Maybe you’ve heard of eating clean as a buzzword, but what is it exactly and how can you apply it to lose weight?  Eating clean at its core is choosing a variety of natural minimally processed foods for your meals. I’m here to simplify how to eat clean for beginners losing weight.  You won’t believe how easy it is once you start.  

If you are wondering how to eat clean for beginners losing weight, this post is for you.  

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The ultimate guide: How to eat clean for beginners losing weight 

What is clean eating?

Clean eating at its most basic definition is prioritizing a variety of natural foods and minimizing the consumption of processed foods.  

Why is eating clean important?

There are many additives to the food you find in a box or a bag.  For example, take a look at a box of crackers or chips and see if you can pronounce everything you see.  

Our bodies don’t know how to process these things and may lead to excess weight gain. In addition to the unpronounceable compounds added, there is typically excess sugar or sodium (salt) added to processed foods.  Again this causes additional calories to be consumed that don’t add nutritional value. 

Benefits of eating clean

+ Weight loss

+ Mental clarity

+ Energy

+ Better digestion

+ Clearer skin

Have all been shown to improve with eating a varied whole food diet.

How does a beginner start eating clean?

I like to keep this first step as simple as possible.  Do everything you are doing today, the only thing to focus on is adding in natural foods.  There are many natural foods you could choose from so start I like to start with fruits or vegetables.

Step 1: The most simple option (as well as the healthiest) is to add in one veggie and one fruit per day.  Here are a few ideas but you are certainly not limited to this list.

Vegetables

Cooked (sides): Asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower, bell peppers, green beans, brussel sprouts.

Raw (snacks): Celery, baby carrots, mushrooms, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, sugar snap peas.

Fruit

Apples, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, mango, pineapple, oranges, bananas.

More ideas here – download the grocery list

Remember, just shoot for adding in one vegetable and one fruit into your daily intake.  Here’s an example, pair fresh celery with almond or peanut butter for a snack.  Slice a banana in your oatmeal for breakfast or snack.  

Step 2:  As you get in the habit of eating one vegetable and one fruit, try to mix up which veggie and fruit you choose each day.  One day could be carrots and peanut butter, the next could be celery, or you might add in roasted asparagus for dinner.  The idea is to just choose one veggie and one fruit and experiment with swapping in more variety as you become more familiar with what you like most.  

Step 3: Experiment with recipes you find online, Pinterest is a great place to find clean eating recipes that are simple and delicious. Try a clean eating version of your favorite cookie recipe or a clean eating main dish you love.

Here are a few of my clean eating recipes you might enjoy:

Pork Tenderloin

Roasted Garlic and Rosemary Potatoes

Easy Healthy Sweet Potato Fries

Dry Rub Grilled Chicken

Easy Power Salads for Weeknight Dinners

What does minimally processed mean?

Unprocessed food would be food that is in its same form as when it was grown. 

We say minimally processed as we can’t always eat unprocessed food, nor do we always want to. Sometimes convenience on a road trip means breaking out the kettle chips. 

However, just because something is processed doesn’t make it good or bad, it depends on the situation. For instance, you could consider baking a potato a form of processing. It’s a heated up form of its original state. But does that make it bad? Of course not, who eats an uncooked potato?  In fact, heating up certain foods can make the nutrients more bioavailable to us.  This means we are better able to digest and absorb the nutrients of that food.

However, take that same potato, chop it up, throw on some cornstarch and deep fry it into French fries. Is that healthy?  Well considering the crunchy texture and added fat for flavor, what was once a simple potato has now become a highly desirable French fry.  In this format, it’s hard to stop eating a normal portion given its new highly palatable format making over consumption quite likely. 

I’m not saying French fries are bad, I certainly love them (who doesn’t).  But when you are trying to lose weight while eating a highly palatable food, you can see how it can be a challenge to stop at your dietary needs. 

How to eat clean for beginners:  Reading a nutrition label

Well for starters, if something has a label, chances are it’s processed in some way. Typically real food is grown in the ground or sea or eats food grown in the ground or sea. Produce like veggies and fruit or protein like poultry or fish typically don’t come with a label. 

But like I mentioned, just because it’s processed doesn’t automatically make it “bad.”

When looking at a label, it can feel intimidating. Let me simplify it for you. There are a bunch of macro and micro nutrients and their portion sizes listed, skip down past those and look for Ingredients.

First, as you read the ingredients, the order matters.  They are listed in order of most present in said product to least present. As a result, the first few ingredients are the most important. Where this comes into play is if you read the front of a package that says “sweet potato chips” you might think oh sweet potatoes are healthy. However, if you look at the first ingredient it’s usually corn. Tricky tricky. 

Second, make sure everything on the label is something you recognize. For instance, companies are notorious for adding chemical compounds that make a “food” uber palatable, leading us to eat more than our dietary needs. 

Third, look for added sodium or sugar (this comes in many names and forms).  However it can be tough to know exactly if an ingredient is actually sugar. Therefore, if you don’t recognize an ingredient be sure to look it up. Usually a giveaway is if it ends in -ose such as fructose. 

Simple swaps for processed foods

Here are a few examples of how you can make simple clean eating swaps for everyday items.

+ Processed meats such as deli cold cuts, Italian cured meats to >> raw chicken, beef, fish, or pork cooked at home

+ Canned veggies or fruit to >> fresh produce

+ Chips in a bag to >> homemade air fried or baked sweet potatoes, carrots, or turnips

+ Common yogurt brands packed with sugar (such as a brand that rhymes with cannon) to >> low or nonfat Greek yogurt

+ Cheese whiz to >> blocks of cheddar

+ Minute rice to >> short grain brown rice 

How to eat clean for beginners: Cooking guide

When it comes to cooking, I have found many people over complicate it quite a bit. If you’re cooking for clean eating or for weight loss there are very simple processes to follow. 

