How many lbs. of food do you eat a day?

[KCM]

How many pounds of food should the average healthy person eat every day? What ratio to body weight?

I'm 180 pounds and figure everyday I eat an average of about 1/2 pound of meat, 1 pound of fruit, 1-1/2 pound of vegtables, and 1-1/2 of grains, beans, nuts, and other foods. That is 4-1/2 lbs of food on average everyday, not counting liquids. That equates to 1 pound of food for every 40 pounds of body weight, or an average of 2.5% of my body weight every day.
No wonder I'm gaining weight! :1pig:

Am I a glutton?

[Wildwood Flower]

Interesting question. Really, I don't think you're a glutton. But I would venture to say that it's probably a few very little things that maybe are helping you along to gaining weight.

Most of these things are "hidden" in other foods. That is: fats and oils. You only need a small amount a day (under 1 Tbsp.) and we can very easily eat more than that if we're not really careful--in things like salad dressings (read the label), dairy products, and how we cook--especially frying.

Also, the cuts of meat make a big difference in the amount of fat. Even chicken, if you don't remove the skin is very fattening.

The other "hidden" ingredient is quite often SUGAR, it seems it's in a whole lot of things we don't even realize==and it adds up. (Sugar also has about 25 other names.)

You can actually eat quite a lot of food, if you're careful to make sure your meats are lean, your salads have little oil, and your other foods have very little sugar.

Also, it helps to eat whole grains every day in some fashion. (NOT a granola bar...lol)

BTW...I learned most of this doing the CORE program from Weight Watchers...it's pretty basic natural foods eating.

[MoonShine]

Oh gosh,I have no idea how many pounds of food I would eat in a day...I never thought of it until now. I have one of those food scales around here somewhere,it could be interesting to document it one day.

[GoldenMom]

I don't know exactly how much I eat a day. I don't know if this will help or if you'll be offended but the recommended amount of food for a dog eating real food is usually 2-3% of body weight per day so if you were a dog I'd say you're right on track (though my own dogs can't eat that much of their body weight without gaining weight!).

[suitcase_sally]

I don't think it is as much the pounds of food we eat, as it is the calories. It takes 10 calories per pound of body weight just to maintain your weight. So if you weigh 180 lbs., you would need to eat 1800 calories to maintain that weight. Anything less and you would loose weight. Now, this is just a everday type of exercise level - for me that's a lot of sitting. For someone who works really hard - like a football player - his maintenance calories would be higher.

A pound of lettuce would have far less calories than a pound of bacon.

[Ken Scharabok]

More than I burn off in activity.

[Bret]

I eat like a bird.





Three times my body weight everyday.

I don't think you are a glutton. Let me ask you this? Do you feel good at your present weight? Do you want to take off a little to change the way you feel? Are you eating a pretty good balance of all food groups? Will you be burning more calories this summer?

Good luck.