Does clean eating pay off?

It certainly helps.

Being healthy is much more important than losing weight, although the two might overlap. You could lose weight eating nothing but poptarts, if you burned more calories than you ate. However, if you continued just eating junk, you'll become malnourished, have high cholesterol, be at risk for diabetes, etc. When you get older, you'd be at much greater risk for osteoporosis, heart failure, and cancer. Eating clean will allow you to establish healthy eating habits for the rest of your life, long after you've reached your goal weight. Remember that the number on the scale is a poor indicator of health. Eating clean and filling your body with nutritious food helps ensure that you get enough fiber, calcium, iron, protein, omega-3s and much more.

Eating clean makes me feel better. I dont feel bloated and stuffed all day and I get less headaches. Yesterday I decided to have a small fry from mcdonalds and oh boy I am paying the price today, my stomach is all messed up, its actually kindof miserable..I should have ate a yogurt instead lol..

And when I eat bad stuff I feel really lazy and dont want to do anything, not worth the calories and/or fat and sugar IMO :grumble:

In for psychosomatic feel goods and rainbows.

Honestly, for sustainability. I don't define foods by these terms. Nutrient density is how I judge my foods to meet my nutrient needs...then I eat cake.

I don't eat 'clean' by any means, but I am not on a twinkie diet (a commonly made false dichotomy on this site: Eat Clean or All Twinkies). For the sake of this conversation, I will take "clean" to mean whole foods, no artificial preservatives/sweeteners/dyes. The real world has other food. There are vending machines, work birthday parties, housewarmings, pub crawls. I feel like eating clean is something that has to be flexible to prevent misery. 2 tbsp of Skippy Peanut Butter will not send your body into processed-food-collapse (although, no good if you are allergic).

I eat, average day, probably 5-7 servings of vegetables, fresh or flash frozen and then steamed. Some of my frozen veggies have a lemon butter sauce on them. The perservatives/dyes/whathaveyou are not negatively impacting my health or weight. I would be hard pressed to find a way to compare my non-clean health with someone who eats clean. My hair is shiny, haha.

I understand that the number of calories consumed is a number regardless of what it is, as long as you eat within your deficit you will lose weight. So what impact does clean eating have? Will you lose weight faster, is it better in the long run? I feel better when I eat clean and feel like I am actually changing my nutritional lifestyle and eat about 1600 cals a day and get frustrated when I see people losing weight faster than me that eat less calories and their calories are from junk or packaged or diet foods. Does anyone else share this frustration? Does anyone have insight on the benefits of clean eating with weight loss or is it really just the number.

How dare those non-clean eaters be allowed to lose weight! :laugh:

OP, if you burn more calories than you consume, you lose weight, no matter where those calories come from unless you have a medical issue. Weight loss is how much you eat. You are correct about that.

When it comes to things like body composition and nutrition, then yes, it is about what you eat. Your macro and micro numbers are going to impact what the end product looks like and how it functions.

Remember that what you eat is only one part of the picture. You don't know what these people are doing for exercise, what their daily activity is like, what their body composition was prior to weight loss, what medical conditions they might have or not have, what resources they have available to them - in short, you are not them. What you consider to be a diet full of junk and packaged and diet food could be a vast improvement over the way they used to eat, and just losing weight can improve someone's health significantly. Not everyone takes the same path to weight loss and health, and it takes some people longer than others to make certain changes.

Eat the food you like to eat that makes you feel the best, and don't worry about what anyone else is doing. It's not a contest.

In for the hate and pop tarts.

Getting all the right nutrients makes me feel better....which in turn helps me stick to a diet and gives me the energy to exercise. But I don't eat entirely clean, unless whiskey is clean!!! When I eat low cal junk I'm usually at 70% carbs and through the roof on sodium and feeling like crap. So generally I eat cleanish in order to feel better.

I lost 100lbs eating at a deficit and not paying that close attention to WHAT I ate.

I built the body I have currently by eating at a slight deficit and paying very close attention to WHAT I ate (of course time in the iron chamber is necessary).

So, for me, eating "clean" made a big difference in what the smaller package looked like.

A

You're gonna get a lot of haters on here I think

I like eating clean because it's healthier and it keeps me full and satiated. I have less headaches and digestion issues, I sleep better and I personally lose weight faster when eating clean.

