Where 2000 Calories on Food Labels Comes From - And Why You Very Likely Need More! — Registered Dietitian Columbia SC

Ever wonder why 2000 calories is on the back of food labels? It’s not because it’s how much you are supposed to eat. If you want to know where the 2000 calories on food labels comes from - it’s fatphobia. Read this post to understand why 2000 calories is very likely not nearly enough for you.

Where 2000 Calories on Food Labels Comes From - And it’s Totally Inadequate for Most People

CW: This article contains calories, as you can probably tell from the title. The context of calorie numbers used is that they are too little for most people, but if numbers are triggering for you, this might be a post to skip.

Working with clients who are healing from chronic dieting, it’s probably no surprise that I see a lot of clients who count calories. It’s an insidious habit, and as you may know if you’re a current or former calorie counter, once you start, it’s pretty hard to stop. Those numbers seem to lodge in your brain, don’t they!

When I work with a client who is trying to stop calorie counting, I like to ask them for their “magic number”, the calorie amount that they feel like they’re supposed to eat under. I call it that because many times people imbue a magical quality to that number - if they could only eat under that amount, it would have some magical effect on their body, and grant them all the privileges they’ve learned to associate with being in a thinner body. I also find it really informative to ask where they learned their “magic number” from. Sadly, a TON of women tell me their number is 1200 or 1400 calories. For perspective, that’s the RDA for a 2-3 year old child - and that’s likely low for many if not most children of that age. Despite what diet culture tells and sells you, with very few exceptions, an adult human eating 1200-1400 calories is starvation.

Why 2000 Calories are on Food Labels - and Why it’s Not Enough

*P.S. I want to note here that while for a lot of people 1200-1400 calories may be the number of calories they try to eat or feel like they “should” be eating, very few people actually eat that little day-to-day, as most people cannot maintain that level of restriction without binging or just giving up the diet. Often times, those are numbers that just hang out in the back of their minds, creating guilt and anxiety every time they eat more than that amount (which is like, every day). If someone is maintaining this level of caloric deficit, they are very likely suffering significant physical and mental health effects from malnutrition.

Another “magic number” I often hear is 2,000 calories. Considering how brainwashed we’ve been by diet culture, I think a lot of people hear this number and feel like it is a reasonable and adequate amount of food. That’s in no small part due to the fact that it’s listed on the back of packaged foods, where percent daily values are calculated compared to this standard 2,000 calorie amount. While most people understand that energy needs vary from person to person, seeing that number on the back of food labels, it’s easy to understand why one might assume it’s an appropriate amount of calories for many or most people.

But…it’s not adequate for most people. The reason 2,000 calories was chosen for the back of food labels is steeped in fatphobia and health/nutrition professionals inability to trust people around food.

Where Did 2000 Calories on Food Labels Come From?

In 1990, the Nutrition and Labeling Act was passed, which standardized food labeling that had previously varied depending on manufacturers and state. As part of this legislation, the FDA wanted consumers to be able to compare percent daily values for various nutrients. However, because the daily values would vary based on caloric needs, the FDA needed a standard amount for comparison.

To set this standard amount, the FDA looked at food consumption surveys of the era, as described by NYU food studies professor Marion Nestle in this article. In these surveys, women reported eating 1,600-2,200 calories, men reported 2,000-3,000 calories, and children reports 1,800-2,500 calories daily. It’s important to note that these caloric ranges came from self reported data, which we know, and was well known at the time, to significantly underreport food intake. This is specially true for women, which makes sense given the extra societal pressure for women to diet. Again, I want to remind you as you see these numbers, these are not what people eat, but rather what they were saying they ate.

The FDA originally proposed a standard of 2,350 calories on food labels, an amount that was still below the average requirements for adults (determined by doubly labeled water experiments). But dietitians (🙄) felt like this number would would encourage “overconsumption” and was more than some women who are more calorie and nutrition conscious aim to eat, making the nutrition labels irrelevant for them. I read this as a bunch dietitians (who very likely have their own disordered relationship with food) legislating food labels around their own personal preferences for how to eat.

And so, we got the standard 2,000 calories on food labels. They said they rounded down to a “reasonable” round number, but I don’t know guys! A 20% reduction doesn’t seem like rounding down to me!

Calories on Food Labels Doesn’t Much Matter Anyway

I hope knowing this history takes away some of the power behind the 2,000 calories on food labels. At the end of the day, if we didn’t live in a world that tries to convince you weight gain is the worst thing that could possibly happen, seeing calories on a food label wouldn’t have any power. But unfortunately, we do live in a fatphobic, diet-obsessed culture, and because of that calories hold power over many people.

Where 2000 Calories on Food Labels Comes From - And Why You Very Likely Need More

Remember, calories are just a measurement of energy. When you reframe it that way, this idea that we should try to eat as little as possible doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Instead of restricting calories, we should aim to eat enough calories. And because it’s hard to know how many calories you need (all the formulas to calculate are pretty inaccurate, including MyFitnessPal) and because how many calories you need varies form day to day based on sleep, stress, what you ate, activity levels, etc, counting calories doesn’t really make much sense either.

Remember, human beings were designed to be flexible around food. Feeding your body adequately usually looks like some days eating a little more (or a lot) more, and other days eating a little (or a lot) less. One day you might go out to eat for all your meals, eating larger amounts of richer foods. Other days you might have a stomach bug that makes it hard to eat. That’s life! If most of the time we’re listening to hunger and fullness cues and aiming to honor them*, then you’re eating the right amount for you.

* There are situations where hunger and fullness cues will be wonky and not accurately reflect energy needs, like in ED recovery, healing from chronic dieting, or IBS. In these cases, aiming to eat regularly (working with a dietitian if that’s accessible to you) is important for restoring your cues.

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