Americans eating 3,770 calories a day ?!?!

[Dreamliner]

WTF ? I know we're fat, but that's enough to choke an elephant. Even more unbelievable to me: the French eat 3,550 calories a day.

Doesn't seem right. I commonly read that calories have increased from around 2,200 in 1980 to around 2,700 in 2010. I suspect that, inactive as most Americans are, 2,700 is plenty to make us fat as we are.

Thoughts ? I myself am HIGHLY active and I doubt that I get 3,000 calories a day.

[your_perfect_enemy]

We're all just training for the olympics.

[LeafUF]

We aren't eating that many calories, that is how many we have available per person. I read that list the other day and can not find the link right now.

[LeafUF]

Found it on wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_dietary_calorie_intake

It is completely mislabeled hence the confusion and shock.

The food consumption refers to the amount of food available for human consumption as estimated by the FAO Food Balance Sheets. However the actual food consumption may be lower than the quantity shown as food availability depending on the magnitude of wastage and losses of food in the household, e.g. during storage, in preparation and cooking, as plate-waste or quantities fed to domestic animals and pets, thrown or given away.[2]

[Dreamliner]

Now that makes more sense. The larger puzzler was the French eating 3,550 calories a day. I'll bet it's closer to 2,000.

[mastoidbone]

I can EASILY eat that much or more a day....i miss those day, i was fat, but i ate well and alot.......ahhhhh.

these days of food austerity are really new to me---I notice I have far more energy for most part even though I eat less, i guess carrying 35 less pounds has some benefits...only time i feel bad is when I work out or ride on limited calories and get close to a bonk---then I feel like crap until I eat.

[Dreamliner]

I can fairly say that, based on some of the food journals I've gotten from clients, there are middle-aged women getting that many, never mind younger, larger men.

[ATL_Gator]

Minimize veggies in a diet plan.
Replace with processed foods like pasta, meats (sausage, ground beef, so on and so forth), and sugary stuff.

not hard to hit those numbers at all.

especially if calories are taken in through drinks.

combined with this part that I read once, not sure how true it is, but it makes sense to me.

People often confuse being very slightly dehydrated with hunger, and will "satisfy" this feeling with food (which has water content, amount varying depending on what you choose) instead of water.