Actually, when I am being good, I also eat significantly less than 1500 calories. 1500 is for days when I’m being sloppy – which do happen. But like you, I find it annoying being labeled on caloric intake alone – I look healthy and feel healthy (except for being hungry, which is a drag). As I often say to people, “Do I LOOK anorexic??” (I don’t).

So I don’t actually post my “calorie number” publically. Also, I have an instinct as an educator not to encourage students to follow my exact example – the point is that everyone should be finding his or her own best fit. But it’s really hard to convey that message, because everyone seems to want a recipe for fitness handed to them, and naturally thin people seem completely unable to believe that fat people can be eating less than they are. Sigh.

I, too, regulate my intake, keeping it around 1,500 calories a day. For a while, I actually recorded all intake and wouldn’t go over 1,000 a day, but I dropped to too much weight and lost some muscle mass. Now I’m back at a healthy balance.

I have to run and work out six days a week to stay in shape, though. I grew up chunky, with nicknames like Dunkin’, Boboli and what have you; it wasn’t until college that I began to strip away some of the fat and develop muscle tone.

I find it laughable that the Slate writer suggests 1,500 calories a day amounts to “starvation.” At 1,000 calories a day, I was feeling better then ever, with increased energy and what I perceived to be quicker brain function. I only upped the caloric intake because I grew tired of being called anorexic by friends and family. I enjoyed being a stick, as I felt like a coiled spring all the time, with so much energy to tap into when needed. On the other hand, I was only too happy to stop monitoring my diet so religiously. That was a real bore. Now I just guesstimate, and focus more on eating healthy than eating low calorie foods. Being a vegetarian, it’s easy enough.

As you argue here, however, diet is all individual. To each his or her own…just find the balance that works. It sucks that you’re hungry much of the time, but if the 1,500 calorie zone seems to be best for you, so be it.

All the same, I remain damned jealous of those folks who can stay in shape with minimal effort or attention to diet, if only because of all the time they have to devote to things other than physical fitness.