Does healthy eating = low-calorie eating?
It can… but it depends a great deal on the individual person. In many cases, I’d argue that a low-calorie diet is not ideal for optimum health (such as the case of an athlete, a growing child or teen, an underweight or healthy-weight adult, etc.).
Today’s post is going to be a little different.
It’s a topic about which I’ve been meaning to write for quite a while; ever since there was a bit of drama and confusion over it in the comment section of this post.
You see, I don’t want to send out the wrong message or give people the impression that I only eat low-calorie foods… or that anyone else should only eat low-calorie foods if he/she doesn’t medically need to do so. My website is not a “this is what I ate today” food blog, and the photos you see on this site are usually just of the recipes (as opposed to the entire meal I might’ve eaten along with the recipe. I can tell you I hardly ever eat just a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast!).
Due to the fact that healthier foods are often lower in calories, and because I know a large number of my blog’s readers are watching their weights, many of the recipes on this blog are—or can be—quite low in calories.
In the photo above: Low-Calorie Peanut Butter Ice Cream
To help the large percentage of my readership that doesn’t want the extra calories, I try to always point out when lower-calorie options exist in my recipes (such as when one can sub applesauce, how to make a recipe lower in fat, etc.).
However, the cool thing is that many of my recipes are easily adaptable to almost any diet. Perhaps I need to pay better attention to the other portion of my readers; those who do not have weight to lose?
It’s a common (and dangerous) misconception that a person who needs to gain weight or eat a high-calorie diet must consume exorbitant amounts of junk food in order to meet this goal. You can meet your nutritional needs without downing milkshakes at every meal, and you’ll probably feel much less sluggish.
Today, I thought I’d highlight a few of the tricks I use to calorically bulk up my food while still being healthy.
In the above picture: Chocolate-Strawberry Truffle Pie.
1. Focus on calorie-dense foods.
Eat these first at a meal, so you don’t feel too full before you’ve gotten in enough calories. Here are some calorie-dense, yet healthy, foods:
- all nuts and nut butters
- oils (such as olive, sesame, or coconut) in their pure form (not the hydrogenated stuff they put in packaged goods!)
- avocados
- Thai coconut meat (really good in smoothies, pies, or puddings)
- dried fruit
- canned coconut milk
- giant bowls of pasta (my favorite!)
- dark chocolate (oh wait, that’s my favorite!)
Raw recipes are often calorie-dense. Here are my favorites.
2. Don’t skip the veggies
…because you’re afraid they’re too low-cal. But do be sure to not just eat them plain and steamed. Try sautéing or roasting with a generous drizzle of olive or coconut oil (so so good).
3. Bigger portions.
For example, I post oatmeal recipes that are for one serving. But when I make them for myself, I always times the recipe by 1.5. Try it sometime… you probably won’t even notice you’re taking in more calories!
4. And eating more often.
Instead of three huge meals per day, space it out with 5-6 smaller meals and snacks throughout the day, giving your stomach a chance to digest. Personally, my job as a recipe developer means I never stop snacking! Chocolate is always close to my heart greedy fingers.
5. Non-healthy treats… sometimes.
I’d say I probably eat healthy foods 80% of the time. But does that mean I’ll turn down a friend’s cookies that she veganized just for me? Or Hangawi’s incredible cheesecake in NYC? No, it does not. (I probably should get a post up about this topic, too… but not today. I think I’ve already talked your ears off enough for one day!)
Do you eat a high-calorie diet? A low-calorie diet?
Or maybe you have absolutely no idea how many calories you consume! Please take an introspective look at your life and make responsible food decisions for you. If that means eating a low-calorie diet, my recipes are here to help. But if that means not eating a low-calorie diet, please take advantage of some of the higher-calorie options listed both in this post and in my recipe posts!
For more, see the following: High Calorie Recipes.
I had to go back to that post to find the (very judgmental) post about your breakfast choices, and I have to say…as someone who has struggled with being on the plump-side for the majority of my life, I know FOR A FACT that when I was in college, and would run for an hour each day, do millions of sit-ups and crunches in my room, drink nothing but Diet Coke and Water (Oh, the unhealthiness!), eat nothing but salads with fat-free dressing, and have a teensy bowl of PLAIN oatmeal for breakfast, my friends would pat me on the back for being so “healthy.” If I had been naturally thin, I would have been accused of anorexia in a heartbeat. But with identical eating and exercise habits, if you add 30 pounds to the woman, everyone congratulates her on trying to improve her health. It’s wrong. And even though I *did* have some weight to lose, that was in NO way a healthy way to live!!! I got very sick (surprise, surprise!), and when I appeared on stage (I’d been trying to slim down for a starring role in a play–I was supposed to be the “pretty” girl, and felt like if I went up there at my current weight, everyone in the audience would be snickering at the idea of ME being the “pretty” one), I had to be caked in brightly-colored makeup to keep me from looking ashen and pale. I was sickly, I was weak, and I was applauded for it–because of my weight. People need to realize that healthy is healthy is healthy, no matter what someone weighs!!!!
