Strategies to maintain weight without counting calories

Use a dinner plate as your guide. 1/4 protein, 1/4 starch (rice, pasta, grains, etc), and 1/2 vegetables. Here's an example.

Use a dinner plate as your guide. 1/4 protein, 1/4 starch (rice, pasta, grains, etc), and 1/2 vegetables. Here's an example.

This is great, and something I'd never thought about. However, now that I think about it, my grandparents used to fill their plates this way and they always maintained healthy weight.

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

For some people, calorie counting is a way of life. I do OK without it because I have an idea of the relative counts of most foods. I know to avoid or have very small portions of cream-based soups, fried stuff, desserts, etc. and that I can pretty much eat all I want of non-starchy veggies and moderate amounts of fruit without counting every calorie. So, I'll load my plate with green vegetable type stuff and if I want second helpings, I'll get more of those. Last night we were at a dinner with a fixed menu (no entrée choice) and I pried the skin off the fried chicken breast and scraped off the gravy!

As others have noted, you can also base your eating on portion sizes and how full you feel. You have some time to get used to healthy habits before year-end so you may be able to manage without the scale.

Count calories for one day, and then all you need to do is simply eat exactly the same thing every single day for the rest of your life.

Use a dinner plate as your guide. 1/4 protein, 1/4 starch (rice, pasta, grains, etc), and 1/2 vegetables. Here's an example.

This is great, and something I'd never thought about. However, now that I think about it, my grandparents used to fill their plates this way and they always maintained healthy weight.

Come to think of it, this is the way my dad has always eaten, and he has never had a problem with his weight.

A dietician told me we should use our hand size as a guide. A fist is the amount of cArbs to eat in meal and a palm is the amount of protien we should eat.

Drink lots and lots of water, only eat when you are truly hungry {a growling stomach is a good indication}, and stop eating when you don't feel hungry anymore. Don't keep eating until you feel full because in a few minutes the full feeling will come.

Hello!

First of all I would like to comment on how irritating it is to read someone saying "You're 18, do you really need to be counting calories?". They have absolutely no idea what your history includes. Your journey with your body is yours alone to decide what is healthy and right for you. And no one needs anyone making judgments especially without context. It probably comes from a place of caring but still, I found that irritating.

Now to answer your question about wanting to be mindful but not wanting to carry a scale with you all the time: I suggest you educate yourself on being able to reference your body to healthy portion sizes. And what healthy portions are in general.

For example:
Steak - about the size of your palm
Cheese - about the size of your thumb

I personally don't believe in limiting the amount of *most* vegetables I eat. I say most because I could easily eat too much white potatoes, while eating too much lettuce would probably never happen.

It's things like meat, cheese, nuts, rice, bread and all processed food (crackers, chips, packaged food like pasta and freezer appetizers) that is important to understand what a portion looks like.

Things like ice cream and cheeseburgers: know that you can have and enjoy these without guilt, as you said, in moderation.

Good luck on your journey and I wish you the very best in a healthy relationship with your body and food

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.

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.