Has anyone managed to lose weight without calorie counting?

[ButteryNut]

It’s the only thing I’ve tried and it’s worked for me. But inevitably I stop and end up back where I started again.

I’ve tried getting back into the groove of it but it’s so boringly tedious.

I want to lose 2 stone.
How can I do it without counting every damn thing that goes in to my mouth?

I can’t do restrictive diets such as keto, low carb etc, I love potatoes too much!
I’m coeliac so I already have to watch what I eat and scrutinise every label.
And I do like how flexible calorie counting is, I can save enough cals for a treat now & then.
But when I’m cooking things from scratch it’s so time consuming…

Help 😢

My 19 year old lost 6kg in 8 weeks partly with calorie counting, he also goes on a 15 k cycle every night. But was losing some weight before he started the cycling.

Intermittent Fasting? You naturally drop calories by no breakfast or evening snacks. It has loads of other health benefits too. I do it and have lost over a stone. Or you could do 5:2 which is only calorie counting for 2 days a week so not as tedious.

Yes, I have. Can't be bothered to count. Through IF, reducing though not eliminating carbs, eating more veg and fruit, walking about 10 k steps a day. Didn;t have a huge amount to lose though; about a stone.

No snacking, no puddings, breakfast at lunchtime (as if I have normal lunch I end up adding extra things on). So effectively I’ve cut out lunch too.

Normal evening meal.

Weekends off.

Yeah, I lost 3 stone doing the no-s diet. Basically what @PyjamasToMyLeft has described. That was in 2017-2018, I've kept it off.

Now I’m sitting here thinking about it, I think calorie counting has perhaps warped my view of food. Even when I was being ‘successful’ on it, I wasn’t really eating proper meals. Maybe a ready meal and then saving calories for snacks 🙄

Maybe that’s why I find it so difficult counting calories when I’m actually cooking from scratch.

I don’t know how to eat anymore. I either half starve or overeat 😞

I could give IF a try. But I need my coffee in the morning and I need milk & one sweetener in it… that wouldn’t work would it?

I don't eat ready meals or processed food ( the odd packet of crisps and occ chocolate). I just eat real food, but less of it. Snacks are nuts or fruits. That's automatically staying within my calories, but without the tedious counting.

I lost about 2 dress sizes about 10 years ago and have kept the weight off. I'm not interested in calorie counting, I really don't know how many calories I eat a day. I eat 3 nutritious meals a day, plenty of protein, 30 different plant based foods per week, 2 fruit or nut snacks a day, loads of water. No processed sugar during the week. 2-3 alcoholic drinks and some chocolate / ice-cream at weekends only. Gym 3-4 times a week, move every day. Get enough sleep

Takes quite a bit of planning but so worth it

Yes, IF plus low carb and high (healthy eg avocado, salmon, olive oil) fat. I also drank/drink gallons of tea with milk during the morning 'fasting' period and still lost weight - and have kept it off.

I listened to my body and reduced stress as much as possible. I also tried to have plenty going on, so I wouldn’t be eating out of boredom.

the First thing I’d do is cut the ready meals - I know it’s easier for calorie counting but they are so nutritionally poor and ultra processed. Definitely agree with others, have a long a gap as you can manage overnight. Fill up on fruit, veg, nuts, crackers. Try to only eat foods in their unprocessed state. If you have a time of day you’re prone to snacking, can you go out for a walk at that time to be distracted

I have a tea with splash of milk first thing and it keeps me going for a few more hours.

I do the similar to @PyjamasToMyLeft - no breakfast (though I do usually have a cup of tea) then eggs and toast or salad at lunch.
No snacks like biscuits, crisps etc, limited alcohol (weekends only, maybe a glass of wine, small beer or G&T).
Healthy dinner with loads of veg. Lots of water.
60-80 mins of walking with my dog and 1 x 30 weights/hit workout per day.
Am steadily losing 1lb a week, late 40s and perimenopausal.