I am watching my calories from both sides. I have a few (50) pounds to lose, but I’m also nursing my (very fat, always hungry, super healthy) baby. I’ve had my calories drop too low, which caused my milk supply to drop, and then increase too much, putting me at an unhealhty weight. I’m not a big junk food eater, and I always eat “healthy” foods, but I’m learning about portions and feeding my body not only good foods, but also good amounts.
My 5yo, however, is sometimes frighteningly thin. He was a sickly baby, had digestive problems, and just never has been much of an eater. He enjoys your recipes enormously and always eats well when I cook them. They are free of the foods that upset his tummy, so I can feel good feeding him 🙂
Thank you for this post, for his sake. I always worry that I’m not nourishing him adequately. I offer him healthy, nutritious foods, but I can’t, and won’t, force him to eat. I want him to eat because he’s hungry, not because Mom says he has to. I hadn’t really thought of adding extra calories to his food (separately from the rest of us, who are normal or above average weight). Your suggestions are simple and so much better than what I’ve heard before, ( feed him ice cream, butter everything, feed him more often, give him more meat) most of which are not in keeping with our lifestyle.
Hey Katie, just wanted also to add my support – I love your recipes and my little boy loves some of them too – especially ‘chocolate on a spoon’ (your sugar free cookie dough dip!) – so hard to find healthy high calorie options that he will actually eat, but I have no qualms about giving him things made from your recipes 🙂
I don’t focus on calories and I’m not super fit but I’m a healthy weight, and while I eat a moderate amount of unhealthy treats I like to have healthier options too… Everything in moderation…. And your recipes really are delicious!
I have no idea how many calories I consume. I just eat. LOL! 🙂 Your peanut butter ice cream looks amazing by the way! 🙂
I’ve never commented here before, but my sister was raving on Facebook last week about the homemade lara bars so I had to come check out your site. After making up some raw gingerbread bones (couldn’t find my tiny gingerbread man cutter so I used the bone-shaped one instead) and a double batch of the peanut butter cookie dough cookies for lunches this week, my fiance and are hooked. We’ve both struggled with weight control and food cravings ever since we can remember and I have recently discovered that I am also gluten intolerant. I don’t even have a guess as to how much time I spent clicking around here over the weekend, but I love all of the “ball” recipes and I also totally love that you give a nutrition info breakdown for your recipes. I also love that I don’t have to go out and buy expensive special ingredients to make such delicious desserts and OHMYGOSH THE OATMEAL RECIPES! Thank you so much for doing what you do and for sharing so freely!
*/end over-appreciative fangirling moment*
Answering your question: My diet is variable between low-calorie and high-calorie depending upon what I am craving on any given day. I don’t own a scale (bad for my mental health and triggers disordered eating for me) or depend a whole lot on calorie counting to keep track of what I consume. I’ve recently begun journeying into the world of intuitive eating after years of yoyo diets and disordered eating and I believe it is working well for me.
I think you touch on very important and interesting points regarding health and weight in our society and I thank you for understanding that what works and is healthy for one person might not be for another and that that is OK. I have struggled with disordered eating, body image, and weight for what feels like my entire life. The healthiest I have ever been was early high school and my body was a US size 18. I was really, really dang healthy, but because my body was bigger than my schoolmates’ bodies, even though I met every other parameter of healthiness, I was pressured, teased, taunted, and shamed into thinking that I needed to lose weight both by my schoolmates as well as family members. Acting upon that shame and pressure led me to drastic measures in order to get my body to conform to what those around me deemed an acceptable size, but that wasn’t what my body was meant to look like.
