If you’re a usual reader of my stuff. You know that I talk a lot about counting your calories. I do this because its the easiest way to make sure you’re in a calorie deficit. And when you’re in a calorie deficit. You lose weight. Period. But in this article I provide a solution how you can lose weight without counting calories.
But I have good news. If you follow some specific guidelines you can lose weight without counting your calories.
If you want to listen to the podcast episode that I created of this article. Listen below.
First You Need To Know A Bit About Intuitive Eating And How You Actually Lose Weight
Before I get into the practical information that you need to know to lose weight without counting your calories. You need to learn a bit about the fundamentals of fat loss and intuitive eating.
In my opinion, I believe that everyone should be striving to become an intuitive eater.
If you don’t know what an intuitive eater is. Here is the definition of the term.
An intuitive eater is defined as a person who “makes food choices without experiencing guilt or an ethical dilemma, honors hunger, respects fullness and enjoys the pleasure of eating.” Few of us are immune from guilt and judgment regarding our food choices because of the many sources of “food police” in our culture.
Credit to https://benourished.org/intuitive-eating/ for the definition.
To Reach The Intuitive Eating Elite, And To Lose Weight You Need To Understand The Fundamentals Of Weight Loss Which Applies Whether You Count Your Calories Or Not
There’s simply no way around this. If you want to be a body composition god. You must’ve experienced tracking your calories using an app like my fitness pal or on some other calorie and macronutrient tracker.
But don’t make the mistake of tracking your calories for the sake of tracking your calories.
You need to track the right amount of calories for you to lose weight. And this can differ depending on the individual. One person’s fat loss calorie and macronutrient targets will be different from someone else’s.
Anyone can just add up calories from specific foods on a tracker.
But the harder part is adjusting your calories so that they’re specific for you to lose weight.
There’s good news though.
You can find out how many calories you need to eat to lose fat if you click the link below.
You Need To Be In A Calorie Deficit To Lose Fat – Even If You Don’t Count Your Calories
So as you now know its important to understand the fundamentals of fat loss. And how calorie counting supports that.
And remember. Even if you don’t count your calories. Your calories will always count.
So be mindful.
If you don’t want to count your calories here are 4 steps to lose fat without counting your calories that will ensure you’re at least in a slight calorie deficit.
How To Lose Fat Without Counting Your Calories, The 4 Steps To Fat Loss Success – How To Lose Weight Without Counting Calories
1. Eat 3 Meals, Each Meal Will Fit On 1 Plate
You’re going to eat 3 high protein meals per day. And I quantify high protein as about 30% of your plate from protein, 50% of your plate from veggies and 20%of your plate from starchy carbs and healthy fats.
As the meals are high in protein and high in volume (because you’re eating lots of veggies) they will fill you up and leave you finishing your meal highly satiated.
2. Eat 2 Snacks Each One Should Should Be Veggies, Protein Or Fruit
This will help you stay full in between your meals. Because all of these snacks are low-calorie, high volume and highly satiating. Especially in comparison to their highly processed counterparts.
Each snack should be the size of your palm.
3. If You’d Like To Eat A Cheat Meal, Make Sure that You Swap Out 1 Normal Meal For 1 Cheat Meal Once Per Week
If You’ve been reading my content for a while now you’ll know that I’m not a big fan of overly restrictive diets. But the thing is when you don’t track your calories it’s hard to allocate a specific number of your calories to so-called “fun foods” these are foods like chocolate, pizza, ice cream etc.
This is because these guidelines are generalised rather than personalised.
And this is one of the cons of following an approach like this.
But this system for losing fat will work as long as you’re consistent with it.
And that’s why I suggest that you eat a cheat meal once per week. And swap it for one of your normal meals.
This Cheat meal should fit on one plate.
But you don’t need to have a cheat meal if you don’t want to.
4. Notes On The Plan – The 4 Steps To Lose Weight Without Counting Your Calories
Quite a few alcoholic drinks are heavy on calories. Drinks like beers, lagers and the like. Although spirits aren’t as high in calories. If you drink enough of them they do add up.
If you do want to have an alcoholic drink replace one of these drinks for one snack.
Finally, limit yourself to two drinks once to twice per week.
If you want to read a more in depth article about alcohol consumption and reaching your fitness goals read the article linked below.
Also, you should be mindful of hidden calories. Refer to the graphic below to avoid eating too many hidden calories.
If You Really Want To Push The Envelope, And Improve Your Physique As Much As You Can, It Makes Sense To Count Your Calories
But just know that if you want to get really lean or on the opposite side of the spectrum get really strong it’s imperative that you eat enough for you. No more no less. Calorie and macronutrient intake will vary depending on the individual.
