How many calories do we really need?

Well the funny thing about that is, I think that the less you eat, the less
you need. If you think about it, you only are able to sustain your life by
constantly replacing it with other life. So if you eat less, then the
organism becomes less, and requires less to sustain.

Growing up, I only ate 1 or 2 times per day, and it was always after 3pm. I
figure I was getting less than 1500 calories most days.

When I got a little older I became a bit fearful and attempted to force a
normal eating regime. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, and smaller meals in
between. I tried to eat as much as possible to become a normal weight, but I
found it almost impossible to exceed 2,500 calor
ies, even with ice-cream,
chocolate, calorie powders, raviolis, sandwiches, milk, etc.

I've been calorie counting for a few years, making sure I consumed no less
than around 2,300 to attempt to maintain something not underweight. But as
of lately, I gave up. Even with weight training and over-eating it just
doesn't work.

I still count the calories, but more of just a guide. The rest is more just
eating in response to my guts. I find that my comfortable range dropped down
to 1,800-2,200. I've lost maybe 7 lbs, which is a lot since I was very thin
to begin with... but the odd thing is that I seem to feel better when I eat
less.

My mom also doesn't eat much, and is super thin like me, but she is getting
up there in the years and seems to be invincible. Her health must be
degrading, but she somehow manages to have energy and never gets sick.

I think we underestimate skeleton peop
le, and they are only deathly
underweight in comparison to the overweight norm of modern civilizations.
Take a look at some photos in National Geographic and you see a wider range
of weights. Everyone has their place to diversify and increase the chances
of the species surviving through various scenarios.

Someday maybe we will evolve passed the idea of calories. An organism is by
no means a mechanism like a car. The idea that you can describe a human in
terms of his fuel intake, and energy output is too simplistic to be of much
value. There are so many variables to factor in that you would have to
rewrite caloric theory for every individual in order to make any
statistically relevant predictions about his required intake for that day.

My answer to your question right now would be that we don't need any
calories. Once we need calories, we are surviving only to survive. We are
taking medicine, we are not eating. Modern cultur
e is so focused on living a
perfect life that we miss our chance to live. If you want a more concrete
answer, try asking the squirrel in your tree, maybe he'll know.