Clean Eating for Weight Loss

Eating clean is not a “diet” at its core, but if you need to lose weight, clean eating can be very, very effective. Throughout this website, I show you specifically how to use the concepts of clean eating to lose weight.

If you want to eat clean to lose weight, switching to a clean eating diet (its really not a diet but a lifestyle!) can melt fat and pounds off your body in a manner that is not only healthy, but really quite easy relative to other weight loss approaches –  all while eating a ton of delicious food, and without ever feeling hungry.

Although clean eating in its most basic form is not about dieting or losing weight, simply by adopting a more healthy way of eating, many people just naturally lose weight when they begin to eat clean if they are overweight.

But if your goal is an aggressive war on weight, then there are additional modifications that can be made to the overall clean eating approach to help the pounds melt off rather easily.

After I started to eat clean, people started telling me that I was “literally glowing”, that I looked “ten years younger”, and they complimented me on my weight loss and slimmer figure.  Let me tell you, I loved every word of it and ate it all up!

Not only that, at forty-five years of age, I was noticing admiring glances from gentlemen of all ages – it was like I was in my twenties again. Clearly clean eating was working some kind of magic on me!

Did I miss any of the crap I used to eat (and was, frankly, somewhat addicted to)?  Not one bit.  None of those old foods I used to eat tastes as good as looking good feels!

The awesome thing is that simply by eating clean, extra pounds just started to melt off of me, without ever having to starve myself, or count calories, or punish myself by eating unappealing foods. It was as close to effortless as weight loss can be.  My husband was so inspired – especially when he saw, smelled, and tasted the “clean eating” foods I was eating – that he decided to join me in my new clean eating lifestyle as well. And he lost weight effortlessly, too.

When I first started eating clean, I was motivated by wanting to lose weight and get fit.  I had been medically unwell for quite a number of years, to the point of eventually becoming bedridden. I was suffering from an un-diagnosed pituitary tumor, and an untreated adrenal gland disorder. These two medical conditions wrecked havoc on my health and on my body, grinding my metabolism to a halt, and causing inexplicable weight gain and a complete inability to lose weight despite any manner of diet and exercise.

Finally having received a diagnosis and treatment and years of struggle, and having learned how to manage my condition, I’d been on the road to recovery for a number of years – but the one residual effect I still struggled with was that frustrating inability to lose weight, despite dedicated effort.

I had tried so many approaches to weight loss – dieting, exercising, weight loss supplements and diet pills, and expensive programs that sold me their pricey pre-packaged food – all to no avail.

When I turned forty, I literally gave up, mentally and emotionally, on ever being able to lose weight. I’d heard how a woman’s metabolism slows right down, making weight loss much harder once she hits forty. I figured that if I hadn’t been able to lose weight in my 20s and 30s, it certainly wasn’t going to get any better in my 40s.

It was a  few years later that I started to learn the concepts of clean eating.  I didn’t even know it had a name at the time, I hadn’t heard the term “clean eating”.  But the idea of eating clean (free of additives, preservatives or chemicals), unprocessed wholesome food for better health and well being suddenly just sounded so right to me, and inspired me to want to try.

I’d always tried to incorporate healthy eating principles into my diet (or so I thought), but by no means had I been eating clean.  I had no idea that all those convenient packages of pre-seasoned rice mix, chicken coating (I used it on skinless chicken breast, so thought it was healthy), canned soup and “whole grain” crackers were bad; no idea that they were filled with unhealthy ingredients that were sabotaging my weight loss attempts and wrecking other forms of havoc on my body.  It was quite an real eye opener as I started to learn more about clean eating.

When I started to learn the principles of clean eating, something made me feel very inspired to give eating clean a try.

So I told my husband I was going on a “diet”, because at the time my motivation to eat clean was all driven by a desire to lose weight – something I had struggled with quite unsuccessfully with for a long time, a real pain point in y life.

I cheerfully told him I’d still cook his regular meals for him, and I’d cook my “diet” food separately for myself so he could still eat the foods he enjoyed while I “dieted”.

Well, a very funny thing happened… He got a whiff and a look at what I was cooking for myself and eating, and he said, “Damn that looks and smells good! Do you have enough of that for me to try?”

Learn More: Clean Eating Recipes

I was thrilled (and flattered) by his interest in my new way of eating, and, of course, shared what I had cooked with him – and he was instantly hooked. He jumped right on board my clean eating program with me, because the food really is good.

Trust me, this is a man who enjoys fried chicken, pizza, chicken wings, lasagna, deli meats, hot dogs, and the occasional bag of potato chips just as much as the next guy. But one taste of one of my clean eating lunches and he was all in.  And when I served our “clean eating” dinner that evening he raved that it was “so gourmet”.

After just a week, he and I had both dropped unwanted weight effortlessly and easily, eating delicious meals all throughout the day and never feeling hungry. We were both feeling good, looking good, and we knew we had just made what would become a permanent lifestyle change.

It was just too good, and made too much sense, to ever give up.

Now that doesn’t mean we don’t allow ourselves a little non-clean eating cheating once in a while. But the key really is to keep those cheats to a minimum if you feel the need to do it at all.  Do it as a rare treat, get it out of your system, and then get right back to eating clean.

You will find that once you start to eat clean, your taste in food actually really start to change.

Suddenly you’ll notice you don’t have the same enjoyment of foods that are high in sugar, high in salt, or high in fat.  You’ll find that once you cut back on carbs, you really don’t miss them (after the first day or so).

Foods you really used to think you enjoyed will actually seem much less palatable to you.  That’s because your taste palette and your body have gotten smart after eating clean for a little while. Your body now knows to recognize foods that aren’t good for you as soon as you put them in your mouth, and you’ll actually feel a little put off by them.

