Clean eating made me fat but icecream/subway got me lean

VanillaSmile427
VanillaSmile427 Posts: 45
in Health and Weight Loss
http://www.healthylivingheavylifting.com/how-clean-eating-made-me-fat-but-ice-cream-and-subway-got-me-lean/


Great article... I also gained weight on paleo!! Ugh! Now I'm back to eating my oatmeal, yogurt, cottage cheese and I'm loosing weight.
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Replies

  • Iwishyouwell
    Iwishyouwell Posts: 1,888 Member
    "Clean" eating didn't make him fat, just like paleo didn't make you fat. In both cases you decided to eat above your maintenance and you gained weight.

    You made yourself fat. And you both decided to reverse the trend while eating in other ways. But you could have lost on paleo, just as you gained. The choice was yours.
  • SrJoben
    SrJoben Posts: 484 Member
    Why are you telling people things they already know?

    Seriously. Read the article before explain what the person writing it supposedly doesn't understand.
  • Natmarie73
    Natmarie73 Posts: 287 Member
    "In my restrictive Paleo days, I’d been prone to binge eating. I’d go three or four weeks sticking perfectly to my plan, then find my cravings for non-Paleo foods got so huge I’d succumb to 5 -6,000 calorie binge on cereals, cake and chips"

    So it's not the fault of a Paleo diet or clean eating that got this guy fat, it's his complete lack of willpower and self control. Just like a junkie blaming their addiction on everything else but themselves.
  • mikes1990
    mikes1990 Posts: 3
    Hey guys, Mike (article author) checking in -

    "So it's not the fault of a Paleo diet or clean eating that got this guy fat, it's his complete lack of willpower and self control. Just like a junkie blaming their addiction on everything else but themselves."

    It's the fault of the paleo diet for being so restrictive that leads to binging. I don't have a complete lack of willpower now I employ flexible dieting strategies. I've refrained from commenting on the (very small number of) negative comments, but there was so much ignorance in yours I'm afraid I was compelled to respond.
  • lemonsnowdrop
    lemonsnowdrop Posts: 1,298 Member
    You basically just said that your lack of willpower lead you to binge. Not the paleo diet. Not everyone has such little self control.
  • tedrickp
    tedrickp Posts: 1,229 Member
    You basically just said that your lack of willpower lead you to binge. Not the paleo diet. Not everyone has such little self control.

    Wow, judgemental much??

    Did you read the article or look at the guy - LMAO @ trying to say he has such little self control when he is in rockstar shape now.
  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
    Congrats on finding what works for you Mike.
  • tedrickp
    tedrickp Posts: 1,229 Member
    Yup guys, here is what "little self control" and "lack of willpower get you"

    MikeSamuels_Col038-682x1024.jpg
  • lemonsnowdrop
    lemonsnowdrop Posts: 1,298 Member
    I wasn't trying to be rude or judgemental, but I don't agree with blaming a diet for binge eating. There are plenty of paleo dieters (myself not included) who do just fine. Nevertheless, Subway and ice cream sound better by far.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    I think it's a great article, personally.
  • WorkInProgress323
    WorkInProgress323 Posts: 114
    Mike, it wasn't clean eating that made you fat, you have to know that, right? You said it yourself, you ate 5 eggs for breakfast. You never counted calories on the Paleo, just ate whatever you wanted.

    Now this paragraph was good:

    "What’s the point of this post?

    It’s not an attempt to bash anyone for following any type of restrictive, or rules-based diet, like Paleo, Atkins, Primal, Dukan, or whatever, and it’s certainly not meant to encourage people to base their diets around junk foods.

    What it hopefully serves to do, however, is to make you realise that there’s much, much more to a diet than good vs. bad foods. You needn’t cut out any food when trying to lose fat – it’s simply about eating mostly healthy, unprocessed foods and controlling your calorie and macronutrient intake, but not freaking out if you do include high-sugar, high-fat and processed foods, provided they fit in with your plan as a whole.

    The main reason people screw up when dieting is a lack of consistency. This inconsistency comes through boredom, or feeling that a diet is simply too hard going. For most people, this is almost bound to happen when following a diet with lots of rules, that doesn’t permit them to eat their favourite foods.

