Being in the fitness industry for over 30+ years, I’ve seen a lot of different ways that people are saying that you can lose weight. It seems that many people are really always trying to get away from calorie counting. However, I’m gonna show you why losing weight with calorie counting is the best body transformation method out there hands-down. In fact, it’s really the only sustainable way to lose weight and keep it off for good.
Can I Lose Weight Without Counting Calories?
There is only one way out there to lose weight burn fat and transform your body. You absolutely must create a caloric deficit on a daily basis, and truthfully that can average out over a week as well. You could actually have some days of the week when are you eat a bit higher in calories as long as the average caloric intake over the week places you in a deficit.
The equation is very simple. You must burn more calories throughout the week then you consume. There literally is no other way around it when it comes to losing weight and transforming your body.
You can actually lose weight counting calories. There are many diet plans out there that simply have you choose last caloric dense foods like fruits and vegetables and lean meats. You can think of the popular programs such as the whole 30 diet or the Paleo diet has two examples.
These diet plans will help you lose about the first 20 pounds or so, but if you desire to do a full body transformation and go from borderline obese to lean and ripped with a six-pack, then if you’re going to have to be more precise to get those results. And, that means you’re gonna need to do some calorie counting.
The truth is that you really don’t know how much you actually eating unless you’re turning the calories in tracking it.
Common Misconceptions About Calorie Counting
In my experience, so many people who set out with their goals to lose weight and transform their bodies into a healthier and better self so I away from Tony calories, because of a few misconceptions there are common.
Misconception #1: Counting calories has to be hard and difficult.
The truth is that counting calories does actually take a little more effort than simply grabbing whatever in the fridge or whatever is on the menu and simply feeding yourself and stuffing your face in reckless abandon. Even the act of just keeping a rough estimate on the calories you consume brings up your awareness level, and it will actually help you even worse than you would otherwise.
However, with the rising health consciousness in our country today we have made it so simple to actually track your calories. Even most restaurants here in the United States are now putting caloric values next to the items for sale on their menus to read in restaurants. Also, every type of packaged food that you buy in the store has nutrition labels on it making it very easy to see just really how many calories are in each portion. And on top of that, we have Apps on our phones that you can simply just plug-in whatever it is that you’re eating and get a pretty close caloric value as to how much you’re eating.
In reality, most people just don’t have a high enough desire to accomplish to their fat loss goals. So, they’re not really willing to put in the extra effort it takes to count calories. Americans are always looking for the shortcut or the easy way out. And, while counting calories really takes little effort, it does take just a bit more than simply stuffing your face full of food.
Misconception #2: When you’re counting calories do you have to be super precise, otherwise it won’t work.
This is simply not true. The main thing do you remember here is that in order to burn fat we only need to create a caloric deficit. Your body doesn’t care if label on the piece of pizza said it only had 150 cal when it really had around 300 cal. It is simply a machine and when there is more energy available than burning, it stores it as fat.
The best practice for counting calories is consistency. That means if you eat the pizza that said it had 150 cal eat that same piece of pizza and count and track it with 150 cal every time. That way you will get consistent results. As long as you are trending down word and weight week after week whatever way you’re counting the calories is working.
Misconception #3: if I do a calorie counting diet, then I can’t eat the foods I enjoy.
This is 100% false. In fact, when you follow a diet plan that is macronutrient best, you can eat literally any type of food you want and still burn fat, lose weight, transform yourself into a Greek god or goddess.
It’s all the other “fad” diets out there that actually limit the types of food you can eat. One really popular diet right now that is notorious for eliminating and entire macro nutrient group, carbohydrates, is the Ketogenic diet. The state does have some scientific basis, add it is good for certain individuals with certain health conditions. If you’re looking to transform your body and lose weight, you can absolutely do it following a Ketogenic diet. I’m not saying the Ketogenic diet or any other diet like that it’s popular doesn’t work. At the end of the day, all diet plans have one thing in common. They all create a caloric deficit. And that’s literally how you lose the weight and burn the fat.
Using a macro nutrient-based diet allows you the ultimate and flexibility. The key is just diligently tracking and logging your food intake and staying within your macronutrient goals every day on a consistent basis.
For example, when I lost over 60 pounds of fat and went from borderline obese to a six-pack abs; even at the end of the cut I was enjoying Dairy Queen ice cream on a regular basis. I just knew that on those days I was going to eat much less throughout the day in order to accommodate the extra calories, but sometimes it’s worth it!
What About Food Quality And Staying Healthy?
All right, let’s talk about food quality and eating healthy. In the last section I literally just said you can eat ice cream and lose weight. This is absolutely true. However, in all practicality the lower your calories go in the further along you go in your body transformation the more and more healthy foods you’ll find yourself feeling.
Here is the reason…
Foods like ice cream are what we like to call very “calorie-dense” foods. This means that per volume of food they have a lot of calories relative to other types of foods. For example, a small single scoop of ice cream could have up to 200 cal. When you eat that you’re not going to feel very full, and you will feel hungry shortly thereafter. Also, you may find it’s not worth it to spend 200 of your calories eating ice cream in a day when you’re eating 1500 total for the day and with females it drops down the 1200 even. Conversely, for just 105 cal you can actually eat 3 cups of broccoli. Eating that much broccoli has a lot of fiber vitamins even some protein in it. It’s also going to keep you nice and full for a while after that, especially if you couple that with some lean protein.
So you see, when you get to the bottom of your cut and get very close to the final stages of your body transformation, you’ll find yourself eating actually very healthy just by default. However, the flexibility is always there, and you’re free to choose to eat whatever you want. This flexibility allows you to adapt your diet and your body transformation goals to meet any social or family situations that arise. This is a huge advantage to helping people stick to the diet plans and achieve their weight loss goals.
Conclusion
Wow! We covered a lot of ground there. By now, you should know that you can lose weight without counting calories. I also went on to explain some common misconceptions around calorie counting. And then we talked about how are using the calorie accounting method to lose weight and transform your body Will actually keep you eating clean and healthy just by default.
The main reason why losing weight with calorie counting is the best body transformation method is that it provides you with the ultimate diet flexibility.
Having this flexibility in your diet plan allows you to stick to your plan no matter what situation you encounter.
It could be anything from a wedding to a date night with your spouse to a kids’ birthday party two traveling for work. Regardless of the situation you can still hit your calorie and macronutrient goals for the day and keep crushing your body transformation dreams.
I wish you the best for you on your fitness journey. I want nothing less than an epic body transformation from you. I’m here to help you in any way possible. Just leave me a comment here, and I will answer any questions you may have.