Pan sear or bake your food. Use extra-virgin olive oil or coconut oil for cooking vegetables or proteins such as fish or poultry. I like to use a cast iron pan or a grill is excellent for larger items like chicken breasts.

A super super simple way to cook for clean eating is using an air fryer. I am a HUGE fan of my air fryer and it is the most convenient kitchen appliance I own. I don’t know what I did all these years without one to be honest. For example, I used to bake my sweet potato fries and it took like 45 minutes on the oven at 450. Additionally, you have to flip them halfway between! It’s a lot to do, and oftentimes they still came out kind of soggy. 

Consequently, I now use my air fryer which requires less oil (which means less calories) and I’m still able to get a crispier fry cooked to perfection with my air fryer. 

How to eat clean for beginners on a budget

I often get the question:  “How do I eat clean on a budget?”  You want to know the best news about eating clean?  It’s less expensive than eating processed foods.  More processing = more people, machinery, packaging, and resources to get the food into your hands.  The more a food is processed, the more it costs to make, transport, package, and sell.

Consider the difference in regular brown rice and minute brown rice.  Brown rice typically takes 45 minutes to an hour to cook, but how do they get Minute Rice to cook in a few minutes?  

Here’s how… 

All rice goes through a milling process that takes it from the seed down to the edible insides, with minute rice going through one additional level to break it down. Then minute rice is blanched, rinsed, then dehydrated until it contains very low moisture. During this process the grain cracks and forms holes in the kernel which allows it to rehydrate quickly then next time it cooks. 

This process removes healthy fiber and nutrients along with it. And the worst part?  It’s more expensive!  You are essentially paying someone else to cook it for you and remove the nutrition along with it. 

Minute brown rice = I found up to $.66 per ounce

Short grain brown rice = $.06 per ounce when you buy from the bulk food section (I found this at Sprouts)

That’s crazy!!

I smile when clients ask me about how to budget for clean eating. The truth is, it’s almost always less expensive than they’ve been eating in the past, especially with meal prepping. 

The absolute cheapest way to eat is growing and cooking your own food.  If you have the space and interest in making a garden, I highly recommend it!  Nothing better than locally grown organic produce from your backyard.  

Clean beverages

Yep clean eating includes what you drink.  

What do you drink during the day? Juice, gatorade, soda, brisk, Frappuccinos, iced coffee double pump of vanilla. All of these types of drinks have “hidden” sugars, preservatives, or chemical compounds that come from mass producing a shelf stable item. 

Water is your best friend and perfect accompaniment to all your meals.  But I know it can be hard to drink just plain old water if you aren’t used to that.  

A few tips I have for drinking clean is to find ways to make your water more appealing to you by adding herbs or fruit steeped for a couple hours. 

This gives your water a delicious flavor while providing some antioxidants and nutrients from the fruit and herbs. 

Here are a few ideas to uplevel your water:

Rosemary + berries

Cucumber + lemon

Basil + strawberry

But even I don’t only drink water.  I love my collagen coffee every morning and a few glasses of wine throughout the week.  

The most common clean eating issues I see with coffee and tea are what people add to them.  If you drink black coffee or tea you’re in the clear.  However, if that’s just too bland there are ways to make coffee and tea more flavorful. 

Here are a few suggestions hot or cold: 

Black coffee + unsweetened vanilla almond or coconut milk

Black coffee + tsp grass fed butter + tsp unrefined virgin coconut oil blended (hot only)

Black or green tea + lemon squeeze

Black chai tea + cinnamon + almond milk

And if you’re looking for something a little more exotic try:

Turmeric ginger tea + golden milk (I found this at Trader Joe’s) 

How to eat clean for beginners: What NOT to do 

Don’t force yourself to eat something you hate. That is not at all the spirit of eating clean. You can easily find plenty of variety in whole real foods you enjoy eating. If you’ve never taken to carrots, don’t eat carrots. Instead, try to experiment with other vegetables you think sound appealing. 

Focus on one step at a time. Progress over perfection. If one day you missed eating your fruits and veggies, don’t sweat it, you’re human after all. Just pick it back up the next day. 

What foods can you eat on a clean diet?

I’ve made a grocery list just for you, this includes veggies, fruits, protein, complex carbohydrates, and snacks for on the go.

What happens when you start eating clean?

Better digestion

The best thing that happened for me right away was that my digestion was a lot better.  I struggled with everything from diarrhea to constipation and everything in between for most of my life. After shifting to a clean eating diet I no longer struggled with digestive based issues.  

Increase satiety (fullness) at meals

After cleaning up my diet I felt more satiated after eating my meals which led to not over consuming my dietary needs.  This has led me to lose weight naturally.

Find balance

Last and most importantly, I once was a flip-flopper. During the work week I would eat uber-clean and restrict calories only to binge and overeat on the weekends, at parties, or whenever it was “okay” to eat a lot. I could never find the balance of restriction vs. freedom. My weight would fluctuate and any progress I made restricting my intake was usually lost during an overeating period.

As I’ve continued to eat clean over many years my weight has stabilized. I no longer have ups and downs in my weight. I feel like I’m able to stay lean naturally without restricting my food or worrying about going to a party for fear of becoming food obsessed and binging. 

Watch my FREE Fitness Nutrition Masterclass to learn how to fuel your body properly for lasting energy, how to eat the right amounts for your needs, and create a system that makes fat loss easy for long-term results.

Conclusion 

I hope this guide – how to eat clean for beginners losing weight – was helpful to you. When you break it down, eating clean is simply eating real whole foods. Real food tastes great, provides the most nutrients, and makes you feel amazing.  

I’ve created a 5 day clean eating challenge to get you started eating clean. Grab it below.