A 1923 cookbook contained directions for calculating the number of calories needed daily. It also provided an example of how to use the chart:
To see if the number of recommended calories has changed across the years, I used an online calorie calculator to estimate the number of calories needed by a 35 year old woman who weighs 125 pounds. The online calculator asked for height. I used 5′ 4″. I also indicated that the woman did moderate exercise 4-5 times per week. The online calculator said that she needed 1827 calories per day to maintain weight which is 423 calories less than the hundred-year-old estimate that 2250 calories were needed per day – but perhaps doing two hours per day of general housework back then required more calories than moderate exercise 4-5 times per week does today.
Oh my!
I’m amazed at how much math they seemed to expect people to do back then to calculate the number of calories they needed daily.
I wonder how many calories they used doing the calculations!
Interesting. My health website suggests that at 5’3″ I could lose weight at 1400 calories/day. That seems like a lot, but only a little butter on the toast and mayo on the sandwich and blooie! Now I see that I require 20% fewer calories than I did at 40 I understand better.
I definitely need fewer calories now than when I was younger. 🙂
It seemed like a lot of calories. I am about that size and I can’t eat much.
People must have been more physically active back then.