3 Simple Nutrition Habits That Will Help You Get Lean (Without Counting Calories)
3 Simple Nutrition Habits That Will Help You Get Lean (Without Counting Calories)
Try these 3 things before you start counting calories
By Marco Augusto
Years ago I was really into my fitness.
I was getting coached by John Romaniello at the time doing his one on one online coaching and it was the leanest I'd been in my life (until early 2021, but how I did that is a story for another time).
For 8 months I trained hard, ate well (including on cheat days) and got the results!
Fast forward to today, and I still use many of the principles I learned in that program in my day to day life.
Except one: calorie counting.
Now, this isn't about how calorie counting is bad or negative in anyway.
Some people enjoy it, some people don't, and it taught me a lot.
But there are also many things people can do before they dive into calorie counting.
The problem with calorie counting is it can be time consuming, and can also lead to a deep dive into the minutia; an obsession with things that don't matter that much.
Added to the fact that every new diet is the best diet, meaning we now have at least 30 best diets, and it's no surprise if you're feeling confused and not getting results.
So here are three simple habits you can start implementing, that don't require calories counting and are not diet specific.
Add Before Subtracting
The terms "good" and "bad" aren't always the best descriptors when it comes to our nutrition, because it fails to describe the full story.
What we need to focus on is quantity.
Is a burger really that bad?
If you have one a week, and the rest of the week you eat those "good" foods, then probably not.
If you have a burger everyday however, it might be a different story.
So instead of feeling the need to sacrifice the "bad" food, which tastes pretty damn good, instead think about adding more of the good stuff.
This helps in two ways.
Firstly, it helps us to feel like we're not having to give up on the things we enjoy eating, which again, aren't bad in and of themselves if we're not eating them too much or too often.
Secondly, many of these "good" foods we add will leave us feeling fuller for longer, meaning we're less likely to have cravings for, or the room to fit, the bad food anyway.
So what exactly do you add?
Add more vegetables, add more fruit, add more lean protein sources.
Keep it simple to start.
For example: for this week, add 1 serving of steamed vegetables.
Next week, add two etc.
Slow Down Your Eating
Have you ever seen those hotdog eating contests? At the time of writing this post, the record sits at 74 hot dogs in 10 minutes.
The secret, apart from practice, is that the competitors eat quickly - It is a race after all.
There have probably been times when you've sat down to eat, and before you know it you're finished your meal and even got a side of indigestion to go with it from eating so quick.
And, you could probably fit even more.
But when we eat slow, we eat less.
The digestion process in the stomach begins before we finish eating, sending signals to our brain that we're feeling full.
This has two benefits: firstly, we fill up quicker, leading to less calories consumed.
And secondly, we actually get to enjoy our food and savour it, giving us a greater appreciation for the flavours and a greater gratitude for having the meal to eat.
There are two simple tactics you could use to slow down your eating:
Have a small drink of water between mouthfuls of food.
Completely finish the bite you've taken before having another.
Eat Until You're 80% Full
It's pretty self explanatory how this habit would help you.
If you eat less, you consume less calories (assuming you don't start eating high calories meals).
If you consume less calories, and keep burning the same, or more, you start to lose weight.
The difficulty with this habit, is that you might not know what full feels like anymore.
Many people tend to eat beyond full and drive head first with no brakes into the "I'm stuffed and I need to undo my jeans button" territory.
This is often linked to the point above about eating too quick.
This is very much a mindset habit change. You need to go from thinking this is your last meal to understanding satisfied is good enough for now, because (knock on wood), you will eat again.
A simple tactic for this is to leave a little food on the plate.
Save it for the next day to heat up again.
Or simply give yourself a smaller serving?portion size to begin with.
All of these habits may feel difficult to implement at the same time, so again, keep it simple when you do these.
Try one at a time for two weeks, and just see how you feel.
If you struggle with one of them, stick to it for another two weeks, but if you implement a habit quickly and easily during that fortnight, implement the next.
And then as you start to feel leaner and healthier, then look into counting calories and see if that is something you could implement and enjoy.
These habits are actually some of the habits I help clients learn here at PEAK Strength & Nutrition.
If you'd like to find out more how I can help with nutrition or training, click here.
Until next time,
Marco Augusto
If you found this blog helpful, check out my FREE ebook below, which gives more ways to help you on your fitness journey .
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