Losing weight is simple.
You don’t believe me?
But here it is. All you have to do is burn more calories than you absorb. Simple. It’s just an equation.
Eat less, move more… lose weight.
Ok, maybe it’s not QUITE that simple. I mean, What we eat changes how much we absorb. And calorie counts on food labels are estimates, and read-outs on how much we burn is an estimate.
But one fact remains. If you consistently eat more calories than you burn, day after day, you will gain weight. Likewise, if you consistently eat fewer calories than you burn, you will lose weight.
It’s simple.
Ah-ha, but I never said it was Easy.
Simple doesn’t mean easy.
The title of this article is “Lose Weight without Dieting”. So, in this article, I’m only going to focus on half of the calories in/calories out equation. The calories IN part.
Here’s why.
Yes, exercise is extremely important. But, in my opinion, nutrition (eating) edges out exercise on the importance scale for losing weight. Yes, you might be one of those people that find getting into a new exercise routine far easier than following a new diet. I get it. That was me. Once I could consistently exercise, I would make better eating choices so I wouldn’t undo all the good things my workout did for me.
I also believed that I could lose weight without changing my eating habits.
That was 15 years ago.
I’ve changed. What happened? Well, I turned 30… then 35… then 40… and, well, I’m eyeing 45 and truth be told, my body does NOT work like it did in my 20s. I don’t recover as fast, I hurt more, things hurt for seemingly no reason, I feel stiffer and less resilient.
Yet, I have lost over 20 pounds (about 20% of my body weight) without significantly increasing my exercise in the last year. I changed my food intake.
Diet: a Four-letter word?
I hate dieting. And, I don’t consider how I eat “a diet”. It’s currently “my diet” in that it’s the way I consistently eat day in and day out. Kind of like how you would describe the diet of a Koala bear eating shoots and leaves. 🙂
When I say “Diet” what feelings does that conjure?
If I say “Go on a diet” what is your gut reaction?
Here’s what I think.
Diet: Ugh, deprivation, starvation, unhappiness, despair, dread
Go on a diet: Departure from normal, deprive myself for some time, calorie counts, food journals, how long do I have to do this?, shoot me now and I’ve not even started…
Is this you?
Yes? Keep reading.
Rethink the word Diet
Diet is what you eat consistently on a daily or weekly basis.
A typical western diet might consist of:
- Restaurant meals, Fast Food, Fast Casual dining.
- Pizza, Burgers, French Fries, pancakes, and bacon for breakfast.
- Easy to prepare “Meals” like Mac and Cheese, or hamburger Helper
- Frozen dinners, Sandwiches, Soda
A typical western “Healthy” (read not-as healthy as one might think) might consist of:
- Meal replacement shakes, protein-enhanced smoothies
- Protein bars, breakfast bars, fruit and greens bars
- Low-fat packaged goods
A typical Indian diet might consist of:
- Curries made with lamb, shrimp or chicken (never beef)
- Vegetable dishes with broccoli, cauliflower, okra, potatoes, and tomatoes,
- Lots of spices including cardamom, coriander, cumin, and fenugreek (among many many more)
- Yogurt, mangos, basmati rice, raitas, chutneys
A typical Scottish diet might consist of:
- Scotch
- Haggis
Ok, I’m done with the lists. Seriously though, diet is what you regularly eat. (Somehow I doubt that Scots eat haggis every day).
Your diet is what you eat.
Make a Change
If you want to lose weight, and your current diet is causing you to either maintain or gain weight, then you absolutely have to do something different.
As a former coworker of mine used to say, “if you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always got”. So True.
In order to make a meaningful change, you need to figure out where you’re starting from. Start by listing out the most frequent foods or meals you eat in a typical week. Look at when you typically eat and about how much. Don’t worry so much about calories, but think about how hungry you are when you eat and how full you are after you eat. Note if you eat regular meals or not (Scheduled), and if you snack or not.
Then, make a change. Not just any change, but an improvement.
Don’t go all wild and crazy and change everything. You don’t need to go Keto or Paleo or start intermittent fasting. You don’t even need to skip meals, stop snacking or cook everything at home.
Pick ONE thing.
One meal, one day, one aspect of your diet. But just one.
And make it better.
Maybe every week you eat a burger, with fries and a soda (at least once) for lunch. Ok, how can you make that better? That one meal.
Skip the bun? Eat half the burger? Eat half the bun? Substitute a salad or side of vegetables for the fries? drink unsweetened tea instead of soda?
Do that till it becomes a habit to eat that meal that way.
Then, make another change.
Is a “homecooked” meal something that looks like a frozen dinner or maybe something out of a box or a package of noodles?
How can you make that better? Can you add a side of steamed vegetables (frozen or fresh)? Can you add a portion of protein (chicken, hamburger, pork, tofu?)
Do that till it becomes “Just the way you eat home-cooked”.
Then, make another change.
Maybe you frequently eat till you are stuffed. Maybe you were taught to “clean your plate”, maybe you eat out a lot and your preferred restaurants are known for providing “value”. When value means huge portions of food that are way more than you need to maintain or lose weight.
How can you make that better?
Success looks like…
By now, you might realize that this will take time. In some cases, it could take a LOT of time. Months even years maybe.
And, that’s ok. Because you didn’t just wake up one day and adopt the diet you have today. You, most likely, adapted and changed to this diet over time. You didn’t just wake up one day 20 pounds heavier.
Many things will affect what and how you eat. Family, friends, economic status, food preferences, food allergies, culture, religion, and many other factors all influence our diet.
Success looks like:
- You maintaining a diet day in and day out that meets your goals. As your goals change, your diet adapts to accommodate them.
- Your day in and day out diet is healthy mostly.
- Your diet consists of a variety of foods.
