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My intuition is that there is a small delta in impact between a 'reasonable' diet and a 'perfect' diet, and so playing in that margin is pointless. But I've alw

• kough 10y ago
  Actually, it's pretty hard to eat a whole day's worth of calories in a single meal. I know this because I've tried to, regularly, as part of a longer attempt to gain weight. If you're ordering at McDonald's, your best calorie/dollar ratio [edit: s/your best/my preferred] is the ~800 calorie double quarter pounder with cheese for ~6 dollars. My daily caloric requirements are estimated at 3000 calories based on my age and gender, which means I'd have to eat a little under four of these. The best I've managed is two, and that's even with smoking weed to increase my appetite.
  • dnissley 10y ago
    If you use that $6 to get 6 $1 McDoubles (are they still $1?) then you can get 2280 calories at 380 per burger.
    • kough 10y ago
      There's a lot of food on the menu I refuse to eat because it's far too gross. McDoubles are one of them. Should have mentioned that in my earlier comment – some taste preferences are involved.
  • snarf21 10y ago
    A McDouble is 390 calories for $1.39 and I think you are also missing the fact that a "large" coke is around 310 and we haven't even gotten to the fries yet.
  • cheald 10y ago
    Now add a 32oz coke (320 calories) and a large fry (510) and you're at 1,652 calories for what many people would consider a "small" meal. Throw in a 510 calorie McFlurry for dessert and you've just blown past 2k calories in a single sitting.
    • kough 10y ago
      Have you ever tried to eat that much? The whole point of my comment is that it's very difficult to "blow past 2k calories in a single sitting." Not that it's impossible – obviously McDonald's has a lot of high-calorie foods.
      • mahyarm 10y ago
        I'm pretty good at the entire eating thing. I could easily see myself eating 2000 calories by eating a large burger, a plate of fries and a few cups of cola. I'm also 6'2" and eat fast.
      • hyperpape 10y ago
        It's not as hard as you think, depending on the person. At age 17, I ordered a quadruple quarter pounder and ate it while out with friends. I don't remember if I had fries, but I certainly had a large coke with that. Last time I was out with one of my good friends from high school, he ate two 8 ounce burgers in a sitting. He's probably 5'8" and no more than 150 lbs. There's a huge variation in people's appetite.
        • cr0sh 10y ago
          In my early 20s, I once ate a 32 oz porterhouse plus all the trimmings of the meal, plus desert. My wife couldn't finish her prime rib, so I ate that, too - plus whatever else that was on the plate left over. I kinda fancied myself as John Candy in the Great Outdoors. Today - things are different; I try to be a little more selective in my meals.
      • cheald 10y ago
        Yeah, in days gone past I would eat that much (and more) on a regular basis. I've noticed that when I'm used to overeating, it can take a lot of food to hit that point where my brain says "okay, I'm done". When I'm eating a more controlled diet, I hit that full point a lot faster.
  • deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  • sushisource 10y ago
    Yep. Anyone who has ever trained for a marathon or other endurance event understands that eating 4000+ calories a day is a chore. On top of the fact that you want these to be "good" calories... Let's just say I ate a lot of rice with veggies. Which leads to the blunt advice I give most people seeking to lose weight. Sure, you might be genetically predisposed to have a slow metabolism, but at the end of the day "calories in / calories out" is as absolute a fact as it gets (of course, all things in moderation). So I say "You have two options: Eat less, work out more, pick the one you like."
    • kough 10y ago
      Yeah. I was eating ~1500 calories every day for lunch from McDonald's, plus two big protein shakes (another ~1400 calories), plus a 4-egg scramble with vegetables every morning and a rice/beans/veggies/chicken dinner. That's only a little over 4000 calories and I felt fucking disgusting. It turns out one of the tricks is timing, without a regular schedule I simply could not eat enough because I wouldn't be hungry.
    • Nav_Panel 10y ago
      I still think "eat less" is bad advice, because just "eating less" chips/soda/garbage is pretty difficult. I've tried. It requires an extreme and inhuman amount of willpower. Our natural drive is to vacuum up all the easy energy in front of us. "Eat better" is probably better/more useful vague advice. You can eat a whole lot of salad/veggies and it wont end up being that many calories (so, in this case, you're eating MORE, but consuming less energy/fewer calories). Same with meat. It's hard not to lose weight if you're eating a lot of (leaner) meat, because you feel extremely full after a couple hundred calories worth. If you start modifying your diet, your cravings will change too. It's all about these weird feedback loops.
      • solidr53 10y ago
        He never stated "eat less volume of food", so I take it he ment the general term "calories of food". How you do it doesn't matter. (eat more volumetric food or stop drinking soda, doesn't matter)
  • cies 10y ago
    > that's even with smoking weed to increase my appetite. All in the name of science, of course. I read a large milkshake at McD's has 850 calories, and I cannot imagine it costs more then 6 bucks.
