What Adam Moran From Beard Meats Food Really Eats When He's Not Filming

Organized eating competitions are mesmerizing, leaving audiences slack-jawed at how quickly (and messily) contestants swallow buns and hotdogs. These events can get intense; some legendary eaters even get into epic rivalries that last for years. But Adam Moran, Britain's top Major League Eating champ and famous YouTuber with over 5 million subscribers, is a different type of competitive eater.

He goes by Beard Meats Food on YouTube and became popular for winning eating challenges in restaurants all over the U.K. and the U.S. He's a witty, funny guy who banters with fellow diners and is rather humble about his wins. Sure, food gets stuck in his beard and he swallows meat by the handfuls, but they only add to his charm. He is also visibly fit, like many professional competitive eaters.

People are naturally curious how Moran's not overweight despite years of competitive eating. The secret, he says, is caloric maintenance. Basically, he eats less on days when he's not filming eating challenges.

Here's how he does it. Moran has an active lifestyle, so he normally eats around 3,000 calories a day or 21,000 calories a week. When he films challenges, he subtracts the calories he consumed that day from his 21,000 weekly average. He then divides the difference by six, which sets his daily caloric limit for the next six days. So if he ate 12,000 calories on filming day, he'd only eat 9,000 for the rest of the week. Here's what Moran eats when he is on a 1,500-calorie daily limit.

As one can expect from an athlete-level competitive eater who often works out, Adam Moran likes to drink protein shakes on his non-filming days. This dietary preference makes sense, because protein increases satiety. It has the power to make you feel full faster and longer. This is why chicken breast and other protein-rich foods are always included in weight-loss diets.

Protein shakes are an excellent addition to a high-protein diet for active people like Moran. The Recommended Dietary Allowance for adults is 0.36 grams per pound of body weight or 0.8 grams per kilogram. According to the USDA, a 30-year-old, 5-foot-10 male weighing 150 pounds with an active lifestyle would need 54 grams of protein per day.

Most people can get that amount of protein in their daily meals. But someone like Moran, who trains like an athlete, would benefit from additional sources like protein shakes. One serving contains 10 to 30 grams of protein, which is great for building muscle mass.

An important thing to remember about protein is it has calories. If you increase your protein intake but continuously eat lots of carbs, you can gain weight. So if the goal is to maintain weight, an increase in protein has to be offset by a decrease in carbs. Moran has maintained his lean figure throughout his career.

Adam Moran mentioned in interviews and podcasts that yogurt is one of his favorites when he's on a reduced-calorie diet. It's easy to see why. Yogurt, especially Greek yogurt, is low in sugar and high in protein, a magical combination for maintaining weight. "All I'll eat is a little yogurt, a couple of protein shakes, and some fruit in the days following a binge," Moran told The Independent.

Eating sweets or lots of carbs sends a burst of sugar into the bloodstream. The body responds by releasing insulin, which allows cells to process sugar and store it as energy. However, the sudden release of insulin can drive blood sugar levels too low. This would then trigger hunger pangs and cravings. This drives people to eat more; and if they choose carbs and sweets again, the cycle would repeat. This is how sugar earned itself a reputation for being as addictive as tobacco.

Yogurt isn't sweet, but it feels like dessert when you eat it. Even better, it offers other health benefits like promoting gut and bone health, thanks to its probiotics and high calcium content. There was also a research study in 2013 that suggested drinking probiotic fermented milk could help lower blood pressure.

Eating Greek yogurt with high-protein food can also boost the body's metabolism. A fast metabolism is very convenient for weight maintenance because it enables the body to burn calories quickly. As such, yogurt, alongside protein shakes and other protein-rich food, is an excellent choice for the days when Moran needs to eat less.

Fruits are excellent sources of vitamins and nutrients, so it's unsurprising that a health-conscious person like Adam Moran would make it a mainstay in his daily diet. Yes, many fruits do contain sugar, but their health benefits more than make up for that. Eating one large orange, for example, can provide 63% more of your daily vitamin C requirement.

Fruits like oranges, pears, figs, and apples are also high in fiber. Fiber is essential for overall health because it helps lower cholesterol, regulate blood sugar, and promote good digestive function and health. Studies also show that dietary fiber from fruits may help reduce the risk of heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and cancer.

