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

I've been trying to eat clean, following meal plans. But on the weekend I need to splurge on the crap that I love so much. I can't help it. And it doesn't help that my husband wants to eat that stuff daily. I have a lot of work to do to get better at enjoying healthy food. It can be enjoyable, but I also hate cooking so that makes it even harder for me not to want to just go get fast food. Plus, I have a cookie addiction. And an ice capp addiction. And I've broken my M&M and Nutella addictions, but if I eat them, I'll be addicted all over again.

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.

LOL, the problem I see here is after eating brocolli, I just want to eat cake...

Yup, everyone is different!! Cake makes me want more cake :P

Too much free range chicken breast and egg whites and carrots will make you fat, just like too much ice cream.

I got fat because I just did not give a ****. Then I went through a life-changing experience and decided I should really care.

I still eat my share of crap, I'm not a clean eater. I just move more.

Because it was easier. Because I had an untreated (now diagnosed and medicated) thyroid disorder that sapped my energy to the point where dragging myself through the day was all I could manage. But mostly because it was easier. It's not just the prevalence of fast food; it's also that my husband wanted different food than I did, and eating out or making a giant pot of pasta was easier.

In part, though, I think it's also the way I was raised. My mother basically provided a "clean" diet for all of our meals, but she also kept cookies and ice cream and sometimes full sugar soda in the house. These were treats that were regulated, but the regulation was external, and I never internalized it in a useful manner. The second I was out of sight of my parents, I went nuts eating all the sweets that weren't nailed down. Freshman fifteen? Ha! It was more like a freshman forty-five.

I don't know if I can do better with my kid, but I'm trying. My husband, daughter, and I now eat sweets in moderation. I never would have believed it would be possible to have a large chocolate bar in the house for more than ten minutes, but when I log, it's easy for me to say, "Okay, I can have 85 calories' worth and leave the rest for later in the week." I know that some people say that logging is a trigger for eating disorders, but I think logging in and of itself is just data. It's the emotions that are attached to it that are the problem. So my plan is to teach my kid to read labels, learn about nutrition, keep an eye on what she's eating, get a healthy amount of activity, and collect data (ie, weigh herself and log) if it helps her, but do it without the judgment and emotion.

With proper treatment of my thyroid and after tinkering with portion sizes and menus to make the whole family okay with dinners, eating (mostly) clean has become pretty easy for me. Without thyroid treatment and logging, it was almost impossible. However, I'm still fat from all the prior bad behavior and metabolism issues, and it's going to take a lot of hard work to be the lean machine I want to be.

Apologies for using 'fat', but overweight was too long to fit in the title.

I keep seeing so many threads about people who eat 'clean', avoid processed sugar, follow their hunger signs etc, and it seems so easy for them.

My question to those people is... if your relationship with food is so healthy... how did you get overweight in the first place?

I mean, I got fat because I love food, I'm obsessed with food (notice I didn't use 'addicted'), and it's just a huge part of my life. All my life I've just eaten what I wanted when I wanted it... I don't remember my parents ever telling me I couldn't have something. I just helped myself. I don't think I'll ever be able to just see food as sustenance... it's a pleasure. I've got much better at moderation and trying to make the most of my calories (taste-wise... I don't exactly meet my macros every day, lol), but I don't think the desire to eat more tasty food will ever go away. I'm aware it's going to be a life-long struggle.

Just really curious about this (and probably a bit jealous, lol. I wish I was one of those people for whom losing weight was easy).

Edited for bad, bad grammar.

