2,000 Calories
Ever wonder what it looks like?
Health Canada recently put together a website called “My Food Guide” that tells you what you are supposed to eat.
So here’s how it works
You enter your gender and your age and it tells you how much of each food group you are supposed to eat.
For me it was:
8 Vegetables and Fruit
8 Grain products
2 Milk and Alternatives
3 Meat and Alternatives
Next you get to pick the food you like…
For Fruits and Veggies I chose:
- Asparagus
- Broccoli (x2 servings)
- Sweet Potato
- Sweet Pepper (x2 servings)
- Apricots
- Apple
For Grains I chose:
- Bagel ( 0.5 bagels is a serving)
- Oatmeal (3/4 cup is a serving)
For Milk and Alternatives I chose:
- Milk
- Cheese
- Yogurt
For Meat and Alternatives I chose:
- eggs
- Chicken
Now that hard part…putting these things into meals:
Breakfast: 900 Calories
- 2 egg omelet with asparagus, avocado. (1 meat, 1 veggie, 2 fruit)
- 1.5 cup oatmeal (2 grain)
- glass of milk (1 Milk)
- 3 apricots ( 1 fruit)
Lunch: 650 Calories
- 1 Bagel ( 2 grains)
- 1 apple (1 fruit)
- 1 Yogurt ( 1 milk)
Dinner: 300 Calories
- Chicken breast (2 meats)
- Sweet Potato (2 grains)
- Broccoli
Snack: 200 Calories
- 1 English Muffin (2 grains)
My grand total calories for the day would be 2,050 Government approved as healthy as you can get Calories!
Actually this number isn’t that bad for me.. it’s a little low for weight maintenance for my current weight..but like I said..it’s not too bad.
But here’s the deal… Take a look at how BORING those meals are..
A plain bagel? A plain English Muffin?…nothing in your oatmeal?
B-O-R-I-N-G Honestly….I couldn’t eat like that.
So if we spice them up JUST A LITTLE BIT, while still trying to do the typical North American version of “eating healthy”
Breakfast: (ADDS 250 Calories)
- 1 ounce organic cheddar in the omelet (0.3 of a dairy serving)
- 1 teaspoon brown sugar, 2 TBS Almond milk in the oatmeal (wouldn’t count)
- 1 medium coffee with 1 cream, 1 sugar (really..wouldn’t count)
Lunch: (ADDS 50 Calories)
- 1 tablespoon low-fat cream cheese for the bagel (not sure..maybe 0.1 of a serving?)
Dinner (ADDS 100 Calories)
- TINY bit of Butter for the sweet potato and for the broccoli
Snack (ADDS 200 Calories)
- No sugar added natural Peanut butter for the English bagel (0.5 of a meat serving)
- A glass of organic skim milk to wash it down. (1 extra dairy serving)
Now the meals are actually looking like something I MIGHT eat..and I’ve bumped the Calories up to almost 2,700!
Lastly, lets add in one little ‘indiscretion’…a mid morning Starbucks run to get:
- 1 Cafe Latte
- 1 Apple bran muffin ( 1 extra grain serving)
So now you have Mid Morning Snack (ADDS 500 Calories)
This is a great example how an average person trying to eat healthy can still eat over 3,000 calories every day…but THINK they are eating closer to 2,000 (And according to the Canadian Food guide!)
This is WITHOUT any beer watching the game, cookies with the kids, chips at break time, chocolate bars for charity, wine with dinner, snacks at the office…etc.
It Adds up Quick!
BP
PS- Of course, the easy way to get around all of this is to simply choose not to take part in these shenanigans once or twice a week! (cough, cough, subtle nudge..>Eat Stop Eat)
That may be true. But, they could also teach the better way to “spice things up”
2 egg omelet with asparagus, avocado. (1 meat, 1 veggie, 2 fruit)
1.5 cup oatmeal (2 grain) + 2tbsp of the milk below + 3 apricots ( 1 fruit)
glass of milk (1 Milk)
1 Bagel ( 2 grains) topped with a spread of yogurt, sliced apple (1 fruit), and a sprinkle of cinnamon
plus remaining Yogurt ( 1 milk) mixed with remaining apple
Chicken breast (2 meats) + Sweet Potato (2 grains) + Broccoli cooked together in red wine vinegar with sage, cilantro, and paprika
1 English Muffin (2 grains)
Okay, this needs something. How about just a few sliced strawberries for 30 cals or so.
Half the problem is we are so reliant on calorie-laden extras when calorie-free/much-lower-calorie extras are just as good!
Totally agree… I was doing “typical spice things up” as opposed to “really educated spice things up”
BP
HA! Wow…. That’s just too complicated for me to a certain extent. I never really worry about what I eat. I just eat about 1 serving of whatever my family eats for breakfast, lunch and dinner and then do EatStopEat on 2 days. WAYY EASIER!
we’re the same height. but since adopting Pilon and Howard’s diet for my AI, I couldnt even imagine eating that much if i wanted to. seems like so much time spent eating !
enjoy.
when i say barban and howard’s diet i mean the severe caloric restriction
Eat Stop Eat is the best thing I have ever come across, it makes losing fat so simple! Four weeks ago I was just under 75kg at 5′ 10″ tall, not particularly fat, but definitely some excess fat going off! Now I’m at 71kg, and surprisingly still more to go, I reckon I’ll be pretty trim around 65kg, but who knows till I get there! All this and my numbers keep going up on all my lifts, where is this “muscle loss”?? haha
I find eating more fruit and veg and less grains/meat means I can eat plenty and not go mental with the calories, this is of course providing I don’t eat my weight in dried fruit and nuts/seeds which I do love!