3 Tips To Help You Stay Full Without Counting Your Calories – How To Lose Weight Without Counting Calories
Whether you count your calories or not you want to stay full when you’re losing weight.
Here are some lifestyle tips that will help you stay full and in the long run help you lose more fat and avoid binges.
1. Get Enough Sleep To Avoid Rampant Hunger – Especially If You Don’t Count Your Calories
Studies show that if you fail to get enough sleep. You get hungry.
To mitigate the extent of this, simply aim to get 8 hours of sleep per night.
And I’d set a minimum of 7 hours per night to avoid most of the undesirable consequences of not getting enough sleep.
2. Drink 3 -4 Litres Of Water Per Day To Stay Hydrated and Satiated – This Will Help You Stay Full WIthout Counting Your Calories
Water has a tremendous appetite suppressing effect. Especially if you have a glass of water prior to eating and after eating.
Drinking enough water also helps you burn more total calories.
3. Avoid Buying Lots Of Highly Processed Carbs & Fats, Especially If You Don’t Count Your Calories
Highly processed carbohydrates, foods like chocolate bars, crisps or as you Americans say potato chips. Contain many excess calories. And aren’t very filling at all really.
If you can reduce most of these types of carbohydrates & fats then you’ll save your self lots of excess calories. And the result will be less overconsumption of calories and less fat gain.
Veggies Are So Important For Satiety – Eat At Least 50% Of Your Plate from Veggies If You Don’t Count Your Calories
Veggies contain very little calories per gram you eat. It’s almost not worth tracking them if you count your calories. And that’s why I’m getting you to eat 50% of every meal from veggies.
The Value Of Whole Foods Over Highly Processed Foods -Especially If You Don’t Count Your Calories
Just to put the value of relatively unprocessed foods into perspective. Take crisps for instance. It takes 4 pounds of potatoes to make 1 pound of crisps, which is roughly one big bag.
And the thing is crisps are no where near as filling as a baked potato.
So if your goal is to stay full. Make sure you eat lots of whole foods.
Have The Goal Of Becoming An Intuitive Eater – This Means That You Count Your Calories Intuitively
Although this way of losing weight without counting your calories is effective.
If you really want to get lean or reach the natty limit. You’ll generally go through 3 stages of tracking your nutrition.
Eating Clean The 1st Stage – This Is Before You Count Your Calories – How To Lose Weight Without Counting Calories
This stage of your nutrition evolution sounds all well and good. But there’s one problem with eating clean. There aren’t any clear cut guidelines.
What do you think about when you eat clean? I personally think about eating fruits, veggies, nuts, avocado’s etc. But the fact is, if your goal is to lose weight. just eating clean ain’t going to cut it.
You need to be in a calorie deficit. This is one of the reasons why most people spin their wheels when they just eat clean.
They eat too much clean foods and don’t lose weight.
It Doesn’t Matter If You Eat The Healthiest Foods On The Planet – If You’re Eating Too Much, You Won’t Lose Weight, This Is Why Counting Your Calories Can Help Ensure You’re In A Calorie Deficit
Yep, that’s right, healthy foods don’t just magically make you lose weight. You need to be in a calorie deficit to do that and that can be done by following the 4 steps in the graphic above or counting your calories specifically to you and putting yourself in a calorie deficit that way.
2. You Realise That You Probably Should Count Your Calories
You realise that you’re not making progress towards your goal of losing weight.
And you come to the conclusion that you need to count your calories and you start to learn about the big rocks of nutrition, such as energy balance and protein, carbs and fats and how much of them you need.
You then track your calories and your macronutrients (specifically to you) and you start to see results.
You rinse and repeat. And become better at counting your calories.
The 3rd Stage The Intuitive Eating Master – This Requires Experience Counting Your Calories
So you’ve had some time In the trenches of meaningfully tracking your calorie intake. And you have a very good idea of how many calories you burn daily.
Because you have so much experience tracking (1-2 years) you can very easily look at a plate of food and gauge the calorie and macronutrient composition of it.
You may be thinking. “it’s such a pain tracking calories”. But the fact is, most things are difficult at first.
Stephen covey told us to “begin with the end in mind” and once you realise that you need to have experience counting your calories to become an intuitive eating master. It’s worth the toil. To get to that goal.
And eventually, you’ll know how many calories are roughly in most portion sizes. Ultimately intuitive eating will become second nature.
The Bottom Line On Losing Weight Without Counting Calories
- You absolutely can lose weight without counting your calories. As long as you follow the steps in this article.
- Although if you really want to push the limits of getting to your best physique you can’t just use some generic template for eating. You need a personalised approach.
- If you want to reach the intuitive eating elite. You must have time spent tracking.
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