On all food packages, they list nutrition facts based on a 2,000 Calorie diet. If one were to eat 2,000 per day, would that be considered “being on a diet”? As in, trying to lose weight? Or does it simply mean a diet that consists of 2,000 Calories per day? Is 2,000 Calories the average number of Calories needed to maintain ones weight? I took a test somewhere and it said I needed about 3,400 Calories per day to maintain my weight. To me, 2,000 Calories seems like you would have to eat like a bird.
A 2000 calorie diet is a diet consisting of 2000 calories. It has nothing to do with dieting. The standard was set forth by the FDA. As to the rationale, I believe that 2000 calories was supposed to be indicative of some type of average, but caloric intake needs vary from person to person depending on metabolic rate and size. I’m 6’-4", 185 lbs. and have a very fast metabolism. When I was 16 I average about 8300 calories a day. Obviously, 2000 calories a day wouldn’t have been sufficient to maintain my activity level.
All the things I’ve read say that women are supposed to have between 1800-2100 calories a day MINIMUM (even when they’re trying to lose weight) and I think for men it was 2100-2400. I have a hard time eating that many calories when eating nutritiously. However, if you eat a double cheeseburger, fries and a milkshake, you’ve taken your whole day’s calorie allotment in one sitting.
A few numbers I’m fairly sure of:
2000 calories is about the average energy a man burns per day while sedentary. Women average about 1800. Exercise will, of course, increase this amount (in the Navy SEAL “hell week” of training, one averages well over 10,000 per day). A pound of fat stores about 3500 calories.
Its says the nutritional information it has posted on it’s label is
“based on a 2,000 Calorie diet.”
Double the information if you eat 4,000 calories of it, see?