Do you people live on candy and frappuccinos and shit? Not that I'm saying more than 2000 is necessarily a lot either, but I am seriously confused as to how a physically inactive individual manages to eat 3000/4000+ calories every day. o_O

EDIT: Title changed from "How do people get fat?".
 
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Matthiasa

Diamond Member
May 4, 2009
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Because you only had breakfast and dinner. If you had lunch that's another 500-700 and there you go, eating to much.
Actually i probably eat 2500-3000 and am currently losing weight because I was doing way more then that before... and my age but yeah.
An extra can of soda, glass of juice, or piece of bread a day leads to an extra 10-20 pounds a year weight gain.

It is just simple math, and eating until after your full.
For some people, such as myself, being hungry does actually hurt.
To make the pain go away one simply has to eat something, but doing so isn't always a good idea.
 
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keyed

Senior member
Feb 21, 2001
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Seriously. I ate what I thought was a considerable amount today (two bagels + cream cheese = ~700 calories, protein bar = ~250 calories, soda = ~300 calories, and Chipotle burrito = ~700 calories) but that still only touched the supposed normal 2000. Granted, I don't exercise so I won't judge athletes and construction workers and other physically active individuals, but HTF do others manage to eat so much? Do you people live on candy and frappuccinos and shit? Not that I'm saying more than 2000 is necessarily a lot either, but I am seriously confused as to how a physically inactive individual manages to eat 3000/4000+ calories every day. o_O
Not that hard. Using your diet as an example, it'd be pretty easy to see how someone can eat 3000+ calories in a day. Consider that you only had two meals and a snack; now add a third 700+ calorie meal and a post-dinner snack to every day. That's easily two pounds of excess calories a week.
 

Matthiasa

Diamond Member
May 4, 2009
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Genes do help determine your metabolic rate though, which has a large effect on the amount you need to eat for a stable weight.
I knew a girl some 80-100 pounds lighter then me, just active/inactive and could eat as much as me and not gain a single pound.

That said most people really should be able to judge about how much they should be eating for a relatively stable weight. (read stay within a certain weight range)
 

mmntech

Lifer
Sep 20, 2007
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It comes from eating a lot of foods full of bad fat and bad carbohydrates. The American southern diet is quite possible the worst possible diet you could eat. Lots of breads, lots of sugar, lots of dairy, foods deep fried in shortening or vegetable oil. People do live off this shit.

Plus North Americans have an addiction to fast food. This stuff contains a lot of unhealthy ingredients used as fillers and flavour boosters to improve otherwise cheap food. It's not hard to get a meal at a restaurant that easily tips the scales at over 1000 calories. Multiply that by three meals per day and there's your 3000+ calories.
 

Matthiasa

Diamond Member
May 4, 2009
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Is that so?

How is it that people with hyperactive thyroids can eat excessively and not gain a single pound?

You say eating makes you fat, but that's not the case.

Um you don't get fat by not eating, you get fat by eating more then your body needs which varies from person to person.
Being able to tell the amount your body needs is very import to a stable weight and many simply can't do that.
 

RocksteadyDotNet

Diamond Member
Jul 29, 2008
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Is that so?

How is it that people with hyperactive thyroids can eat excessively and not gain a single pound?

You say eating makes you fat, but that's not the case.

Please link to this mythical person that can violate the laws of thermodynamics, and gain weight without eating?
 

Baked

Lifer
Dec 28, 2004
36,052
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Having a weakassly low metabolic rate. If you're hella fat, you need to burn off your fat first and build up some muscles so you can have a high resting metabolic rate to burn off fat even when you're not moving.
 

Sunburn74

Diamond Member
Oct 5, 2009
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Total fuckin bullshit.

Stop stuffing your fat face!

Agreed. I think the whole genetic thing is overblown. Think about it like this. Evolution takes millions of years right? Yet we've recently had an explosion of obesity pretty much across the world (3rd world countries as well as the US. India apparently has more diabetics than the US for example). Do you think human genetics has changed that much in the last 1000 years?

Fat kids have fat parents partly because of genes, but mostly because they get taught habits/lifestyles/perceptions that lead to obesity which are extremely had to shake. If you never learn what is a good diet and good amount of food and what normal people are supposed to look like, its hard to change all that when you finally are out on your own. Its kind of like how kids who's parents are doctors tend to end up as doctors themselves. They get passed down certain attitudes and lifestyles and its extremely hard to shake.

