How to Lose Weight Without Counting Calories

By Adrian| January 14th, 2024

Don’t Want to Use MyFitnessPal?

“How do I calculate my calories?”

“Do I need to input my foods everyday into MyFitnessPal?”

“Does tracking your calories take long to do everyday?”

I hear these questions regularly and truth be told, counting calories does take a small bit of additional work.

Good news is, with the right strategy, you can lose weight without counting calories.

So, let’s dive into how we can do this.

In the Beginning:

Starting out I think it is a good idea to try calorie counting for at least 4 weeks to get a clearer understanding of:

- How many calories you’re currently eating

- The number of calories in the most common foods we eat (you’d be surprised how many calories are in a handful of peanuts or a tablespoon of guacamole)

- What a suitable portion size looks like

- How much you need to eat to lose, maintain or gain weight

I really do recommend doing this for even just 4 weeks and on top of having a clearer understanding of all of the above, it is lifelong education for you.

Imagine being able to get to a point where you can eyeball everything on your plate and estimate how many calories you’re eating without having to use any app or calculator?

Nutritional Mastery

Once you’ve mastered the basics, you’ll be able to get to a point where a lot of my longer-term clients are currently at – being able to eat intuitively without tracking.

Many have gotten to a point where you can almost classify it as “nutritional mastery” – they don’t need to track their calories anymore yet are aware of their daily intake and they have the knowledge and education to know how to stay within their target number of calories for the day.

How do you get to a point of “nutritional mastery?”

1. Find out how many calories you need to be eating to reach your goals. I wrote a full blog post on this previously.

2. Track your calories for 4 weeks consistently.

3. Adjust your calories up or down depending on your results.

This should put you in a pretty decent position to transition into moving away from calorie counting.

What If I Don’t Want to Count Calories At All?

If you don’t want to count calories, here are some principles you can implement:

1. Focus on eating 3-4 square meals a day (reduce snacking if possible).

2. All of your food must fit on one plate.

3. ½ of your plate is veggies.

4. ¼ of your plate is lean protein (e.g. chicken, turkey, steak, eggs, tofu, quorn etc).

5. ¼ of your plate is clean carbs and healthy fats (e.g. potatoes, rice, oats, nuts, seeds, avocado etc).

6. Drink a glass of water before every meal.

This is not a law set in stone – rather see it as a guide because one size fits nobody. Use this as a starting point to track your progress and make adjustments where necessary.

For example, if you’re not losing weight as much as you’d like, consider reducing portion sizes or removing a meal or snack. If you’re not gaining as much muscle as quickly as you’d like, try add an extra meal and some additional carbohydrates.

The “Best” Diet?

Remember, the key to making a lasting lifestyle change is finding an approach which is:

1. Sustainable

2. That includes foods you enjoy

3. And helps you achieve your specific goals.

For some people, this might involve counting calories, for others, it might require you to follow a specific diet (hopefully not a juice or cleanse diet!) and for many it’s simply a case of not following a “diet” at all and rather finding a reliable approach which generates results (my preferred method).

However, a key point to remember is there is no “right” or “wrong” way to do this.

Provided what you’re doing fits into your lifestyle and is getting you results, that is the most important thing.

The Takeaways:

1. Track your calories for at least 4 weeks before transitioning to eyeballing

2. Tracking your calories provides you with lifelong nutrition education

3. If you don’t want to track your calories, follow some basic principles and make adjustments depending on progress

4. Principles include: ½ your plate is veggies, ¼ lean protein, ¼ clean carbs and healthy fats

5. The best “diet” is the one that includes foods you enjoy, is sustainable and helps you achieve your specific goals

Please Share With Your Friends:

Thank you for reading – I hope you learned something new and got some value from this. If you did get value from it, please pay the fee. What's the fee?

If you find this content valuable (maybe you learned something new or are going to implement a new practice) then please share my blog post with a friend or on your social stories and tag me on Instagram (@McLifestyleFitness).

For such a small act that doesn't cost anything, it really helps me reach more people and spread the word on how to optimise your health and fitness.

I don’t run ads towards my blog posts, everything I’ve done to date has been done organically from people like you reading spreading the good word. I’d appreciate your continued support.

Download Your FREE Living Lean Recipe Cookbook & 7 Day Fat Loss Accelerator Today:

If you’d like a copy of my Free Living Lean Cookbook, and my Free 7 Day Fat Loss Accelerator (which has helped some members drop up to 7lbs inside 7 days), click HERE and it will be sent straight to your email (I do not send spam).

The goal of my Living Lean Cookbook & 7 Day Fat Loss Accelerator is to prove to you that it’s possible to eat foods you enjoy and get results! I share some of my leaner living lifestyle recipes (including some EPIC protein pancakes!).

So, if you’d like a copy of my Free Living Lean Cookbook & 7 Day Fat Loss Accelerator click HERE.

1:1 Online Coaching Application:

If you’d like a coach to help get you out of a routine that isn’t currently working for you and into one that will, then book your free consultation call today to see if you’d be a good fit for my Online Coaching.

This is where having the structure and accountability of a coach comes in. I’ll help you get the results you’ve always desired and make your journey much easier and quicker than doing it on your own.

What’s the purpose of the consultation call?

To deep dive into your lifestyle, goals and current challenges and from there decide if we’d be able to work together.

If we are a good fit, we can get working on your personalised program so you can finally make the changes you’ve always wanted.

You’re just one click away of becoming a success story.

Become a success story today.

About Adrian McDonnell & McLifestyle Fitness:

Adrian McDonnell is a highly specialised Personal Trainer & Online Fitness Coach from outside of Tuam, Co.Galway, Ireland.

Previously a primary school teacher for almost 5 years, Adrian followed his passion and pursued a career in fitness after seeing first hands the results he could achieve with himself.

Although Adrian is a Personal Trainer & now Full-Time Online Transformation Fitness Coach from outside of Tuam, Co.Galway – he not only coaches clients locally, but also nationally and internationally.

Adrian specialises in helping working professionals:

• Be confident in themselves

• Feel more comfortable in their clothes

• Look better in the mirror.

• Increase their energy and go for more promotions at work

• Get fitter, leaner, stronger, faster & more athletic without following rigid meal plans.

• Go on more dates (this is a common one).

• And feel proud of themselves for doing something they never thought was possible!

To date he has helped Transform over 500 Clients into fitter, more toned & confident individuals.

Transforming people’s lives through proper fitness, sustainable & enjoyable nutrition practices & mindset mentoring is something Adrian is truly passionate about and this is his mission in life.

Want to find out more?

Contact me today & I’ll answer any questions you have.

© 2021 McLifestyle Fitness & Performance Ltd. - All Rights Reserved

Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Release & Waiver of Liability