If 'eating clean' is so easy for you, how did you get fat?

mfp2014mfp

i'm sure what they mean to say is "since i've decided to commit to being healthy, it has been easy"

before, they ate what they wanted and didn't care, now that they made the commitment to being healthy, they realized how easy it is for them.... i am NOT one of those people, it is a struggle for me, but that's just my two cents.

^

WendyTerry420

<---- dark chocolate covered peanut right here

"You are, smell, and taste like what you eat"

atfirstblush

Ice cream and sweets is what did me in, besides that I ate really healthy lots of fruit, vegeys, lean meat. But when it came to sweets, I love the stuff. I'd eat a big bowl of ice cream every night and then the pounds just started creeping up. A cookie here and there, candy bar when I grocery shopped. Now all sweets are banned from my house. If it doesn't touch my lips then I don't even crave them.

verhunzt

Look, if you eat A LOT then you will probably also feel A LOT more hunger than if you ate nothing.
That's why most people are not hungry in the morning. They're fasting.
There are people who can feel super full at 600 calories a day but as soon as they consume 1600 they claim they're starving.

IT IS hard sometimes to reach 1200 calories.
Even when you're overweight.
Geez, why are people so rude about this.

jmv7117

Look, if you eat A LOT then you will probably also feel A LOT more hunger than if you ate nothing.
That's why most people are not hungry in the morning. They're fasting.
There are people who can feel super full at 600 calories a day but as soon as they consume 1600 they claim they're starving.

IT IS hard sometimes to reach 1200 calories.
Even when you're overweight.
Geez, why are people so rude about this.

I agree! It's also easy to get busy and forget to eat and quite frankly I know there are days I just am not all that hungry. I don't see anything wrong with this either unless it is a consistent, ongoing pattern that has the potential to harm your health. Certain a day or two of low calories is not going to cause long term damage. Also, I think it is common when someone goes on a diet that all of a sudden they simply have a mental block as to what they can eat so don't eat. As to why folks are rude about it, I think it is more of an online lashing out thing. They are miserable so feel the need to share that feeling

verhunzt

Look, if you eat A LOT then you will probably also feel A LOT more hunger than if you ate nothing.
That's why most people are not hungry in the morning. They're fasting.
There are people who can feel super full at 600 calories a day but as soon as they consume 1600 they claim they're starving.

IT IS hard sometimes to reach 1200 calories.
Even when you're overweight.
Geez, why are people so rude about this.

I agree! It's also easy to get busy and forget to eat and quite frankly I know there are days I just am not all that hungry. I don't see anything wrong with this either unless it is a consistent, ongoing pattern that has the potential to harm your health. Certain a day or two of low calories is not going to cause long term damage. Also, I think it is common when someone goes on a diet that all of a sudden they simply have a mental block as to what they can eat so don't eat. As to why folks are rude about it, I think it is more of an online lashing out thing. They are miserable so feel the need to share that feeling

Totally agree!

albayin

Look, if you eat A LOT then you will probably also feel A LOT more hunger than if you ate nothing.
That's why most people are not hungry in the morning. They're fasting.
There are people who can feel super full at 600 calories a day but as soon as they consume 1600 they claim they're starving.

IT IS hard sometimes to reach 1200 calories.
Even when you're overweight.
Geez, why are people so rude about this.

I agree! It's also easy to get busy and forget to eat and quite frankly I know there are days I just am not all that hungry. I don't see anything wrong with this either unless it is a consistent, ongoing pattern that has the potential to harm your health. Certain a day or two of low calories is not going to cause long term damage. Also, I think it is common when someone goes on a diet that all of a sudden they simply have a mental block as to what they can eat so don't eat. As to why folks are rude about it, I think it is more of an online lashing out thing. They are miserable so feel the need to share that feeling

I read a post the other day and I think it was true to some extent. He said often people are afraid of going over so they prefer staying under...not willing to eat doesn't mean they are not hungry or not capable to eat to that amount. Dieters often succeeded for the first a couple of months because they rely on this "willpower" or "mental block" as you mentioned...I still find it hard to believe an over weight person who used to eat more than 3000 calories a day find 1200 hard to hit. Not being rude, it just doesn't make sense to me.

SLLRunner

People discovered clean eating, you're implying that they've always done it?

I can't speak for others but I do think it is partially due to the ideals from the 1960's. There was the healthy, all natural diet movement so 'eating clean' is definitely not a fad. For us, it has always been that way simply avoiding the new additives as they come out. It's not that difficult of a concept yet others like to put down those who try to eat healthy by avoiding all the food additives.

Eating wholesome foods was around long before any of us ever came along, because there were not many processed foods back then. People ate fresh fruits and vegetables, home grown meat, etc. They didn't put hormones in their meat, milk came straight from the cow without any processing. I was raised at 75% this way as well.

