Tips for losing weight without calorie counting?

AleciaG724

When I eat out, or at the home of a friend/family member, I fill my plate with whatever they made (pretty much like I used to before losing weight) but then I eat exactly HALF of everything I want. This is made much easier by sliding half onto another plate & wrapping it up to take home for lunch the next day. Sometimes after tasting an item it's not even worth the calories, so I skip it, other times if I eat slowly I can't even finish the half-plate of food. I also drink a huge glass of water before eating & another one while I'm eating. When I get home, I try to log things as well as I can, but this is purely a guessing game. It can be done, just take it one step at a time. They might tease you, or give you funny looks, but it's worth it when you see the pounds start dropping off!

Melwillbehealthy

'Im losing and not counting calories. I try to eat 'clean'. It's more of a philosophy. Eat the foods as close to the state they come out of the earth as possible. ie. no processed foods, no frying.. Eat brown rice, ancient grain breads, lots of fresh veggies and fruits, meat and fish.. It's working for me.

Sabine_Stroehm

I lost quite a bit of weight before MFP and without calorie counting and I've maintained my weight for over a year now without calorie counting. I found counting beneficial in the short run in that it really helped me to just balance things out better...but really, I was doing pretty well without it and I've been just fine in maintenance.

1 ) Portion control. This was probably the single biggest thing for me to learn. I started paying very close attention to what packages and what not said for recommended portions. When cooking for myself and my wife, I pretty much stuck to those portions for the most part....using my food scale for most things and measuring other things. I also became accustomed to what that looked like on my plate for a variety of different foods so it became easier for me to judge visually when I was eating someone else s preparations or out at a restaurant, etc.

2) Better decision making. You're going to be hard pressed to lose weight or maintain a healthy weight without meticulously counting calories if you practice the SAD. Before I started counting calories, I changed my dietary habits to reflect more of a Mediterranean/South-beach type of diet (noun). This meant replacing many of the fattier cuts of beef that my wife and I consumed on a regular basis with leaner cuts (and again, proper portions) and introducing much more chicken and fish and lean cuts of pork into our diet. Does this mean we never eat a good fatty roast or go out for a pizza or whatever? Of course not...it's just much more rare these days.

Additionally, we put a huge premium on vegetable consumption...pretty much heaping helpings of vegetables at lunch and dinner (sometimes breakfast but usually a V8 and fruit there) and we snack on them a lot as well. On average we take in around 6-8 actual servings of vegetables per day. During the summer I also eat around 3 servings of fruit per day...but in the winter I'm pretty much relegated to an apple a day.

I also pretty much dumped soda...I was a 3-5 12oz Mt Dew guy per day back in the day...I have a soda once in a blue moon these days. I also rarely eat candy or cakes or things of this nature...not that they're inherently evil or anything, they're just very easy to over-consume when you're not meticulously counting calories. I eat these sorts of things on occasions like holidays, birthdays, etc.

Note that "cleaning" up your diet isn't going to automatically result in an energy deficit...but it is much more likely that you will, particularly if you're coupling that with portion control.

3) Invest a lot of time in learning actual nutrition and learn how to fuel your body and optimize your nutrition. People know that vegetables and fruit are important to proper nutrition, but beyond that people tend to be lost...dietary fat is very essential and so is protein and a lot of people miss the boat there.

4) Cook more. I never thought I ate out that much until I made it a point to change my diet around...I definitely ate out less than the average Joe/Jane, but I found that I ate out a lot more than what I was perceiving. Not that eating out is bad necessarily...but restaurants tend to serve 2-3 times the recommended servings of pretty much everything (except for the vegetables); additionally, they cook with a lot of oil and use a lot of salt to make the food taste good. Unless you're eating off a 500 calorie or less menu you can pretty much count on most restaurant entrees to clock in anywhere from 800 - 1200 calories and that adds up pretty quick. To boot, the meals don't tend to be very balanced nutritionally speaking.

I still eat out...about 2-3 times per month vs 5-6 times per week that i was eating out before.

5) Move more. You don't have to fly around balls to the wall, but you're going to have better luck losing and maintaining weight if you're moving more. When I first started out, I just made it a point to go walking for an hour every single day...deliberately getting off my butt and moving beyond my day to day stuff. Eventually that turned into more intense exercise (which is about when I started counting calories because I didn't know how much I needed to fuel actual workouts)

Wise words.