I really don't understand your post. Do you believe that " eating clean " means that the food has no calories ?
I adore food ( just not the same stuff the average American likes, because in different cultures we eat differently ) and have eaten a diet based on whole natural foods all my life. And that is probably the reason why it is easy for me. If I had lived for 60 plus years of fast food, boxed cereal, Mac& Cheese, Hamburger Helper and Rice-aroni, I would probably struggle also.
And yes, I got overweight.......not until my mid- to late 50's, but I did get overweight from eating too much food in general. Healthy food, but too much of it. While living for almost 20 years in Asia I fell in love with rice and ate on average 4-5 cups a day of it, plus all the foods that go with rice and cooked a lot with coconut milk or coconut cream.
On average I ate 2000-2200 calories, which for a person 4' 11" and my age is too much. That and the fact that I lost my thyroid to cancer, which in return also caused selfpity eating ( and a moderate amount of drinking at the time ) over the years caused a almost 40 kilo weight gain . My BMI is 1330 and my TDEE is 1738 and eating 1200 calories a day over the last year has had me lose 50 pounds. And btw: 1200 calories for my height and age is correct for the normal weight loss I want to achieve.
Just because people avoid certain food like fat, added sugar and processed food does not mean that they are not overweight or even obese ( I think a better word that " fat " ). Being in a normal weight range has to do with the quantity of food consumed and not primarily with the quality of food, even though I believe that it plays a role....just not the most important one.
I eat natural ( minimally processed, usually in my home ) food because I like it and have eaten it all my life. I do not believe for a second that it is the main cause of my weight loss; that was achieved by eating consistently within a deficit .

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??

Refined flour... same thing. I don't call that 'clean'. Not that it matters.

And yeah I agree that sometimes moderation seems harder than not having any at all! But that's one of the reasons I'm trying to learn moderation... I know I'll never be able to resist some things (like those things I only find a couple times a year) and I want to be able to eat them without binging... because as I said, I love food, and I don't want to deprive myself from some of them.

No, pizza is not "clean". I was just curious how it got into a post railing against sugar.

Personally, I don't eat much junk food because I love food so much. Sure there are some snacks and treats I like, but almost all are homemade. A twinkie will never come close to homemade apple pie for taste. A big mac will never taste as good as a burger I make at home. I will never understand posts that refer to fast food and prepackage meals as 'eating normally'. That is so far from normal for me.

Not everyone on MFP is "fat". I've never had a weight problem, just the 10 lb fluctuation from time to time. I joined MFP to learn how to be healthier. I eat to live, I don't live to eat. Don't get me wrong, I love food that's bad for me, and sometimes indulged, but in moderation. You choose to eat the junk food, while others don't.

its called learning to moderate yourself and having a modicum of self control. Back in my fat days I could eat a few pints of ice cream or a whole cake by myself..however, I learned, over time, that I can eat one serving of ice cream, one cookie, etc and fit it into my day. I have ice cream every night..

my diary is open...

So what I'm wondering is if you are *done and satisfied* after one cookie? I also stop myself after one cookie (most times) so I'm not totally without self control. I do however spend another hour or more finding as many things to do as possible so that I do not eat 6 more cookies because it is all that is on my mind. It is best for me to buy certain things in single serving sizes so it isn't in my house but that isn't possible for me and won't be for some time. I would love to get to the point where making and following through on the choice didn't consume so much mental space. I'm the same way with spaghetti and a whole bunch of foods. I eat it. I eat normal portions and fill up at the end of the meal but the mental energy spent on not eating another serving (and probably a third) is more than I'd like to admit. It also takes a lot of mental chitchat to banish the feelings of deprivation that results because I'm not deprived. My head knows that.

Is that something that just goes away with time? Something you just don't experience? Is there something you and others do to change that mental process and if so what? That is the big mystery

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.

LOL, the problem I see here is after eating brocolli, I just want to eat cake...

Yup, everyone is different!! Cake makes me want more cake :P

its called learning to moderate yourself and having a modicum of self control. Back in my fat days I could eat a few pints of ice cream or a whole cake by myself..however, I learned, over time, that I can eat one serving of ice cream, one cookie, etc and fit it into my day. I have ice cream every night..

my diary is open...

I have self control. I also, in the begining, don't want to set myself up for failure. That means instead of saying "I won't eat another cookie" I say "eating on cookie will make me want 4 more, so maybe I just won't eat the cookie." Maybe I will be a little more lenience after I develop my healthy habits first, but for now I am happy.