Do you have to eat clean to lose weight?

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Replies

  • BrainyBurro
    BrainyBurro Posts: 6,129 Member
    I really believe it depends on what your ultimate goal would be. For example, if all you care about is weight loss, than as long as you are meeting your calorie requirements than you can do just that. BUT - if you are trying to create a healthier lifestyle for yourself (not just dieting) than eating clean is an absolute must. There is no other way around it. But again, it depends on what your goal is.

    there is no credible science supporting your assertion (in bold above). it's all speculation and puffery on the part of the clean eaters at this point...
  • fcordingley
    fcordingley Posts: 25 Member
    No, you don't HAVE to. I didn't and I lost 35lbs so far. BUT, having lost 35lbs now I feel I have come to the point where I want to FEEL healthier, and have decided to start eating cleanER. It's only been a few days, but I already feel amazing. Will I go out this weekend, party and eat some junk? You bet. Will I come back on Monday and eat clean again? Yup.

    Personal preference. 90/10 clean eating makes me feel good.

    ^^ What she said :)

    It is good not to feel deprived so eating cake and pizza occasionally is good however the cleaner you eat the better you will feel- it also generally means that you will be able to eat more food (quantity) than if you eat the higher calorie foods within your calorie goal.

    Hope that made sense!
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,431 MFP Moderator
    I really believe it depends on what your ultimate goal would be. For example, if all you care about is weight loss, than as long as you are meeting your calorie requirements than you can do just that. BUT - if you are trying to create a healthier lifestyle for yourself (not just dieting) than eating clean is an absolute must. There is no other way around it. But again, it depends on what your goal is.

    That is a belief. Keep in mind that food is energy and everything provides a purpose. If you have an event in a short period of time, simple sugars and caffeine would provide a great benefit to athletic performance. Personally, I eat dirty, and my bloodwork has continued to improve, my BP is 110/70, heart rate is 65-72. So you can't tell me because you eat a bit more clean than me, that you are healthier than I am, especially since I hit my micro and macro nutrient goals.
  • twixlepennie
    twixlepennie Posts: 1,074 Member
    I really believe it depends on what your ultimate goal would be. For example, if all you care about is weight loss, than as long as you are meeting your calorie requirements than you can do just that. BUT - if you are trying to create a healthier lifestyle for yourself (not just dieting) than eating clean is an absolute must. There is no other way around it. But again, it depends on what your goal is.

    Um, No. I am very healthy now and my last blood work panel came back pretty much perfect, including no longer having a glucose number in the pre-diabetic range. I'm healthy, happy and enjoy fast food 3-4 times a week :wink:
  • Hornsby
    Hornsby Posts: 10,322 Member
    Yes, you absolutely have to eat clean to lose weight. All the people posting are lying....

    :insertsarcasm:

    But no, you don't have to eat clean to lose weight or get shredded. Meet your macros and micros, stay within your calorie goal, move your butt...that's all that is needed. You can even dump the "move your butt" if you want to.
  • elyelyse
    elyelyse Posts: 1,454 Member
    Five responses from people with tickers totalling 729 pounds lost :happy: Love the start of this thread LOL
    Yup!
    It's the kind of thing I hope is noticed when people are deciding whose advice to take.

    As for the topic at hand...I do like eating a lot of whole healthy "clean" foods, they fill me up and make me feel good...but I'd never have been able to keep at it for this long if I never got to have pizza or ice cream or chocolate or bagels or those cookies my mom makes with Nutella.
  • randomtai
    randomtai Posts: 9,003 Member
    <
    NO!
  • cingle87
    cingle87 Posts: 717 Member
    Hell no, if I had to eat clean to lose weight I would have fallen off the wagon months ago and woulndt have lost 3 stone, its all about portion control.
  • Phoenix_Warrior
    Phoenix_Warrior Posts: 1,633 Member
    No, you don't HAVE to. I didn't and I lost 35lbs so far. BUT, having lost 35lbs now I feel I have come to the point where I want to FEEL healthier, and have decided to start eating cleanER. It's only been a few days, but I already feel amazing. Will I go out this weekend, party and eat some junk? You bet. Will I come back on Monday and eat clean again? Yup.

    Personal preference. 90/10 clean eating makes me feel good.

    ^^ What she said :)

    It is good not to feel deprived so eating cake and pizza occasionally is good however the cleaner you eat the better you will feel- it also generally means that you will be able to eat more food (quantity) than if you eat the higher calorie foods within your calorie goal.

    Hope that made sense!

    Like I'd want to eat 300 carrot sticks as opposed to a cup of Ben & Jerry's. ;P There's no "clean" and "unclean". All you need for health is a balanced diet, which for the most part almost everything deemed "unclean" has a nutritional value to it that if you watch your macros, you can meet just as easily as eating nuts, fish and broccoli. Eat what you enjoy. There's no reason to exclude anything.
  • jwdieter
    jwdieter Posts: 2,582 Member
    Losing weight is about calories. Can eat nothing and lose weight. Can eat only twizzlers and lose weight. Can eat fried butter and lose weight.

    How much energy you have, how your digestion progresses, how hungry you feel, etc are things that depend on what you're putting into the equation. Losing weight is the derpy part.
  • LaurenAOK
    LaurenAOK Posts: 2,475 Member
    Nope, see my diary. It is the farthest thing from clean. I have had no trouble losing weight, I am very healthy and active, and I can get my body to look however I want to.

    Look into IIFYM - if it fits your macros. There's actually a good post about it right now, here:
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1167022-iifym-what-it-means-to-me-and-a-day-in-my-life

    IMHO it's a much more sensible way to live than "clean eating." I have nothing against people who eat clean and find success with it, but I get very fed up when those people try to push that you HAVE to eat clean to lose weight or be healthy.
  • LaurenAOK
    LaurenAOK Posts: 2,475 Member
    Oh and by the way (yes I'm going to be THAT person), 1200 calories is most likely too low for you, do some research on here about BMR and TDEE and use that to figure out how much you should actually be eating. That's all I'm going to say because I don't want to start a riot on this thread :laugh:

    But yes your "unhealthy" snacking is just fine. Weight loss shouldn't have to be miserable :drinker:
  • skylark94
    skylark94 Posts: 2,036 Member
    Nope. There's nothing "clean" about my food. I eat processed grains, sugar, and all sorts of things that some would consider junk.
  • lozeliz
    lozeliz Posts: 17 Member
    bump
  • CookingMamaAUS
    CookingMamaAUS Posts: 25 Member
    Definitely not! But once you start to eat to a calorie restricted diet, you work out pretty quickly that while you *can* eat cake, chocolate or deep fried things, they portion size you have to stick to is so small it's not worth the bother. On the other hand, you can pretty much eat as many green vegetables as you want and it will hardly register on your day's total. So you start to choose healthier alternatives automatically, simply because you can actually eat more of them.

    I think the whole clean eating thing is crap - especially the whole replacing flour with protein powder thing. How is it "clean" to eat a highly processed protein extract from a jar?

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