5 Tips for being in a Calorie Deficit without Tracking your Macros

To lose weight you need to be in a calorie deficit. This means you are consuming less calories than your body requires to maintain your current weight. If you are not losing weight despite eating healthy and regularly exercising then you are not in a calorie deficit. The most accurate way to ensure you are in a calorie deficit is to track your food in an app such as My Fitness Pal. This is known as flexible dieting. However if you want to try a less time consuming approach to weight loss you could try implementing the following five lifestyle changes. These habits will all reduce your daily calorie intake if the rest of your diet stays the same. These are all things which personally helped me lose weight without tracking in the months after giving birth. The photo on the left above is taken 1 week post-birth and my weight was 69.8kg. The photo on the right was taken 12 weeks post-birth and my weight was 66.7kg. Around this time my weight began to plateau so I started tracking my intake to get the last few kilos of weight loss ‘over and done with’.

Create a meal plan and stick to it

Try to only eat your planned meals and snacks without any grazing or additional snacks.

Only have one ‘high calorie’ coffee a day

I have one cafe-style coffee a day made with low-fat milk (either at a cafe or made at home with my Nespresso machine). Any other coffees after this are either black or contain almond milk (lower calorie than even skim cow milk).

Add in more vegetables

This may sound boring but seriously it works! If you increase your vegetable intake you will feel more full while adding very few calories to your diet. If trying to lose body fat I add in raw veggie sticks to one of my snacks and load up on plenty of veggies at lunch and dinner.

Have a list of ‘go to’ desserts which are all less than 100 calories

I often feel like a little something to wind down with on the couch at night. This habit doesn’t have to be a bad thing, just make sure you have a few good options in mind so you don’t make a poor decision when tired. Your decision making ability and willpower is at its worst at the end of the day so help yourself out by having this list. I have a few low calorie dessert ideas in this post.

Measure oats, muesli and cereals

These are very easy to accidentally over-eat if not careful. When you just pour into a bowl you can easily give yourself two or three times what a reasonable serve is.

I hope these little rules help you to be able to eat intuitively and lose weight. If your weight loss starts to plateau it might be time to start tracking. If you need a little help with how to do this remember my program explains in a lot of detail how to either eat intuitively or flexible diet to achieve your goals.

Holly xx