The term "clean eating" is a fad It's just a hip way of saying I don't eat many processed foods. Sure, in my opinion, eating less processed foods and more non-processed is the way to go because it makes me feel really good, but I don't need to put some kind of label on it.

2aycocks

We all got fat basically the same way. Taking in more calories than we burn + bad eating habits. Eating clean is a lifestyle that you have to choose. And that usually comes when you are just sick & tired of being FAT.

bcattoes

I make pizza at home using organic and home grown ingredients which is not all that difficult. There is nothing to say that pizza is bad or can't be clean! Honestly, folks love to come up with excuses for not eating clean but that's up to them.

You are correct that pizza is not bad. But, pizza can't be clean because the crust is made from flour, which is processed. You may make something resembling pizza and call it pizza, but it's not really pizza if there is no crust.

I think we need to differentiate between " processed food " and processed food ". Grinding whole grains into whole flour is not the same " process " as grinding grains into flour, bleaching it white and with that getting rid of all nutrients and then adding fake nutrients and other chemicals to allow for longer shelf life. So, yes one can make pizza that is " clean " from flour that was only ground ( which I do not consider processed food, just like I don't consider washing strawberries or peeling an apple as " processed " ) and nothing else. The drawback is that the crust is a bit denser and heavier, plus the flour has a tendency to go rancid after a few month. Run-of-the-mill flour is processed in ways so that would not happen.

I've always heard clean food described as being as close to natural state as possible. Some don't consider any grains clean because they must be threshed. I think that's quite a stretch since other foods for which the outer shell or coating is removed are considered clean (nuts, meat, some fruits and vegetables). But threshing and then grinding is getting pretty far from the natural state.

But IMO the biggest reason ground grains are not clean is that grinding to flour changes the nutritional content. Ground grains quickly lose some of their nutrients to oxidation. I suppose one could make an argument for grains used immediately after grinding being clean.

So much is open to interpretation, but really if you are using flour and cured meats and cheese on a pizza, I doubt you'll find many that would consider that clean. Tasty, but not clean.

jmv7117

I make pizza at home using organic and home grown ingredients which is not all that difficult. There is nothing to say that pizza is bad or can't be clean! Honestly, folks love to come up with excuses for not eating clean but that's up to them.

You are correct that pizza is not bad. But, pizza can't be clean because the crust is made from flour, which is processed. You may make something resembling pizza and call it pizza, but it's not really pizza if there is no crust.

I think we need to differentiate between " processed food " and processed food ". Grinding whole grains into whole flour is not the same " process " as grinding grains into flour, bleaching it white and with that getting rid of all nutrients and then adding fake nutrients and other chemicals to allow for longer shelf life. So, yes one can make pizza that is " clean " from flour that was only ground ( which I do not consider processed food, just like I don't consider washing strawberries or peeling an apple as " processed " ) and nothing else. The drawback is that the crust is a bit denser and heavier, plus the flour has a tendency to go rancid after a few month. Run-of-the-mill flour is processed in ways so that would not happen.

I've always heard clean food described as being as close to natural state as possible. Some don't consider any grains clean because they must be threshed. I think that's quite a stretch since other foods for which the outer shell or coating is removed are considered clean (nuts, meat, some fruits and vegetables). But threshing and then grinding is getting pretty far from the natural state.

But IMO the biggest reason ground grains are not clean is that grinding to flour changes the nutritional content. Ground grains quickly lose some of their nutrients to oxidation. I suppose one could make an argument for grains used immediately after grinding being clean.

So much is open to interpretation, but really if you are using flour and cured meats and cheese on a pizza, I doubt you'll find many that would consider that clean. Tasty, but not clean.

Curing is one of the oldest forms of preserving meats. You can cure meats yourself without a lot of the gunk of commercially cured meats. I'm thinking some just are grasping at straws with their definition of 'clean' essentially using their definition to eliminate certain foods. If they consider flour unclean because of threshing then they should also consider many other whole foods unclean due to the method of acquisition.

bcattoes

I make pizza at home using organic and home grown ingredients which is not all that difficult. There is nothing to say that pizza is bad or can't be clean! Honestly, folks love to come up with excuses for not eating clean but that's up to them.

You are correct that pizza is not bad. But, pizza can't be clean because the crust is made from flour, which is processed. You may make something resembling pizza and call it pizza, but it's not really pizza if there is no crust.

I think we need to differentiate between " processed food " and processed food ". Grinding whole grains into whole flour is not the same " process " as grinding grains into flour, bleaching it white and with that getting rid of all nutrients and then adding fake nutrients and other chemicals to allow for longer shelf life. So, yes one can make pizza that is " clean " from flour that was only ground ( which I do not consider processed food, just like I don't consider washing strawberries or peeling an apple as " processed " ) and nothing else. The drawback is that the crust is a bit denser and heavier, plus the flour has a tendency to go rancid after a few month. Run-of-the-mill flour is processed in ways so that would not happen.

