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Comment by PopeDotNinja | Hacker News Reader

I would have a hard time without meat. There's so much food I don't like.

I like most food and am also not able to stop eating meat. It's just too nice. We have cut our consumption a lot though.

Eventually eating only exceptional quality meat 2/3 days a week is fine for me.

I also have a terrible palate, do you think that's part of it for us? Beef is a fairly "guaranteed" taste that, depending on the cut, will give you what you're looking for regardless, I'd expect.

What do you eat besides meat? Since meat has the lowest energy density, you most likely get your energy from other sources anyway. Even if you eat 500g / 1lb per day for a 2000kcal target, you would still get 1500kcal from other food.

I think you have those reversed. Meat is incredibly packed with proteins and the calorie density is very high.

Lean meat is has around 100 kcal per 100 grams. This is similar to most fruits and veg.

More fatty meat sits at around 230 kcal per 100 grams.

You'll find that carb sources are around 200-350 kcal per 100 gram and sweet process foods are around the top of this level.

So when the OP says that the calorie density in meat is low, they are correct in the case of lean meat.

Source for the 100kcal per 100 grams please.

Even rabbit meat, the leanest possible game meat has 136 calories per 100 grams.

https://www.fatsecret.com/calories-nutrition/usda/rabbit-mea...

Average red meats will have calorie ranges right around 180-240 kcal per 100 grams. Of course that's low compared to sugary processed foods if you're going just by calories.

But it certainly isn't lowest when you consider the entire food pyramid. (most veggies and some fruits are lower)

My source? The packs the food comes in. Why? Bodybuilding. To build muscle without adding a lot of fat you need to know your protein.

A quick google and here are some example numbers.

Lean beef:

https://www.eenvoudig-afvallen.nl/voedingswaarde/hoeveel-cal...

Chicken breast:

http://www.calorielijst.nl/product/?calorie=418

White fish like Cod and Haddock are similar only they contain less water.

Maybe you don't have lean cuts in your country?

Seems like your 2nd link is to Aldi.

I'll check it out next time I buy groceries.

Yes, I was thinking in the way of radicalbyte's comment and I take the dry values of carb sources which indeed reverses the ranking.

But even with beef, it takes 800g to reach 2000kcal[1]. I am just wondering if this can actually be the main source of energy for a long period of time.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beef beef: 1,047 kJ (250 kcal) per 100g

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