If you’ve read any of the latest issues of People magazine, you may have noticed their weekly celebrity “What I Eat In A Day” feature.
While it’s always fun to get a glimpse into the real lives of our favorite celebrities, I think this particular column is not only misleading but also quite dangerous.
Many of the featured celebrities are listed as eating somewhere around 1200 calories per day, making it seem like this is what anyone who wants a body like theirs should also do.
In one feature where the celebrity actually did eat a higher amount of calories, the nutritionist recommended she scale her portions back—even though the celebrity in question leads a highly active lifestyle and is far from overweight!
By only showing one day in the life, with no disclaimers about how much these women are consuming on average in a week or month, I think the article unintentionally sends out a dangerous message, especially to impressionable kids and teenagers wishing to emulate their favorite celebs.
The featured women look healthy and vibrant, which most likely means they’re either eating more than they claim or are just not giving the full picture by mentioning occasional splurges on drinks, dinners out, or other indulgences to account for the extra calories keeping them properly fueled.
(While 1200 calories per day may be healthy for some individuals, the USDA lists a much higher number as the average caloric needs of a young and active woman not looking to lose weight.)
I wanted to publish today’s post as my answer to the “What I Eat In A Day” feature; to show an alternative to the Hollywood standard of eating. Not all healthy women are eating the way Hollywood would like you to believe, and no one should ever make you feel guilty for eating a less-than-“perfect” diet or indulging in dessert.
When I read the weekly features, I’m shocked at how clean these girls eat. Eating clean is great… but eating should also be fun. Unless you get enjoyment out of eating only steamed veggies and proteins every day (which is perfectly fine if you really do), you’re missing out on one of life’s greatest pleasures.
(For more on this topic, see my post on Orthorexia – The New Eating Disorder.)
*Disclaimer: As always, be sure to listen to your own body or ask a doctor or nutritionist if you’re concerned about how many calories and other nutrients you should be eating.
Just like the magazine feature shouldn’t be used as a guide for how much to eat for your own ideal health, today’s post is also just showing what works for one person.
So many people write to me and ask for meal plans, and it scares me because bloggers on the internet—unless they are also certified nutritionists or health professionals—should not be writing meal plans for people they’ve never met. This is an alarming way that some bloggers seem to be making money, so please be careful and trust your health only to a professional.
**To clarify: The photos in this post were taken either before or after eating. They were styled for food photography purposes and do not show the actual portions eaten.
What I Eat In A Day
As a teenager, I loved sleeping until noon. Now I somehow wake up naturally around 4 am, and I immediately go looking for food!
There really isn’t a typical day for me in terms of variety; but the amount I eat stays pretty constant. Exercise includes running once or twice a week (sometimes more, sometimes less) and walking quite a bit since I live in a city.
I enjoy being outside and am not really a gym person.
Morning:
I’ll usually grab a small handful of raw nuts, seeds, or some coconut butter.
Today my hand found the bag of cashews. If I’m going running, I might make a cup of coffee and eat a bit more. Otherwise, I just sip water as I make real breakfast.
Breakfast:
Breakfast this morning was a giant bowl of peanut butter oat bran.
I cooked 1.5 servings of oat bran with unsweetened cashewmilk then stirred in some peanut butter and melted a piece of a 95% chocolate bar.
If you happen to run into me at 9 am, I’ve probably already eaten chocolate at least once.
Lunch:
Lunch is usually comprised of whatever leftovers I can find in the fridge.
Some mornings are so busy that I have to pull something from the freezer. I often will make huge batches of recipes so I can keep the freezer well-stocked at all times.
And by well-stocked, I mean things may or may not fall out when you open it…
Lunch today was rice, white beans, and homemade Coconut Curry.
Snack:
Snack was one of my favorite things – I call them “Extra Melty Gooey Brownies.”
They are so fantastically delicious… but I’ve never posted the recipe because they are so gooey that they often fall apart! Plus, I know not everyone is as big a fan of super gooey brownies as I am.
*Edit: By popular request, the recipe can now be found in my brownie recipe archives: Healthy Brownies And Baked Goods
If it’s a baking day and I’ve eaten a lot of samples, I’ll sometimes just sample my way through snacktime and never actually sit down for a real snack.
Dinner:
Giant Monster Salad:
- 1 Large Avocado
- Raw Almonds
- Frozen Raspberries
- Raw Pumpkin Seeds
- Homemade Sesame Ginger Dressing
- Trader Joes Organic Kale
Tahini and a baked sweet potato, cooked extra long until it is all sweet and caramelized.
How To Cook Sweet Potatoes – 3 secret tricks
Night Snack:
2 servings of Creamy Pistachio Ice Cream – One of my top 5 favorite recipes from my new cookbook.
Surprise! For once, it’s not chocolate!
(Photo credit: Probably my mom, back in like 2005… I found this picture buried in a folder on my computer.)
