@SideSteel - can you take this one as I know you have done a bunch of research and apply some methodologies with your clients to enable them to lose weight (or maintain) without logging.

Following this!

So this will be somewhat of a long post and I'll also be referencing this in a few different places and I only mention that in case anything appears out of context.

Let me first be clear that while I do coach people and I've had a few people who are now successful without tracking, I'm not claiming to know everything about this nor am I suggesting these methods work for everyone. This is not a complete list, it is just a list of behaviors and tools that I've experimented with for myself and in varying capacities for clients.


I'm also much better at talking about things as opposed to writing them because my ability to organize my thoughts in a reader-friendly manner isn't great, my apologies in advance.

Things that I think are important for non tracking dieting:

- Establish rather consistent meal frequency/meal distribution. I think it's generally going to be better on adherence and possibly better on hunger management.

- I find that MOST people tend to do well with 3 to 4 meals per day and 1 to 2 snacks. Please accept "MOST" as the generalization that it is. Sure, there are going to be exceptions.

- I find that with non tracking methods, it's best to limit, but not necessarily eliminate, energy dense, hyper-palatable foods. Additionally, my preferred method for limiting this has to do with frequency and not quantity. To develop this habit I would start by loosely tracking junk food frequency in a column and identify whether or not there's a need to reduce that figure to bring energy intake down.

- Related to the previous paragraph, I find that it's useful to FOCUS on eating whole and minimally refined foods. Whole foods will promote satiety to a much larger extent compared to heavily refined foods. I'm differentiating because this is inclusive thinking. SEEK OUT whole foods and look to include them in your diet.

- Limit (significantly in my opinion) calories that come in liquid form. To be clear, these are not inherently bad, but they can add up in a hurry and seldom contribute significantly to satiety.


- I find that eating protein with each main meal is a great move to promote satiety. While I don't agree with PN on all of their material, I think they're excellent in their suggestions for meal construction and I'll link that below. I would modify protein needs and carbohydrate needs based on the individual but I would stick to the "hand size guide" and general meal construction idea.

- I find that it's very valuable to identify whether someone gets greater satiety out of higher carbs vs higher fats. I start this with simple questions and then observe and adjust as needed. Easier said than done and I'm still working on this from a coaching standpoint. I know that I absolutely prefer higher CHO, and that higher fat meals for me basically just mean extra calories in a hurry so I tend to keep fats on the lower end for myself.

- I find substantial value in periodically asking myself "am I hungry or am I eating for another reason" especially when I find myself eating or wanting to eat when it's not a typical meal time. The purpose of this is to just build awareness around food intake and hedonic hunger.

- I recommend several servings of fruit and vegetables per day, especially fibrous vegetables and high satiety foods like mixed berries for example. I will never tell a client "go eat broccoli and berries" because that goes beyond my scope of practice but I'll certainly hammer on the importance of vegetables and fiber for promoting satiety and I'll suggest various food sources and possible ways to prep that food that I find enjoyable. One example would be plain greek yogurt with a scoop of whey and 1 to 2 servings of frozen mixed berries (very high satiety, high protein, sweet tasting, frozen so it's dessert like, high in micros, etc).

- Pay attention to differences in satiety among food items and this is something that it more of a finer point that in a coaching context I'd use later on (after some more basic things are set in place). But for example, I get WAY more satiety per calorie from potatoes than I do from bread.

- This one is HUGE. Manage your food environment in the following ways:

a) Make sure that low satiety, hyper-palatable/ calorie dense food items are not easily accessible and not EASILY VISIBLE. I could go into detail about it but this post is long enough as is. The short of it is, this will potentially reduce the frequency with which you eat these items AND it will potentially reduce the frequency at which your willpower is tested consequently this will potentially reduce dietary stress. At the extreme level you can remove these items from your home entirely. Most people won't need to go that far but at the very least, get them out of sight and less accessible.

b) Make sure that high satiety, low calorie things like fruits and vegetables are prevalent in your environment, easily accessible, and visible. Keep a bowl of fruit within arms reach in your kitchen. Keep vegetables and other low calorie "diet friendly" food items at the front of your refrigerator and take inventory of your cabinets and immediate living space.