- You enjoy what you eat and even look forward to eating everything you put in your mouth.
Diet Maintenance
For any way of eating to work for you, it must be something that you can stick to long term. If you’ve ever tried a popular diet and “fell off the diet wagon” then you probably know what I’m talking about when I say that not all diets are sustainable.
If you want to change the way you eat in order to lose weight and have tried other diets in the past, take a moment to think back and identify what was it about each attempt that ultimately stopped working for you.
Was it the timing of the meals, the types of meals, the prep time, the food restrictions?
Yes, you need to eat differently than you are if you want to lose weight. But, if the change is large, you don’t need to make that change all at once. You can start slowly and change the most important things first.
Also, as you change (lose weight or adapt your food preferences), change your diet. If you lose weight without exercising more, you will likely need to eat even fewer calories. So, if you hit a plateau keep that in mind. You may need to eat even less.
Stick to a Healthy Diet … Mostly
Forget perfection. Aim for good enough. I have a saying “Don’t let the pursuit of perfection get in the way of making progress”. Meaning, keep making progress – improvements without the requirement of being perfect.
Too many times we hold ourselves back because we aren’t perfect.
This can manifest itself as many things. You can mentally chastise yourself for slipping up on your diet. You can decide to not eat anything healthy because you can’t do it “perfectly correctly”. It can stop you from getting back “on the wagon” after having slipped off.
Stop.
We are all human. We will never be perfect. You are human. Do not hold yourself to perfection.
You’re going to have some good days, some great days. You’re going to completely botch it on other days. It’s OK. Aim to have more good and great days than botched days. How much more? Well, you can do wonderful things by eating a healthy diet 75% percent of the time (or more). That’s pretty good news.
For my take on a healthy diet: Read my article on healthy eating.
Every day you have a choice of what to eat. Some days, the choices won’t be all that great. Strive to eat the best choice given the options available to you.
Variety is the spice of life
Some folks can’t eat the same thing day in and day out. For those of you in this boat, the good news is: You don’t have to, and you shouldn’t.
For those of you who are content to eat the same thing every day (for whatever reason), I challenge you to switch it up.
Chicken breast, broccoli, and rice is a pretty healthy meal and relatively well-rounded, but if it’s the only thing you eat you can be subject to some nutrient deficiencies over time. Free yourself to swap out other good sources of protein (pork, lean beef, lamb, fish, seafood, or something plant-based) and veggies (tomatoes, asparagus, cauliflower, salad, artichokes, beets, or a bag of frozen mixed veggies). Substitute vegetables for rice (like a potato or cauliflower). Or substitute a different starchy carb, like lentils, quinoa or beans.
I realize that eating the same thing every day is “easy”. If you’re counting calories it’s easier to know what you’re eating cause you’ve already been there done that with the math. It’s also easy for prep because you only have to make one “dish” if you’re only eating one “dish”.
Challenge yourself to have something different. A different part of the meal, a different recipe for the same part of the meal. Branch out and get adventurous. The worst case is that you won’t like it. Even if you skip it altogether, you won’t starve to death. You may even boost your weight loss. 🙂
Enjoy Everything you Eat
Aside from trying new things that you might not like, you should enjoy everything you eat.
Why? Well, then you will keep eating it. If it’s healthy, in proper quantities, and includes variety, you will lose weight without the feeling of deprivation of typical dieting.
Here are a few things to consider:
- Cook foods in a way that you like. Add seasonings and spices to make it taste good. Salt your food.
- If you go to a restaurant and order a steak dinner with a side of sauteed asparagus and garlic mashed potatoes most likely you will enjoy it. Why? Restaurants need to make food taste good so that you keep going back. So, cook your food at home in a similar fashion.
- Even better, you can choose healthier fats to cook with (avocado or olive oil or grass-fed butter), you can use good salts and avoid MSG.
- If you must eat dessert, do so, but don’t overeat it.
- Desserts don’t NEED to be avoided. But large quantities of desserts are not supportive of the goal of losing weight. Keep portions small. How small? REAL small.
- Take your TIME eating your dessert. If you have a 2″ square piece of cake. See if you can eat it in 6-9 bites. Savor each bite. Enjoy the texture in your mouth, and the taste of it. Take 2 or more times as long to eat each bite as you normally would.
- As you change what you eat, you will adapt your preferences provided that you aren’t forcing bland, uninspired, badly cooked foods or horribly mismatched flavors upon yourself.
- I eat scrambled eggs almost every day for breakfast (not every day). But I also swap out what I eat my eggs with, or cook them with. Some days I add spinach. Somedays onions and hot peppers. Some days it’s just eggs. But I always look forward to eating my eggs. If I’m not looking forward to the eggs, I eat something else instead. Give yourself an out.
- If you don’t start looking forward to your meals, change the meal so it’s something you like better. Opt to add more seasonings rather than fat though. For example: if you just can’t stomach broccoli without cheese, then start off with broccoli and cheese, and slowly cut back the amount of cheese. (If you’re using American cheese or Velveeta… which neither is really cheese… Start first by swapping to colby jack or mild cheddar.) Try parmesan or asiago cheese instead of cheddar. Cook your broccoli in butter and salt and skip the cheese. Try nutritional yeast which some folks say adds a cheesy flavor.
Bottom Line
You can lose weight without dieting. But you have to change how you eat.
Part of this is mindset and most of it is habit. Your current diet is pretty habitual, comfortable and familiar. In order to change it successfully, you need to do it slowly. Change one thing at a time.
As for the mindset part, think differently about dieting. Consider everything you eat as your diet. Morph what you eat and how much you eat into the perfect diet for you to support your goals.
Most importantly, adopt an eating style that you can sustain indefinitely. That isn’t to say it won’t change over time, but the change should be deliberate and for a reason.