Portion sizes are a really good point. I'm British and my partner is Russian. Our first date was at an Italian restaurant and she ordered a pizza. She was sho

Portion sizes are a really good point. I'm British and my partner is Russian. Our first date was at an Italian restaurant and she ordered a pizza. She was shocked to receive a full circle of pizza, as opposed to a slice. I was shocked she was only expecting a slice. That was quite eye-opening for me. I've never been overweight and growing up my parents brought me up on a good diet (albeit somewhat large portions). Looking around, many people weren't fortunate enough to have the same experience with food. Either because they grew up on fast food, or because their parents cooked large batches of rather beige British food. (Practically) anybody being stubborn with themselves following a CICO diet will lose weight. But the portion sizes and types of food people eat have definitely been misunderstood as having less energy. I've been confused for some time as to why our food packaging recommends 2500 calories for men and 2000 for women, when the basal metabolic rate (BMR), the amount of energy burnt daily by doing nothing is around 1500, and the extra 1000 calories would require a decent amount of exercise which most people simply don't do (akin to a daily 10 mile run). I have assumed it's food companies lobbying to increase it with a very optimistic view on people's daily energy expenditure.