Clean eating vs. just counting your calories

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  • CChandler81
    CChandler81 Posts: 100 Member
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    While technically, eating clean isn't required for weight loss, eating clean gets you far more "bang for your buck" in terms of the amount you can eat (i.e. a cup of veggies/chicken/fruit vs a few handfuls of chips/crackers/processed health foods).
    I also feel so much better, gut wise, eating clean. Eliminating mostly bread and dairy has made a huge difference. Same goes for cutting down on sodium. I feel horrible and gain several lbs anytime I have something from a restaurant now, even if it is "healthy" and under calories.

    So although it may not fit into your lifestyle and you absolutely can lose weight eating processed foods, for me personally, the health benefits outweigh convenience hands down.
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,268 Member
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    CChandler81 wrote: »
    While technically, eating clean isn't required for weight loss, eating clean gets you far more "bang for your buck" in terms of the amount you can eat (i.e. a cup of veggies/chicken/fruit vs a few handfuls of chips/crackers/processed health foods).
    I also feel so much better, gut wise, eating clean. Eliminating mostly bread and dairy has made a huge difference. Same goes for cutting down on sodium. I feel horrible and gain several lbs anytime I have something from a restaurant now, even if it is "healthy" and under calories.

    So although it may not fit into your lifestyle and you absolutely can lose weight eating processed foods, for me personally, the health benefits outweigh convenience hands down.

    you retain water you don't gain lbs.

    and "eating clean" means different things to different people.

    Most here say eat 80% nutrient dense foods and 20% fun foods...because giving up the stuff you love and want can often lead to failure.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
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    There are higher and lower calorie "clean" and "non clean" foods.

    If I take leftovers from dinner--last night I had lamb, potatoes, brussels sprouts--that's "clean" in most definitions, but can definitely be higher cal than the wrap I otherwise might buy from Pret (I like the shrimp wrap, 390 calories) or the turkey sandwich I get from Potbelly's (290 calories). And those aren't even particularly low cal lunches.

    I ignore the whole "clean" thing (who knows what's supposed to be "clean" anyway, as everyone's definition varies, and some processed foods like the sandwiches I mentioned, smoked salmon, cottage cheese, etc., can be quite filling and helpful). Makes more sense to me to just focus on calories and eating an overall healthful diet, that includes some less nutrient dense foods in moderation as they fit (for example, along with that dinner I had some feta cheese, because tasty).
  • snowflake930
    snowflake930 Posts: 2,188 Member
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    I lost over 1/2 of my current body weight, and have been maintaining for over 2-1/2 years.
    I have found that what worked for me best (after two months of trying "clean eating") was all things in moderation and staying within my calorie allotment. It served me well while losing and has been sustainable so far in maintenance. Everyone is different though, so go with whatever works for you.
  • californiagirl2012
    californiagirl2012 Posts: 2,625 Member
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    Clean food has calories too. Most of us already know what "healthy" foods are, 1-5 ingredient foods, etc. Just do the best you can and don't worry too much about it. Many of us ate organic fanatic to the extreme and became obese eating the healthiest foods on earth, being obese is not healthy either, even though the food was "clean" as clean gets.

    If it's caloire counting you are tired of, just get to the point where you can make the energy estimates in your head as you go through the day. The more you look at the values here on MFP the more you learn and you can eventually stop using it if that is what you really want. Or like me, you log your food mostly for others and stay on here just to motivate the people on your profile.

    Best of luck to you!
  • BuddhaB0y
    BuddhaB0y Posts: 199 Member
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    I'm down 125lbs in 7 months and I wouldn't say I eat clean at all... But what I did learn to do was count my calories and understand how much I was consuming before. Now I'll have A hamburger instead of 3. I cut sugary pop out completely as its empty Cals that don't make me feel full, and i try to limit foods I can't accurately count to special occasions and give it my best guess.

    I've also found that analyzing your eating patterns and moving the bulk of your days available calories into meals during the periods of highest craving, in my case the evening, I can still keep within my daily calorie limits the majority of the time.
  • demsjtk
    demsjtk Posts: 9 Member
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    I also go to school this I usually packed lunch deli. I usually packed low sodium Ezekiel bread with low sodium boar's head oven roasted turkey or roast beef. I usually ask for the thinnest slice size at the deli. Add laughing cow cheese wedge and spinach to the Sandwhich or mozzarella string cheese. I think the key is portion control. This way you can have balance amount of macros and keep sodium low. I usually put 2 slices in my Sandwhich.
  • lemonlimelama
    lemonlimelama Posts: 7 Member
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    Both can be important. I eat 80% clean. As in Lots of veggies, good fats, good meats, nuts and seeds, small amounts of rice, do my best to limit sugar. Clean eating motivated me to cook which is super rewarding. My skin is amazing now compared to before, and no amount of calorie counting would have done that. With that said, I can still gain weight easily from eating too much, and calorie counting helps me control my portions. It's a good idea to start slow with clean eating though. You need time to learn to replace the easy to grab, bad foods you might be eating. Give it years if you need it. Health always trumps weight/looks and nutrients are super important so make sure you're getting the proper stuff. If you're not allergic like me to gluten, then I wouldn't feel shame around eating bread and lunch meat for a meal as long as you are getting plenty of vegetables and good proteins as well during the day. Bad foods are a lot less demonic compared to not getting the vitamins you need from real food. Perfect eating can be a stressful expectation that's not all that realistic or necessary.
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,575 Member
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    Balance is the important thing. So your diet isn't 100% clean? That doesn't make it unhealthy or unbalanced.
  • RodaRose
    RodaRose Posts: 9,562 Member
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    "Clean eating" --- definition varies from person to person and has no real agreed meaning. Eat foods that help you meet your goals.
  • marthaglz910
    marthaglz910 Posts: 13 Member
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    I gained 25lbs eating what I considered to be "clean", I've lost 9lbs so far by counting calories and eating "dirty".
  • StayFit_123
    StayFit_123 Posts: 10 Member
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    You can do both. Eating clean should be the bottom line rule, counting calories should be auxiliary just to make sure you are doing okay.