Undoubtedly one of the main reasons Moran eats lots of fruits when he's not doing challenges is they have few calories. A 100-gram serving of an apple has only 52 calories; an orange has 47 calories; a pear, 57 calories; and a banana, 89 calories, as per the USDA FoodData Central.

As if these health benefits aren't enough, there's one more simple reason to include fruits in a low-calorie diet: they are delicious! Whether you eat them fresh, add them to salads, puree them, make fruit smoothies, or squeeze them for fresh juice, they are a treat for the taste buds. Fruits bring a much-needed variety of texture and flavors to regular meals, so you're less likely to feel that you're missing out even when you are eating less.

Vegetables are in the same boat as fruits. They're nutritious, high in fiber, and increase satiety. There's also plenty of research proving that a regular diet of vegetables can lower the risk of cancer, cardiovascular diseases, gastrointestinal diseases, deadly nutrient deficiencies, vision impairment, and more.

Veggies are the building blocks of a healthy diet. Whether you want to drop some pounds or maintain your weight and muscle mass, swapping vegetables for high-calorie foods is the way to go. They will make you feel full and provide the fuel and nutrients your body needs for daily activities.

But for people who aren't used to eating vegetables, a plant-based diet will quickly get old. They will soon start looking for the usual high-carb comfort food, like pizza and fast food. To avoid this, you can do the same thing Adam Moran does, which is to mix veggies with lean meat. This brings a familiar, well-loved flavor into the picture. It can also make veggies taste more delicious to non-veggie lovers.

Veggies and meat are also a perfect match because eating them first and saving the carbs for last will prevent your glycemic index from spiking. This means that your blood sugar will rise slowly, preventing insulin surges that can trigger food cravings.

Now let's get to the specific dishes Adam Moran mentioned eating when he's not scarfing down giant burgers, pancakes, omelets, pastries, and breakfast combos. "I like making things like cauliflower rice, and vegetable stir-fries with lean meat," Moran told The Independent. Cauliflower rice is simply cauliflower florets put through a food processor until they are as fine as rice.

Regular rice is one of the best sources of carbohydrates. Cooked white rice has the most calories per serving (242 calories per cup), while varieties like wild and black rice have less (101 calories and 205 calories per cup). If Moran feels like eating rice, he can eat these low-calorie varieties. But since he has to fit three meals in a 1,500-calorie limit, he would look for alternatives with much fewer calories. Hence, the cauliflower rice. One cup has a mere 25 calories, which is just 1/10 of white rice. And since cauliflower is a vegetable and rich in fiber, it should be more filling and satisfying than rice.

As previously mentioned, chicken is a mainstay in weight management meal plans. On its own, chicken breast is excellent for weight maintenance because it has less fat than pork or beef. As such, fitness coaches and nutritionists consider it the healthiest option among meats.

Adding chicken to a leafy salad is icing on top of the cake. This low-fat, high-protein meat on a bed of high-fiber, low-calorie, nutrient-rich vegetables pretty much guarantees you a filling and satisfying meal. You won't feel the urge to look for snacks so soon after eating, which makes chicken salad ideal for Adam Moran and his goal of sticking to his daily caloric limit on days when he's not filming.

Just don't add too much mayonnaise to your chicken salad. One teaspoon of mayo is already over 93 calories, so don't get carried away by adding too much of this dressing. But it would be better to avoid mayonnaise altogether and use balsamic vinegar (almost 5 calories per teaspoon), lemon juice (20 calories in one medium lemon), or even yogurt as dressing instead.

What better way is there to eat veggies than by enjoying salads, right? Green salads, in particular. They are very easy to make, plus you can add any leafy greens you like in the bowl. Romaine and iceberg lettuce typically make up the base or the bulk of the salad, then you can build up a flavor profile depending on your taste. You can add cucumber slices, arugula, basil, watercress, spinach, and red-leaf lettuce. Some people also add bok choy, but if you don't like eating it raw, you can always boil them first before slicing and tossing the leaves and stalks in with the rest.

Fruits and low-calorie salad dressings are added to bring flavor to a green salad bowl. Popular choices are apples, berries, lemon slices, and strawberries. As with the earlier discussion about dressing, mayonnaise-based ones are chock-full of calories, so balsamic vinegar and yogurt are better alternatives.

Adam Moran is spot-on in adding green salads to his low-calorie diet. You know it well now: as veggies, they are rich in fiber and highly filling. Even better, greens are also excellent sources of vitamins A, B, C, and K, and antioxidants. Not only do salads help in losing or maintaining weight, but they're also the key to good nutrition.

