“Eat Clean to be Lean”

Or whatever other phrase along those lines you’ve heard.  Fat loss has been associated with only eating “good clean foods” and staying away from all “bad foods”. Contrary to what most people are led to believe, there are no such things as “clean foods” or “dirty foods”, or good foods or bad foods. Food is just food. Food has no moral value, it is literally just food (stay tuned for more on that later). When it comes to fat loss, any and all foods can and should be included in your diet.

Let’s go back to our money example, just like last weeks post (incase you missed it, it can be found here.) Let’s live on the edge a little, instead of only 100$ to spend we will have 1000$ to spend. We can spend our 1000$ on whatever we want, we can go to the thrift store and come out with enough stuff to fill a small moving van or we can go to a designer store and come out with one or two items. Regardless of what we buy, we stick to our 1000$ budget.

Now we will apply the same concept to food and fat loss. If you have 2,000 calories to eat in a day, it does not matter what you eat as long as you stick within your 2,000 calorie allotment. A calorie is a calorie and your body will digest it as such.

However like with most good things, there are a few caveats to consider. Yes, you can use your 2,000 calories to eat whatever you want, but if you eat lots of calorie dense foods like donuts, pizza, etc. you may burn through your allotment without feeling full or satiated. I always recommend that when in a fat loss phase to do good mix of nutrient dense foods like fruits and veggies and mix in some of your more favorite calorie dense foods. This approach is usually referred to as flexible dieting.

Major Benefits of Flexible Dieting:

• including all foods in your diet can reduce the urge to binge / overeat
• picking and choosing what foods you eat leads to long term sustainable fat loss
• having a better relationship with all foods

So don’t think that just because you’re trying to lose some body fat, you can only eat certain foods. Any and all foods can and should be to eaten to your preference!