Losing weight without always tracking calories

To lose body fat, we do have to be in a calorie deficit but this doesn’t mean we have to track every calorie for the rest of our lives or even for the whole time we’re actively trying to lose the weight

A lot of us have rocky relationships with food, tracking calories and the scales so meticulously tracking calories can be very hard for our mental health. If you are able to track calories without stressing about it, this is absolutely fine!

I do believe a lot of us need to remind ourselves about portion sizes and rough calorie amounts in foods. Portion sizes have got bigger for a lot of meals and nutritional advice has got more confusing so it’s gotten harder to know what amount of food is ‘normal’ (though this term is very subjective anyway!!)

A week or two of tracking calories can be beneficial (I did this myself recently and was gutted when I remembered the true size of 100 calories of peanut butter 😩)

But this doesn’t have to mean you have to scan everything you eat to track onto MyFitnessPal (or any other app) for this time. You can just use a notepad or pen & paper to note down what you’re eating and the rough calories for them.

For easy single portion sizes (e.g 1 salmon fillet) you can just use the calories per portion as said on the label.

For foods you have to determine the portion size (e.g spoonful of peanut butter, some salad dressings etc) it may be worth weighing them so you know what a portion size actually looks like.

We do not need to weigh bloody spinach and most vegetables/salad items (been there, done that and got the eating disorder diagnoses!!!)- just scribble it down and take a very rough ballpark guess.

And if you don’t want to track the calories at all (I know that I can very easily spiral into previous obsessive behaviours when I do!), just noting down what you’re eating can bring some awareness to any mindless eating or snacking which is also very helpful.

After the week or two of relearning rough portion and/or calories amounts, you can move to a more structured way of dieting but without tracking calories.

This can be done by using the ‘3 meals, 2 snacks’ method (created by a coach called Jordan Syatt) which is what I generally try to stick to:

3 meals a day- Each meal fits on 1 plate (normal sized plate!) ½ of the plate is vegetables or salad ¼ of the plate is protein The rest is carbs and fats	2 snacks a day- Each snack fits in one palm of your hand Is a fruit, protein or veggie
Drinking alcohol later?? 1 alcoholic drink- replaces 1 snack 2 alcoholic drinks- replaces both snacks 3+ drinks- Go out and have fun and get back on track when the hangover has stopped	Extra notes… 0 calories drinks are always a winner! Be aware of added dressings and sauces If you’re full- stop eating!

This method is not perfect and not an exact science, but it’s a good starting point. You can use it to track your progress and adjust it as you need to:

-          Add another snack an/or meal if you’re very active or losing weight too quickly

-          Take a snack out or reevaluate what your meals look like if you’re more sedentary or weight loss isn’t happening

The main thing is to not overthink this!

E.g If you’re having a stirfry, you don’t need to deconstruct it after cooking so exactly ½ the plate is the vegetables, ¼ is the protein and the other ¼ is the noodles/ rice!!! But knowing the rough guidelines is helpful before you start cooking (can chuck in about 2 handfuls of veg, 1 palm-sized of the protein and another palm-sized portion of the carbs or fat and be done with it!)

If you are okay with tracking calories for a longer period…

For anyone who doesn’t have any history of disordered eating, eating disorders or is fine with tracking calories, there is nothing wrong with this and for some it can be quite liberating!

To calculate the rough calories you need, times your goal bodyweight by 12. If you have a big goal, you can do this in 10-15lb increments so the deficit isn’t too big straight away.

E.g If you have a starting weight of 250lbs with a goal weight of 180lbs, start with the goal of getting to 235-240lbs. This multiplied 12 makes your first calorie deficit target goal of 2820- 2880 calories, rather than 2160 calories (180 x 12). Once you reach your first mini goal weight, you can adjust your calorie goal again accordingly.

You can then input this onto an app such as MyFitnessPal or Lose It, or use a good ol’ pen and paper, and work towards this daily goal (or weekly total) by tracking what you eat on there.