I weighh 200lbs and am 6ft 2inch a little more. I have almost no fat on me. I exercise everyday. A good dinner for me is a chicken breast or 2 and some sauteed spinach or carrots. I eat very little sweets (though I do use ice cream after dinner to improve muscle growth). I drink soda rarely. I generally don't get a ton of cheese in my diet, though I am not averse to some parmesan on my pasta. I generally avoid fast food (except subway and the occasional whataburger or whatchickn sandwich). Talk to obese people about their exercise habits, what they have for dinner, how much soda they drink, and how much cheese they eat in a week and you'll be surprised how wrong they get pretty much everything and how little they know about nutrition. Its not so much bad choices as it is miseducation really.

And lets not even talk about fast food. How many calories do you guys think is in a double quarter pounder with cheese and a large fry with medium coke?

Double quarter pounder is 760
Large fries is 500
Medium coke is 210

So that one lunch is 1400 calories ish when lunch should be around 700 calories. Honestly, if you are an adult and want to have lunch at mickey d's order a happy meal because thats about the right number of calories you need.
 
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paperfist

Diamond Member
Nov 30, 2000
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www.the-teh.com
Seriously. I ate what I thought was a considerable amount today (two bagels + cream cheese = ~700 calories, protein bar = ~250 calories, soda = ~300 calories, and Chipotle burrito = ~700 calories) but that still only touched the supposed normal 2000. Granted, I don't exercise so I won't judge athletes and construction workers and other physically active individuals, but HTF do others manage to eat so much? Do you people live on candy and frappuccinos and shit? Not that I'm saying more than 2000 is necessarily a lot either, but I am seriously confused as to how a physically inactive individual manages to eat 3000/4000+ calories every day. o_O

God you must be famished and dehydrated!

How the hell can you go all day with just one drink?
 

M0oG0oGaiPan

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Dec 7, 2000
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digitalgamedeals.com
liquid calories. sweets which have low satiety but are loaded with calories. nuts, which have healthy fats but are easy to overeat. portion sizes. 1 serving size of captain crunch is 27g. Most people use a lot more than that.
 

HamburgerBoy

Lifer
Apr 12, 2004
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God you must be famished and dehydrated!

How the hell can you go all day with just one drink?

I didn't include water.

I don't understand the three meal thing either. Why does one HAVE to eat three meals? Why can't a filling and non-junk food "snack" (protein bar) suffice?

liquid calories. sweets which have low satiety but are loaded with calories. nuts, which have healthy fats but are easy to overeat. portion sizes. 1 serving size of captain crunch is 27g. Most people use a lot more than that.

Yeah, I think there's a lot here. I had a professor who would down a large can of Red Bull every class and would see him elsewhere going through at least 2 medium sized frappucinos a day as well. I could see that adding up, but even then, HTF do they do it without dying of instant diabetus?

EDIT: Although tbh I just got another wave of hunger and I think I'm going to have a midnight snack pretty soon. :oops:
 
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davmat787

Diamond Member
Nov 30, 2010
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Seriously. I ate what I thought was a considerable amount today (two bagels + cream cheese = ~700 calories, protein bar = ~250 calories, soda = ~300 calories, and Chipotle burrito = ~700 calories) but that still only touched the supposed normal 2000. Granted, I don't exercise so I won't judge athletes and construction workers and other physically active individuals, but HTF do others manage to eat so much? Do you people live on candy and frappuccinos and shit? Not that I'm saying more than 2000 is necessarily a lot either, but I am seriously confused as to how a physically inactive individual manages to eat 3000/4000+ calories every day. o_O

You are in your early 20's, right? Try eating like that with no physical activity once you are 40 or so. Of course, you could have an active thyroid, high metabolism, etc, but most guys can eat like that when young.
 

HamburgerBoy

Lifer
Apr 12, 2004
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318
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You are in your early 20's, right? Try eating like that with no physical activity once you are 40 or so. Of course, you could have an active thyroid, high metabolism, etc, but most guys can eat like that when young.

I know that, and I am admittedly quite skinny, but does hunger not diminish at all as one ages? I mean, 2000 calories is supposedly the basic cutoff and I only reach that maybe twice a week (usually I eat around 1200 calories a day). But I guess I shouldn't have titled this thread as such. I'm kind of more curious about what foods and how much one eats to get fat even in early age. That's just a LOT of food (or really sugary drinks).