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

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.

It's not the fooad that created your overweightness, it was the fact you ate too much of it.
You lost weight because you cut down on your caloric intake.

Exactly this. My extended family, parents, etc., are all farm-raised country folk who make and eat everything from scratch. They eat all their fruits and vegetables, too. They just eat a lot of it. A LOT of it.

I'll fourth(?) this. I have been "eating clean" (mostly organic, made at home, quality ingredients) and have been a vegetarian for years, and I still got fat. It doesn't matter what you eat as far as weight goes, it's how much you eat. As for how you choose to nourish your body, that's another conversation that people debate wildly. But bottom line, you can absolutely eat "clean" and get/be fat.

My problem has always been overeating, even with healthy food. I've learned, over and over again, that even eating too much veggies, meat, and nuts will result in weight gain on the scale. I'm scaling back my portions, which is really difficult. Resisting junk food isn't that hard for me, everyone has their own demons to fight.

Just trying to understand. I mean yeah, I feel fuller and better now than I used to, no doubt, but just because I feel better doesn't mean the cravings magically go away and I don't wish every day that I could just go and get a nice 3000 calorie meal (which I've only done once in 14 months). Sure, some things just don't seem worth the calories anymore, so I don't have them, but it doesn't mean I don't crave them.

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?

Granted I have been only doing this for about a month, but I can absolutely say that my craving for junk food have decreased. A LOT. I used to eat fast food almost daily, and the more I ate the more I wanted it. Part of it was definitely habit. For some of us, greasy, fatty, high cal food is/was a literal addiction - that means when you eat it, the reward and pleasure centers of your brain are stimulated, and it therefore increases your desire. When you cut it out (and the first week for me was a nightmare) those areas of your brain are less and less stimulated, therefore the drive to eat that type of food goes down. Sure I think about it every now in then, but my desire to not undo all the work I've done to try and kick that habit outweighs my desire for momentary satisfaction.

Some people do great with consuming the things they REALLY enjoy in moderation. Awesome! For me, that's like telling an alcoholic they can only have one beer a day. Ain't gonna happen.

Maybe in the past they ate a lot of food processed or otherwise. Now they have discovered clean eating is working for them now. What is your point? To each his own. If clean eating is working for them and they feel great who cares?

I myself feel much better when i eat healthier (not 100% clean) but veggies, fruit, lean meats. I have less heartburn, less bloating less digestive problems.

Just trying to understand. I mean yeah, I feel fuller and better now than I used to, no doubt, but just because I feel better doesn't mean the cravings magically go away and I don't wish every day that I could just go and get a nice 3000 calorie meal (which I've only done once in 14 months). Sure, some things just don't seem worth the calories anymore, so I don't have them, but it doesn't mean I don't crave them.

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?

I'm pretty sure people who claim to eat no junk ever and/or not want any junk food ever are full of ****. Like I said in my post earlier...I've never really been a huge junk food guy save for my sodas and I eat tons of whole foods and cook most things from scratch...but my wife makes some awesome chocolate chip cookies and I like having one for desert a few times a week...I often eat dark chocolate for desert...I occasionally have ice cream, etc. 80-90% of my diet consists of awesome nutrition...having a cookie doesn't negate that fact and that's what people need to get through their thick heads. Rocking the **** out of your nutrition is really pretty easy when you allow yourself to enjoy a cookie now and then without feeling all guilty and ****.

it doesn't matter how "clean" one eats if they don't know how to eat in moderation... for FAT people that is a foreign word!!

Maybe in the past they ate a lot of food processed or otherwise. Now they have discovered clean eating is working for them now. What is your point? To each his own. If clean eating is working for them and they feel great who cares?

I myself feel much better when i eat healthier (not 100% clean) but veggies, fruit, lean meats. I have less heartburn, less bloating less digestive problems.

Just trying to understand. I mean yeah, I feel fuller and better now than I used to, no doubt, but just because I feel better doesn't mean the cravings magically go away and I don't wish every day that I could just go and get a nice 3000 calorie meal (which I've only done once in 14 months). Sure, some things just don't seem worth the calories anymore, so I don't have them, but it doesn't mean I don't crave them.

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?

I'm pretty sure people who claim to eat no junk ever and/or not want any junk food ever are full of ****. Like I said in my post earlier...I've never really been a huge junk food guy save for my sodas and I eat tons of whole foods and cook most things from scratch...but my wife makes some awesome chocolate chip cookies and I like having one for desert a few times a week...I often eat dark chocolate for desert...I occasionally have ice cream, etc. 80-90% of my diet consists of awesome nutrition...having a cookie doesn't negate that fact and that's what people need to get through their thick heads. Rocking the **** out of your nutrition is really pretty easy when you allow yourself to enjoy a cookie now and then without feeling all guilty and ****.

Haha, the problem for me is I didn't want one cookie. I wanted the whole damn box. If I can't eat the whole thing, I'd rather not have one at all.

Simples. Big portions. Conditioned to eat all on plate. Can't abide throwing food out.

And a love of savoury snacks. And wine. And cheese. And pasta. And Chinese. And pizza...........

Maybe in the past they ate a lot of food processed or otherwise. Now they have discovered clean eating is working for them now. What is your point? To each his own. If clean eating is working for them and they feel great who cares?

I myself feel much better when i eat healthier (not 100% clean) but veggies, fruit, lean meats. I have less heartburn, less bloating less digestive problems.

Just trying to understand. I mean yeah, I feel fuller and better now than I used to, no doubt, but just because I feel better doesn't mean the cravings magically go away and I don't wish every day that I could just go and get a nice 3000 calorie meal (which I've only done once in 14 months). Sure, some things just don't seem worth the calories anymore, so I don't have them, but it doesn't mean I don't crave them.

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?

I'm pretty sure people who claim to eat no junk ever and/or not want any junk food ever are full of ****. Like I said in my post earlier...I've never really been a huge junk food guy save for my sodas and I eat tons of whole foods and cook most things from scratch...but my wife makes some awesome chocolate chip cookies and I like having one for desert a few times a week...I often eat dark chocolate for desert...I occasionally have ice cream, etc. 80-90% of my diet consists of awesome nutrition...having a cookie doesn't negate that fact and that's what people need to get through their thick heads. Rocking the **** out of your nutrition is really pretty easy when you allow yourself to enjoy a cookie now and then without feeling all guilty and ****.

You can't just believe whatever people claim...especially when it comes to weight loss/fitness. When people (that is myself included) tell story, there's often some fiction in it, not on purpose, but...not all the details included. I have friends who went on a "clean diet" for two months and dropped a few pounds, now all they tell us is that clean diet is the king and they no longer crave junk foods...but really 2 months?

my two cents..

People go from one extreme = over eating on everything and being obese; to the other extreme = cutting out all "bad" food, eating clean, and they then lose weight so they think that is the only way and then they read all the BS junk science about how sugar makes your fat, and processed foods make you fat, etc,etc…when in reality overeating on ANY food makes you fat...

From my perspective it is far easier to overeat cake than overeat fresh brocolli. COULD I do it? Maybe, if I REALLY tried. Am I likely to do it? No.