- There are other environmental things you can do such as keep food variety limited on a per meal basis (a protein, a starch, a vegetable for example) rather than 3 different proteins, 2 different starches, etc. to reduce food consumption. Eat in non distracted situations. Select slightly smaller serving plates/bowls. If you are eating in a situation where you serve yourself the items on to your plate then eat, eat further away from the serving bowls (keep the serving plates in the kitchen for example, and eat at the table rather than keeping the serving plates on the table with you). Use taller, narrow glasses if you are going to drink calorie containing beverages. And there are additional things, but I find that a and b above are massive and this would also apply to people who track.


Now I'm probably forgetting some other ones since there's really a lot and it's also quite individual. As far as IMPLEMENTATION of this stuff, that's also going to depend on the individual.

For context sake, if you're someone who is completely overwhelmed with tracking and it's driving you nuts, you're probably better off going cold turkey and taking a "bang for your buck" type of approach with respect to habits around food. For most people that's likely to be focusing on meal composition (PN method) along with managing your food environment and sticking to primarily whole foods. That's going to go a long way in blunting hunger and preventing or at least mitigating overeating.

For people who really want to quit tracking but are fearful of weight gain or fearful of giving up the habit, I would do it piecewise and I'll roughly outline the process I use but I don't claim this to be perfect.

- I'd start by taking a week to OBSERVE current meal construction and meal frequency. Many people who track have no idea how often they eat or how their meal distribution tends to land because they're strictly looking at calories and macros.

- I would then start logging at the end of the day instead of the beginning without making any intentional changes to intake.

- I would progress from here to removing a few days per week of logging and I'd start with a few weekdays while still logging on Fri-Sun or Fri-Mon since for most people this tends to be where additional calories enter the diet.

-The last thing I would do would be to pull logging away on the weekend.

In both examples I would still recommend tracking body weight provided you don't have issues using body weight as a metric. Weigh daily (again assuming you have no issues with this) and track averages and let those changes in average weight roughly guide you as to where you are in terms of energy balance.


I'll edit this later if I think of major things I've left out.

One thing to leave people with -- tracking is a great tool for some people in some contexts. It's also not a great choice for some people and if you're one of those people then you should seek to learn ways to either maintain or lose weight (within reason) without tracking. It can take a while -- if you start slowly gaining, realize that a) tracking will always be there for you if you need to return to it temporarily and b) just because you may not nail it in the first few weeks does NOT mean you can't modify your process to eventually learn to eat without logging.

I'm almost done I'll add that even if you hate tracking, I think it's good to occasionally log a day here and there to check where you're at, primarily for protein and calories especially if you're beyond novice and actively resistance training.

Finally, calories are and always will be fundamentally at the top of the list when it comes to changes in weight -- but this doesn't mean they must be actively tracked.

Here's the PN article. I don't agree with some of their opinions on calorie counting, but I do think the guide is useful. http://www.precisionnutrition.com/calorie-control-guide

Yeah and that's the unfortunate part. Some really great info coupled with some stuff I really don't agree with.

I will also say that in the past I've been really bad about dismissing an entire article because of a couple of things I don't like. I'm attempting to not do that as of late -- still tough at times though.

SideSteel wrote: »

I have a lot to say about this. Might be a day before I reply. Stay tuned please.

Yes you do!

Tagging for *when* I get to this point! Or more like putting my "rose colored glasses" on

_benjammin wrote: »

SideSteel wrote: »

Here's the PN article. I don't agree with some of their opinions on calorie counting, but I do think the guide is useful. http://www.precisionnutrition.com/calorie-control-guide

Nice link but if they would have started with:
"We begin by classifying clients into one of three general categories (or somatotypes):
I types (ectomorphs),
V types (mesomorphs), and
O types (endomorphs).
And each type gets slightly different recommendations.
I would have stopped reading. lol

Actually, I do think there are different "body types". I don't know if the nutritional requirements are any different, though.

This is some great information! Basically, before middle age, kids, work, etc. hit and decreased my TDEE, this is how I stayed slim for the first 40 years of my life. Somehow, after 40 I managed to get sloppy and develop all kinds of bad habits. So I am logging now.

But these are good tips even for those who log, who still have to stay relatively low, calorie wise.