Counting calories vs 'clean eating'

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  • princess71903
    princess71903 Posts: 56 Member
    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
    itsbasschick Posts: 1,584 Member
    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
    brower47 Posts: 16,356 Member
    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
    thehungerartiste Posts: 6
    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
    3dogsrunning Posts: 27,167 Member
    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
    Deipneus Posts: 1,861 Member
    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
    DebTavares Posts: 170 Member
    "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
    Jkj95 Posts: 64 Member
    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
    Mykaelous Posts: 231 Member
    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.

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