How to lose weight without counting calories

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Calorie deficit is the king while we plan to lose that extra inches at the belly. If you have lifestyle which calls for lot of travelling or living in hostel / away from home without access to cooking facility, counting calories or having quantified meal plan seems like a distant possibility. Discover easy steps to lose weight without counting calories. (Plus download free printable Weight-loss tracker)

Does that mean that you cannot lose weight?? Of course, you can. You can still achieve calorie deficit by following 12 tips to lose weight without counting calories.

1. Plan your plate

Our food comprises of mainly carbohydrates along with protein and fats. You need to change the way such meal plate looks. The plate has to be divided into 3 parts visually.

One third shall be filled with fibrous non- starchy vegetables such as green leafy vegetables, broccoli, cabbage. The fibrous food shall keep you satiated and keep hunger at bay.

Next one third has to be filled with Proteins. As per your meal preference of being a non-vegetarian, vegetarian or vegan, you can add protein sources such as meat, egg, dairy, pulses, nuts. Protein keeps you satiated for longer time.

Rest one third can be filled with Starchy carbohydrates such as whole grains, potato which satisfies the hunger instinct. Carbohydrates also gives you enough energy for your routine activities.

2. Change your habits

Habits maketh a man. So you need to check your habits which have led to weight gain and change them. Simple, isn’t it?

Eating habits such as having multiple cups of sugar laden tea or coffee adds up the calories. Having irregular meal timings, unplanned meals, resorting to junk food or frequent snacks may be the main reason for your weight gain. Note down all such habits that are leading to weight gain and make changes in them.

Switch to sugarless tea/coffee, substitute foods such as cucumber, carrot, yoghurt as your go-to-snacks. Limit consumption of junk food to once a week. These small changes will cut down calorie intake substantially.

3. Limit number of meals

Fasting for longer hours (intermittent fasting) or limiting number of meals shall cut down the number of calories eaten. This shall work only when you ensure that you include more of food such as whole grains, dairy, vegetables, proteins in your meals. High caloric food such as sweets or fried food in your meal shall defeat the whole purpose of fasting.

4. Add low caloric food and cut down high caloric ones.

Fibrous Vegetables and fruits such as watermelon are known to be low caloric food. Adding them helps you to cut down the quantity of calories in your meal.

Fats and sugar are high caloric so they add upto the total calories. You can limit the intake of such foods only to one meal or one day as reward for eating clean for the entire week. It shall help you to balance your cravings and your goals.

5. Increase the level of water intake

Thirst is often misinterpreted as signal of hunger. So it is important to drink water at regular intervals. Drinking more water keeps hunger away. Water also helps to improve digestion and elimination of metabolic waste from our body.

About 2-3 litres of water is required to keep our body functions running in optimum levels. The requirement may differ according to your level of activity, weather conditions, age or other medical conditions.

Fancy water bottle with measuring line is a great idea to keep track of water intake.

6. Portion Control

Have you always eaten healthy food of whole grains, fruits vegetables and yet have wondered how you gained weight? I can feel you. The reason is the quantity of food is more than your activity levels.

You can cut portion of your daily food intake of every meal by about 20%. Such small reduction of portion will not make you hungry but it will still reduce your overall calorie intake.

7. Resort to better ways of cooking

Baking, steaming, boiling can be better options of cooking than frying. You may substitute food such as idli, dosa, chapati over puri. Reducing the oil intake drops the calorie count. The taste and nutrition of the food is retained.

Bonus Tip : Oil is used for tempering as a medium for infusion of flavours of spices and herbs. Instead roast the spices without oil and add water instead of oil for infusion in tempering. You will not notice any change in taste while the recipe becomes oil-free.

8. Educating yourself with calorie and nutrition facts

Understanding your food and your body’s dietary requirements shall go a long way in keeping your weight and health in check. Note down all the food that you eat every day for next three days. Write down the number of calories of each food. You may use apps like Fittr, Myfitnesspal or Healthifyme.

Your shall get a rough idea of how much is your calorie intake in a day/week. All you have to do now is read below and determine what can you do to cut down the calorie intake.

Also note down the calories of your favourite foods such as desserts so that you get an rough idea for substitution.

9. Cutdown intake of liquid calories

Colas and processed juices are laden with sugar and so highly caloric. So cut down the intake of such drinks. Eating a fruit is better than drinking juice as whole fruit has fibre which shall slow down the digestion and keep you feeling full for longer.

10. Better Sleeping habits

Sleep deprivation, irregular sleeping timings disturb the rhythm of your body. Such disturbances in sleep may lead to water retention and weight gain. Building proper sleeping pattern and regular sleeping timings shall help you to lose weight.

11. Stress

Relax. That shall help you lose weight faster. When person is highly stressed, stress hormone named cortisol is secreted. Cortisol makes body store fat and increases hunger. You may adopt relaxation techniques of meditation or indulge in reading or listening to music etc to relax.

Some apps like Level Supermind have free and paid programs to guide you in your journey of meditation and mindfulness.

12. Improve your level of activity

This is different than other of the tips mentioned above. While all of the above tips focused on cutting down the intake of calories, this one focuses on increasing expenditure of calories. Increase the level of your physical activity so you can burn extra calories and reduce weight. You can choose any physical activity that you love such as dancing, walking, running or may be working out with weights.

Working out at home can be easy and economical. You may build a workout program with free body weight. Or you can buy dumbells and yoga mat for less than 50$ to kickstart your weightloss journey.

Bonus Tip : Buy a weighing scale and measuring tape to keep track of your weightloss can be motivating.

These tips shall help you tackle your long pending problem of losing weight. Let me give you a bonus tip – ” What brings about weight loss is determination, dedication and patience.”

Weight loss is slow process and you need to keep following for couple of months to see substantial progress. You need to remember that you have not gained those extra pounds in a week so you can’t lose them in one.

Read more on this >>

• How to avoid food cravings for sweet, sugary food?
• Water – The miracle drink for good health
• Exercise daily – Build your own fitness routine
• Which exercise is better for you?
• What are benefits of regular exercise?

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Let me know in the comments below, how do you plan to lose your weight.

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