    • kough 10y ago
      The milkshakes are a ripoff, just buy protein powder and whole milk and make your own at home for much, much cheaper. I wasn't doing a supersize me experiment, I ate a lot of other calories in other ways.
  • mgkimsal 10y ago
    the $6 range includes the 'meal' with drink and fries - add at least 400 more calories.
  • Chathamization 10y ago
    Yeah, I've found the McDonald's nutrition calculator to be fun to mess around with: https://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en-us/about-our-food/nutrition-calculator.html https://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en-us/about-our-food/nutrition-... For example, if you eat a breakfast of a bacon, egg and cheese biscuit with a hashbrown; a lunch of a quarter pounder and cheese with medium fries, and a dinner of a double quarter pounder with cheese and medium fries, that ends up being 2,580 calories (2,500 is considered the norm for a man to keep his body weight).
  • Nav_Panel 10y ago
    I find it far easier to consume vast amounts of calories when I'm eating straight carbs as opposed to foods with more balanced macronutrient compositions, such as cheeseburgers. The fat and protein would fill me right up. I find it pretty easy to eat a whole bag of chips (1500ish kcal) and a bottle of soda (250ish kcal) in one sitting, but I likely wouldn't feel too well an hour or two afterward. Same goes for candy, it's so easy to just eat hundreds of calories when you're at your desk and not thinking too hard about it. If I were trying to maximize my caloric intake at McDonald's, I'd probably get the burger and also a large fries (500kcal) with the BBQ sauce (I could probably go through 3 or 4 packets at 50kcal each, so that's another 1-200) and a large soda (300kcal), for a total of 1800 kcal. Still not a fully day's worth, but close. The really hard part is getting sufficient protein for gaining muscle mass, especially if you're lactose intolerant or vegan/vegetarian...
    • kough 10y ago
      Yup, I was trying to balance everything out and eat the right macros. I ended up settling on a DQPwC and a 10-piece chicken nuggets + 2 packets of ranch sauce + a small fries as my standard order.
      • Nav_Panel 10y ago
        That sounds about right. I seem to recall just ordering a 20 piece chicken nuggets and calling it a day, but my struggle is typically weight loss as opposed to weight gain.
        • newbear 10y ago
          Tortured Chicken
    • KitDuncan 10y ago
      Can people please stop the myth of it being hard to get enough protein on a vegan diet? It's easy. Check out the protein values of beans, nuts and lentils. There are incredible athletes on a vegan diet.
  • Aron 10y ago
    I think most sedentary people are in the 2000-2500 calorie daily range. When I formed my cached thoughts about this it was looking at a double whopper super-sized meal that would include large fry and large coke and I recall that coming out pretty close to 2000.
  • justanotherbody 10y ago
    Try raw cookie dough. Hardly healthy, but far less volume to consume
  • coldtea 10y ago
    >Actually, it's pretty hard to eat a whole day's worth of calories in a single meal I find it effortless. Some IHOP menu items, for example, are like 2000 calories, and I can gulp them in one sitting -- and one 1-2 16oz cokes on top--, and I'm not even that overweight. My "maintain weight" caloric requirements are about 2300 calories. >If you're ordering at McDonald's, your best calorie/dollar ratio [edit: s/your best/my preferred] is the ~800 calorie double quarter pounder with cheese for ~6 dollars. My daily caloric requirements are estimated at 3000 calories based on my age and gender, which means I'd have to eat a little under four of these. Why stick it to the best calorie/dollar ratio? All the parent said is that it's easy to eat a whole day's worth of calories in one sitting. McDonalds large fries: 510 calories. McDonalds Double quarter pounder with cheese: 800 McDonalds 2 packets of ketchup on said fries: 30 calories McDonalds Large Coke: 310 calories That's 1650 right there. The Chicken Piccata at Cheasecake factory for another example is 2,120 calories by itself. And that's without any appetiser. Then have a cheesecake after lunch for another 1000. Oh, and a coke for 100 more -- or a coffee with milk and sugar. Total tally? 3320. Also not sure about this "3000 calories" estimation (unless you're very tall, exercising etc). The commonly cited figure is that the average man needs 2500 calories per day to maintain weight.
  • sn9 10y ago
    Given the obesity rates in the US, I think you'll find that, for the average person, this is easier than it is for you.
• r00fus 10y ago
  If you consider a "perfect" diet to be an platonic/asymptotic ideal, then striving for it is meaningful, using the "shoot for the moon" concept - aiming for "balance" when you're unbalanced in one way, will give you suboptimal long-term results. Better aim for the ideal and settle for balance.