I'm currently counting calories, but am in.the process of reading 'the eat clean diet' and am finding it pretty interesting & appealing. Anyone follow this rather than count calories?

Is it the same as what's touted in Clean Eating magazine? If you follow the meal plan in the magazine, the calories are already broken down for you.

As with anything, you'll still need to watch portions. I gained my original weight on very healthy food. I just ate too much of it.

Like most programs, it has it's faults - "clean" is really a term that has no meaning considering how often Tosca promotes protein powders. "Clean" food can still result in overeating (ie getting fat off chicken and green beans, obviously not as easy as Big Macs but you know), and perpetuating the 6 meal per day metabolism myth...

But in general, decent principles. However, Tosca and all her models absolutely count calories despite what she may say in her books, something she tends to hide from her promotional materials but it is well known within the fitness/BB industry. Good luck!

In the past, I have. I would follow serving sizes instead.... cup of raw veggies, meat the size of a deck of cards or X ounces, 1/2 cup rice or pasta, etc. I knew I could eat 2 fruit, 3 veggie, 2 protein and 2 carb servings a day. It worked for me, but I was doing a weight loss program, and I still had to weigh and measure everything, or as much as possible.

I tried that way of eating without weighing and measuring, and without counting calories, just eating clean, and also without weighing myself (broken scale), but I wasn't successful. I think for me, I really need to have the numbers. I need to be able to weigh and measure to see what I'm taking in, and see what I'm losing too.

I think it's possible to go about it without the calorie counting, but I think you need to be able to keep track of what you've had and how much in some way, with a food journal and sticking to specific portion sizes.

I mostly do that, because calorie-counting makes me trend toward eating disorders. My diet is more exchange-based, though, and still very focused on portion-observance and the difference between head hunger and stomach hunger.

I track how many servings I ate of various foods on checklists - yesterday I had 9 servings of exercise, 3 servings of fruit, 5 servings of vegetables, one serving of whole grains, 1 serving of dairy, 1 serving of nuts, 1 serving of meat, 2 servings of sugar/starch and a trace of alcohol. I also track fish/seafood (which I need more of this week), beans (which I need way more of this week), eggs/poultry and unhealthy fats. My targets are modeled off the Harvard Medicine Mediterranean Diet, but I allow myself more lean animal protein.

Since I don't have enough data to calculate calories or vitamins/minerals I spend a lot more time looking for a balanced and varied diet and focusing on how foods make me feel. I also get more anxious for the week a month that the scale goes up instead of down.

I wouldn't say that it's easier or harder than counting calories - it's different. I chose it because I needed to have less black and white (or good/bad) thinking about what I ate.

That'd be exactly what I'm afraid of ... Eating too much of a good thing! I'm just trying to figure out what works best for me ... But you're right, I need some accountability so maybe calorie counting is best & still just chose the cleaner, healthy foods.

Almost every conceivable food plan "works" for someone, but the only way to find what works for you is trial and error.

If you think it's worth trying, then try it. If you know yourself enough to know that you could and probalby would overeat even the healthiest foods, then don't try it.

There are a lot of "clean eating" food plans, also called "whole food" diets. South Beach is one of them, and so are the paleo or primal diets. While each discourages specific foods, the general principle behind all of them is that there's no need to count calories when eating the right unprocessed foods, because they're more filling than "the junk" they assume most folks are eating (which is often a fair guess).

I've lost weight on "clean eating" plans, but only for a relatively short time - a few weeks to a few months. I find that no matter what I'm eating, I need a stricter portion-control element to be successful. I have known people (from here and from my weight loss groups), who don't have to count, but I've learned I'm not one of them.

I need both a calorie-controlling element and a food choice component. Where my calories come from matters, as I don't lose as well when I'm eating too many carbs (this seems to be both a metabolic and a hunger issue). So I chose to count calories and control the source of those calories through an exchange plan (and also try to choose "clean" or "whole" foods to fill those exchanges).

I may have to be more precise in the future (or maybe I'll "get the hang of this" and be able to be less precise). Because that's the thing with trial-and-error. What works today may not work forever, and you've got to be prepared to change your game-plan when necessary.

Counting calories, whether it's down-to-the-single-digit counting, or whether it's estimation-or-rounding-off calorie counting (as with exchange plans and Weight Watchers points), allow you see (almost at-a-glance) where your plan is succeeding and where it needs improvement. You're able to see patterns (such as TOM weight gains - even when you're eating on-plan). With non-counting plans (especially if you're not keeping a food journal) it's harder to know where you need to make changes, and harder to know when you're overeating.

Successful weight loss depends upon taking in fewer calories (and/or burning more). The advantage of calorie-counting plans (if you're using a food journal and not counting in your head) is that you can see quickly, in black-and-white whether or not you're taking in fewer calories. If you don't lose this week, and you see that you had a very high-calorie day, there's no mystery. That's what I love best about calorie-counting plans, it's easy to compare one WOE to another.

And you can "convert" any food plan into an exchange plan or any other calorie-counting method. That may seem like "more work" but if I hadn't done so, I wouldn't have learned that I lose more on 1800 calories of low-carb than on 1800 calories of high-carb eating (although to do that experiment yourself, don't "count" the first few weeks in your comparison, because low-carb will seem to have an "advantage" because the body uses more water to process carbohydrates).

Regardless of your method, ultimately, calories count. Whether or not you have to count them, is something only you can determine.

I don't think it sounds like a bad idea.

If I were you, I'd do a couple of weeks with the Eat Clean Diet and calorie counting at the same time.

Then, when I started getting used to the dishes/usual foods and their calorie counts, I'd simply do rough estimates in my head to keep me approx. on track.

THis is an extremely good idea in particular since clean eating has no real meaning.

I do this also. I have to cause I have struggled with eating disorders. I did at the beginning count to know what to eat and to gain an awareness and so now I watch portion size, and exactly what I am putting in my mouth and keep it as clean as possible. I notice when I eat something off I'm becoming more aware of how it makes me feel, like sugar for instance. I remember before putting it in my mouth that feeling that comes along with it and I then make the choice to eat it or put it down. More often now I put it down. If I don't, I get the feeling of "blah" and I remind myself this is what's making me sick.

I can't be so black and white either. I have done this in the past, journalled and counted etc and I got WAY too obsessive with it. I'm concentrating on working out, listening to my body (like today I just did yoga instead of cardio and weights cause I'm sore and needed a good stretch) and listening to my stomach signals now. Like stopping when I'm satisfied, not when I'm stuffed. I think I counted for 2 weeks and the majority of my weight loss has been this way. But I have a good idea about food, since I did struggle with eating disorders and since I have done the whole "obessive counting route" I KNOW what's healthy and what's not. So this is why it works for me and why it might work for someone else.

Thank you all so much!! Great advice & very helpful in my journey!!!

Yes, and when I find a new food, I read the nutritional information on it, and all the ingredients. That gives me an idea of what the right portion -for me- is, which more and more rarely matches the "official" serving.