Let Them Eat Cake: Is 2300 Calories for Women Too Much?

My phone's ringing, it's Aphrodite. "My internet's dead," she wails! I don't have my post done for 12! "Right!" I say, springing into typing action, "what'll we post about?"

"Well," she says, "what about all this ridiculousness with boffins saying women now need to now eat 2,300 calories a day?"  News to me - I thought we were all fat as fools on 2,000.

Or y'know, 2,000 and that bag of crisps and those two biscuits. Oh yeah, that probably is 2,300, right enough.

While neither of us thought much of that scientific 'plan' as it's clear lots of us overeat and are underactive as it is, what IS true is that in cold weather you do need to eat more. (I refuse to hear any dissenters pointing out the small modern fact of life that is central heating).

In the arctic, a woman needs about 5,000 calories a day for fuel to keep warm and functioning. God it'd be so easy to go on a diet up there, wha? Few sangers, cups of tae and dinner as normal and you'd be skinny in a week. I'm copyrighting this idea - so hands off. Expect the first fat-fightin' Beaut.ie group to head north come January. Gotta work those mince pies off somehow, eh?

Anyway, what do you think of this 2,300 daily calorie allowance thing? Sensible? Silly? And are you finding yourself carb-loading at the moment since it's so cold?