Clean Eating Vs. Low Carb Eating

MSmith74

What works for you?
I feel better when I eat clean but I lose more when I eat low carb.

mamarundrc

For me, I don't eat clean as a means to lose weight. I eat clean because it makes me feel better. I have more energy and feel less bloated. Sure, losing some weight has been nice, but over the last few years I have come to realize that being healthy is so much more than a number on a scale.

The only time I ever specifically focused on a low carb diet, I felt horrible all the time. I focused just on net carbs and nothing else and I felt out of whack. I wasn't choosing food because of the nutritional content, just the obscure carb number. Sure I lost a lot of weight but as soon as I stopped obsessing about carb counting I gained it all back and then some.

With that being said, clean eating for me is a lower carb diet then my regular diet. I have found that I am often under my calorie goal and when I am good about following a nice clean diet, I am rarely hungry. I am always amazed at the quantity of food I am able to eat to reach my calorie goal when I am eating clean.

kingscrown

Because I tend to have a sweet tooth and love simple carbs I do watch my carbs. I definitely keep them below 200, but shoot more for 125. I find eating clean really helps me with this. It's a work in progress. I find logging helps me keep track and pinpoint items that shoot my day really high.

Bernadette60614

I focus on "clean" carbs...which means I don't eat anything with flour or sugar, not that flour or sugar in moderation are "bad", but I find it is easier for me to not rationalize overeating when I made a hard and fast rule: no flour, no sugar.

One a week I have a small frozen yogurt at a shop, but with almonds and berries, today I was having a craving for chocolate so I had 2 Fiber one chocolate brownies, but that will be it for my sugar/flour for the week.

I tend to avoid high sugar fruits, e.g., grapes/pineapple, but if I have to have them I'll have them with a good, slow burning fat, e.g., walnuts.

Shanz78

I do both. I eat clean unprocessed foods so that pretty much eliminates all bad carbs. I dont eat wheat or gluten. I get my carbs from fruit and starchy vegetables. But if im really having a craving ill have brown rice bread or tortilla, or organic GMO free corn chips. If you eliminate processed carbs you will stop craving them and feel a whole lot better.

Debbiedebbiey

I'm trying to decide what to do myself, last summer I lowered carbs to 50 but never lost weight til I got to 20. Off & on I lost 16 lbs, kept feeling deprived & fell off the wagon too many times. So this week I've decided I'm tired of feeling & eating crappy- but decided to add an apple, green beans & some raw carrots back in.... How bad could that be? Well I'm back up to 40 carbs- so well see ! I guess everybody's different- just think maybe the apple w/ peanut butter will help me not feel deprived.

MSmith74

ME too. I feel bad when I am watching my carbs. and tend to chose foods just based on their carb content, instead of nutritional value.
BUT i feel like when I eat a low carb diet I tend to lose weight faster.
Talk about FRUSTRATED!

montana_girl

I do both. I eat clean unprocessed foods so that pretty much eliminates all bad carbs. I dont eat wheat or gluten. I get my carbs from fruit and starchy vegetables. But if im really having a craving ill have brown rice bread or tortilla, or organic GMO free corn chips. If you eliminate processed carbs you will stop craving them and feel a whole lot better.

This is pretty much what I do as well. I tend to eat a lot of carbs, but it's coming from veggies, fruits and meats so I don't worry about it as much. I just stay away from processed foods and cut back on the wheat/grains/pasta. That has made a big difference for me. Not sure how it's helping the weight loss, but I feel better when I don't eat as many "bad" carbs!