I've always heard clean food described as being as close to natural state as possible. Some don't consider any grains clean because they must be threshed. I think that's quite a stretch since other foods for which the outer shell or coating is removed are considered clean (nuts, meat, some fruits and vegetables). But threshing and then grinding is getting pretty far from the natural state.

But IMO the biggest reason ground grains are not clean is that grinding to flour changes the nutritional content. Ground grains quickly lose some of their nutrients to oxidation. I suppose one could make an argument for grains used immediately after grinding being clean.

So much is open to interpretation, but really if you are using flour and cured meats and cheese on a pizza, I doubt you'll find many that would consider that clean. Tasty, but not clean.

Curing is one of the oldest forms of preserving meats. You can cure meats yourself without a lot of the gunk of commercially cured meats. I'm thinking some just are grasping at straws with their definition of 'clean' essentially using their definition to eliminate certain foods. If they consider flour unclean because of threshing then they should also consider many other whole foods unclean due to the method of acquisition.

I think you are grasping at straws. Clean doesn't have to do with how old a process is or how much commercial gunk is included. It has to do with how natural a food is.

You don't produce flour by threshing. Threshing is to separate the grains or seeds. You grind those seeds to make flour. Most traditional clean eating guidelines would consider whole grains clean while they are still whole. Flour is not whole.

But yes, these days you can find a web site calling anything clean. Some even require foods to be eaten at certain times in order to be "eating clean". And some will say all grains are not clean but coconut oil is fine.

Dragonwolf

There is no way in hell that I will ever label foods as "good" or "bad."

My sticker says I've lost 16 lbs., but I lost over fifty pounds in addition to that before I started using MFP. I did it just by eating less and moving more. Every pound I've lost was achieved with a "dirty" diet, and all my bloodwork is steadily improving. I feel great and I don't feel deprived. I just eat a regular, reasonable diet, but with smaller portions.

It pains me to think about all the people that completely give up their favorite foods in order to lose weight. It doesn't have to be that way. All these "food rules" are unnecessary and absurd.

Now all together to the tune of Pink Floyd's "I need a Dirty Woman"...join me if you know it, and consider making it your motto...

Oooooooo, I eat a dirty menu.
Oooooooo, I eat a dirty diet.

Not everyone chooses a particular way of eating in the name of weight loss, and many do it to make weight loss easier. As someone else mentioned, I could get a 6 piece chicken nugget meal (or the chicken wrap) with medium fry, and some low-cal drink from McDonald's for a fairly reasonable 800 calorie meal (I don't really snack and need around 2000 calories, so an 800 calorie meal isn't that far off), but it won't really make me feel full, and I'll be starving two hours later. Or, I could have an omelet with ham, veggies, and cheese, topped with some sour cream, and a side of homemade hashbrowns, for a 600 or so calorie meal that will keep me full for at least twice as long.

For many of the people that I know that follow one of the myriad ways of eating that cuts out the heavily processed foods in favor of minimally processed and whole foods, their entire quality of life improved, because they felt better, and even various ailments (big and small) that were just dismissed by them and their doctors as things like "chronic condition," "inevitable part of getting older," "bad genetics," or whatever, cleared up when changing their diet.

There's a saying often tossed around the forums here - "nothing tastes as good as skinny feels" - for those of us that have found relief from various things that we didn't think we'd ever be able to get rid of, that saying is better changed to "nothing tastes as good as healthy feels."

NoMoreStretchyPants

I started eating clean recently. I got fat after eating boxes of brownies, bags of cookies, 3 sandwiches in a day, anything and everything from the frozen section, pasta (mac and cheese and those sidekick type of things), chicken fingers, cheese and crackers (not in moderation), and eating fast food almost every day.

So eating clean made me lose weight because I'm not eating so much cr@p. 57lbs lost in 5.5 months. Yea I'll stick to eating clean.

actually it was a calorie deficet that made you lose weight....

sorry eating "clean" is a buzz word and will have no impact on weight loss if you don't do it in moderation too...

