By: Chris Gates

Not everyone is interested in counting calories.

I get that. It’s an extra piece to the puzzle that, for whatever reason, right now you might not be ready for.

And that’s OK, because you can still get into a calorie deficit and lose weight without ever counting a single calorie. That’s exactly what I’ll break down for you in this article!

If you’ve heard the term “calorie deficit” before, you know it’s the magic piece to the puzzle for burning body fat. If you haven’t heard of a calorie deficit before, you’re about to learn a ton of really valuable information!

To be in a calorie deficit, you need to be consuming fewer calories from food than your body burns each day.

And I’ll admit, the most effective way to get into a calorie deficit is to track your nutrition. I have the vast majority of my clients track their food each day because it really dials in the process and helps you understand how much you’re eating, and what tweaks you need to make to start losing weight.

But counting calories isn’t the only way to get it done.

That’s where this article comes in handy.

I’m going to walk you through exactly how to know you’re in a calorie deficit without counting calories.

Let’s start by breaking down a few additional details about calorie deficits, and talk about why tracking is the most effective approach. Then, we will dive into specific strategies you can use to get into a calorie deficit, and stay there, in order to see as much progress as possible.

Learn about some of my AMAZING clients who have used calorie cycling to build muscle, burn fat, and see amazing progress!

Calorie Deficit Defined

As mentioned at the start of this article, a calorie deficit means your body is burning more calories each day/week than you’re consuming from food.

There are a number of ways to create a calorie deficit, and I’d like to start by outlining a few of the things you should NOT do:

• You should not try to burn as many calories as possible each day.
• You should not restrict your calories as much as possible.
• You should not eliminate entire food groups or macronutrients.
• You should not drastically change any aspect of your daily routine.

All of those things you shouldn’t do are for very specific reasons, but it all comes back to managing a healthy relationship between your goals, fitness, and food.

All you need to do is consume fewer calories than your body burns. So if your body burns 2,000 calories a day, eating anything below 2,000 calories will result in weight loss and reductions in body fat over time, because you’d be in a calorie deficit.

Typically, a good place to start is with a deficit of 300-500 calories.* One pound of fat in the human body is equal to ~3,500 calories, so theoretically if you’re in a daily deficit of 500 calories you can expect to lose one pound of body fat a week — which is a perfectly reasonable and sustainable rate of weight loss.

*(This varies from person to person. For example, very small individuals may not be able to handle removing 500 calories from their daily diet. Consider your own personal circumstances before beginning any type of diet plan, and make sure the plan is specific to YOU.)

Now that we’ve established some of the do’s and don’ts, let’s talk about how your body actually burns calories. Despite popular belief, your exercise routine actually plays a very small role in burning calories.

There’s a very popular chart that outlines your body’s total daily energy expenditure, and it perfectly illustrates the breakdown of how and why your body burns calories. To quickly summarize energy expenditure, approximately 90-95% of your daily energy expenditure (calories burned) comes from things other than exercise. Things like:

• Your organs functioning
• Fidgeting
• Breathing
• Non-exercise activity
• Digesting food

The last 5-10% of your daily energy expenditure comes from exercise. So while you may want to add a bunch of exercise into your routine in order to lose weight, that’s probably not going to be the best or most effective approach.

Adjusting your nutrition, and being consistent with your nutrition, is going to be most effective. So let’s talk about how to do that, and how to know you’re in a calorie deficit without counting calories.

Tracking Nutrition is Most Effective

The focus of this article is obviously not about how to track nutrition to get into a calorie deficit, so I won’t belabor this point for too long, but…

Manually tracking your nutrition is the quickest and most effective way to get into a calorie deficit and lose weight.

And it’s not as time consuming, difficult, or arduous a task as you may think.

There are free tracking apps like MyFitnessPal that make it unbelievably simple to track your food. Add in a food scale and a set of measuring cups, and all you have to do is add one additional step to prepping your food to get accurate information.

And by going through the process of tracking, you’re going to learn so much about nutrition, how it applies to your goals, and how you can better manage your nutrition long term to see (and maintain) results.

If you haven’t tracked your nutrition before, I’ve got a complete breakdown of how to do that in my article on how to track your macros. Give that a read. This video on how to weigh and measure your food will help, too.

But if you’re steadfastly against tracking nutrition, counting calories, etc., here are a few other strategies that will work…

Let’s start with how to manage your nutrition, and then we can dive into how to actually track your progress to ensure you’re in a calorie deficit!

How to Know You’re in a Calorie Deficit Without Counting Calories — Nutrition

Without specifically counting each calorie that goes in your mouth, you can use some simple strategies to give your body what it wants and needs to lose body fat.

