Counting calories vs 'clean eating'

3dogsrunning

"Healthy" juices usually more fattening than soda. "Healthy" granola bars can be more fattening than candy bars. No need to fall for any weight loss ideas that are not based on counting calories. People who avoid counting calories but instead their strategy is to eat healthy or exercise or eat one meal a day or cut out sweets or whatever, or "cut back" on food without counting calories-- these folks are doomed to remain fat and possibly get fatter. Same goes for those who decide to abandon their scale in favor of losing inches instead of pounds. And counting carbs or fat grams instead of calories will not work either. You will lose the same weight whether you get your calories from french fries, cake, steak or collard greens.

This is a confusing post. If we are talking about 100 calories of juice or 100 calories of pop , neither is more "fattening". Is it not the same idea as your last line?

12 ounces of unsweetened apple juice is 170 calories. 12 ounces of Dr Pepper is 150 calories. I think that's the kind of things referenced.

I edited to add as well. There are more factors than just calorie count. While I am a believer in CICO, you can't just consider calorie content. Assuming a person is still at a calorie deficit, neither is fattening, regardless of calorie content.

tracydr

I gained weight eating clean. I'm now counting calories while eating fairly clean. Losing slowly but steadily.
I did lose a bunch about 10 years ago doing South Beach diet by the book. That's really clean and healthy since I only ate home cooked meals and all whole foods.

wapan

I have also gained weight while eating clean and running 5 to 10 miles a day. Calorie counting is integral to my losing or maintaining my weight. I do not appear to have a shut-off switch. :-)

brower47

If you eat more calories than your body uses, you will gain weight no matter what food combination you're eating. Anything that tries to sidestep this with clever marketing (by individuals or companies) is just silly and hoping that people aren't knowledgeable.

HeidiCooksSupper

The theory behind this is basically the same as the theory behind the Weight Watcher's "free" foods. The idea is that you will replace calorie dense/nutrient poor foods like white bread, frozen lasagna, etc., with nutrient rich/low calorie foods and that you therefore won't overeat.

Going by volume, for example, a 1 cup (110g) serving of green beans is 34 calories whereas a 1 cup (170g) serving of Stouffer's macaroni and cheese is 340 calories or TEN TIMES the calories for the same volume of food. So you choose the "diet" version and eat the single-serving package of Lean Cuisine macaroni and cheese. That is still 250 calories or over seven times the calories of the green beans.

Since there is no "true" definition of clean eating everyone agrees to, your version may simply avoid packaged foods and aim toward tasty, homemade foods. Well, trust me, that diet got me where I am today. Delicious homemade bread with real butter , a nice buerre blanc on your chicken, some multigrain pancakes with real grade B maple syrup, homemade chicken pot pie with fresh vegetables and a schmaltz pie crust. Ah, yes, you can indeed get fat on these -- but, oh, the deliciousness!

James Beard, the famous chef and cook book author did not get fat (and die from the side effects) by eating fast food. He was in France, visiting with Julia Child and other famous chefs, eating delicious meals made from fresh ingredients.

It's all about portion control and counting calories, folks. So, I had green beans for supper last night but they were dressed with a butter-mustard-honey-cornichon dressing and they were DA BOMB! And, of course, they fit within my TDEE-20% for the day.

aedreana

And an all-liquids diet-- juices for example-- without counting calories is likely the fastest route to weight gain!

DeguelloTex

I edited to add as well. There are more factors than just calorie count. While I am a believer in CICO, you can't just consider calorie content. Assuming a person is still at a calorie deficit, neither is fattening, regardless of calorie content.

The language or word choice may not have been as precise as possible, but I think the gist -- just because something is considered "healthy" doesn't mean it has fewer calories than the same amount of "junk" -- is something to bear in mind. That the "healthy" juice has more calories than Dr Pepper is an example of "clean" perhaps being misleading with respect to weight loss or maintenance.

3dogsrunning

I edited to add as well. There are more factors than just calorie count. While I am a believer in CICO, you can't just consider calorie content. Assuming a person is still at a calorie deficit, neither is fattening, regardless of calorie content.

The language or word choice may not have been as precise as possible, but I think the gist -- just because something is considered "healthy" doesn't mean it has fewer calories than the same amount of "junk" -- is something to bear in mind. That the "healthy" juice has more calories than Dr Pepper is an example of "clean" perhaps being misleading with respect to weight loss or maintenance.

I can agree with that. I just dislike labelling food as inherently good or bad, or "fattening" particularly based on calorie content, even if I agree with the underlying principle. I think a lot of dieters get themselves into trouble going down that road.

princess71903

I'm not sure I agree with the whole "no matter what you eat you will lose as long as your under your calories". I'm so nauseous from meds that I haven't eaten a lot in months but what I did eat was junk. Mostly hundred calorie packs of special K bars or just one mcdonalds meal a day. I gained at least 20lbs doing this and I can be positive I was under 1200 calories 80-90% of the time.

3dogsrunning

I'm not sure I agree with the whole "no matter what you eat you will lose as long as your under your calories". I'm so nauseous from meds that I haven't eaten a lot in months but what I did eat was junk. Mostly hundred calorie packs of special K bars or just one mcdonalds meal a day. I gained at least 20lbs doing this and I can be positive I was under 1200 calories 80-90% of the time.

Were you tracking calories?
Were you less active than usual?

