Strategies to maintain weight without counting calories

katorihanzo

I'm maintaining without tracking right now, some of my strategies are-

-weigh daily and track it on a phone app graph
-measure out higher calorie foods like nuts, salad dressings, chips etc
-eat foods I enjoy but use moderation-ie have two cookies, not the whole package
-look up calorie counts for restaurants before going
-eat when hungry, STOP when full
-identify bad eating habits and deal with them. I used to be a big night time snacker. Now I don't eat after 7pm etc
-exercise 5 days a week for 30 minutes

Great advice, though I would go even farther from "eat when hungry, STOP when full" to "eat when hungry, stop when not hungry." The french, when they're hungry, say they're hungry. But unlike North Americans, they don't eat until they're "full," they eat until they're not hungry and say "I no longer have hunger" (in french, haha). It's a really simple thing but it's a huge deal. It's sometimes hard to only eat until you no longer need more, instead of until you no longer feel like you could eat more. We also always say to our kids "can you eat any more? Are you full?" when in reality we should be saying to them "are you no longer hungry?"

Pay attention to that plate picture up above and eat like that. Eat slowly (your brain takes a while to realize you're not hungry), pay attention to your eating (don't eat in front of the TV), use smaller plates and don't feel like you need to finish what's on your plate. You can always eat it tomorrow or later.

And weigh yourself everyday! You don't have to pay too much attention to that number. Don't freak out if you gain a pound. But give yourself 3 pounds leeway either way. If you gain over three pounds, you may have to start tracking calories for a month or so to lose those pounds. If you lose more than three, eat a bit more to gain them back. If you stay within that 6 pound range, keep doing what you're doing.

onyxgirl17

A pair of jeans, if they get too tight... cut back. If they get too loose... start eating more

cwolfman13

I maintain and don't log. I still weigh most of my ingredients, servings, etc if it is calorie dense stuff...but I've been doing this awhile and can eyeball it pretty good when I have to.

I still weigh myself 3 days per week and I eat a nutrient dense diet. I also workout 6 days per week (yeah, **** happens and I miss days here and there, but it's rare).

Hopefully you've spent some time learning how to eat more intuitively and have a general idea what a days worth of food looks like...hopefully you've learned how to moderate your food intake...moderation and portion control along with regular exercise are the keys to weight maintenance.

einzweidrei

I find that once you start measuring over and over again you get used to eyeballing. {For example, I'm pretty good at figuring out what an ounce of cheese is now.} After awhile, you can just start to have a general feel/sense of how many calories things are and possibly try just doing that for a few months and see if you can maintain your weight within a general range.