    Moderation is key. Moderation lets you eat ice cream and Subway and get lean. Moderation is awesome."
  • wewon
    wewon Posts: 838 Member
    Congrats on finding what works for you Mike.

    Exactly.

    This is the difference between the person that ultimately wins and the person that becomes frustrated and flounders.

    You have to know yourself and know what you respond well to and not follow someone elses script.
  • darkrose20
    darkrose20 Posts: 1,139 Member
    Mike, it wasn't clean eating that made you fat, you have to know that, right? You said it yourself, you ate 5 eggs for breakfast. You never counted calories on the Paleo, just ate whatever you wanted.

    Now this paragraph was good:

    "What’s the point of this post?

    It’s not an attempt to bash anyone for following any type of restrictive, or rules-based diet, like Paleo, Atkins, Primal, Dukan, or whatever, and it’s certainly not meant to encourage people to base their diets around junk foods.

    What it hopefully serves to do, however, is to make you realise that there’s much, much more to a diet than good vs. bad foods. You needn’t cut out any food when trying to lose fat – it’s simply about eating mostly healthy, unprocessed foods and controlling your calorie and macronutrient intake, but not freaking out if you do include high-sugar, high-fat and processed foods, provided they fit in with your plan as a whole.

    The main reason people screw up when dieting is a lack of consistency. This inconsistency comes through boredom, or feeling that a diet is simply too hard going. For most people, this is almost bound to happen when following a diet with lots of rules, that doesn’t permit them to eat their favourite foods.

    Moderation is key. Moderation lets you eat ice cream and Subway and get lean. Moderation is awesome."

    Moderation is awesome! :heart:
  • BrainyBurro
    BrainyBurro Posts: 6,129 Member
    "Clean" eating didn't make him fat, just like paleo didn't make you fat. In both cases you decided to eat above your maintenance and you gained weight.

    You made yourself fat. And you both decided to reverse the trend while eating in other ways. But you could have lost on paleo, just as you gained. The choice was yours.

    you'd have a valid argument except for the fact that many clean eaters and paleo eaters on here tell people not to worry about logging their calories and that simply eating these magical foods from their short little lists of allowable foods will automatically result in weight loss.

    thanks for playing though. :flowerforyou:
  • TriShamelessly
    TriShamelessly Posts: 905 Member
    Bump. IN for the clean eating vs. IIFYM debate. Mike - Congrats on the results from your hard work and finding CICO and IIFYM.
  • rockmama72
    rockmama72 Posts: 815 Member
    This is a great article! I'm not really sure how people can nitpick a personal story that doesn't preach anything other than the fact that calories matter.
  • BrainyBurro
    BrainyBurro Posts: 6,129 Member
    This is a great article! I'm not really sure how people can nitpick a personal story that doesn't preach anything other than the fact that calories matter.

    that's why we have the word "zealot" in our dictionary.

    to the true believers of "clean" eating and paleo and primal and all of those other deprivation/restriction diets, no evidence to the contrary can convince them the error of their ways.

    keep in mind, i have nothing against the foods they eat and if they were logging and tracking their macros while only eating those foods (in essence becoming IIFYM'ers who choose to follow certain food restrictions), i'd say "more power to them". what i have a problem with is the misunderstanding that "what" you eat is all important and that calories in vs. calories out doesn't really matter.
  • eric_sg61
    eric_sg61 Posts: 2,925 Member
    I'll repeat what I said when I posted this article a few weeks ago:

    I have seen more than a few posters on this site and others claim that it is nearly impossible to get fat eating 'clean' or 'paleo' or 'vegan' or whatever diet label
  • ladymiseryali
    ladymiseryali Posts: 2,555 Member
    Hey guys, Mike (article author) checking in -

    "So it's not the fault of a Paleo diet or clean eating that got this guy fat, it's his complete lack of willpower and self control. Just like a junkie blaming their addiction on everything else but themselves."