    Also, counting calories does not mean you should indulge yourself on processed food even if you stay within your calorie budget. I do believe if you eat clean, your calorie should be automatically fine, and your weight will eventually come down. I've lost 7 lbs now, counting calorie probably once a week.
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,268 Member
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    StayFit_123 wrote: »
    You can do both. Eating clean should be the bottom line rule, counting calories should be auxiliary just to make sure you are doing okay.

    Also, counting calories does not mean you should indulge yourself on processed food even if you stay within your calorie budget. I do believe if you eat clean, your calorie should be automatically fine, and your weight will eventually come down. I've lost 7 lbs now, counting calorie probably once a week.

    you do see that most food is "processed" in some form right?

    I indulge in whatever I want and according to the doctor I am text book healthy...every number that can be measured for health mine are all exactly where they should be...

    eating "clean" does not guarantee weight loss...I can eat lots of chicken and rice and whole grains and whole milks avocado etc and gain a lot of weight.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,867 Member
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    scjamieson644 wrote: »
    My biggest struggle with weight loss has been making up my mind. One day i tell myself "oh just eat clean and don't worry about counting calories" other days I am like "why cant i just count my calories and eat whatever fits?" I am a student and on M/W I go to school all day so i pack a sandwich and feel guilty about eating the bread and deli meat because they aren't clean but they're also 45 calories bread and all the meat is less than 100 calories. I understand that there is nothing wrong with having to eat certain foods that aren't clean for a good amount of time but why do i get so down on myself about not enjoying/being able to eat "clean"? Is it okay to eat foods that are technically processed but are good in all the calories and macros?

    I personally don't see anything "unclean" about bread...this is why the whole "clean eating" concept is so ridiculous and it's not realistic to think you're never going to have something processed...and the whole feeling guilty thing is absurd...you can eat very healthfully and still eat bread and still eat deli meat, etc. I don't find anything particularly nutritionally unsound about those things.

    I consider my diet to be relatively "clean"...I eat a ton of whole foods and cook most things from scratch, whole ingredients or minimally processed ingredients...but I also enjoy a nice deli sandwich here and there and like taking my kids out for pizza now and then, etc...the whole notion that you need to be bang on 100% "clean" to be healthy is just plain stupid and leads to these ridiculous feelings of guilt and whatnot.

    Eat a healthy, varied, and balanced diet and you'll be fine.

    By the by, you can eat as clean as you want, but if you over consume calories it doesn't matter...you consume more energy than you require and you gain weight regardless of how "clean" your diet is.
  • OhMsDiva
    OhMsDiva Posts: 1,073 Member
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    adoette wrote: »
    If clean eating means no taco bell, even in moderation, count me out!

    You can lose weight eating whatever you please as long as it fits yur calories. Keep an eye on micronutrients and take a vitamin pill if you need to, but if you aren't going to "Eat clean" for the rest of your life, then you need to learn to eat the foods you already eat. If that makes any sense.

    so true and damn do I miss Taco Bell- the burrito supreme, the tacos, the apple empanada.. mmhmm
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
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    StayFit_123 wrote: »
    You can do both. Eating clean should be the bottom line rule, counting calories should be auxiliary just to make sure you are doing okay.

    Why? There are lots of different definitions of "eating clean," but I used to do something similar that I called "eating natural"--basically I tried to make absolutely everything at home (pasta from scratch, never used canned tomatoes) and to eat local/in-season as much as absolutely possible (which had limits, since I live in an area without fresh produce much of the time). I didn't eat smoked salmon (except for that my dad smoked and sent me), cottage cheese or yogurt (I would have eaten yogurt if I made it myself), so on.

    I still do a lot of this, as I enjoy getting my produce from local farms, for ethical reasons am picky about how I source my meat, so on, but I've stopped thinking that's anything but a personal preference and don't get hung up on it being somehow less good if I buy some dried pasta or canned tomatoes or even canned beans (nothing added) for convenience, veggies out of season/frozen, even bagged spinach, cottage cheese and yogurt and smoked salmon, so on. I also have stopped thinking that I should only ever eat homemade ice cream (although I suppose some might find that non clean anyway). Instead, I make things simple and just focus on calories plus eating a healthy balanced diet. It's nice to realize that if you include what you should in your diet and are mindful you don't have to be that restrictive or agonize about whether something really makes the cut according to standards that looking at it now seem unrelated to actual health or nutrition.
    Also, counting calories does not mean you should indulge yourself on processed food even if you stay within your calorie budget. I do believe if you eat clean, your calorie should be automatically fine, and your weight will eventually come down. I've lost 7 lbs now, counting calorie probably once a week.

    Processed food is a broad category -- steel cut oats, all cheese, many meats (boneless, skinless, bacon--technically all meats, in fact, must go to a processor), frozen fish, plain greek yogurt, cottage cheese, dried whole wheat pasta, quinoa, barley, rice, so on, not to mention anything you buy premade, super healthy or super unhealthy based on the ingredients. Worrying about whether something is technically "processed" is the kind of thing that to me makes things harder and distracts from the more significant questions like nutrition and how much you are eating. Might I avoid specific ingredients? Sure, but there are no ingredients in all "processed foods." I personally like to cook from whole foods mostly because I like to cook, but I also like to occasionally (or even often) use things like sriracha or olive oil or soy sauce when doing so, and focusing on whole foods works for me because it helps me be more attentive to what I'm eating, not because you couldn't eat as well without doing it.

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