CALORIE COUNTING DOESN’T HAVE TO BE FOREVER

Calorie counting can teach you how to practice portion control and it’s a great tool to use for educational purposes (learning what is in food) & also creating awareness,

BUT…

Tracking your food doesn’t have to be the only way to lose body fat and it’s not always the best method for everyone.

Tracking has its pros; it can be more flexible, easier to manipulate when hitting plateaus or making adjustments and its cons; it can be time consuming, requires more education and can encourage obsessive habits.

There are many different methods you can use to create a calorie deficit without being a slave to my fitness pal.

Here are some of them:

CARB BUNCHING: (a term coined by Martin MacDonald) Bunch all of your carbs into one meal per day, which can reduce calories.

INTERMITTENT FASTING: there are several ways to do this;

1)The 24 Hour modified fast: on one or two days of the week you’ll eat one meal small meal at dinner, and the rest of the week you eat normally. On the fasting days, you want to make protein the focus while keeping carbs and fats low.

2)Windowed eating: eat all your meals in a specific time frame e.g. 8 hours eating, 16 hours fasting (the actual time frame doesn’t matter) it just creates a smaller window of eating= less calories e.g. 11-6pm or 1pm-9pm.

3)Alternate day fasting:1 day of fasting followed by 1 day of eating normally.

This will come down to you experimenting and seeing what suits you

REDUCE MEAL FREQUENCY: While there’s nothing inherently wrong with eating more meals, reducing the number of meals you eat in a day is an easy way to drastically reduce total calorie intake. For e.g. skipping breakfast or lunch.

PROTEIN AND FAT FOR BREAKFAST: If you’re unable to (or don’t want to) skip breakfast, this can be an option. Make protein and fats the focus of your breakfast.

This cuts a whole macronutrient out of your first meal and can help you reduce calorie intake and fats and protein can help increase satiety of a meal which can keep you fuller for longer.

CARBOHYDRATE AND FAT SEPARATING: Split your carbohydrates and fats. E.g. don’t choose a meal that is both high in carbs and fat (creamy pasta).

Instead choose high carb, low fat (tomato-based pasta) or low carb, high fat (steak and veg no chips). This will reduce the calorie content in the meal.

INCREASING PROTEIN INTAKE: We all know that protein keeps you full so it can result in you eating less and creating a calorie deficit (include protein in every meal).

PORTION SIZES; follow portion size rules;

• Protein; A palm sized portion

• Carbohydrates; A fist size portion

• Fats; A thumb size of fats.

OR

• Rule of quarters: Approx. quarter of your plate should be lean protein such as chicken, beef, pork, fish etc, a quarter of your plate can be made up with starchy carbs such as rice, bread potatoes, pasta etc and non-starchy vegetables should make at least half the volume of your meals.

Other portion control tips =Use smaller plates and cutlery.

Staying hydrated: drinking water before a meal has been shown to reduce subsequent food intake.

MINDFUL EATING: Eat slowly: This gives you a chance to appreciate the food that you’re eating, pay attention to hunger and fullness cues and eat according to your needs.

Studies have shown that ad libitum energy intake is often lower when meals are eaten slowly, with higher ratings of satiety.

LOW CARBS OR LOW FAT: We are prone to overeating carbs because they taste good and fat has double the calories of carbs or protein so reducing either of these can result in reduced calorie intake.

CUT OUT SNACKS: If you currently have breakfast, lunch, a snack, and then dinner. Drop the snack and stick to just breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

While there can be a time and place for a snack – for e.g. a small snack 20-30 minutes before you work out – for the most part mindlessly snacking will increase your calorie intake.

MEAL SUBSTITUTION: replacing a meal with a protein shake can help reduce calories.

OTHER WAYS TO HELP SPONTANEOUSLY REDUCE CALORIES:

• Increase food volume – vegetables, fruits, lean meats and low-fat dairy are going to give you a lot more food for the calories than higher calorie dense foods.

• Reduce palatability- it’s much easier to overeat foods that taste really good!

• Food swaps- swapping to lower calorie versions.

• Reducing food variety.

Tracking your intake is a tool that you can use to keep a check on your nutrition from time to time.

For the most part it isn’t always necessary. Using these other methods can allow you to maintain or continue to make progress without having to weigh and track everything. It can also be useful to fall back on in times when tracking or weighing your food isn’t possible.

When dieting however, it can be really useful and provide much more flexibility and allow more specific calorie targets and greater manipulation especially when specific outcomes are needed, when the goals are time-dependent, and you already have a good relationship with food.

Which method is best for you will depend on your goal, personality and preference.

Finding a way that suits you and one that you will adhere to the most is key.

This obviously takes practice but does get easier over time.

Want to talk this through in more detail? Click HERE for a free coaching call with me.