    It's the fault of the paleo diet for being so restrictive that leads to binging. I don't have a complete lack of willpower now I employ flexible dieting strategies. I've refrained from commenting on the (very small number of) negative comments, but there was so much ignorance in yours I'm afraid I was compelled to respond.

    Then maybe paleo wasn't for you. I know that keto is for me because I don't feel deprived. In fact, I find low carb and high fat foods to be more delicious.
  • snowflake954
    snowflake954 Posts: 8,399 Member
    Best wishes Mike--thanks for telling the truth (I can hear the swords sharpening now). In before the lock.
  • IsaTexDesigner
    IsaTexDesigner Posts: 54 Member
    Good for you Mike, you look incredible! I agree, being allowed ice cream once in a while keeps me going, in my case, my cheat meal on Friday nights!
  • nenshali
    nenshali Posts: 331 Member
    I agree, a very good article.

    I personally am not a fan of restrictive diets as Paleo, but I know that it works for some people and I respect that. Different things work for different people and we have individual factors to take in. :)
  • Slacker16
    Slacker16 Posts: 1,184 Member
    tbuhKxl.gif

    To be fair I can see some advantages to restrictive diets, but they only work by inducing a calorie deficit and the article illustrates that very well.
  • Iwishyouwell
    Iwishyouwell Posts: 1,888 Member
    "Clean" eating didn't make him fat, just like paleo didn't make you fat. In both cases you decided to eat above your maintenance and you gained weight.

    You made yourself fat. And you both decided to reverse the trend while eating in other ways. But you could have lost on paleo, just as you gained. The choice was yours.

    you'd have a valid argument except for the fact that many clean eaters and paleo eaters on here tell people not to worry about logging their calories and that simply eating these magical foods from their short little lists of allowable foods will automatically result in weight loss.

    thanks for playing though. :flowerforyou:

    The "valid argument" I made was based off one subject, Mike, the author of this article who blamed an eating program for gaining weight.

    Nowhere in my post did I address what "many clean eaters and paleo eaters" are doing, or say anything about "magical foods". I couldn't care less what "many" people are doing, hence me not creating a post discussing "many" such "magical" eaters. Why would I? I don't even follow a paleo program.

    thanks for playing though. :flowerforyou:
  • Natmarie73
    Natmarie73 Posts: 287 Member
    You basically just said that your lack of willpower lead you to binge. Not the paleo diet. Not everyone has such little self control.

    Wow, judgemental much??

    Did you read the article or look at the guy - LMAO @ trying to say he has such little self control when he is in rockstar shape now.

    binge (bĭnj)
    n.
    1. A drunken spree or revel.
    2.
    a. A period of unrestrained, immoderate self-indulgence.
    b. A period of excessive or uncontrolled indulgence in food or drink: an eating binge.
    intr.v. binged, bing·ing or binge·ing, bing·es
    1. To be immoderately self-indulgent and unrestrained: "The story is like a fever dream that a disturbed and imaginative city-dweller might have after binging on comics" (Lloyd Rose).
    2. To engage in excessive or uncontrolled indulgence in food or drink.

    Did you read his article? He used the word binge, no one put words in his mouth. And then he blames the restrictive diet he was on made him fat, not the fact he made the choice to eat too much while he was on it. Own your actions is all I'm saying.

    Plenty of people eat paleo (or regular normal diets) without logging and never get fat because they can control what they put in their mouths. He obviously couldn't but good on him for finding something that does work for him and sticking with it.
  • tedrickp
    tedrickp Posts: 1,229 Member

    The "valid argument" I made was based off one subject, Mike, the author of this article who blamed an eating program for gaining weight.

    And Mike was 100% right. For him Paleo was unsustainable and led to bingeing so he switched to another diet that allowed him to reach his goal. That is intelligent dieting.

    Paleo works for some people, and doesn't work for other people. It didn't work for Mike and his article addressed that.

    Did you read his article? He used the word binge, no one put words in his mouth. And then he blames the restrictive diet he was on made him fat, not the fact he made the choice to eat too much while he was on it. Own your actions is all I'm saying.

    Plenty of people eat paleo (or regular normal diets) without logging and never get fat because they can control what they put in their mouths. He obviously couldn't but good on him for finding something that does work for him and sticking with it.

