any doing the eat clean diet by tosca reno?

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lillyy23
lillyy23 Posts: 136 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
just wondering if anyone on here follows Tosca Renos great book. Its not just for people over 40 years old or whatever. young people can follow her books too.. just wondering if anyone is following her 'eat clean diet' because , honestly I love my fitness pal, and i've read the info how to count calories but its just so much work i dont understand it. and Tosca Reno doesnt really follow the 'count calories' way of living and i was wondering if anyone else doesnt like counting calories.. im thinking of just following her book, and she talks mostly about portion control.. i dont think she mentions calorie counting. its just too confusing for me. because i am a perfectionist, and counting calories are all just estimates of calories and numbers, its not exact and it drives me crazy. not to mention i get obssessed with counting everything .
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  • NobodyPutsAmyInTheCorner
    NobodyPutsAmyInTheCorner Posts: 1,018 Member
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    You don't need to follow a diet. MFP is easy so I'm not sure what your issue is. You weigh your food, you track it, you eat it and lose weight. It's simple.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,719 Member
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    Portion control is counting calories. If something is say 500 calories a serving and you don't don't want to utilize all those calories from it, you may eat half of it for 250 calories. That's still counting calories.
    You just can't eat whatever you want without know what it's calorie value may be and how much consumption of it would put you over.

    Eating "clean" is usually lower in calories for the amount of food one can consume. Personally I find it restrictive and when I competed, 16 week of "clean" eating is what I did to get totally ripped. But living that way for LIFE? Part of the reason why competitors had the celebratory after meal (pizza, hamburgers, hot dogs, etc.) is because of deprivation.

    Life is about balance and your body can't distinguish beef from a steak or a hamburger when it comes to digestion. It just takes it, breaks it down to it's simplest components for absorption and absorbs it.
    People are over weight for one main reason....................over consumption.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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  • dsalveson
    dsalveson Posts: 306 Member
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    Your logic doesn't make very much sense to me. Sure, nutrition labels may not always be 100% accurate, but accurate logging still beats eyeballing portions by a long shot. I would think that if you're a perfectionist you would actually prefer counting calories and take the time to learn how to do it properly.

    There is going to be some degree of trial and error involved regardless, but if your plan is to rely solely on eating what you perceive to be a controlled portion of whatever you decide qualifies as a clean food, losing weight will be a much longer and more frustrating process than it needs to be.
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
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    Yeah you need to focus, skipping from one "fix" to another is a road to nowhere

    Portion control in a prescribed diet book is just less accurate calorie counting
  • scottacular
    scottacular Posts: 597 Member
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    lillyy23 wrote: »
    just wondering if anyone on here follows Tosca Renos great book. Its not just for people over 40 years old or whatever. young people can follow her books too.. just wondering if anyone is following her 'eat clean diet' because , honestly I love my fitness pal, and i've read the info how to count calories but its just so much work i dont understand it. and Tosca Reno doesnt really follow the 'count calories' way of living and i was wondering if anyone else doesnt like counting calories.. im thinking of just following her book, and she talks mostly about portion control.. i dont think she mentions calorie counting. its just too confusing for me. because i am a perfectionist, and counting calories are all just estimates of calories and numbers, its not exact and it drives me crazy. not to mention i get obssessed with counting everything .

    Calorie counting (macros counting is better in my opinion) is the best way to get precise results. But I understand doing that can be mind numbing and many people would prefer a more simplistic way to go about things. Since it's got you curious, you may as well give it a try and see if it works for you. If not, it'll be no disaster and you've got calorie counting to fall back on. But don't be daunted by counting, it only seems difficult at first because it's new. Anything new can seem a lot more complicated than it really is, it gets a lot easier and becomes habit after a short while.
  • Sarasmaintaining
    Sarasmaintaining Posts: 1,027 Member
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    Weight loss is about calories and math. It is what it is and you can save yourself a lot of time and frustration if you just start there.
  • syedumairtelecom
    syedumairtelecom Posts: 101 Member
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    I like to be more practcle than reading some book i prefer good diet and heavy workout . What do you say guys.
  • bluworld
    bluworld Posts: 135 Member
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    Calorie counting is hard because you are are confronted with how many calories you have been eating, and how small your current portions would be if you take hi cal foods into a reduced cal diet.
    It's hard because you have to be mindful of every bite you eat. It works because you are mindful of every bite you eat.
  • uvi5
    uvi5 Posts: 710 Member
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    syedumairtelecom wrote: »
    I like to be more practcle than reading some book i prefer good diet and heavy workout . What do you say guys.
    Yes! Me too. I worked my tush off yesterday for my treat meal. 110 minutes throughout the day. I had an awesome chicken wrap, gorgeous fresh fruit plate, 5 ounces tortilla chips, homemade salsa and guacamole and still had almost 500 calories from exercise left over! I feel great, healthy and ready for my lifting session, step aerobics and walks today :smiley:

  • Laurend224
    Laurend224 Posts: 1,748 Member
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    I own it, bought back when 'clean eating' was the next new thing.... can't use it now as we are vegan, and I like sugar, flour, and baking yummy treats. :)
  • ana3067
    ana3067 Posts: 5,623 Member
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    No, I'm just doing the 'CICO Diet' by Biology.
  • ana3067
    ana3067 Posts: 5,623 Member
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    aimeerace wrote: »
    You don't need to follow a diet. MFP is easy so I'm not sure what your issue is. You weigh your food, you track it, you eat it and lose weight. It's simple.

