Who has lost weight NOT eating clean?

Sarauk2sf

I been drug free for life and I'll tell you point blank that peaking in sub 10% bodyfat levels in 12 weeks is not happening with huge dietary latitudes. Not even on cyclic keto. Its way to hard to quantify the tangibles when somebody else is baking your pop tarts. If your goals are purely health and you dont care what your husband or wife think of you naked body with the lights on, then cancel christmas and eat 500 calories of nachos rather than kale. Can you lose weight?! Yes! Create a caloric deficit. Unless your on gear or a genetic freak, you WILL NOT LOOK GOOD naked and you will not get into the single digit bodyfat and thats absolutely fine if thats that on your to do list.

There are quite a few people on my FL with sub 10% body fat that look damn good naked and who do not eat totally clean, whatever that means (and are not on gear). They eat a diet that has a lot of whole and nutrient dense foods, but they also have things like ice cream regularly.

toddlikesdesign

IIFIYM

shadow2soul

I been drug free for life and I'll tell you point blank that peaking in sub 10% bodyfat levels in 12 weeks is not happening with huge dietary latitudes. Not even on cyclic keto. Its way to hard to quantify the tangibles when somebody else is baking your pop tarts. If your goals are purely health and you dont care what your husband or wife think of you naked body with the lights on, then cancel christmas and eat 500 calories of nachos rather than kale. Can you lose weight?! Yes! Create a caloric deficit. Unless your on gear or a genetic freak, you WILL NOT LOOK GOOD naked and you will not get into the single digit bodyfat and thats absolutely fine if thats that on your to do list.

Is that so. I thought I looked pretty good back in 2009, but I guess not since I wasn't a "clean eater."


I'm losing weight eating what I want, but in moderation. I hope to be able to get back to what I looked like in 2009 and once there I'll aim for closer to 20% BF. :drinker:

mrloserpunk

I had this discussion with a co-worker when I was starting a diet a few years ago... I ate nothing but fast food and lost 60+ lbs in 3 months. It's very simple: Calories in vs Calories out. If you bother to read the nutritional info and calculate it's no harder to lose weight on fast food than it is on healthy food.

My cholesterol and bp got better while eating fast food too (the bp getting better was a bit shocking due to the sodium intake, but apparently in my body 60lbs trumps sodium for bp)

Edit:
As long as you get a bit of each carb, protein, and fat every day... you're likely going to be ok unless you have some other underlying problem. What matters is the calorie deficit, from your TDEE every 500 calories per day is 1lb per week. It's that simple.

Let me add that it's easier to figure out calorie information from a fast food place, than it is from other mom and pop places. its a pita that not every place has to go thru the procee of getting caloric testing done.

Warchortle

I always find these threads attract the "lazies"... the people who look for tips, tricks, and shortcuts instead of just doing the work and finding out themselves.

JesterMFP

What's the point if you aren't going to change your lifestyle? The majority of people will simply gain the weight back.

Do you really thing that the people who manage to fit in x amount of "dirty" food into their daily goals are the ones who are more likely to gain the weight back? More so than the people who make radical changes and cut out all their favourite foods and start labelling foods as "clean" and "dirty"? Based on my observations of people in the real world, I think far more people gain the weight back when they try and be too restrictive and cut things out of their diet that they enjoy eating. People learn that certain foods are "bad" or "fattening" or "dirty", and that others are "slimming" or "healthy", and get into a complete black-and-white mindset, where they're either on the wagon, or off it, on a diet, or planning their next one. Often they call it a "lifestyle change", but the still slip back to their old ways because they've cut out all the food they really enjoy eating.

Obviously, there are people who prefer not to eat any processed foods, who enjoy eating only clean foods, and so don't feel the slightest bit restricted by cutting out all processed foods. I don't really think that these debates are about those people though. They're pretty sorted with what they're doing.

And what about health? I'd rather be healthy, not just skinny.

Yep, me too, and I am much healthier now than I was 18 months ago. I've lost the weight, become much more active and my diet has improved. I have good health, even without having attained perfection. Again, it's about absolutes. You're looking at either being "healthy" or "unhealthy" with nothing in between. Someone who is slim, active and eats nothing but deep fried fast food could obviously make some improvements, but they're going to be in a much better position than if they were morbidly obese, sedentary and eating nothing but fast food.

In an ideal world (perhaps) no one would want to eat anything but the most wholesome, nutritious food. No one would want to overeat, no one would be an emotional eater or have eating disorders. No one would want to smoke, drink alcohol, do drugs, drive too fast, or do anything remotely risky to health. That's not going to happen though, and sometimes it's about people making improvements in their lives, not aiming for a state of perfection that they will always fail to reach.

