"clean foods"

Reread what I wrote and then try again

I just did, and I read up on glycogen losses. It only really happens during very low calorie diets. I don't think eating 2500 calories a day counts as "very low calorie."

I was eating the exact same amount of food as when I put on 30 lbs in a year, I was just eating all raw veggies and foodstuff I was preparing myself. Nothing came out of a box, unless I was very careful with the ingredients used.

I lost 17 lbs, simply from changing what I ate, not from workout out, or eating less.

Clean, dirty, believe what you want. I grew up eating fresh fruit and veggies from my Grampas garden and to this day I prefer the healthier foods but I do love some processed things. I do go for the packaged foods that don't have a novel for a list of ingredients though, such as Cape Cod chips that have only 3 ingredients. Do what works for you and what makes you feel good. Alcohol surely isn't considered "clean" but I'm not going to give up drinks with my fiancé or friends, I just make sure I balance it all out with food and exercise.

:laugh: Most people don't completely give up alcohol anyhow, luckily I don't drink (allergic to liquor, don't like beer) so that part won't be a problem for me!

True haha, though I do see people who have better luck losing weight when they cut out alcohol. For most it makes them hungry so they tend to eat more so I can see how cutting it out works. For me, alcohol takes away my appetite, yeah I'm weird haha. Like I said I don't count calories anymore but if I'm going to be having drinks then I balance it with a good work out first and watching food portions for that day :drinker: . Guess my main point was like I said, do what works for you and what makes you feel good because there will always be some new study telling you what to eat, how much to eat and when to eat. This has certainly been an interesting thread to read :glasses:

alcohol is actually an appetite suppressant.

I agree with you on this one!

clean foods are a myth. calories in and calories out is what counts to lose weight.

Twinkie Diet: http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/11/08/twinkie.diet.professor/index.html

just my two cents.

While this is true, part of changing your diet is creating a self-perpetuating trend toward eating less. Part of eating less is to increase the quality of the foods you eat--vegetables are more nutritious, less calorie-intensive and more filling. What the twinkie guy does not discuss is how eating high sugar, high processed ingredient foods leads you to crave more of those foods. The craving leads to over-eating those high calorie foods.

So while it is technically and input/output problem, there is much more to the story than that. And that is not even getting into the "afterburn" experienced after exercise in the form of increased metabolic rates. You can't really measure it, but it is real.

Cheers!

Reread what I wrote and then try again

I just did, and I read up on glycogen losses. It only really happens during very low calorie diets. I don't think eating 2500 calories a day counts as "very low calorie."

I was eating the exact same amount of food as when I put on 30 lbs in a year, I was just eating all raw veggies and foodstuff I was preparing myself. Nothing came out of a box, unless I was very careful with the ingredients used.

I lost 17 lbs, simply from changing what I ate, not from workout out, or eating less.

What food scale were you using before and what food scale are you currently using? How did you determine that your NEAT before is the exact same as it is now?

But nevermind that silliness, you are a metabolic miracle that the laws of the universe don't apply to

LOL!!!

the whole clean vs dirty thing is kind of bogus.

you can eat foods that aren't "clean" and still achieve your goals. the main thing is hitting your daily macro goals, consistently.
I was my leanest at a time when i drank beer and ate wings often.
It's about the overall numbers, not "clean" or "unclean" food sources.

That being said, try to eat unprocessed foods. They usually have more micronutrients and not as much garbage in them.
I try to stick to foods that have ingredients I can pronounce.

Eating clean is more about being healthy on the inside. Better whole healthy foods equals better health overall for the long run.

the whole clean vs dirty thing is kind of bogus.

you can eat foods that aren't "clean" and still achieve your goals. the main thing is hitting your daily macro goals, consistently.
I was my leanest at a time when i drank beer and ate wings often.
It's about the overall numbers, not "clean" or "unclean" food sources.

That being said, try to eat unprocessed foods. They usually have more micronutrients and not as much garbage in them.
I try to stick to foods that have ingredients I can pronounce.

This. As others have said, weight loss comes from a calorie deficit. Since it doesn't have a definition I think each person decides what clean means and whether it's important. For me, clean includes high quality protein powders, for others it doesn't. I'm also down with whole wheat pasta and cheese. I just try to eat less processed/more whole foods for several reasons:

1. Nutrient dense. Whole foods tend to be denser in nutrients compared to processed ones. Think of it as more bang for your caloric buck.

2. I find them more filling (potentially related to number one) and I feel better.

3. I don't think 'processed' foods will kill you but there's something to be said for eating it as it came, not as it was engineered with extra chemicals with potentially questionable effects.

4. There's a lot of people who say it affects body composition (fat, muscle etc). I don't know that I fully believe this but since I already believe all the stuff above I'll put on the 'pros' list.

That said, I drink booze and eat pizza too. Once a week when I'm good, more when I'm not. But I also try to constantly improve the quality of my food - subbing natural peanut butter for smuckers, plain greek yogurt for dannon oikos etc. It's what works for me.

I am bowing out!

Reread what I wrote and then try again

I just did, and I read up on glycogen losses. It only really happens during very low calorie diets. I don't think eating 2500 calories a day counts as "very low calorie."

I was eating the exact same amount of food as when I put on 30 lbs in a year, I was just eating all raw veggies and foodstuff I was preparing myself. Nothing came out of a box, unless I was very careful with the ingredients used.

I lost 17 lbs, simply from changing what I ate, not from workout out, or eating less.

What food scale were you using before and what food scale are you currently using? How did you determine that your NEAT before is the exact same as it is now?

But nevermind that silliness, you are a metabolic miracle that the laws of the universe don't apply to

I have been using an Omron HBF-500, and have been using it for 6 months. The changes from 1 month ago to today were all used on the same scale. I have even read reports, claiming that this scale is accurate to within 2%.

I'm not claiming that the weight I had lost was from fat or anything. In fact, it was about 50/50 lean mass and fat (my BF% didn't go down as quickly as my weight dropped). All the weight I had lost was probably all the garbage my body was holding onto from all the crap I was eating (which, by some people's standards, was already quite healthy, just 80% frozen, pre made foods).

I went from 240 llbs +/- to 224 +/- and stabilized right there. The first week I lost 10 lbs, and it slowed from there. Now that I'm about 225, I haven't been losing weight nearly as quickly. As soon as I ate some frozen premade food, I instantly put on 2 lbs. I didn't eat an extra 7000 calories in 3 days. In fact, I had a deficit each day.

I'm not saying that I'm going to reach my UGW from eating clean alone. I need to exercise in order to do that. What I'm saying is that eating crap food will make your body hold onto more weight than if you didn't eat the crap food.

I asked about what food scale you are using, not what BF analyzer you are using, which by the way is garbage, it uses BIA

And herp to the derp, I said your big initial weight loss was mostly water/glycogen, which you disputed and same with the gain it was water weight eek!

Food scale? you mean to measure what I'm eating?

This one www.consumersearch.com/kitchen-scales/eatsmart-precision-pro-digital-kitchen-scale

I use the USDA nutritional database for getting accurate measurements for what is in what, and obviously MFP to track it all.