I definitely recommend intermittent fasting. Combined me and my partner lost 20kg doing it. I started with 14 hours from 6pm-8am as I really like my morning tea. Then gradually stopped eating at 5pm to make it a longer fast xx

Corinne Crabtree has a method that doesn't involve counting calories. She focuses on the mental and emotional reasons that we overeat. It's working well for me - I've lost about 10kg so far this year. And I still feel positive and motivated to continue.

What about low-ish carb and portion control, and no puddings or snacks.

If you usually have two toast for breakfast just have one
Sunday roast with 2 roast potatoes, not 4!
No pastries, pies, cakes, etc
If making a family-sized lasagne, cut into 6 not 4

Make a concerted effort to walk more

The only way I’ve ever managed this is by marathon training; running five days a week, totalling about 25-30 miles a week and going to a spin class one day a week as well. I ate a wide range of foods including plenty of carbs, usually having something sweet most days, and lost a stone in 8 weeks without counting calories.

Yes intermittent fasting, it took a couple of month to see difference for me, but I lost 10kg in 6 month. I ate anything I feel like, within the 8 hr window (most of the time), but I dont like sweet things in the UK and my sugar consumption has always been much lower than people here, so if you have a sweet tooth you may still need to cut down on sugar.

Yes, 16:8 diet

Opt for healthy, whole foods, not processed or packaged food.

Increase your protein intake, try to have it with every meal, will keep you feeling fuller for longer.

Buy smaller plates so you don't overeat.

Don't snack late at night.

Cut out sugary drinks and alcohol - both very calorific.

Take up some form of regular exercise.

Yes, I've just started losing weight, not got loads to lose but I was feeling so sluggish and unhealthy. I've cut out bread during the week and swoped my sandwich and crisps at lunch for fruit and a nut bar. Breakfast has gone from toast or crumpets to a banana and a small croissant, drinking much more water and walking 4-6 miles a day. My maim aim was to eat more fruit as I was barely eating any, now I have 3 or 4 portions of fruit a day

Yes. I stopped snacking (bag of crisps most mornings, chocolate most afternoons, that sort of thing) and I stopped eating so much at lunchtime (I was having two big meals a day; now I have a small lunch and a normal sized dinner). It’s been slow - a stone over the last year - but it’s working.

Yup, currently losing without counting (but I am very much In The Zone).

My two things that put weight on are portion size and sweets/cakes/really good ice cream. My underlying diet is pretty good; it's just that I eat a really bad one as well.

So I've cut out all sweets/cakes etc etc. If I'm hungry I have a cup of tea, a cold drink or a piece of fruit.

breakfast: all bran + fruit + a little milk + a dollop of no fat yogurt. I weigh the ingredients once a week to make sure the portions dont creep up
lunch: a Massive Salad ™ with some protein; dressed with something acid (lemon juice, vinegar) plus a very light flyover of olive oil if there's nothing oily in it
dinner: a sensible portion of whatever the family is having. If the recipe says 'feeds 6' I have 1/6th of it.

This means I've cut down on bread, and therefore also on butter and all the associated devilry.

I'm pretty amazed at how well I'm sticking to it but I visualise 1lb lost = one pint of fat stripped off me and I find that very motivating.

I think you need to have a long, hard sit down and think about how you eat to be honest. Eating next to nothing so you can use the calories on chocolate etc isn't going to work long term as you know.

I calorie count. I have about 1700 cals a day. Make sure you're actually having a decent amount that's sustainable for a start. Not 1200.

I also have a rotation of things I eat regularly that I know the calories are around 500. So I don't need to count every single day as such. I know if I have this for breakfast, that for lunch and this for tea, I won't go too far wrong. And I can usually have a 100 calorie snack/chocolate bar as well.

Most calorie counting apps have an option to create a recipe in. So you add the ingredients in and it works out the calories for the whole thing. Then tell it how many portions it makes and it gives you the calories per portion. Once you make something once, you know the calories and can make that again.

It's something that us easy if you want to make it easy and hard if you want to make it hard. I used to make it hard like you do TBH. I used to want to eat a lot of rubbish within my calories each day and I had to give myself that talking to. But now I eat decent, filling meals, I don't want to eat chocolate and junk so much anymore.