I'm not saying we should never treat ourselves or have processed food

There's the confusion. The "eat clean" label tends to mean eat only clean foods. You'll find that a lot (if not most) of the people advocating eating the foods you like to eat, and practising moderation, actually eat a lot of whole, "clean" foods. I personally eat a lot of fresh fruit & vegetables, lean meats etc, a lot of home cooked food, very little fast food or ready meals, yet I wouldn't call myself a "clean eater" because I'm more than happy to have some processed food in my diet. Who knows, maybe you and I eat very similar things.

but none of us would be on this site to begin with if eating **** in moderation worked out, and none of us certainly are going to be healthy regardless.

I became overweight (and therefore on this site) because I wasn't practising moderation. Using calorie counting, I have learned to eat in moderation, and am now no longer overweight. If you're practising moderation and gaining weight, you're doing it wrong.

pinkraynedropjacki

Me. I've lost all my weight & hardly eaten clean at all.

mcibty

Me.

I prefer when I do eat healthier, but I also don't restrict my social life, so I try and fit everything in moderation.

CrankMeUp

I heard there was cake here.

be_patient

I am not a completely clean eater, but yes I do find my wants changing.

However, I try to eat clean as well, because it's kinder to my skin.

kcritter77

I typically don't eat too many processed/boxed foods outside of my yogurt, cottage cheese and ice cream that I eat every single day. I do this mostly because I can eat more food within my calorie goal that way, not becsuse it is "clean". I only eat meat about once per week and have to be creative to get enough protein in. But I went out to lunch yesterday and had two shredded beef tacos with cheese and sour cream. I made sure to plan my other meals and snacks around them and still had enough calories for my ice cream.
Can I eat those every day? No. Did I reach my macro goal yesterday? No. But I will today. Is my body changing eating IIFYM and exercising? Yes. That's all that matters.
That and this is a "lifestyle" I can live with for the rest of my life because there's no "falling off the wagon" or failing on my eating plan. I eat what I want to eat when I want to, then plan the rest of the day around it. I never feel deprived. Ever.

VincitQuiSeVincit

Weight loss is calories in VS calories out. You can eat nothing but pizza and lose weight.
I started with just watching my calories but eating whatever I want. What I learned is that after a bagel, a slice of pizza and a bag of M&Ms taking up my entire caloric allowance for the day, is that I WAS STILL HUNGRY. So you start looking for ways to maximize intake at lower calorie levels- Clean foods are the way to go. A giant bowl of veggies kept me full longer and gave me a ton more energy making me want to work out more. It's a vicious cycle- good food makes you feel good which makes it easier to do more and so on.
Of course, I still eat crap sometimes and call those "good enough" days, but I genuinely find that the longer I eat clean, the less I enjoy indulging because my body doesn't enjoy dealing with burgers and fries.

FakingFitness

in...for the dead horse...

seriously, this is like the 20th thread on clean eating this week...

This and someone stood next to me in the gym - neck and neck FTW.
*grabbing my popcorn.

MercenaryNoetic26

ME, I had a Wendy's double 1/2lb burger w/fries yesterday. Well, more like losing fat, because I weigh the same.

acullen31

Ok, i'm on the clean eating bandwagon now ( for my health ) but when I started my weight loss journey about 2 years ago I weighed 155 and I got down to 120 eating whatever I wanted, as long as I stayed under 1200 calories and worked out every day. I ate chickfila a ridiculous amount. It's 100% do able but in the long run, not good for your body!

jonilynn70

Yep as everyone said you can eat whatever you want and lose weight as long as you have that deficit. And to many people that's important. Being fit and being healthy are totally different mindsets than losing weight.

kimmianne89

At first, just being in a calorie deficit is enough. But personally, now i'm 6- 10lbs from my goal, it doesn't work like that anymore.

So I think, to lose weight and just be in the healthy range, nice and normal.. Just being in a deficit works.
But if you want to make the most of what you got, eating clean will make you healthier and look healthier. You're not going to get abs even if you workout a lot if you are eating *kitten* food everyday. IMO

CkepiJinx

Me

LorinaLynn

A giant bowl of veggies kept me full longer and gave me a ton more energy making me want to work out more.

A giant bowl of veggies never did that for me. I can FEEL full eating them, but a half hour later, my guts are growling again and I'm on the hunt for something more calorie dense.

Now, a bowl of veggies with some protein and fat... that will keep me going. But so will a slice of pizza with some protein and fat.

99clmsntgr

I am a dirty, dirty eater.