top of page

How To Eat Less Without Tracking Calories

Counting calories to loose weight is hard enough. Doing math to add up calories, looking at food labels, and maybe feeling like you can't just enjoy a nice meal with loved ones because all you can think about is numbers. If you are like me, and you want to eat and enjoy your food, and not do a math problem, then keep reading.


There are probably thousands of people screaming at you through the internet telling you which method will work the best to reduce your calories so you can lose weight.


Them may tell you to eat only at certain times of the day, or eat this "superfood", or use this supplement. Yes, they may mean well, but these strategies may require someone to change their day to day routine. This may be easy to do for some, however for others they may not be ready, willing, or able to make adjustments to their day to day routines. Let me explain using a very practical and real world example.


Let say your family member suggests to not eat after 7 pm, a strategy that has worked for them. They have cut their calorie intake by 500 using this method. Now mind you I do believe this can be a useful strategy, but it may not work for everyone.


Let's say you are a young adult that is hungry (see what I did there ;) to climb the ladder at their first job out of college. You start at 9 am and are getting home at 7 pm. If you are following the advice of our family member, you shouldn't be eating dinner when you get home, since it will be after 7 pm. In order to make this happen, you have to make some changes. You may have to eat on the way home, purchase some extra food to bring to work, and or stop what you are doing at work so you can eat. Sure you can work while you eat, but that may make you eat faster, which can have implication on digestion and nutrient absorption. I hope you can now see how many steps one person has to make in order to not eat after 7 pm.


An alternative option that takes much less effort, is to eat until 80% full. I really like this way for 4 main reasons.

  1. You reduce the chances of beings stuffed, and being stuffed usually means we overate.

  2. You learn how to better read your own body's hunger and appetite cues. Which can help you create sustainable nutritional habits.

  3. You will typically eat more slowly and mindfully.

  4. You don't have to change you routine too much.

The 4th reason is the most important when trying to make nutritional habits stick. This strategy will require drastic changes to your current day to day routine.


One of the biggest things that has helped me and clients I work with is understanding all the steps that goes into creating healthy habits. This includes things like shopping, cooking and meal prepping. These take time and effort, and for some people they may not have that luxury. So rather than making your daily routines revolve around food habits, I think it is more practical to find the best strategy that fits within their life. This 80% full strategy will take a very little amount of effort, but can help you control your calorie intake, which at the end of the day is what matters the most for weight loss.


When starting to build better food and nutritional habits, start with actionable strategies that you can confidently commit to. People often fail because they do too much soon, and often they don't think about all the other steps that go into creating these healthy habits. If you are reading this, I would hate to see you try something and not succeed because it wasn't sustainable for you.


Give this a try for a week, and you will be shocked at how much of a difference it can make!

5 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All

Comments


bottom of page