Daily Total: 2,958 calories
(15g total added sugar for the day, and it easily meets the RDA for protein, calcium, and other nutrients vegans are always being asked about. I don’t worry about protein but do take daily Vitamins D, B12, and an Omega 3 supplement.)
Edit due to popular request: Link To Full Nutrition Facts
Oh my word, please post that brownie recipe!
Also, this was cool to look at. Hopefully this will get some of the anorexia claimers off your back. :-/
Well, now you must please share the “Extra Melty Gooey Brownies” recipe!
Thanks for sharing this. So tired of people trying to say you can live (starve yourself) on 500 calories a day.
What a super post! I live in the UK so didn’t see the original article, but with 3 small daughters I do worry about what is perceived to be ‘the right food’ and ‘the wrong food’. I love the fact you posted your total calorie intake and it was substantial! 😀 Oh, and please post the recipe for the gooey brownies! They looked lush 🙂
It might be helpful to edit this post & mention that your actual portions were larger than shown in the pictures. Because of the pictures shown some people are thinking you calculated your calories wrong.
Thanks for the tip! Just fixed the post to reflect this.
This was a great post. It’s a shame that some people felt the need to make unpleasant comments. One of the reasons I love your blog is that you don’t fall into the trap of creating recipes based on food and diet trends (I’m looking at you gluten free and Paleo diets, lol). I’ve noticed that a lot of food bloggers have been doing that and it really bothers me. One of my parents’ friends is a dietician and she said the Paleo and gluten free trends can be really unhealthy and she wishes more people would talk to professionals before they start fad diets like that.
P.S. That gooey brownie looks heavenly! It’s fun to eat messy food lol.
It’s sadly true… and advertisers exacerbate the problem. Just like with a vegan diet, sometimes people fall into the trap of trying to survive mostly off of processed packaged goods, thinking they are healthy simply because they’re labeled “gluten-free.”
Katie – PLEASE, please post your recipe for “Extra Melty Gooey Brownies”! I love chocolate and warm and gooey!!! They sound delicious and I don’t care at all that they fall apart. A spoon would solve that problem. LOVE your blog.
Sorry for the confusion! The photos in the post were taken either before or after eating, and they were styled for food photography purposes. So in many cases, they are much smaller than the actual portions consumed (especially in the case of the oat bran). I edited the post to mention this.
If you read the post again, she clearly says those are not the actual meals eaten but are photoshoot quality representations. She also posted a link to a full breakdown at the bottom of the post. I know that people tend to think others are more like them than they actually are, but from an outside perspective, there are no red flags in this post that would cause me to worry about Katie’s relationship with food. Furthermore, diagnosing someone based on what you see online is never a good idea.
I actually would lose weight if I ate less. There are times when I’m running around or am on vacation and end up eating less, and I will find myself losing weight because of it. I also don’t eat out much and don’t consume many alcoholic beverages… I think a lot of people who think they don’t eat many calories forget to take into account splurges of a night out drinking or eating a fancy three-course restaurant dinner once a week or so.
Everyone’s body is totally different, as are their caloric needs. I would gain weight eating 3,000 calories a day, but I have pretty low metabolism and work from a computer at home, so I am not super active throughout the day.
I have recently started running and noticed that on my running days I automatically consume larger portions, or else I am absolutely starving. Katie talks about running numerous times, and if she is running long distances, on top of walking regularly for errands, and having a high metabolism, then she VERY easily could need 3000 calories.
Also, keep in mind, nutrition is more than calories in, calories out. She may be eating some high calorie foods, such as nuts and almonds, but they are also healthy foods. She is not stuffing her face with thousands of calories worth of french fries every day.
Speaking as someone who HAS struggled with an eating disorder, I think it’s great that she presents that healthy eating is more than sticking to a regimen of tasteless, lean, low calorie food. Truly eating healthy does not and should not feel like a punishment, but it DOES look different on different people, which is why she outright states that she is not a nutritionist, and should not be viewed as one.
Katie, Thank you. I found your blog about 8 years ago- right along with spoonfulofsugarfree alex and HEAB 🙂 I’m so grateful for this post and others as, after that period, I suffered an eating disorder from restricting and even trying to regain weight I kept losing while eating 2000 calories. It wasn’t until I was hospitalized I found out I need more than that- about 3000 reccommended by my doctors/day. Granted, I have a very small frame and didn’t exercise and needed that (I still modeled on that diet before I went back to Uni). So no– calories aren’t the same for everyone but if we take care of ourselves and live low stress our bodies will usually tell us how much we need better than an app. That said from a girl who hasn’t gone through menopause and has a normal thyroid though- I know I don’t know everything.
Thank you
Casey
I’ll try to get a post up for this too. In the meantime, basically you cook 60g oat bran with 2 cups milk of choice and just under 1/2 tsp salt (maybe less salt for people who don’t eat much salt…). Then I add around 2-3 tbsp peanut butter and stir in some chocolate when it is still hot.