Most of the last 15 years of my life have been spent on diet after diet with my weight and health yoyo-ing back and forth. All because society at large conflates health with weight and gives individuals whose bodies are perceived to conform to this health/weight standard the idea that they are free to comment about those whose bodies do not, regardless of the actual health of either individual. And this happens also to those who appear to be ‘too small’ or ‘too thin’ to be healthy by the weight/health conflation standard. (I can’t even begin to describe how angry it makes me when I hear someone say something to the effect of “Someone go make that girl a sandwich!” when looking at an image of a thinner woman. Absolutely livid.) I am so glad to have found the Body Acceptance movement and Health At Every Size. I am sure permanent damage to my metabolism and my body has already happened, but it doesn’t have to continue and I’m learning how to be as healthy as I can be in the body/metabolism I have now.
*/steps off soapbox*
Thanks for such a great comment, DK! I really wish society didn’t do this to women, pitting us against each other. I think we’d all be a lot healthier. Just look at babies… or animals! You hardly ever see a baby or animal with eating issues (unless it’s a dog who’s fed by humans).
Hi Katie, I’ve been a regular reader for about a year or so. As soon as I found your blog, I read all the way back through the archives to the start because I enjoyed it so much, and I remember you having to write this kind of post before. I stopped commenting a few months ago because I thought, “She has over 100 comments to read, she really doesn’t need another one saying ‘Looks yummy Katie, thanks!'” but I felt compelled to after reading your post.
I’ve (really) read all the comments on this post, and I’m surprised to see no one mention the word “troll” because it’s the first word that came to mind when I read the comments on the Sugar Cookie Oatmeal post. Then the words, “Don’t feed the trolls.”
A few points:
1) Anyone who doesn’t understand that this is a recipe blog, not a food diary, is clearly a moron … OR they are wilfully misinterpreting your blog and your intentions and taking things out of context in order to cause aggravation and upset. This is pretty much the definition of a troll.
2) As you mention above, your foods are not particularly low in calories anyway – I should know because I’ve been counting calories for nearly a year now using MyFitnessPal and it’s changed my life: taught me so much about what foods contain and truly made me value high quality foods, having made me realize that some foods I thought were ‘healthy’ actually weren’t. I eat about 1600-1700 calories a day depending on how much exercise I do (about 40-60 mins usually, I’m doing Beachbody TurboFire at the minute) because I need to lose weight and after ten years of what I thought was “eating healthILY,” counting calories has given me an education in nutrition and finally got me progressing with my weight loss. Before calorie counting, and learning about macros as a result, I would have thought, “I’ll have this Mr Kipling Trifle Bakewell cake as a ‘treat’, it’s only small, it won’t harm my weight loss efforts,” I’ll think, “That is nutritionally void: I’ll have one of CCK’s Larabars instead! It’s about the same amount of fat only the fat is the good type, and it has fewer calories so I don’t have to compensate by eating less of my main meal in order to fit in a (real) treat.”
3) Your recipes are also often not low in fat: your milkshakes, made with coconut milk and sometimes coconut oil are extremely high in fat! This bothered me about the TV spot about you: the presenter kept going on about ‘low fat’ and yes, perhaps your recipes are lower in calories and fat than the common alternatives made with lots of butter and sugar – which for some reason people insist on calling “the real thing” which is laughable because those things are full of artificial crap and highly processed foods whereas your recipes consist of very little refined products and plenty of whole foods – but that’s usually because it’s a CHEAP and easy way to sell products to the sugar-addicted masses. It’s unnecessary and detrimental to your health; your recipes are wholesome, taste great and are good for you. Which brings me to…
4) The nutritional count is incidental: you kindly put it in because many people have asked you to because it’s genuinely useful information for them.
5) You are clearly healthy. You radiate healthiness. Anyone who says or insinuates otherwise is being purposely obtuse to provoke a reaction.
Anyway, I doubt anybody will read this, but I hope you do Katie, and I’d like to repeat something I’ve said before: thank you for your blog, and all of the effort you put into writing it to help your readers (for FREE) to live better, healthier, happier lives. You are beautiful inside and out, creative, hugely talented, and you seem genuinely lovely as a person. I’m sorry for the long comment, but I’m pretty verbose when I feel strongly about things, especially personal attacks on people who so blatantly do not deserve it!
You have my love and support, Jenny xoxox
Aw Jenny, your comment meant so much to me. You are absolutely AWESOME for taking the time to lift my spirits!
I’ve always liked you and your blog, but my respect for you doubled after reading this post. I REALLY wish more food bloggers made a point of noting that calories are not necessarily the enemy, and of acknowledging that they don’t only consume the tiny and perfectly photographed foods they include in the photos. I’m in recovery from an eating disorder, and your is one of only one or two food blogs I actually let myself read, because of the healthy approach that you take.
Thanks Cammy, that really means a loot to me.