This guy ate nothing but twinkies and some supplements and lost 27 lbs in 10 weeks.
(Since this tends to be a bone of contention on these threads whenever this example is given, I will add - I do not recommend this. I not endorsing it nor claiming it is healthy. it is simply an example of calories in vs calories out on what most would consider junk food)

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/11/08/twinkie.diet.professor/

princess71903

I didn't track religiously but yet I did track. I was less active cause I don't feel well. Its very hard to get up and do cardio when you feel like you need your head in a toilet. Like I said, I'm completely shocked I could have possibly gained weight.

I also take a multi vitamin, a vitamin D, and airborne gummies daily.

itsbasschick

i ate clean for years - low fat, no chemicals, no meat, no fast food, very few packaged foods - the list goes on and on - and i got up to 242 pounds. now i'm eating mostly clean but counting calories, and am so far down to 168.

btw, i wouldn't consider most homemade foods to be eating clean, particularly not anything with lots of butter, but of course i'm using my own definition of eating clean. your mileage may vary.

brower47

I didn't track religiously but yet I did track. I was less active cause I don't feel well. Its very hard to get up and do cardio when you feel like you need your head in a toilet. Like I said, I'm completely shocked I could have possibly gained weight.

I also take a multi vitamin, a vitamin D, and airborne gummies daily.

The fact that you didn't move much due to being sick would be a good indicator. You ate fewer calories (despite the type of food they came from) but your lack of movement overcame your lack of eating, pushing you into a surplus.

thehungerartiste

I think the thought that you can lose weight while just eating clean is that you're eating mostly vegetables and fruits, and they are really low calorie (compared to other foods).

However, just like other people said, you definitely can't lose weight if you're eating 3,000 calories of fruits and vegetables each day. It's healthy food, sure, but it's still over-eating.

If you find that it's hard to keep to your calorie plan and are considering adding more fruits/veggies (which might put you over your limit), that's not a bad idea, especially if you're just starting out. But you'll find that the more you cut out things you don't need to be eating (refined sugars, breads, pastas, etc) and replace them with healthier alternatives including fruits and veggies, the faster you'll lose weight and it's really easy to stay under your calorie goals.

I've been doing a mixture of fruitarian and vegetarian diet (mostly fruit, a few veggies each day, and one serving of dairy). I find that it's hard to reach my calorie goals on some days (I under eat by like 200-300 calories) because veggies and fruits just don't have high calorie content. So I have to fill that void with milk or extra bananas or something.

3dogsrunning

I didn't track religiously but yet I did track. I was less active cause I don't feel well. Its very hard to get up and do cardio when you feel like you need your head in a toilet. Like I said, I'm completely shocked I could have possibly gained weight.

I also take a multi vitamin, a vitamin D, and airborne gummies daily.

The fact that you didn't move much due to being sick would be a good indicator. You ate fewer calories (despite the type of food they came from) but your lack of movement overcame your lack of eating, pushing you into a surplus.

Not to mention there are other factors at play here. The quality of food is not the only factor that changed here so it can't be identified as the sole cause of the weight gain. Medication can cause water retention, illness, lower activity, etc. are all factors that could have contributed.

Deipneus

Somebody said that the calorie deficit I have would be too little to get any results unless I eat clean too, and the calories in vs calories out theory is completely wrong.

I ate healthy food ("clean") for many years and was overweight the whole time. I simply are too much healthy food. There was a period of time when I ate fewer calories but not so healthy and lost weight. I eventually combined healthy food and limited calories to get to where I am now, which is a pretty good place to be.

DebTavares

"Healthy" juices usually more fattening than soda. "Healthy" granola bars can be more fattening than candy bars. No need to fall for any weight loss ideas that are not based on counting calories. People who avoid counting calories but instead their strategy is to eat healthy or exercise or eat one meal a day or cut out sweets or whatever, or "cut back" on food without counting calories-- these folks are doomed to remain fat and possibly get fatter. Same goes for those who decide to abandon their scale in favor of losing inches instead of pounds. And counting carbs or fat grams instead of calories will not work either. You will lose the same weight whether you get your calories from french fries, cake, steak or collard greens.

You don't have to count calories to eat less calories though. I don't count calories, but I eat less and it's working for me. Although this last week I think I ate too little and ended up losing 3 lbs instead of the 1 lb I had been using and I ended up feeling tired and gross. I readjusted and ate a little more yesterday and already feel better.

Jkj95

Counting calories is better if you want to lose weight, but it's good to have a balance of both. You can still overeat healthy food and gain weight, so some calorie counting probably has to be done.

Mykaelous

I've certainly began eating "cleaner" as I've reduced my calorie intake. Most bad food is soo chocked full of fat and sugar that they would completely wreck my daily goals even if I had just one bad meal. That said the science is quite clear on calories in vs. calories out. If you are tracking calories and not loosing weight it's because you are not tracking them accurately. You are likely over-calculating your activity level(calories burned, fitness machines have been demonstrated to be up to 30% inaccurate.) and under tracking calories eaten(not including the ketchup you put on that hot dog). It would probably surprise you how off humans are at estimating the size of a teaspoon or the weight of an ounce.

The best solution is to do both. I've come to the conclusion that it is unlikely that I will eat fast food ever again and sit down meals at a restaurant would be limited to at most one a month. Its a simple decision, but one that is very important. Do you want to continue to struggle to loose weight, just so you can gain it back by enjoying a fattening meal, or do you want to loose weight and keep it off by eating healthy. I know I am not restricting my food because I want to be able to binge on the weekend. I am restricting my food because I want to develop healthy eating habits and look great.