Being British, it's unsurprising that Adam Moran is a fan of Weetabix, a popular whole-grain breakfast cereal that is dried and compressed into biscuit-shaped chunks. It is packed with nutritious goodness without packing on the calories. Each suggested serving of two biscuits contains only 136 calories, and can go up to 205 calories with 150 milliliters of skimmed milk. That's not bad for one bowl of filling cereal.

Weetabix offers nutrients such as iron, folic acid, niacin, and vitamins B1 and B2, and it is also rich in protein. One serving of the original Weetabix contains over 4 grams of protein, while the protein-enriched variety has more than 7 grams per serving. Thanks to its nutrients, protein, and fiber, Weetabix is unsurprisingly recommended by U.K. hospitals and nutritionists.

Moran mentioned his preference for Weetabix in an interview with the U.K.'s Metro newspaper. "When I'm not in a competition I eat healthily and only have one meal a day," he said. Moran said this one giant daily meal is 3,500-calories: it can consist of four pieces of Weetabix, yogurt, four pieces of white fish, veggies, jelly, and peanut butter.

Speaking of white fish, it totally makes sense that Adam Moran would include it when he's watching his calories. White fish is called lean fish because it is high in protein and contains little fat (most white fish has less than 5% fat, unlike oily fish like salmon and mackerel which can have 15% fat). Examples of white fish are cod, halibut, flounder, haddock, sea bass, snapper, and tilapia.

A 100-gram serving of mixed species of white fish contains only 172 calories. It's less than most cuts of red meat, which can go upwards of 250 calories when cooked. When paired with salads, as Moran eats frequently in his down time, it can be just as filling as the high-calorie meats.

White fish also has a lot to offer in terms of nutrition. Most varieties are rich in B vitamins, omega-3 fatty acids, trace minerals like selenium, and other nutrients depending on the type of fish. For instance, cod has phosphorus while flounder has vitamin D. Halibut, meanwhile, contains micronutrients like niacin and magnesium while tilapia has both plus potassium.

Another wonderful thing about white fish is it is a versatile ingredient when added to dishes. It has a very mild taste, so it takes on the flavor of its marinade or the accompanying side dishes. Whether you're in the mood for something fresh and zesty, or something bold and spicy that floods your mouth with flavor, white fish is a great base to build up on.

Adam Moran has downed countless pizzas. In 2023, he beat the record at Gordon Ramsay's Street Kitchen for the most pizza slices eaten in one sitting within two hours (the original record was 38 slices; he finished 48 with two minutes to spare). But despite eating so much pizza, or probably because of it, Moran isn't a big fan of it outside of eating challenges.

"I would very rarely eat pizza in my day to day life," Moran shared in an interview with Craft and Slice back in 2018. "That's not to say I don't enjoy it, just that it's one of those foods that is always rough to digest, and you can't really make it part of an every day, balanced diet."

Moran isn't indiscriminately trimming calories off his meals during non-filming days. Yes, he chooses low-calorie options, but he also considers their nutritional value. So he typically goes for nutrient-dense, low-calorie meals to balance out the high-calorie, low-nutrient food he's usually presented with when he's speed-eating.

"My favourite chain would have to be Papa John's," he told Craft and Slice. Moran loves the pizza chain so much, he said he actually did some promotional content with Papa John's.

Having talked about the food Adam Moran eats to look out for his weight and overall health, it's only fair to also shine the limelight on the food he would love to eat outside of competitive eating that doesn't necessarily conform to his low-calorie requirement.

In one of his early interviews with Northern Life, Moran shared that his dream three-course meal would be a prawn salad starter, a grilled cheese doughnut for the main, and cheesecake for dessert.

What's a grilled cheese doughnut, you ask? He said it is "a doughnut cut [in] half, dipped [in] butter with a slice of cheese between each half! It's really bad for you but they taste amazing."

Moran of Beard Meats Food has accomplished so many incredible feats thus far in his competitive eating career. His cheekiness and adventurous spirit pushed him to leave the life of a stockbroker behind and become a professional competitive eater full time. He spent most of six years going around the U.K. and Europe, and now he's in the United States, conquering the competitive eating scene one challenge at a time. We daresay he deserves his dream three-course meal no matter how odd it sounds.