You need to find a lifestyle that will last for you and remember any progress is good progress. Try not to get too worried about what anyone else is doing. Many of them will fail in the long run anyway. Just do what works for you and what you can stick with and be happy for any and every success you find.

This.

A lot of people are calorie in calorie out and will say the other people are losing weight from eating less calories and burning off more calories than you..via exercise. Therefore, eating anything you want within calorie goal is acceptable.

I am trying to eat clean which even means day 4 of no Dt. Dew regardless of no calorie basis. And, I find I'm fuller and intake less sodium and fat. I went weeks eating fairly clean. One day had frozen pizza with my daughter (within my calories) and in 1/2 hour my stomach hurt so bad.

I just feel better avoiding processed foods, sugars, and fast foods. I feel more energy and more excited to exercise when I fuel my body this way.

Good luck in what you choose. I'm learning it is all about what works best for you.

BTW I hate pop tarts, they're too dry, rather have a donut.

Me too. I just shake my head when my sister buys them. I'm like why don't you just lick a block of sugar? (19g in one little square) They are on the very top of my do not eat list. One is 200 calories...why would I waste calories on it. Yeah, that's 400 a package. WOW! How many people that you have met that eat pop tarts eat only one when they open the package?

Eating clean always pays off in the long run! Lowering your overall calories to lose weight is temporary cuz once you start eating again you will gain weight 2x faster. So don't starve to death, instead you can always enjoy a good tasty meal by doing some small alterations like substituting whole milk for skim milk, eating grilled chicken instead of fried ones, snacking on fruits instead of sugary stuff and etc etc... Cheers ✌️

I have literally been on a diet all my life. Back and forth, up and down. Slowly, slowly getting to maximum weight 250. I started eating "clean" because my liver was dying and I was real sick of the hospital. Come to find out I have a genetic condition, and my liver, my daughter's allergies and autism spectrum disorder, and my son's lifelong sinusitis/bronchitis/pneumonia, and my last terrible pregnancy were all very related. Now we avoid, folic acid, B6, cruciferous, sulfur foods, gluten, "white foods", dairy (tho this is still hard), we make kombucha, we cook from scratch, all organic, supplement optimal B's, and boom I'm losing weight. It makes me feel so good, oh and that's the biggy. No mood swings, no depression. Still can't sleep, but perhaps one day:ohwell: I'll never eat crap again. If you cook from scratch the calories are so very low, even for like steak and potatoes. It's no wonder we are all plumping up. I don't feel jealous of the people losing faster cause I've been there, they are just destroying their metabolism and muscle tissue, it'll bite them in the butt. I feel sorry for them. :flowerforyou:

I understand that the number of calories consumed is a number regardless of what it is, as long as you eat within your deficit you will lose weight. So what impact does clean eating have? Will you lose weight faster, is it better in the long run? I feel better when I eat clean and feel like I am actually changing my nutritional lifestyle and eat about 1600 cals a day and get frustrated when I see people losing weight faster than me that eat less calories and their calories are from junk or packaged or diet foods. Does anyone else share this frustration? Does anyone have insight on the benefits of clean eating with weight loss or is it really just the number.

I can't tell what you mean by eating clean here. As I understand it, "clean" eating does not just mean trying to eat a basically nutritious diet, but cutting out certain foods, often a broad and rather vague group such as processed foods or white foods or the like. IMO, that does not have positive effects and for many would make things more difficult, although people vary. For me, I need to understand and believe in what I'm doing, and I see no point in cutting things out.

However, if what you are referring to is not "clean" eating, but just trying to eat healthy, I think it has lots of positive effects--I feel better, enjoy what I'm eating, have lots of energy, and find keeping my deficit quite easy.

I don't pay attention to how fast others are losing other than to congratulate them or what they are eating unless they ask for comments. What works for them and their goals might be different than for me and mine and I'm happy to do my thing.

Edit: having read the thread now I see that lots of self proclaimed "clean" eaters mention foods that seem to me to fall obviously on the "processed," "unclean" side as part of their diets. Once again I am forced to conclude that eating clean means nothing. If you just mean you try to eat basically healthy like many of the rest of us, why not say that instead of pretending everyone else eats pop tarts 24/7.

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