Calories are the amount of energy a food has. They are a very important factor when deciding what foods you want to eat and what drinks you want to drink if you’re on a diet.
If you want to lose weight, you need to be in a calorie deficit. That means that you need to burn more calories than you take. Basically the number of calories of all the things you eat & drink in a day needs to be smaller than the number of calories your body will burn that day.
That’s why calorie counting plays a certain role in the weight loss journey.
However, it’s by no means necessary to count calories. You can definitely still lose weight, eat healthy, and reach all of your fitness goals even without that, especially if you get good quality sleep and do regular physical activity.
Studies have shown that counting calories is one of the reasons some people develop an unhealthy relationship with food, because it turns into an obsession and stress to reduce calorie intake.
So, in this post I will give you tips on how to lose weight without counting calories.
How To Lose Weight Without Counting Calories
Create a meal plan
Creating a meal plan is SO beneficial for losing weight, and it’s probably one of the best things you can do if you want to eat healthy, lose weight, and reach your fitness goals without counting calories. It’s the best way to get long term results and also a great way to encourage fat loss due to taking back more control of what you eat on a daily basis.
First of all, when you’re developing a meal plan, you’ll be able to come up with healthy meals and a balanced diet, because you’ll be deciding on meals for the whole week, and you’ll eat foods that are nourishing for you and your body.
So, if you want to eat something unhealthy for one meal like ice cream for dessert, you’ll know to come up with healthier meals for other meals/days close to that.
Next, when you have a meal plan, you can do the grocery shopping in advance, and have all of the ingredients you need when you need them.
That’s not only convenient because you won’t have to run to the store before each meal, but it will also allow you to stick to your healthy diet, because one of the big reasons we sometimes break the diet is because we don’t have ingredients in the house for something healthy, so we end up either making something unhealthy we do have, or we end up ordering fast food.
And finally, having a meal plan will make your life easier, because you won’t have to come up with meals every day – you’ll dedicate one day to brainstorming your meals, and then you’ll know exactly what you’re preparing every day, without having to come up with meals all the time.
Cook your own meals
Cooking your own meals is so important when you want to lose weight. When you fail to plan, it’s easy to fall into the habit of grabbing all of the ultra processed foods and takeout, which can quickly cause you to gain weight.
When you’re ordering food or eating out, there are a few things that make it harder to eat foods you should eat.
First of all, you don’t know exactly what’s in a dish and how it’s cooked. For example, some salads (which you’d probably assume are usually always healthy, right?) have sooo many calories in them because of their dressing and some toppings.
But, since you didn’t make it, you don’t know exactly what’s in the dressing, you don’t know if it’s healthy or not, and you can’t know your calorie intake.
You don’t know if something is cooked in a ton of oil (and when you cook at home you can use the smallest amount of oil that’s needed when you cook, to make it more healthy).
And also, the portions are always huge in restaurants, and if something is delicious, you’ll eat all of it, even though you felt full in the middle of eating. This brings me to the next tip.
Stop eating when you’re feeling full
This tip seems pretty obvious, but many people don’t do this.
When you make a meal, many people will eat until they eat everything on the plate – they either like it so much and they don’t want to stop eating even when they’re starting to feel full, or they don’t want to stop eating when they’re feeling full because they don’t want to waste the food and throw it away.
But don’t do that. Listen to your hunger and fullness cues! When you’re starting to feel full, stop eating. You can always put the leftovers in the fridge and eat them tomorrow, or someone else can eat them if you live with someone.
But don’t overeat just because you don’t want to stop eating even after you’ve realized you’re full.
You need to be paying attention to what your body is telling you, so you realize when you’re full.
Portion sizes
Another thing to keep in mind are portion sizes.
When you’re putting food on your plate, think about portion sizes and what will be enough for you to get full. It’s always better to put a bit less if you’re not sure, because you can always add more. But if you add too much, you might eat it even if you’re full (like we mentioned in the tip above).
Eating fast food isn’t the only reason for weight gain, it can also be eating enormous portions of foods even when you’re full. So cut back on your portion sizes and listen to your hunger and fullness cues so you can help yourself drop down to a healthy weight.
Stop eating fast food
While fast food isn’t the only reason for weight gain, it’s definitely a big one.
So, try to stop eating (or at least limit it) fast food. It’s not good for you, it won’t give you any nourishing nutrients your body needs, it won’t be good for your blood sugar or your body fat, and it’s unhealthy. Plus, it’s one of the most calorie-dense foods out there.
Of course, if you have a craving, it’s okay to eat it every now and then, don’t restrict yourself too much or you’ll end up binge eating, but at least try to limit your fast food intake to instead get in more whole foods like protein, fruits and vegetables into your diet.
Get enough rest
Getting enough quality sleep when you want to lose weight is truly important. You’ll burn more calories when you’re not sleep deprived, and your hunger hormones will be more in check than if you get just a few hours of sleep in a night and get poor sleep every night.
Exercise
While eating healthy is the most important part of losing weight, physical activity and working out has a big impact on that as well. It will also help you with fat loss.
You don’t need to torture yourself – there’s no need to do workouts that don’t feel good and don’t fit you. But, there are so many ways you can exercise, that it’s certain you can find a way to work out that fits you.
Whether that is going to the gym, going to spin classes, doing yoga, hiking, running, dancing – getting any exercise in will be great for your body!
You’ll burn more calories in a day, your metabolic rate will be better, you’ll start getting in shape, defining your muscles and losing body fat.
Listen to your body
One of the key tips for losing weight without counting calories, is listening to your body and mindful eating.
Don’t eat if and when you’re not hungry just because it’s a certain time of day. Don’t restrict yourself from eating any carbs if that’s what your body is asking you for. Don’t skip meals if you’re hungry.
There are no strict rules to losing weight (except that you have to be in a calorie deficit, but you will be if you generally eat healthy and do some exercises, you don’t need to stress about counting them), and it’s not a one-strategy-fits-all, so you need to do what YOUR body wants. That’s the best way to see the results you want to see.