When you hit that point – and it doesn’t take long – you’ll know that you are officially part of the clean eating club!

You’re no longer eating clean just because you should, you’re eating clean because it is what you and your body actually prefer.

Clean eating is about eating healthy. Without sacrificing delicious flavors.

It’s about eating in a way that allows our bodies to function at peak performance.  That’s why more and more health conscious people, even those who are already at their ideal weight, are adopting a clean eating lifestyle – they want to feel, be, and look their best; they want to nurture their own good health.

Clean eating isn’t a fad or a diet – it’s a lifestyle that focuses on getting rid of the foods that don’t serve your body or your health well, and focusing on those foods that contribute to you feeling and looking your best.

Unlike most “diets”, eating clean actually allows you to eat more food, not less!

You are able to eat more food, more often, and still lose weight if you need to (or maintain your weight without gaining) because you are eating the right types of food that nourish your body while fueling your metabolism. Restrictive diets or eating plans are never realistic for the long term. And clean eating is a long term, permanent lifestyle change that you will never want to give up.

Eating clean is about giving your body what it really needs to thrive, by moving away from “Fake Food”  and replacing it with real food.

When you switch to eating clean, you refresh your eating habits without counting calories, eliminating food groups, going hungry or depriving yourself.   Eating this way not only helps protect us from disease, but it  allows us to de-bloat, feel more energy, drop weight without even trying and feel better about the way we look.

How Eating Clean Fixes Your Metabolism

Have you ever dieted for months on low calories without seeing any weight loss, or worse, seen weight gain?  What most people don’t know – even many doctors – is that sometimes eating less is actually the problem, not the solution.

The phrase “metabolic damage” floats around as a way to describe a slow metabolism that no longer burns fat efficiently, despite a low caloric intake or excess exercise.

Weight loss seems impossible, and the general rule of calories in versus calories out no longer applies.

However this damage is fixable.

Your metabolism is adaptable, changeable, and flexible, and in the same way it slows down during dieting, it can also speed up when properly cared. That’s where your clean eating lifestyle comes in.

That’s right, you dont have to be stuck with your slow metabolism forever!

The amount of food we provide our body determines how fast or slow our metabolism operates.

When we begin to diet or have a low calorie intake, our  metabolism slows its functions to match this decrease in food intake. Yes, you read that right. Metabolism begins to slow down as food intake decreases.

The same way that you don’t want to run sprints on low energy, your metabolism doesn’t want to drive your body’s engine all day with no fuel in the tank. So it slows right down.

After a prolonged period of too energy expenditure and not enough food, your metabolism reaches a point where fat loss becomes nearly impossible.

Eventually any calories you consume will be stored to keep the body’s functions operating, rather than burned for fat loss.

Once your metabolism slows down to the point where it no longer burns fat, how do you repair it?

The only place to go is up. Yes, increasing food may actually help you lose weight.

Eating food raises metabolism. After all, processing and digesting nutrients requires energy  and accounts for 10% of our metabolism.

Digesting proteins requires the most energy, which means that as you eat more protein, and more calories in general, your metabolism will begin working faster.

If you’re currently eating 3000 calories a day, increasing your intake probably wont help you loose weight. But  if you’ve been  eating very little, or following a1200-calorie plan for months with no results, you may be ready to take steps towards metabolic repair. And following the clean eating principles I share on this site will help you do it.

How to Revive Your Metabolism With Clean Eating:

1. Eating more food

As part of your clean eating lifestyle, you need to eat evey 2.5 to 3 hours throughout the day. That’s 5 – 6 small, nutritious, “clean”  meals a day. This will wake up your metabolism.

Now your body starts to realize that food is not in short supply – you’re feeding it frequently throughout the day, so it doesn’t have to go into “fat storage” mode to survive.  When you feed your body, you are fueling your metabolism to function at peak performance. Just as you get a bon fire to roar by adding logs to it, you’re get your metabolism to roar by feeding it.  But similarly, you won’t get a bon fire to burn by putting the wrong fuel on the fire – do that and you might just snuff it out. Similarly, when feeding your metabolism, you need to fuel it with the correct food – or you might just snuff it out. The clean eating principles in this book teach you the correct food, and the correct food combining principles, to get your metabolusm to roar!

2 Keep your body guessing

As humans, our bodies seek regularity and will work to maintain homeostasis. After following one plan for too long, your body grows accustomed and needs a change to see results. You can’t eat the same foods or the amount for months and months and expect it to cause weight loss or weight gain, you will eventually just maintain. Continue to change your routine in the the kitchen to keep your body up to speed.

Don’t buy pre-packaged meat products, or any type of packaged, frozen, or convenience foods because they are loaded with artificial ingredeints that are ultimately harmful to your body and  your metabolism, and are entirely counterproductive to good health.

Clean foods pack the highest nutrient value for the lowest number of calories. Brightly-colored fruits and vegetables supply more nutrients compared to the number of calories they supply. Less nutrient-dense foods provide empty calories and tend to look lighter or whiter, contain refined sugar, or high amounts of unhealthy fats.

Everyone would agree that excessive consumption of highly processed food with lots of additives is not a healthy way to eat. However, neither is following a highly restrictive diet for any amount of time

Eat lots of veggies, good quality protein.

It’s better to develop healthy eating habits that come from sound scientific advice and which balance all the nutrients your body needs.

As I mentioned earlier, clean eating is not a fad diet nor is does it involve eliminating any food major groups. Instead it is a lifestyle that empowers you by showing you how to make good decisions within those food groups.

If you haven’t already read my quick start guide on How to Eat Clean be sure to go through it – it will make the process of learning how to eat clean simple and straight forward for you. You can do this!  And it WILL change your life.

Remember, its never too late to be who you were meant to be.  You’re not too late – you’re just getting started!