Best books/websites on clean eating?

khall86790

For about 6 months now I've been cleaning up my diet and exercising and I've lost around 15kgs total. However, I am currently counting calories and dieting and not finding the results I want (definition and firm skin). From what I've read, it looks like clean eating may be the way forward for me as a lot of my diet is already clean and to be honest I am over counting calories, I want a bit of freedom back and don't want to have to keep weighing everything I eat, etc.
I am pretty confident what is holding me back at this point is my diet. I don't eat bad foods but I like a couple of beers at the weekend and have slipped back into eating more carbs (pasta, bread, etc.) than I used to. I want to switch to clean eating so I can have a couple of beers guilt free and generally relax the constrictions I feel at the moment.

What I am looking for is advice from anyone who switched to it on how they did it? And some links to good books or websites on recipes, foods, advice, etc.

Thanks guys

grandevampire

What, may I ask, are you doing for exercise? While a clean diet may help you cut out stuff you are consuming unintentionally (included with processed food), I doubt that that alone would give you much additional definition and firmness. Those come from low body fat and having muscle. To lower body fat, you need to maintain (or slightly build, if you are new to it) muscle (by doing challenging resistance training) while losing fat (by eating at a deficit).

ETA: Oops, and you can check out http://whfoods.com/ for info on clean foods, although I admit I don't use any specific resources.

To improve the cleanliness of your diet, it's not hard. Just follow the general ideas:
- Opt for as many whole, fresh foods as you can, as opposed to processed/pre-packaged/prepared foods.
- Avoid "low fat" products, "sugar-free" products, etc. because they are usually processed to become that way, thereby stripping them of valuable nutrients (and the amount of satiety you get from eating them) or have artificial additives (e.g. sweeteners).
- Be moderate with sodium, as if you are coming off a not-very-clean diet, you are probably initially used to having food way saltier than necessary because that is now prepared food products generally come.

Also, clean eating doesn't have any bearing on whether you eat carbs (bread or pasta). Just the quality and type. Always choose whole grain breads, pasta, and rice instead of white.

Brandy1775

Tosca Reno has some amazing books on Clean Eating. She even has a cookbook which has some outstanding recipes.

khall86790

What, may I ask, are you doing for exercise? While a clean diet may help you cut out stuff you are consuming unintentionally (included with processed food), I doubt that that alone would give you much additional definition and firmness. Those come from low body fat and having muscle. To lower body fat, you need to maintain (or slightly build, if you are new to it) muscle (by doing challenging resistance training) while losing fat (by eating at a deficit).

I run around 15-20km a week and also do some form of body weight training (push ups, squats, etc. or yoga) once or twice a week depending on how much free time I get.

The part I need to fix is my diet as I've already lost 15kgs through exercise and cleaning up my diet, now my exercise is at it's all time best and so I am working on fixing up the diet. I've all over these message boards and different fitness sites that abs are 80% diet and 20% fitness.

Witchdoctor58

I learned a lot from Beachbody.com message boards. You don't have to use their products to benefit from the info.

dieselbyte

What, may I ask, are you doing for exercise? While a clean diet may help you cut out stuff you are consuming unintentionally (included with processed food), I doubt that that alone would give you much additional definition and firmness. Those come from low body fat and having muscle. To lower body fat, you need to maintain (or slightly build, if you are new to it) muscle (by doing challenging resistance training) while losing fat (by eating at a deficit).


Also, clean eating doesn't have any bearing on whether you eat carbs (bread or pasta). Just the quality and type. Always choose whole grain breads, pasta, and rice instead of white.

Exactly. If you're goal is to continue to make a body composition change, exercise and diet are the key. And by diet, you don't necessarily have to limit yourself to only certain types of food (unless you have allergies or intolerances of course). Cutting out food that in your mind are not "clean" may have started your weight loss because you are now taking in less calories than before i.e. at a caloric deficit. What you will need to do now is monitor how many calories you are consuming, and at what macro nutrient breakdown. To achieve your desired goals, you may need to continue to eat and exercise as you are, or you may need to enter more of a caloric deficit (either through increased exercise, decreased caloric intake, or a combination of the two). Basically you will need to be at a caloric deficit below your maintenance level calories. I suggest searching this site, and even doing a google search for caloric and macro nutriet calculators as a way to start.

Lastly, the thought that you only need to eat "clean" to lose weight, get abs, and achieve your desired goals isn't true (I'm currently at 6.5% BF and I eat poptarts and ice cream). You can continue to eat the foods you like, in moderation and according to your overall goals of course. Maybe doing some research on IIFYM (If it fits your macros) may help as well. Flexible dieting may be more sustainable in the future, but you will need to practice moderation. Now there is no need to give up pasta or cookies if it fits your goals and plans. Hope this helps!