"Clean" eating vs. Moderation- what works for you?
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Moderation is the key to everything. Clean eating is a myth (http://evidencemag.com/clean-eating/)0
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holliebaker90 wrote: »Honestly, I believe in both. I like starting off by completely eating clean. No breads, pastas, or extra carbs. A strict diet of protein/veggies/fruits. It helps me clean my slate completely and helps me stop having cravings for certain things. After about a month or so of this I eat in moderation but I stay away from fatty beef/pork and white pastas/breads/rice. I limit myself to things that I know I will get carried away with.
See, this just goes to show what a vague term "clean" is, though. I'm a vegetarian who needs a moderate amount of carbs to not feel lethargic/over hungry. I get my protein from eggs, dairy, beans, and legumes. I do love my non-starchy veggies too. That's my usual, day-to-day diet. I supplement my protein intake with limited ingredient protein powder or protein bars. It's pretty clean, from a vegetarian perspective. No meat analogs, I make most of my food from scratch.
So, what exactly is clean?
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I don't tend to label how I eat but when trying to lose weight I go for moderation. I also try and meet my protein, fat and fibre goals by eating nutritious foods, which includes processed packaged foods, I just have to read the labels to make sure it fits with my personal nutrient goals.
Once I have met those goals then if I want some wine, ice cream or pizza why not?
Most peoples goals are personal to them, some for medical reasons, others because its about what we think we know based on our own understanding & research.
Things are always changing, look how long it has taken the scientific community to actually admit that the 'fat is bad' campaign' actually had no factual basis. What it did do was lead companies to load products with sugar and salt to put back the flavour they lost with the removal of the fat!
I try to be open minded about things because for every study someone posts there seems to another claiming the opposite. However I am probably not the only one who switches off when reading posts that come across as fanatical preaching about what THE WAY of eating is.0 -
I just try to find healthier versions of the things I like and eat the correct serving size. I've been making a lot of homemade flatbread pizzas, rather than splitting a stuffed bacon cheese crust pizza from Pizza Hut, for example.0
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So far moderation has helped me more than clean eating has. But when I lose all the weight I want to I'm going to focus more on clean eating than I am on moderation.0
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juliet3455 wrote: »My standard suggestion is to do some reading.
Visit the Eat-Train-Progress group and read the pinned topics. If you click on the little STAR you can bookmark the topic for future reference.
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/10118-eat-train-progress
Read the information at these MFP post. They have links to multiple very good reads.
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p1
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/833026/important-posts-to-read/p1
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/categories/getting-started
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1234699/logging-accurately-step-by-step-guide/p1
Try the USDA site as a cross reference for nutrition values of different food diary entries.
http://ndb.nal.usda.gov/
A Recipe Swap Group
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/148-recipe-swap
A Recipe Blog Site
https://blog.myfitnesspal.com/category/eat/recipes/
Lots of great comments from everyone.
Some of these links will show up in the other Groups and discussions.
There are lots of other good groups and discussions with really good information and some with a more Social aspect.0 -
DebHutton55 wrote: »Eat the right carbs, proteins and fats. Watch the quantity. Move! There's the key to healthy living and an outcome in your later years that has you with your memory and the ability to move around with ease. If you are just eating for your weight, wise up. It's taken me most of my life to figure that out.
Someone said, sugar is nothing unless you have a medical condition. So wrong! Read, read, read. What all this stuff is doing to your brain, is more important than what it is doing to your butt.
Of course, eat an occasional bad but if you start eating correctly, you don't have that desire anymore.
are you going to clarify that or just make blanket statements about sugar...?0 -
tedboosalis7 wrote: »DebHutton55 wrote: »tedboosalis7 wrote: »DebHutton55 wrote: »Eat the right carbs, proteins and fats. Watch the quantity. Move! There's the key to healthy living and an outcome in your later years that has you with your memory and the ability to move around with ease. If you are just eating for your weight, wise up. It's taken me most of my life to figure that out.
Someone said, sugar is nothing unless you have a medical condition. So wrong! Read, read, read. What all this stuff is doing to your brain, is more important than what it is doing to your butt.
Of course, eat an occasional bad but if you start eating correctly, you don't have that desire anymore.
This is awesome. I love this statement: "What all this stuff is doing to your brain, is more important than what it is doing to your butt." Very well put. ♥
Some people tolerate a high carb diet better than others, certainly I am not in the lot of that kind of tolerance. I was borderline Type II and have an auto-immune disorder and had to change my diet completely - I lost the weight, gained muscle and strength, lost many of the symptoms of the auto-immune disorder (not all), and now awaiting my physical this week to check my blood work one year after I made this change.