The food I photograph is definitely not all I eat… in fact, I often use sup-par trial experiments, and miniature versions, as the photographed food so I don’t get my fingers all over the food I actually plan to eat! 😉
I haven’t been to your blog in a while because I haven’t been working and am not at the computer very often at home. So sorry… just trying to catch up.
Thank you for writing this post. Whilst I’m not trying to gain or lose weight, I need a high-calorie healthy diet to support my very active lifestyle. It’s difficult for some people to understand why I need to eat so much when I am small, whilst they need to eat less because they are overweight and don’t exercise. *sigh* All your suggestions are stellar and I love your blog because you are so real about it and ‘get it’ and can explain it in a way that I can share with others to help them understand. *hugs* Thank you and keep up the wonderful blog. All your recipes are fantastic and have helped me stay healthy and strong!
PS – Was thinking of you last weekend whilst running a half marathon (my first) in ankle-deep snow in sub-freezing temperatures. It was awful running conditions but I played some of your running games to get me through it. And then I devoured two huge servings of chocolate chip boatmeal afterwards… mmm… <3
Oh my word, you are nuts! Haha I bet those boatmeals tasted absolutely amazing after being out in the harrowing running conditions!
I couldn’t do it; my hat is off to you! 😉
THANK. YOU! I have had the same issue with people being concerned about my health, especially now that I’m vegan. I’ve been underweight my whole life, but people who haven’t known me that long immediately assume I must have an eating disorder. I do appreciate their concern for my health, but it can get really annoying for people to think something’s wrong with you just because you’re thin.
I’ve been trying to add more fats and heavier foods to my diet without having to count calories, and this post is really helpful. Thank you for the advice and awesome recipes 🙂
Hey Katie!
I love your blog by the way 🙂
I am a highschool student that has recently recovered to an eerily similar experience to your health scare in which you weren’t eating enough and had low blood pressure, etc.
I wouldn’t really consider myself an athlete but I absolutely love the feeling of working out, weight lifting, going on hikes, so I guess I’m somewhat active. At the same time I can’t seem to maintain my weight despite my best efforts. I find it really difficult to eat large portions in one sitting yet most vegan meals seem to be pretty low calorie unless you incorporate peanut butter somehow. I also think I have a hard time getting enough protein.
Can I ask for your advice on how you get enough protein everyday? Do you ever keep track of the amount of protein you get or calories to make sure you’re getting enough? My parents are always telling me now that I don’t eat enough and are concerned about my recent switch from vegetarian to vegan, and don’t believe it is sustainable, how do you deal with people telling you you look too skinny or aren’t healthy because you are vegan?
Sorry if that’s too much questioning, I was hoping you might have some advice since I seem to be in a very similar situation!
Thanks.
I know I’m not who you wanted to hear from, but I think maybe I can help anyways. I also watch my protein intake because I know it is actually very good for you, and just because Americans as a group eat way too much doesn’t mean that I don’t need to worry about it!
I eat a fair amount of tofu (if you can’t eat large portions–something I never have trouble with, hah–baked tofu is a great way to go), black beans, and lentils. Black beans are the highest protein source bean I’ve found, and are also one of the lowest in calories. Go figure! And for a long time I was suffering with my lentil-eating because I wasn’t soaking them properly prior to cooking, which makes one’s intestines erupt. I think that may be why a lot of people don’t like them. Your best bet is to soak overnight or for 24 hours, changing the water periodically (obviously don’t get up in the middle of the night, but you know what I mean). Also, I personally like lentils best when they’re cooked in veggie broth, and not for too long, either.
My new favourite thing is chia seeds; they’re loaded with protein and fibre and you can add them to pretty much anything. They absorb water and make a sort of gel/pudding, which I’ve seen as the recommended form for adding them to various dishes.
As far as getting your family less, for lack of a better word, irritating (the indoctrination that we need meat and dairy, especially daily, to “survive” is ridiculous!), just show them the new food “plate” from our the government itself! It clearly shows how many plants we should be eating compared to everything else. For further defense of the vegan/veggie diet, maybe check out Vegetarian Times magazine, or VegNews.
Hope this helps, and again, sorry I’m not the wonderful Katie herself! I can only dream…
Camille, you said it way better than I could’ve! Haha all I was going to say was that as long as you’re getting enough calories to meet your energy needs, it’s very difficult to not get enough protein. There’s protein in almost all foods… even things like pasta or broccoli!
I also highly recommend a good sourcebook. I have “The Vegetarian Way” and still refer back to it every now and then if I need something :).