Food log

I've been reading the Shapely Prose back-posts, as I may have mentioned earlier, and one of the things that has struck me is how people who have been fat most of their lives often get brainwashed as to how much people in general actually eat, or how much they exercise. Also, I've been amazed at just how little food people on diets are allowed to consume. 1300-1500 calories a day? Holy shit. And it goes to show that the strictly thermodynamic concept of calories consumed, energy expended, and the left-overs being converted to storage (fat) is really not the story at all. How else to explain how women who eat 1300 calories a day and exercise can be still well over 100 kilos, when people like me, who stuff their faces, are just somewhat "overweight" (according to BMI standards. I just call myself "average")? Or are we all liars or delusional? Or is it the fact that our genetics make us metabolise food in wildly divergent ways - some are "burners", some are "storers", and what's healthy for you is quite possibly not healthy for me (at least in terms of the number of calories consumed)? If it isn't obvious, I go for the latter explanation.

So I'm going to do a food log for a week. I think people who might look at themselves as having unhealthy eating habits because they are fat or overweight might need to think about the fact that fatness is often decoupled from what anyone might conceive of as an average way of eating. Sure, as some fuckwits say, you didn't find fatties in concentration camps. Anyone can starve down to emaciation. But someone's point where they start losing weight might be 1800 calories a day; others might find that point is 1200 calories a day; or, conversely, even 2400. But subsisting on 1200 calories a day in order to maintain some arbitrary "ideal" weight is not sustainable, nor is it particularly sane.

I've been eating quite a bit lately, since it's cold. I also feel that I'm towards the chubbier end of my weight range, but I don't know what I weigh. Since my clothes still fit (if a little snugger), I would say I'm about 80-odd kg. That makes my BMI 28. My waist is about .76 the circumference of my hips (and probably about .5 the circumference of my bust, heh). I've never been on a diet, although at times I make efforts to reduce the amount of crap I consume and eat "more healthily". This consists of me cooking for myself more and eating more veges and protein, rather than restricting calories or portion control. I'm exactly mid-cycle right now, and I am not doing very much exercise (I'm doing a wee bit, but I should actually be doing more). I also hardly drink water, not even the fizzy stuff, at this time of the year. Anyway, leading off, here's what I've eaten today.

Breakfast:
2 pieces of wholemeal sourdough toast with butter and Vegemite
Cup of tea with one sugar and soy milk

Lunch:
(slightly strange because I was running off to an exam, but the pie shop didn't have any chicken pies, which was my first choice)
2 pieces of cheese-on-toast
2 gherkins
Tea as above

Dinner:
Madras curry made from a few tbl of curry concentrate (spices, tomato, coconut cream), root veges, cauli, beans, fried tofu
White rice
All up, at least 2-2½ cups of rice and curry.

Snack:
(still hungry - feeling cold and light lunch)
2 pieces of toast with butter and plum jam
Tea as usual