I can say I have cheated maybe 5 times in one year - and during that time, it was morsels - I still eat chocolate but it has to be pure dark chocolate. I know what is good because I was a chocolatier at one time - successfully owned a business and sold it 5 years ago. I know what goes into confections and there's no way I would eat any of them now unless its pure dark chocolate. Chocolate has fiber - that makes it palatable to eat.
There's a real difference calorie for calorie between different foods - meat <> broccoli, for example. Both provide specific nutrients (or densities of nutrients) the other doesn't have. Further, to achieve the caloric equivalent of meat, it takes a hellalot of broccoli. Say an 8oz hamburger or salmon or tenderloin - take those three calorically and you would need to eat ALOT of broccoli - in fact, all three meats contain differences in nutrition unto themselves.
I do believe CICO matters but it matters within the context of your macros. For instance, not all fiber is digestible (insoluble v. soluble). Not all soluble fiber is digestible - those calories can essentially be thrown out - fiber is used by the body in a much different way than the "net" carb of that food. You can't store fiber (or most of it) because it's not made to be stored. It's made to be moved through the body and aids in the elimination process.
Protein requires protein calories to process it - then some protein is used for muscle synthesis and hypertrophy:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11255140
"Resistance exercise improves muscle protein balance, but, in the absence of food intake, the balance remains negative (i.e., catabolic)."
So one can "move around" but if one doesn't eat the required macro, one creates a catabolic state that in essence wipes out the whole concept of "moving around"!
The remaining protein is then "storable." So figure 33% of your protein calories are convertible to fat.
I don't think there's a magic number when it comes to weight loss - for instance, many purport that eating 1500 calories would garner weight loss - but 1500 calories of what - does that figure exercise into it, and is that enough to sustain muscles over the long-term? Does that raise the metabolic set point to where you need to eat even less once your metabolism slows to 1500?
That's the problem with looking at things from just the CICO perspective. I do agree (and often get mislabeled on here) that CICO matters, but it matters within the perspective of your macros, the kinds of foods you are eating, the processing (or lack thereof) of that food, and your body's metabolic resistance (or lack thereof) to certain macros and foods.
Thanks Ted! So many haters when it comes to "food talk". I stay informed and read everything I can. Looks like you do, also. Stress is another factor and I think I will walk away from this forum and instead, walk in the beautiful sunshiny eighteen below morning.
♥ Yeah I hear ya. Hormones - awesome suggestion.
Another is what you just described - it's much harder to lose fat during the winter months because the body is preserving as much fat as possible to stay warm. I find it very easy to lose fat during the summer.
LOL OK ...
so if I eat in a deficit during winter, I won't lose as much fat...??0 -
Obviously what works for one person, might not work for someone else. Not because we're all special snowflakes, but because some of us - admittedly - have more willpower than others and just prefer a certain way of eating.
Personally, I tried the "clean" eating thing. I know, I know, it's such a subjective term. But to me, it was lean meats, veggies, fruits, high fiber, no processed sugars, no soda, no alcohol, no fat, no pasta and by the end of my month-long stint, I was a *kitten* to everyone I came into contact with, and I dove so fast into a chocolate cake it was like Lindsay Lohan inhaling a pile of coke.
For me, it's moderation. And - quite frankly - I couldn't imagine a world where I couldn't have Doritos. Or donuts. Or Toaster Strudel. Or chicken wings and beer while I watch football. But it's balance. For me, it's working in the treats I've always loved in with my goals. If I want wine, I'm going to drink some damn wine. And if one of the vendors at work brings in a box of donuts...well...I might have one. Because #yolodonuts.
I will say, one of my favorite things, is to take food that is high in calories and fat and what some high atop their horses would call "bad food", and try to make it healthy and fit within my macros (I'm one of those IIFYM *kitten*). I find it fun to be creative in the kitchen and thinking about ways I can put spins on the food I love makes it so I rarely run out of ideas of food to make.
I also absolutely go bananas over meal planning. It's my gluten-free-non-GMO-organically-farmed-prayed-over-by-clean-eating-Buddhist-monks-goat-sacrificing jam.
