Clean eating and hitting nutrient/calorie goals

tiasommer

I'm doing clean eating and finding it hard to meet my calorie, protein and fat goals. Seems pretty easy to get the carbs. Any suggestions?
1500 cals - 50% carbs, 25% protein, 25% fat
Run/walk 2 miles 5 days
5'5' and 180 lbs

janejellyroll

Have you eliminated too many sources of protein and fat? I'm not sure what you mean by "clean eating" (everyone who claims to do it seems to have a different definition), but no matter how you define it, you should be able to meet your needs for protein, fat, and calories.

crw9384

I am having the same problem. I eat lots of lean meats including grilled chicken, ground turkey, turkey bacon, baked fish, shrimp, and lots of veggies. I also eat brown and jasmine rice. Some days, I fall short of 1000 calories. I'm full, but not hitting a calorie goal.

janejellyroll

crw9384 wrote: »

I am having the same problem. I eat lots of lean meats including grilled chicken, ground turkey, turkey bacon, baked fish, shrimp, and lots of veggies. I also eat brown and jasmine rice. Some days, I fall short of 1000 calories. I'm full, but not hitting a calorie goal.

Given that most of those foods are pretty low in fat, why not add some fat to your diet?

lynn_glenmont

If the rules you apply to restrict what you can eat prevent you from getting adequate nutrition (which includes adequate calories, fat and protein), then no matter how "clean" you are eating, it isn't healthy.

Which is more important to you, "clean" or healthy?

StaciMarie1974

For fat/calorie boost: Cook with olive oil. Eat nuts. Add avocado to your salad/sandwich/dish. Use full fat dairy instead of low fat/skim.

For protein: increase your portions of lean meat/dairy.

crw9384

Given that most of those foods are pretty low in fat, why not add some fat to your diet? [/quote]

I can do that. Always looking for an excuse to add avocado ! And I do eat eggs and whole wheat breads as well. So, def not starving myself here. lol

Meelisv

Hitting fat goal is very easy with so low calorie goal. Couple spoonfuls of peanut butter does that and is usually "clean" and quite healthy. Protein can be a bit harder, my favorite thing is to keep low fat cottage cheese in the fridge, you can add some berries or something similar for flavor.

janejellyroll

crw9384 wrote: »

Given that most of those foods are pretty low in fat, why not add some fat to your diet?

I can do that. Always looking for an excuse to add avocado ! And I do eat eggs and whole wheat breads as well. So, def not starving myself here. lol
[/quote]

If you truly are eating less than 1,000 calories regularly, you *are* undernourishing yourself regardless of the variety of foods in your diet.

jgnatca

Do you consider olive oil to be clean? I suggest you use more. And include avocados on your grocery list.

You can make a nice vinaigrette with olive oil, vinegar and fresh herbs. Don't skimp on the oil.

Sprinkle olive oil and spices on your root vegetables when you roast them.

If you are still not eating enough, double up on your portions.

crw9384

I usually top off around 1200 a day. There are few days where I am under 1000. And those are the busy days. Ive lost steady over the past 20 days. 11lbs.

WinoGelato

crw9384 wrote: »

I usually top off around 1200 a day. There are few days where I am under 1000. And those are the busy days. Ive lost steady over the past 20 days. 11lbs.

11 lbs in 20 days is quite rapid. If that was the beginning of your weight loss, it's likely that a chunk of that was water weight, but still, assuming by your stats that you are aiming to lose less than 50 lbs total, you should be aiming for no more than 1 lb/week of loss.

As others have said, the phrase "clean eating" means something different to a lot of people and other than just making sure you focus on eating nutrient dense foods for an overall healthy diet, there isn't anything special about it for weight loss. If the parameters you've set for yourself lead to you undereating and losing weight too rapidly, you may want to consider if a strict approach is the best fit for you. You can still eat those things you mentioned but add in more fat, fattier cuts of meat, or even be more flexible with fitting in "less clean" foods.

TavistockToad

crw9384 wrote: »

I usually top off around 1200 a day. There are few days where I am under 1000. And those are the busy days. Ive lost steady over the past 20 days. 11lbs.

That's an unhealthy rate of loss, which I'm hoping is due to you having a lot of weight to lose and you only just having started losing so it's water and not muscle.

crw9384

Yes, this is the beginning. I actually went back and started looking at what I was eating and I was probably consuming up towards 3500-4000 a day! So, I backed off tremendously. I've started making all my meals at home. And I cut out diet soda as well. So, yes I'm sure a lot of the weight loss was bloating and water.

Sunna_W

PEANUT BUTTER!!! 190 calories 1 serving!

lemurcat12

I thought "clean eating" meant focusing on non processed or minimally processed foods (although like others I note that it seems to be 2 clean eaters, 3 definitions of "clean eating"). In any case, there are lots of higher protein and higher fat foods that are minimally or non processed -- nuts and seeds for fat, eat more lean meats for protein (or eggs for protein and fat, low fat dairy for protein). Olives, olive oil, avocados are also good choices. I really enjoy plain greek yogurt mixed with a little almond butter, that's going to help with fat and protein, stuff like that. Cook vegetables in olive oil, make a vinaigrette for a salad.

roxskow

Since you're aiming for ~100g protein per day this should be pretty easy. 3 eggs = 18g, 4oz chicken = 25g, 1 greek yogurt = 15g, peanut butter = 8g. If you ate all this in one day (chicken twice) you're already at 91g protein which is almost your goal. There are likely small amounts of protein in other things you're eating like bread, cheese, etc which would make up for the few extra grams.

not_a_runner

I agree with the poster who said you've likely eliminated too many foods.
If you're struggling because you feel full, make some swaps such as smaller portions of high volume/lower calorie foods in exchange for higher calorie/lower volume ones.
Instead of chicken, eat beef. Instead of a huge serving of vegetables, include rice. Adding oils is an easy way to get more fat/calories without adding volume to a meal.

lemurcat12

TresaAswegan wrote: »

Instead of chicken, eat beef.

Or roast a whole chicken (which is less processed, since you like the "clean eating") and eat it -- more calories in chicken with skin and dark meat. Eat salmon, if you aren't, not just white fish. Use a little oil on the fish/shrimp/chicken breast in a marinade. Make a tagine as an excellent way to make skinless chicken taste really good and include some dried apricots and olives and lemon.

lynn_glenmont

crw9384 wrote: »

I usually top off around 1200 a day. There are few days where I am under 1000. And those are the busy days. Ive lost steady over the past 20 days. 11lbs.

That's not necessarily a good thing.

tiasommer

Thanks for the tips! I'll up the avocado, nuts, olive oil and meats. By clean eating, I mean just no processed, packaged foods. I'm just getting started and have been focusing on fruits and veggies, low fat proteins and I'm used to eating meat in limited quantities. A little tweaking should help!