Calorie counting works pretty damn well for a certain population of people.
Some people can track long term, some can get by with short term tracking and for everyone else, you can succeed without tracking a thing.
This week’s article will give you thoughts and insights if you want the scale to drop but you don’t want to count calories.
The Movement Solution
I know you already know this but exercise DOES burn calories. It may not burn a lot of calories but you are burning something when you exercise and those calories do add up. Unfortunately, your smart watch is God-awful at estimating how much you burn so the numbers it tells you can be off by a wide margin. Even places like Orange Theory which have successfully found a way to game-ify what you burn in a workout, their estimations are even worse than your smart watch. However, you have an upbeat atmosphere, community support and if that’s what gets you to show up and train, then stick with it. Just don’t get too emotionally caught up in how many calories you burn per session.
Beyond exercise, there’s all the other movement you do in a day: walking from one place to another, taking the steps instead of an elevator, chores, fidgeting, etc. (commonly referred to as NEAT or non-exercise activity thermogenesis). This can contribute to a significant amount of calories expended in a day and when sedentary people can find ways to increase movement into their day this also counts towards your overall expenditure.
While you don’t necessarily have to hit 10k steps a day, increasing your step count to an average that’s higher than where you currently are can reap big benefits over time. It’s not intense movement but it doesn’t have to be, you just have to get your body moving consistently more than what you’ve been used to.
For some people, starting with moving their body is easier for them to psychologically handle than cutting back on food. After the routine is in place with a relatively consistent training schedule, increasing daily step count and getting adequate recovery, it may be easier to make changes to the diet at that point.
NOTE: It’s not uncommon to find people who take a “if some is good, more than that is better” approach to exercise. To an extent, they might be right. However, more exercise “tends” to lead to more hunger, and many people fall into a nasty trap of training hard (burning a lot of calories) and eating more calories back into the equation. The end result? No success with fat loss.
The Food Solution
So, if you’re not going to count calories, how do you succeed at fat loss?
You find places to cut back.
You can reduce/eliminate alcohol.
You can reduce/eliminate dining out.
You can reduce/eliminate ultra-processed treats (candies, cakes, donuts, ice cream, etc.)
You can use smaller plates/bowls than normal.
You can leave food behind.
You can swap out starchy carbs (rice, bread, potatoes, pasta) for fibrous veggies like green beans, broccoli, asparagus, etc.
You can cut out post-dinner eating.
You can reduce/eliminate calorie laden drinks (not including protein shakes): milk, juice, full calorie carbonated beverages, or souped up caffeinated drinks (coffee or tea with cream, sugar, etc.)
You can slow down the rate at which you consume food.
For yourself, you’re trying to zoom out on your current eating habits and understanding the magnitude of your food choices.
For instance, if you tell yourself you’re going to stop eating cookies, that’s fine. However, if you only average one cookie a week, it’s not likely to make a difference. If you’re someone who eats cookies every day, that’s going to have a greater effect.
If you elect to cut out alcohol, try not to replace those calories with something of a similar caloric profile. Switching out 200 calories of booze for 200 calories of walnuts (despite being a “healthy” fat) isn’t going to do much to get you closer to your fat loss goals.
Truth is, MOST (not all) people know exactly where the slippery areas of their diet are. Whether or not they want to change those areas is another conversation entirely.
However, if your weight has been hovering in the same basic area for weeks (if not months) on end, you are somehow managing to eat in alignment with what your body currently burns in a day. Something has to take the scales out of balance.
NOTE: There’s nothing inherently wrong with low calorie diets. That being said, if you’re trying to go low calorie every day, you may find that energy, mood, libido, and sleep become negatively affected. Try alternating lower intake days with higher intake days. You don’t have to be in a deficit every single day of your life and women who are currently still having periods may need to take a maintenance break during that time of the month.
The Medical Solution
For some people, the solution is to go the route of the increasingly popular (and effective) GLP-1 receptor agonist medications for fat loss. These medications (among other factors) slow down gastric emptying and send a signal from the gut to brain to say: Hey, I’m full! and this signal is typically occurring sooner than normal. This allows the user to eat less than normal and achieve an energy deficit.
There are other mechanisms at play with these medications and some people respond better to them than others. However, for people who have struggled with their weight for most of their lives, these can be helpful in getting a patient to eat less without necessarily counting any calories.
Bear in mind, that should you get off of the medications, the rate of gastric emptying will likely go back to what it was prior to the medication. For this reason, many people will likely need to stay on the meds indefinitely (even if it’s at a lower maintenance dose).
Taking a GLP-1 medication for weight loss doesn’t make calories less important, what it can do is reduce your intake to the point where you remain in a deficit without being hyper-aware of the calories you’re taking in.
NOTE: Just like gastric bypass surgery can help an individual take in fewer calories, these medications can work in similar ways. They aren’t fool proof and some people can still “out eat” the medication but if your body is responding as it “should” at the right dosages, then fat loss should be a foregone conclusion.