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It depends on what suits you. Overall, eating clean is healthier, more nutritionally balanced. But eating in moderation is more realistic for most people.0
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My diet is mainly made up of what would be classed as 'clean' food I think (although I'm sure some clean eating enthusiast would gleefully correct me on that). But this isn't some deliberate effort to avoid demonised food items, it's just that what I enjoy eating and what helps me hit my macros and fibre targets happens to be that sort of food usually. My target is always to hit macros and a calorie deficit, regardless of what helps me reach that. I fit in plenty of the treat type food as well, because I love chocolate croissants and peanut butter cups.0
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SconnieCat wrote: »I was a *kitten* to everyone I came into contact with, and I dove so fast into a chocolate cake it was like Lindsay Lohan inhaling a pile of coke.
When you read that quote alongside your current profile photo, it's quite something.0 -
Here's a sample of what I'm eating on my cut down to 181:
Staples:
Beef
Chicken
Pork
Turkey
Bacon
Eggs
Greek Yogurt
Pizza
Protein Bars
Milk
Bread
Cheese
Sausage
Potatoes
Vegetables (a variety)
Protein Powder (for shakes, typically if I'm running behind in the morning and don't have time to cook my eggs for breakfast)
Occasional:
Beer
Liqueur
Carrot Cake
Ice Cream
Pasta
Chips & Salsa
Peanut Butter
Popcorn0 -
To be completely honest, I have no idea if I am eating clean or not. I have been doing this 7 months and so far I have eaten the following "dirty" foods over that time....
+One McRib meal with fries
+One mini-blizzard (red velvet)
+About six pieces of chocolate
+Three donuts
+One cup of frozen yogurt
+A couple of brownies
+A couple of cookies
+Probably about a half a bag of potato chips
The rest of the time I eat fish, lots of veggies, and chicken. BUT, this is not that far from how I ate normally before. I just cut way back on booze, cheese, and bread - which I don't consider unhealthy. I have never liked sweets that much.0 -
70 pounds lost with moderation.0
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I definitely eat more "clean" foods now than I did before starting this logging journey. It's all about moderation though, even with the "clean" foods. I do eat some processed things, but definitely make a lot more effort to find and cook nutritionally dense foods now. All I'm doing is getting back to how I ate when I was slender. Moderation moderation moderation
My "sensitivities" to certain ingredients already had me reading food labels even before I got serious about weight loss.0 -
It depends on what suits you. Overall, eating clean is healthier, more nutritionally balanced. But eating in moderation is more realistic for most people.
how would clean eating be healthier if someone ate in moderation but hits their macro/micro/calorie target for the day?
does the fact that one adds in ice cream and some cookies negate the rest of their day, because dirty?0 -
DebHutton55 wrote: »Eat the right carbs, proteins and fats. Watch the quantity. Move! There's the key to healthy living and an outcome in your later years that has you with your memory and the ability to move around with ease. If you are just eating for your weight, wise up. It's taken me most of my life to figure that out.
Someone said, sugar is nothing unless you have a medical condition. So wrong! Read, read, read. What all this stuff is doing to your brain, is more important than what it is doing to your butt.
Of course, eat an occasional bad but if you start eating correctly, you don't have that desire anymore.
Your brain actually functions on glucose.
Or ketones0 -
To be completely honest, I have no idea if I am eating clean or not. I have been doing this 7 months and so far I have eaten the following "dirty" foods over that time....
+One McRib meal with fries
+One mini-blizzard (red velvet)
+About six pieces of chocolate
+Three donuts
+One cup of frozen yogurt
+A couple of brownies
+A couple of cookies
+Probably about a half a bag of potato chips
The rest of the time I eat fish, lots of veggies, and chicken. BUT, this is not that far from how I ate normally before. I just cut way back on booze, cheese, and bread - which I don't consider unhealthy. I have never liked sweets that much.
This is moderation. Which is great and healthy. So, yay!0 -
Alyssa_Is_LosingIt wrote: »To be completely honest, I have no idea if I am eating clean or not. I have been doing this 7 months and so far I have eaten the following "dirty" foods over that time....
+One McRib meal with fries
+One mini-blizzard (red velvet)
+About six pieces of chocolate
+Three donuts
+One cup of frozen yogurt
+A couple of brownies
+A couple of cookies
+Probably about a half a bag of potato chips
The rest of the time I eat fish, lots of veggies, and chicken. BUT, this is not that far from how I ate normally before. I just cut way back on booze, cheese, and bread - which I don't consider unhealthy. I have never liked sweets that much.
This is moderation. Which is great and healthy. So, yay!
OK, thanks. I really wasn't sure.
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