^^^This. You can chow down on processed foods or eat clean, but if you take in too many calories, it will be easy to gain weight. I have been avoiding processed foods for many years (albeit, on occasion I will eat something I shouldn't). I gained weight during pregnancy 2 years ago by eating clean, but eating way, *way* too much food. I lost weight eating the same way, but much less. I actually eat a lot (1600+ calories on the days I strength train/work out) and lost steadily. I just don't cram food in my mouth all day every day like I did when I was pregnant

sweetpea03b

I don't think really anybody would say losing weight is easy. If it was... everyone would do it... or maybe... never need to because they wouldn't have gotten "fat" to begin with. If anyone says it's easy... they're lying. However, it doesn't have to be such a horrible experience. You just really have to change the way you see food... less as a pleasure... more as a necessity. That's not to say you can't enjoy what you eat... but I try to fill my day with mostly food that does something for my body... that isn't just empty calories. Every once in a while, or if I have calories left... I'll enjoy a little bit of ice cream or pizza or chips that obviously mostly just taste good and do little else for me. It's all about the balance.

angelzxy321

My diet before actively trying to lose weight was for the most part what people on here would call "clean eating". I just ate way too much. I have always been able to put away a lot food. I don't really like a lot of processed food, don't really eat fast food and prefer savory to sweet food for the most part. I have always loved eating until I am stuffed but I am learning to be satisfied with less. For me it was a change in quantity I needed not quality.

I am the same too except that I prefer sweet to savory. I have never liked oily foods since they make me feel sick and have never really liked fast food. I just ate too much of "healthy" foods...as well as sweet/creamy foods. Add to that cakes and the like.
I gained weight by eating too much and now am losing by eating at a deficit while not completely doing away with the foods I like. That seems to be working so I'm going to keep doing that.

JustinAnimal

And yet there are people like the girl a few posts above who claims not to crave or want any 'junk' anymore. I mean, I tried the 'clean eating' thing (for me it means no refined sugar, by the way, so basically no processed foods, but no homemade foods made with sugar either). I lasted 3 months. Maybe they're just in denial? Or maybe they never really liked fast food and pizza in the first place (which seems to be the case of some people here I see), but then why were they eating it?

Why would pizza have sugar in/on it??

A small amount of sugar is added to help the dough rise.

Fast food pizza is full of sugar. Dominoes puts it in the sauce to a large degree, to balance the enormous amounts of sodium in there. I might be exaggerating slightly, but I know it's an issue.

Derpes

Clean eating is a sham. Consider the following:

-Food doesn’t make people gain fat — people over-eating food makes them overweight.
-Eating some of your calories from less nutrient dense sources is not going to give you a nutrient deficiency.
-There is no evidence that any food directly damages your health in moderate amounts in every situation.


Source: Evidence Mag

JustinAnimal

I started eating clean recently. I got fat after eating boxes of brownies, bags of cookies, 3 sandwiches in a day, anything and everything from the frozen section, pasta (mac and cheese and those sidekick type of things), chicken fingers, cheese and crackers (not in moderation), and eating fast food almost every day.

So eating clean made me lose weight because I'm not eating so much cr@p. 57lbs lost in 5.5 months. Yea I'll stick to eating clean.

actually it was a calorie deficet that made you lose weight....

sorry eating "clean" is a buzz word and will have no impact on weight loss if you don't do it in moderation too...

^^^This. You can chow down on processed foods or eat clean, but if you take in too many calories, it will be easy to gain weight. I have been avoiding processed foods for many years (albeit, on occasion I will eat something I shouldn't). I gained weight during pregnancy 2 years ago by eating clean, but eating way, *way* too much food. I lost weight eating the same way, but much less. I actually eat a lot (1600+ calories on the days I strength train/work out) and lost steadily. I just don't cram food in my mouth all day every day like I did when I was pregnant

I can't speak for everyone, but I'm pretty sure when people refer to eating clean that it has NOTHING to do with weight loss. Anyone can lose the weight eating anything, according to folks on this site. Eat entirely butter, under maintenance calories and you'll lose weight. But your body will go to hell and your insides will suffer if you keep this up over years and years. That's why people eat "clean," because they contain antioxidants or, at least are not oxidants themselves. Eating clean is for avoiding cancer, high blood pressure and heart disease years down the road, even though you can lose weight now eating whatever you want.

And, hey, I eat fast and processed food, too. Just tired of people feeling the need to make the distinction that "eating 'clean' doesn't cause you to lose weight." I get it. I think lots of people get it. We just don't want the bad stuff associated with eating that crap years later.

Wtn_Gurl

for me the hardest part was actually getting the focus I need in order to stay on a diet. Without it, i feel like im floundering, and not having any power over my food choices.

Once I got that focus and determination, it actually was easier than the previous week when i didn't know where to begin.

The hard part now is when im hungry and I see a fast food place, all around my house, I'd love to scarf down something that made me fat that im not eating now, it would be easier than making my own food which saves calories and it would be nice just to have some of that old food that made me fat. i might have some of it occassionally, but not on a regular basis. so thats whats hardest, like when the food commercials come on tv and the fattening food looks so good.

I'd love to go down to the corner store and get some of their muffins and cupcakes. yesterday i went in for some milk, and they have these ads for this new cream filled cupcake with an ince of chocolate frosting.. sheesh! it looked so good, but it doesn't fit into my food plan, so i went away..