How do uni students live off so little

Work a part time job for it.

Excluding rent/bills? Yes, but unless you work it will still be tight as that's only about £40/week.

Ok, keep ignoring the points and repeating your incorrect opinion which shows your lack of creative flexibility.

And please show me a shop for £15 that will give someone 2500 calories a day, sufficient protein and carbohydrates, essential fats, and vegetables/fruit for minerals and vitamins.

Are you even reading my posts?

a) Not everyone depletes their overdraft and then pays it off in the summer - many use it for short-term cash flow problems during the year.

b) I would work through the summer regardless because I'm not lazy and don't rely on others.

I've responded to the points. Weekly shop

Fruit for under a fiver if you get it from a market.

That leaves you with £10.
you can get fresh fish from the fishmonger that will last you 4 days for £5
Buy another 2 pieces of fish for about £3 from tesco
Can easily piick up potatoes and root veg to go with it for £2

You can make all your meals from that. Easy. I dunno about meat, I don't eat it, but that's enough.

I don't rely on others either I use my student loan. I don't get any maintenance grants

-Nowhere near 17,500 calories - that is about 7000 calories at most.
-No fats
-Insufficient protein
-Insufficient carbs
-No breakfast
-No required extras, e.g. coffee

I never said otherwise - I was spelling out the issue for you.

And we can therefore conclude that you had less money than me at university as I worked and used overdrafts to my benefit.

guerilla warfare on budgets

No it isn't. It includes breakfast, you can have a banana or piece of fruit, and there's plenty of protein, a piece of meat/fish a day.

Also buy a multivitain, forgot to include that, just to make sure. Unless you're a massive fatty, thats enough

I'm having to live off less than £1000 after accommodation costs for this year (and before anyone says "bank of mum and dad", my parents aren't really like that. They'll give me money here or there but nothing to the full extent of making up the £1000 mark).

The thing I've found is that if I go out once every week and take £15 a week (taxi there and back, drinks etc.) then that's £150 gone already for socialising once every term. To me that's ridiculous. So instead I go out once every few weeks, depending on my mood. I've learned to live off of Sainsburys basics or just anything cheap and if you can stay away from meat like beef, chicken (at a push), lamb etc. and use more bacon and ham then it can save you money. Budget your shopping to about £20 a week if you can, and if you can work over the summer and during uni breaks to help this then do it.

Overall, after my first term I still had £179 left in my student bank account and had limited spending in my other bank account to just about £450. Sure you have to scrimp and scrape a bit, and you might have to give up socialising for a few weeks, but living on less than £1000 a year after accommodation fees is definitely doable without going into any overdraft.

I am objectively telling you that it's not 17,500 calories. Do you have a calculator nearby? Use it.

If you think a piece of fruit is a sufficient breakfast then there is really no point continuing this conversation as you have no idea about diet or calorie intake.

That's relative.

And no, people need overdrafts due to financial constraints such as the OP has demonstrated. The most common need for them is cash flow ease when people don't have parents/partners to rely on.

For the average graduate starting salary, that is not true at all.

Yes, but most don't, hence the average so chances are you won't find that your student budget is more financially viable than your working one, which makes your post a little redundant.