SammieDQ37

I too have to find my balance in weight loss. When I count calories I tend to get panic attacks, LOL!! It drives me crazy and now I am noticing that everything that I lose I tend to overthink it and gain it all back. No more counting for me. Ramadan is starting this weekend and I have to restrain form food and drinks all day and eat small portions once the sun goes down. I'll see how that works for me. maybe it will put me on the right track

swertyqwerty

I'm Muslim too! I'm planning on fasting the whole month, God willing.
I've never lost weight any Ramadan even though I fasted, which I thought was really weird.
I guess it was too rich food? And maybe eating a whole day's food in few hours?
I'm definitely going to be more disciplined this time!

cwoyto123

Couldn't imagine myself not counting calories, it's so goddamn easy.

beautifulwarrior18

Good luck. That's my tip.

fatcity66

Intermittent Fasting works! I still count calories, but I enter them AFTER I eat, and find that I just naturally become full before reaching my limit. Then I eat a little more if I have a lot left, otherwise, I have a buffer. I do the 16/8 regimen (fast for 16 hrs, allowed to eat any time during the other 8), or something similar. I don't adhere to the time frames very strictly, but it still works for me, and I am almost never hungry.

sparacka

When I eat out, or at the home of a friend/family member, I fill my plate with whatever they made (pretty much like I used to before losing weight) but then I eat exactly HALF of everything I want. This is made much easier by sliding half onto another plate & wrapping it up to take home for lunch the next day. Sometimes after tasting an item it's not even worth the calories, so I skip it, other times if I eat slowly I can't even finish the half-plate of food. I also drink a huge glass of water before eating & another one while I'm eating. When I get home, I try to log things as well as I can, but this is purely a guessing game. It can be done, just take it one step at a time. They might tease you, or give you funny looks, but it's worth it when you see the pounds start dropping off!

I know this as the "Jackie O." diet...probably urban legand, but they say that she only ever ate half of what was served to her.
Might be worth a shot. Also: use a smaller plate as suggested above. This trick can work wonders in terms of how much you perceive to be eating.

DanceswithWow

Hello

My name is Dances with Wow..

saw your question and was compelled..Counting calories is not a winners game. i zaps your life force. Micormanages what cannot be micro managed, deadends all end users who venture out into the real world which is what your question involves..

Real World application..

I a have a list.. im thinking about posting with over 25 reasons why counting calories doenst cut the mustard. Actually i have 50 but the first 25 will do the trick the remaining 25 is for back up for diehards refusing to acknowledge the weight loss world isnt flat.


here are 7 seven practical tips that will easily and with pinpoint accuracy guarantee unwanted body fat and desired body weight to act in your favor..


Instead of breakfast focus on developing a pilot meal.. a pilot meal is a plan of attack which allows your metabolism to achieve predictable positive lift. The difference between breakfast and a pilot meal is that breakfast is a social thing acting in disguised as nutrition that mom once upon a time at here whim demonstrated her role as a nurturer for the family. today this role has become obsolete. . breakfast is more a surprise to free will and your appetite than a plan of attack or nurturing role.


A pilot meal is life force on autopilot and a self test tool thats designed to get you to a safe metabolic destination and predictable replenishment landing point through out the day.
Your pilot meal is always anchored to the roll of regularly refueling your body using your protein number(Pn#). that way you will always reach altitude and have time to correct before you run out of steam. using calories you never knwo when you runout of steam as every part of you fluctuate from day to day hormonally emotionally and physically..These core systems draw tons of wattage and amps and deplete you just like lossing air in outer space.

Calories has zero way of defusing metabolic draw. in fact its doesnt even know this draw exists..


2) carefully Manage double digit sugars. Single digit sugars the body needs and needs with out warning. The body manages very successfully on single digit sugars. its when a saturation point is achieved.. saturation being blood sugar levels are in free fall, that unwanted body fat begins to weaponize..and enzyme force field shields all lifesupport and purpose driven areas of the body. there is a master key which allows access but thats it access only..and that Key is your own unique protein number(Pn#) which is defined as the baseline biometric of your metabolic need.

calorie counting cant wont and does not have the master key or dna chip to stop weaponized hormones. the only agent of the body that can shut off a hormone is another hormone or virus. Calories is a basic counting system that humans invented mother nature has no translation for stupid human tricks.

3) Understand and use the Food Frequency Formula.. 2 before 12 and 2 after 2pm. this formula balances food energy around our wake and sleep cycle also known as your circadian rhythm...Food energy to start your day ready to exude life force and food energy to rebuild lipolytic enzyme count.. lipolytic enzymes are hormone stewards which tend to the needs of body fat.

They are the only agents that understand the language of body fat. they are only agents which can communicate., accommodate and negotiate the where with all of unwanted body fat and they are the only agents of the body which have the authority and ability to command unwanted body fat to stand down.

Using the food frequency formula permits these agents to mirror as well as shepherd the activities body fat since they have a low tolerance for high decadent behavior.

4) Develop a food energy plan. A food energy plan allows you to strategically plan once the entire month looking ahead at whats coming at you in the form of metabolic upset and unrest. It enables you to know how to duck bob and weave lifes little spur of the moment free for all to eat counterfit foods out of spite and dodge them based on the freedom to make lifestyle choices accordingly.

A food energy plan destroys calorie counting system completely because the end user can see before hand the entire picture in panoramic view fool proof and non foolproof foods coming at them. In calorie counting the end user is always in the blind to the oncoming traffic of life..

this forces reaction time to be to late or be indecisive in awkward situations while trying to maintain composure as well as keeping track.. this kind of stressful multi tasking zaps life force.. eats up amperage and wattage and wears emotions down as so many on thsi board have come to experience..

5)
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