    This. "Eating clean" (which I've done, and am a million times glad I stopped doing it) is just ignorant calorie counting without any accountability or logging to determine trends. Nor does it allow you to figure out how to change your portion sizes as your weight loss slows down or when you want to maintain your weight.
  • PeachyCarol
    PeachyCarol Posts: 8,029 Member
    edited April 2015
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    What method does she utilize to control portions? I do understand that for some people it can be triggering to count calories.

    BUT...

    When you have marginal amounts of weight to lose, portion control might not get you exactly where you want to be because it's still as much of an estimate as calorie counting is if not more so. Our eyes lie to us.

    It's true that you can, if calorie counting is simply a problem for you no matter what, simply use the idea of letting your scale guide you. If you're not getting the results you want, just keep eating less until you do get to where you want to be.

    The problem with that is that weight loss isn't linear, and there are stops and starts along the way. You might unnecessarily pull back on portion sizes when you're experiencing natural stalls, water weight fluctuations, fluctuations from exercise and muscle repair and things like that.

    I'm not familiar with the book and the advice she gives on monitoring your weight, so I'm speaking in general terms here.

    Regarding the issue of "clean" eating... it's such a nebulous term that it's really laughable. What makes a food "clean" or "dirty"?
  • booksandchocolate12
    booksandchocolate12 Posts: 1,741 Member
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    She tells you to exercise portion control? As in, weigh and measure your food? So how is that different from what we do on MFP?
  • ana3067
    ana3067 Posts: 5,623 Member
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    booksandchocolate12 wrote: »
    She tells you to exercise portion control? As in, weigh and measure your food? So how is that different from what we do on MFP?

    Probably more rudimentary like "use the tiny plate instead of the big plate," "only eat half of a cookie instead of the whole cookie" etc. Which makes it even less precise.
  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
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    I've never read her books or what not, but have made a few of her recipes, which were tasty.

    I don't count calories, and can understand why some would rather not. If her approach works for you, (even just as a learning approach, which is all MFP is) it's healthy and why not. Good luck.
  • booksandchocolate12
    booksandchocolate12 Posts: 1,741 Member
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    ana3067 wrote: »
    booksandchocolate12 wrote: »
    She tells you to exercise portion control? As in, weigh and measure your food? So how is that different from what we do on MFP?

    Probably more rudimentary like "use the tiny plate instead of the big plate," "only eat half of a cookie instead of the whole cookie" etc. Which makes it even less precise.

    And less work, which I guess is the appeal of it.

    Accurately weighing/measuring and logging your food does take work, especially in the beginning, when it's unfamiliar. It does get easier as time goes on, and for me, it's essential to weight loss.
  • strawbreezy88
    strawbreezy88 Posts: 2
    edited April 2015
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    The people who win the awards for most weight lost on her eat-clean diet in their website almost all say they counted calories!
  • ana3067
    ana3067 Posts: 5,623 Member
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    booksandchocolate12 wrote: »
    ana3067 wrote: »
    booksandchocolate12 wrote: »
    She tells you to exercise portion control? As in, weigh and measure your food? So how is that different from what we do on MFP?

    Probably more rudimentary like "use the tiny plate instead of the big plate," "only eat half of a cookie instead of the whole cookie" etc. Which makes it even less precise.

    And less work, which I guess is the appeal of it.

    Accurately weighing/measuring and logging your food does take work, especially in the beginning, when it's unfamiliar. It does get easier as time goes on, and for me, it's essential to weight loss.

    I've done this and I honestly don't think it's less work. It was actually MORE work because I had to rely on exercise to really drive the weight loss (since portion control works for individual meals, but doesn't stop you from eating more meals than you ought to) and I wasn't able to get down as lean as I wanted to. PLus, I had to give up food I loved eating and as a consequence I didn't actually learn anything about how specific types of food lead to weight management... so once I ate them again it wasn't long before I started gaining again.
  • booksandchocolate12
    booksandchocolate12 Posts: 1,741 Member
    edited April 2015
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    I see your point.

    I meant "less work" in terms of, it's easier to just scoop food onto a small plate, than it is to weigh/measure whatever goes on that plate. People think "food scale and measuring cups" and immediately think, "That's too much work".

    Of course using the smaller plate without actually weighing anything is less accurate and therefore not as effective. I didn't mean that it was a viable way to lose weight or that it was easier to lose weight that way! And I certainly didn't mean to imply that easier was better!

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