    Yes I read the article. Thank you for turning your snark levels up to 11 though.

    He blames the restrictive diet because it didn't work for him. Simple as that. Not sure why people feel the need to personally attack him because of that.

    Yes plenty of people DO eat Paleo - good for them. Does that mean they have more self control or will power than other people? No, it means the diet works for their preferences and lifestyle.

    Look at his after pic - I am sorry but you don't reach that level of fitness without self control or will power.

    LMFAO @ "own your actions" He obviously does every single day.

    I think it is sad that people took the time to attack his self control and willpower, when they should be congratulating him for intelligently fixing his diet, finding what works for him and reaching fitness goals that some of us might never reach.

    ...All because paleo didn't work for him.

    BTW - I would also like to throw it out there - that binge eating is a serious issue for people - and to trivialize it as a simple lack of willpower shows both a lack of understanding and empathy.
  • Iwishyouwell
    Iwishyouwell Posts: 1,888 Member


    And Mike was 100% right. For him Paleo was unsustainable and led to bingeing so he switched to another diet that allowed him to reach his goal. That is intelligent dieting.

    Paleo works for some people, and doesn't work for other people. It didn't work for Mike and his article addressed that.

    No, he was 100% wrong.

    "Paleo" is not an person or entity that could force Mike to eat a certain way.
    "Paleo" allowed foods can not magically make one gain weight. No food can.

    Mike chose paleo.
    Mike chose to eat without caloric restriction while on paleo.
    Mike chose to binge eat in reaction to the choices he made on paleo.

    It's 100% Mike's fault, and responsibility, for gaining fat, just as it was 100% his responsibility to lose the weight and achieve his goals with another way of eating.
  • VelcroButt
    VelcroButt Posts: 34 Member
    After reading these boards I'm starting to think that the paleo diet must make you grumpy or something. Why get so worked up over this? If paleo works for you then yay. I'm guessing this article isn't aimed at people who are doing awesome on restrictive diets but rather at those who are struggling and are unsure of what to do.
  • IronPlayground
    IronPlayground Posts: 1,594 Member


    And Mike was 100% right. For him Paleo was unsustainable and led to bingeing so he switched to another diet that allowed him to reach his goal. That is intelligent dieting.

    Paleo works for some people, and doesn't work for other people. It didn't work for Mike and his article addressed that.

    No, he was 100% wrong.

    "Paleo" is not an person or entity that could force Mike to eat a certain way.
    "Paleo" allowed foods can not magically make one gain weight. No food can.

    Mike chose paleo.
    Mike chose to eat without caloric restriction while on paleo.
    Mike chose to binge eat in reaction to the choices he made on paleo.

    It's 100% Mike's fault, and responsibility, for gaining fat, just as it was 100% his responsibility to lose the weight and achieve his goals with another way of eating.

    I know you mentioned before that you are directing the comments directly at Mike's situation and not speaking about the others that claim to not track calories while practicing a Paleo style of eating. There's a problem with that, though and it does need to be addressed. In every Paleo thread you find on MFP you will have those who defend Paleo eating with the claim that eating the foods allowed are so satiating that there is no need to track calories because there is no way you'd go over your calories.

    Going back to Mike's post. He didn't binge on junk food. He ate all the foods that were "allowed". He didn't deviate from the good list and venture into the bad list. So, by that alone, proves that the many people claiming that there is no need to track food on Paleo are wrong. He is proof that you can, in fact, overeat the "allowed" foods and gain weight. Now, we already knew that, but some folks seem to struggle a bit with that concept.

    He also said that he doesn't have a problem with any diet. However, calories are always going to be a factor when it comes to weight loss regardless of the style you choose to eat.
  • kuolo
    kuolo Posts: 251 Member
    Eating paleo made me want to binge SO much.

    If you dismiss binge eating lightly you have never experienced it.

    And I got fat eating clean. I still eat clean, just less of it (but that's a personal choice because I have health issues).

    Just thought I'd share :smile:

    ETA: what's with all the fault and blame stuff?

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