Brad,
I think I made a slightly disturbing personal revelation……………..I have become so used to my “boring” eating choices that I actually have learned to enjoy them very much. My friends tend to think I’ve lost my mind, but for whatever reason boring, simple, and predictable works like a charm for me. For whatever reason, I seem to be the type of person who would gladly eat and learn to thoroughly enjoy gravel if I thought it got the job done and left me feeling great during the day.
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Hi Brad,
I agree on how calories can quickly add without us noticing. But I just want to point out that this guide was very helpful when I got pregnant 3 years ago. I was always on a diet mindset before and all of a sudden I started eating 6 portions of grains, 3 fruits, 3 dairies etc. and OMD did I start feeling better! Since then I have stopped obssessing about food and now with ESE it’s even easier. So just adding my 2 cents here to say the Canadian Guide can be VERY HELPFUL to those who not longer know where to start. And to this day I can attest I do better with all food groups in my diet…just my own personnal experience.
cheers
Brigitte
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Hi Brigitte,
This wasn’t meant to be a knock on the guides at all, I simply used them as a starting point.
B
Another interesting point from this experiment…(that I’m sure my Pale/Low Carb friends will love)…I did notice that whenever were adding ‘extras’ it always seemed to be the grain foods we were trying to ‘flavor up’
B
now try eating all that at 5’4″, when you have tiny bones and your ideal weight is under 120. ha ha ha ha ha
then I truly would be “typical” size 14 instead of the 4/6 I should be.
thanks but I will skip the grains, eat more meat and fat and skip breakfast (or rather, have it after 12!) and don’t forget the cream in my coffee!
If you are short – paleo/low carb is the way to go. ESE doesn’t hurt either.
Well, looks like the weekend meal of Big Mac (540 cal), Large Fries (500 cals), and large coke (310 cals) may be doing me in! And that is just one meal and I only have 650 cals left of the 2,000.
Maybe that is why the whole “clean” eating thing is prevelent as I could eat 6 meals of this stock body building diet and still be under 2,000 cals:
Dinner: 300 Calories
Chicken breast (2 meats)
Sweet Potato (2 grains)
Broccoli
I guess I could have the McDonald’s and have the above dinner twice also.
By the way, I would have to put some kind of sauce or seasoning on that chicken breast and sweet potato to get it down.
With ESE I don’t have to eat bland food, but I wonder, is it better to focus on 1 day’s worth of calories or the whole week put together?
What a ride. First I click the link in Brad’s email and I listen to Alex from High Gravity Male Podcast. Phew! GREAT stuff. (I agree with his analysis of what men and women said they wanted. I have a slight tweak in my version.) Anyhow…. Then I clicked this blog entry and it rained on that earlier parade. Harsh reality of how unsatisfying a nearly 3,000 calorie diet can be!!
Having been on a phone consultation with a nutrition specialist at time or two, I laughed like hell when a very popular podcast personality, Adam Carolla, took on this heavily debated topic in one of his many hilarious podcasts. He was interviewing that guy who wrote Eat This, Not That and they were going over why the advice from these specialists is so crazy. I’m not sure if Adam titles his podcasts carefully enough to find it easily, but it is on iTunes. It’s worth a listen and had me in my car laughing so hard I could barely drive.
Incidentally, I was told to take that cheese off my omelet and replace it with yummy raw brocolli. Oh, and replace my fruit/cottage cheese lunch that I loved dearly with a handful of raw nuts.
No thank you. I discovered ESE and went on living my life like a normal person.
Thanks Brad, for both the giggles and the tears.
”Brad Pilon says:March 19, 2010 at 7:14 pm
Hi Brigitte, this wasn’t meant to be a knock on the guides at all, I simply used them as a starting point.”
Oh I know Brad, just reminded me of how helpul it was because I was vulnerable and wanted to do everything right for my baby but a the same time I realized that eating ”normally” as opposed to ”dieting” made me feel so much better! Also because it’s easier on our social life just like ESE is. And now I have even more perspective…I don’t know how I would do it with 2 kids if I were to follow a specific plan…
Brad Pilon is the MAN!! Anyone on here who hasn’t bought his ESE book must do it NOW!!!!
[...] brad pillion: 2000 calories– This is a very eye-opening article. It’s amazing how quickly the calories can add up, even when you’re trying to eat healthily. Check out the comments for some ideas about how to “spice up” your foods in a healthier way than what is typical. [...]
[...] original post here: 2000 Calories | Brad Pilon.com By admin | category: egg calories | tags: alternatives, average, average-duck, brands, [...]
[...] Here is a really good example of how you can eat more than you expect from Eat Stop Eat author Brad Pilon’s Blog. [...]
What Does 2000 Calories Look Like?…
Ever wonder what 2,000 calories looks like? Health Canada recently put together a website called “My Food Guide” that tells you what you are supposed to eat….