Well… I have about two days left on my guest membership and have been wondering about this for some time, so I feel I must post this now.
I’m a college student, and as such, I eat rather… inconsistently. Our cafeteria food is pretty much terrible, so I tend to forsake it a lot for alternatives. A local convenience store sells 15oz bags of Rold Gold pretzels for $2. This was just too good of a deal to pass up one hungry day, so I bought it. And ate the whole thing.
I checked the nutritional information on the back of the package, suddenly alarmed–but Allah be praised, I had only consumed 1500 calories–500 calories below the 2000 calorie daily allocation! Huzzah! It was the only meal I ate all day, so I figured I was in the clear.
So I’ve taken to doing this quite a bit (2-3 times a week). And everyone who knows this about me says it will result either in my sudden death or that I will balloon to epic proportions.
Some basic information about myself–I’m 5’11" 165 lbs. I swim (and swim hard ) for about half of the year. The rest of the year, I’m rather sedentary. I recently cut soda, refined sugar products, cheese, and most fat out of my diet just as a precaution. I feel a lot healthier having done so, and less prone to toothaches, but that’s about all.
So what’s going to happen to me if I keep this up until the end of the term? Anyone have any idea what living off of pretzels, water, and the occasional non-sucktastic cafeteria meal will do to you?
I am not a doctor, but here’s how I would alter your plan:
Take a vitamin with minerals every day. I don’t think there are very many nutrients in pretzels.
Buy non-salted pretzels. Salt is supposed to be really bad for you.
Uh, but IMHO that’s not very healthy eating. My friend’s three year bout of anorexia started with weird food choices (and calorie restrictions) like you are describing. The eating habits got weirder and portions got smaller until malnutrition set in, and she didn’t really notice until it got scary unhealthy for her, because the changes were so gradual. Maybe your diet won’t kill you, but eating disorders definitely can, and strange diets can be a slippery slope (anecdotal evidence of couse). Be careful.
Sorry Bud, but you’re already dying. Technically we are all dying. No missing out on that dirt nap so far.
What you are really asking is if your diet will hasten that eventuallity.
I think not. However as g^2url pointed out, pretzels are not very nutritious. Some people suggest eating a calorie sparse, nutrient dense diet, like things that grow out of the dirt. Hey, you came from dirt, you eat stuff that grows in dirt, you eventually return to dirt. It’s like this vicious cycle thing.
Oops, sorry, where was I, oh yeah, other people suggest eating some of that growing dirt stuff AND other animals that eat stuff growing out of the dirt.
Hey, how about cutting through the red tape and just eating dirt? It’d be dirt cheap!
This topic has come up before, do a search on “scurvy” for a sampling.
I also assumed you are male around the age of 21 to go with the 5’11" and 165 lbs and swimming hard to mean 3x a week (at least) to come up with 2145 calories per day, higher than the 2000 for average people. So you can afford a little yogurt if the yogurt is around 150 calories/6 oz, which it usally is. If you aren’t lactose intolerant.
Pretzels and water do not contain all the nutritional goodness a healthy body needs. (You don’t specify the content of the cafeteria meals … ) Carry on like this, and you may be at risk from various deficiency diseases, which probably won’t kill you, but won’t make your life very pleasant. (If you think that college students in the developed world don’t get things like scurvy in this day and age … think again.)
Take vitamin and minerals supplements (as directed), or just vary your diet, fergoshes’sake.
(I am not a doctor. On the other hand, I did spend much of my University time living off Pot Noodles, omelettes, and doner kebabs. It obviously didn’t kill me, but it sure as heck didn’t make me Mr. Universe either.)
See, now this is where you’re going wrong, right here.
Calories are not a bad thing.
Let me repeat that, for the benefit of the world. Calories are not a bad thing.
You figure you’re OK because you’re not exceeding the daily recommended intake of calories? Hmm. You need the right amounts of protein, carbs (sorry, Atkins fans), and vitamins and minerals. Pretzels are not a main food group
Vary your diet, dude!
(By the way, this is very much “do as I say, not as I do”, as I’m lazy and eat crap a lot of the time, too. But I feel much better when I don’t.)
I know that this is a great way to get a reputation as a complete ass, especially since this is only my second post since joining this board, but… I just figured out that acronym! And it only took me about a minute and a half! Someone give me a cookie!
On second thought, don’t; no one wants to encourage this kind of behavior. I wish I could claim a head injury, but I was born this way.
Take a daily vitamin so you don’t get rickets or scurvy, etc.
Then eat what you like and don’t stress about it. It’s hard to get nutritional diseases unless you live in a country with only one staple crop, and even then it takes many years to develop it. Humans are omnivours and quite hardy.
That’s actually quite a varied diet (well, much more so than pretzels and water) - especially the Doner - OK, a little heavy on the fats perhaps, but eggs are rich in protein, minerals and the fat soluble vitamins, The Doner (assuming it contained cabbage salad and tomatoes) contains more protein, minerals and some of the water soluble vitamins; the Pot Noodles contain… ummm… salt.
I’m in basically the same situation as you, exercise-wise. I bike half of the year, the rest of the time I’m on the couch. I build muscle in the summer and fall but in the winter it turns back to lazy muscle and fat and over and over again. I’m not too worried about it because at least I get off my lazy ass for part of the year. Then again, I love cooking good food so my diet is more varied than yours.
If you are a 5’11" 165 lb person who is active and swims you need more than 2000 calories a day. Probably closer to 3000 or so as a guess.
A multivitamin is a good step the only problem is some nutrients are underrepresentated and some cannot be put in one. Like mine only has 25% the RDA of magnesium, 3% biotin, 8% phosphorus, etc. Potassium (a very vital mineral necessary to live) cannot be put in multivitamin supplements. Since you may be running low on potassium start eating fig newtons and/or drinking milk or orange juice.
There is also the risk taht you will only absorb 20% of the pill if you take it and the other 80% will just pass through your digestive tract.