Let’s start with protein. If you simply make it a focus to build each meal around a protein source — chicken, turkey, steak, quinoa, beans, etc. — you’ll be off to a great start. Protein is the most filling macronutrient, and we have a host of research showing that high-protein diets are associated with an increased feeling of fullness and better adherence to weight loss protocols.

In addition to protein, diets that are high in fiber are also associated with feelings of greater fullness. So after you select your protein source for each meal, start building around it with a fruit or vegetable. If it grows from the ground, it’s probably high in fiber. And that’s going to help.

You can polish things off by adding a whole, nutritious starch or carb source. Things like potatoes, white rice, brown rice, quinoa, etc. are great options.

All of those tips are going to help you build meals that are very high in volume, and lower in calories. So while you aren’t tracking your nutrition, you can have a decently high confidence level that those meals are supporting your goal of being in a calorie deficit and losing weight.

But there’s an additional piece to this puzzle to consider…

You’re probably going to have to self-restrict your portion sizes.

Just because you make all the right food choices when you build your meal, it doesn’t mean that you can have unlimited amounts of those good choices and are immune to eating yourself into a calorie surplus.

Limit yourself to one plate of food at each meal.

Don’t make it absurd. Don’t pile food on top of food, on top of food, and tell yourself “it’s OK, because Chris said one plate!”

A protein source, a fruit/vegetable, and a carb source at every meal. On one plate.

Responsibly.

Like an adult.

Do that three times a day, and you can probably allow for a small snack or two, and you’re very likely to be in a calorie deficit.

How to Know You’re in a Calorie Deficit Without Counting Calories — Tracking Progress

Your nutrition strategy is in place for how to know you’re in a calorie deficit without counting calories. Now it’s time to talk about how to actually find out if it’s working.

Because at the end of the day, your progress will tell you whether or not you’re in a calorie deficit.

We can monitor progress in three different ways:

1. Your bodyweight
2. Your waist measurements
3. Visual changes in body composition

Your weight on the scale is always the focal point of being in a calorie deficit and losing weight, so let’s talk about that first.

In general, yes your bodyweight should go down if you’re in a calorie deficit and losing body fat. But it’s not as cut and dried as, “eat in a calorie deficit and your weight will go down.”

There are so many other factors involved in the process of your weight fluctuating up and/or down, such as:

• Water retention
• Hormones
• Strength training
• Building muscle
• Cardio training
• Stress
• Travel
• Food weight in the body
• Illness

The list goes on and on.

With all of those factors playing a role, bodyweight is not always going to be the best, or most reliable way to track your progress.

I do recommend you weigh yourself daily. Read my breakdown of how to weigh yourself properly to make sure you’re doing it correctly and getting accurate data (yes, it’s more nuanced than you think).

In addition, try tracking these two body composition metrics as well…

• Waistline measurements — Take these every two weeks by wrapping a tape measure around your belly at the top of the hip bone.
• Progress pictures — Take these once a month from the front, left side, right side, and back wearing shorts (men) or a swimsuit (women) that do not cover your knees.

By adding those two measurements into how you track your own progress, you’ll be lending a critical eye to all aspects of how your body is (or isn’t) changing over time.

If one of the three ways you monitor progress is improving — the scale going down, or your waist measurements decreasing, or your body visually changing — it means you’re in a calorie deficit!

You’re doing everything right, and you just need to keep going.

If you run into a stretch of time (three weeks or more) where none of those measures of progress improve, then it may be time to reevaluate what you’re doing with your weight loss plan.

Time Rules Over All

At the end of the day — whether you track your nutrition or not — you need to be in a calorie deficit for a long time to see real, meaningful, sustainable progress.

So I can’t stress this enough…

Don’t put a timeline on this process.

Don’t make this a race to lose weight. If you do, you won’t approach it in a healthy or sustainable way. If you do, you’re more likely to do a bunch of those don’ts we talked about earlier in this article.

Getting into a calorie deficit is a big piece to this puzzle, but it’s not the only piece.

A calorie deficit, plus a long time in that calorie deficit, is where the real, meaningful change happens.

It’s easy to get impatient, or feel stressed, and want to expedite the process, but that rarely ever works to your advantage.

Master the principles we’ve discussed in this article, and be as consistent as you can for a long period of time.

You can do this!

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I hope you found this article on how to know you’re in a calorie deficit without counting calories helpful! Whether you want to track calories, or not, in your weight loss journey, I’m always here to help. Give my coaching page a read if you’re interested in learning more about online personal training. And if you’re interested in personalized, guided coaching to help you along the way of your weight loss journey, fill out a coaching application form and I’ll reach out to you to discuss your goals!

Thanks for reading!

~ Chris