how to lose weight without counting calories

October 7, 2022

If you ask anybody, anywhere, “how do you lose weight?”

Everyone, everywhere will answer “create a caloric deficit.” The question, how to lose weight without counting calories is an entirely different discussion altogether. But it is not a futile one.

Most people think that the only way to sustained weight loss is a strict caloric deficit.

If the requirement to lose weight is to create a caloric deficit, how can you lose a single pound without counting a single calorie?

Those two things don’t even sound like they go together?!?!

You can lose weight without stressing over the tedious task of ticking off calories.

Losing weight, without counting calories is probably the best way to kick off your weight loss journey. Setting a goal to become healthier and going after that goal without being forced to count every calorie just feels right.

There is something natural, innate even about just eating without restrictions, and only guidelines.

And that’s what we are doing today in this post. We are creating some guidelines to help you on your weight loss journey.

When I first began to chip away at the 70 pounds that I’ve managed to lose, I did not do it with total dependency on counting calories.

Eat Whole/Real Foods

The most important tool to losing weight without counting a single calorie in sight, is eating wholesome good nutrient dense food.

The only way losing weight without counting calories is going to be successful, is if your packing your plate with nutrient dense food.

“Eat whole foods they say, it’ll be beneficial they say.”

Do they say that?

I’on know, but what I know for damn sure (there goes that damn word again, that means I’m serious) is that eating terrible takeout choices or junk food ALL day will leave you feeling unsatisfied and hungry.

If you want to lose weight without counting a calorie–you will have to choose your breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks meticulously.

lose weight without Counting calories by utilizing 80/20

This does not mean you cannot ever enjoy an occasional treat. Hell, I have a Reese’s peanut butter cup at least (and what I mean by at least is faithfully) once a day.

For instance, packing your breakfast plate with simple carbs, is the fastest way to overeating as simple carbs does very little to help us feel full. Further more, simple carbs raises glucose levels and creates a craving for more simple carbs, sugar, and junk all day long.

When I say simple carbs, you know what I’m talking about. Who does not like buttery pancakes, crispy buttered toast and eggs for breakfast? I do, but this breakfast meal is loaded with carbs, fat and sugar and most likely a lot of calories.

If you aren’t counting calories, being sure you are eating in a deficit is going to be an uphill battle.

But why? Why can’t you eat butter and syrup smothered pancakes every single day and still lose weight? Simply put, the calories. Even a tiny bit comes packed full with hundreds of calories per serving.

Swap the butter loaded pancakes for whole grain protein waffles, sausage for some savory goodness (+ more protein and fats) & side of berries for complex carbs.

When your meals are set up like this, you’ll be slashing calories. You’ll also be creating some sustenance for your body to lean on until the next meal.

Eat foods rich in fiber–whole grains. Because these will keep you fuller longer. And we know how KEY being full is.

Go bat-shit crazy and pack your plate full with side dishes of fruit and/or vegetables. You’ll be able to feel fuller for longer stretches of time allowing yourself the momemtum you need to keep eating without sacrificing much needed un-tracked calories.

Don’t Drink Your CALORIES

Oooh baby, you’re going to want to go ahead, and go ahead and put all the drinks down.

It’s liquid but, it still has a calorie count. And when you’re not calorie counting, every un-tracked calorie counts (say that five times fast).

TLDR? Drink water instead. That’s it, that’s this entire bullet point.

I love water. I can drink an entire gallon every single day.

When I drink water during mealtimes and consistently drink up to a gallon daily, I am not as hungry throughout the day. Drinking more water makes me more likely not to exceed my daily caloric intake.

Water helps me stay in a deficit. Water has ZERO calories.

If it’s really difficult for you to choose water over juice or soda you have only two options, my friend:

1. Put a cap on how many cups of soda/juice/sugar laden lattes you’ll have or 2. opt for diet/sugar free. No if’s and’s or butt’s about this one.

It’s going to be difficult NOT to track calories if your meals are averaging 500 calories and +200 with beverages. If your goal is 2000 calories daily, you’ll be consuming half of those calories before noon.

Why not save the extra 200+ untracked calories and go for a safe and calorie free water instead? Hate water? Razzle dazzle that water with a lemon wedge or something that tickles your fancy.

Try Intermittent Fasting

Intermittent fasting is when you create a window during the day to eat. Basically, you begin eating at a specific time during the day.

After that time has passed, you do not eat again until the next window opens the following day.

Intermittent fasting may be the very ticket you need to losing weight without counting calories.

The science based reason intermittent fasting is helpful has a lot to do with the way your body burns fat when it’s in its fasting state. There is a lot of thorough research to support IF (intermittent fasting) as a safe and effective way to weight loss.

And the practice is one of my all time favorites.

The practical reason I love intermittent fasting is because it helps me to stop obsessing over my next meal. This works for me because the IF schedule gives me incentive to eat until I am full.

And if I am not counting calories, eating until FULL is going to be necessary.

Obviously, I’m still eating in a balanced way and not choosing low density foods to fuel with during my window.

Also, another thing I really love about IF is that putting a cap on my last meal for the night, helps me to shut my brain off from it’s natural tendency to keep on eating, past full.

But this only will work if your body is being provided the proper foundation to feel full throughout the day.

Make Small Tweaks

This is one of the ways I was able to begin losing weight without making things too complicated. I just tweaked certain parts of my diet.

I prepare my mind for a the changes by slowly tweaking parts of my current palate.

That D word comes to mind when I think about dieting. You know the one, deprivation.

A diet looks, feels, sounds like depriving oneself of all the nutritionally trash foods one knows is trash foods, but one still enjoys eating so very much.

Instead of going on a full diet that begins a cycle of binge/restrict, I opt for making small tweaks to my current trash ass diet.

For instance, I used to drink 3-4 cups of coffee every single day. In those 3-4 cups of coffee I would scoop out 4-6 tsp of sugar. In one day, my coffee intake alone could account for 24 tsp of sugar which is 388 calories (that does not include the sugary creamer).

If I decided that I would reduce either 2 cups of coffee per day or reduce my sugar intake to 2 tsp per cup instead of 6 tsp, I could potentially create a 200 calorie deficit with this tweak alone.

You can create a tweak with pretty much everything you are eating, just take some time to determine how much you’re willing to get rid of and increase that amount over time.

Movement is your bestie

There aren’t two ways to slice this thing–you cannot have your cake and eat it too.

To lose weight without counting calories, you’ll need to exercise every ally you’ve got.

And your old faithful, is going to be movement.

When I first began, I did not go directly to a gym to begin working out. I kept it really uncomplicated with a commitment of 20+ minutes every single day.

I literally said to myself “20 minutes around this block, and if you want to be done after 20 minutes, be done after 20 minutes.” And that is what kept me going. I rarely ever stopped after 20 minutes because of how good it felt to be moving.

If you can walk your local park for 30 minutes to an hour you can easily burn close to 250-400 calories per day. I suggest small movement, as doing something too vigorous too quickly can create burnout.

In conclusion,

If you plan on losing weight without counting calories at all expect to get a little comfortable with being a bit uncomfortable. The reality is that losing weight is hard, it does not have to be complicated but making changes can feel very strange.

I was able to lose the majority of my weight by doing the above. Try a few of these, and watch the pounds start melting off!

Let me know in the comments which one of these tips you think you’d be willing to to try.

how to lose weight without counting calories

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