A study estimates that more than one billion people are affected and reveals that nutritional imbalances continue to rise. Childhood obesity has quadrupled over the course of three decades
Yep we all eat too much. I started counting calories and found out that I was eating twice as much as I should have. It's not obvious and every place serves big portions.
I've been counting calories for the last few months, and that was my big realization as well. I could have easily put down a single meal at a restaurant which is my entire (or more) daily intake now.
I'm counting calories too, it's not even the amount but it's that some foods are total calorie bombs. You can pretty easily ingest a day's worth of calories in a single meal at the restaurant without really feeling like you overate, but if I pay attention and select my foods properly I can feel like I ate plenty and be under 1500cal a day.
I find the premade mixes from Birdseye (sold basically everywhere that has frozen food) to be a pretty good lazy way to get a big meal. Usually a decent mix of meat, veggies, and grain, but the whole bag (3 servings) is only like 600-900 kcal. Sometimes it feels like an obscene amount of food for the calorie count.
It's not just that we eat "too much" but also that we're eating too much non-nutritive foods. The United States has entirely too many so-called "food deserts" where people are unable to purchase healthy foods
I just used an online calculator. It said something like 1500 kcal a day for my activity level to maintain weight.
I don't really count calories, but I do look to get a general idea of what a meal or a snack is. Sometimes I'm way over, sometimes I'm way under, it's all about balance and being in the ballpark.