Five Ways to Create A Calorie Deficit for Fat Loss (Without Nutrition Tracking)

Type in "how do I lose weight" or "how to lose weight" on a search engine and you'll be met with the same message over and over:

Calorie deficits / Create a calorie deficit / eat less and move more / weight loss with calorie deficits or calorie control...

You get the point.

HOWEVER, telling someone they need to "be in a calorie deficit" to lose weight only explains the mechanism causing the outcome - not how they can actually achieve a calorie deficit. 

It’s like telling someone they need to earn more and spend less to save money, without addressing budgeting concepts and expecting them to become a millionaire.

Without further ado, here are five things that can actually help you to create a calorie deficit for fat loss:

1: Minimising or simply stopping snacking.

This is a straightforward way to reduce mindless calorie consumption and instead allow you to focus on your meals for quality foods.

2: Reducing the amount you eat at meals by implementing portion control.

This can be achieved by:

• eating with smaller plates and bowls
• measuring food serves
• taking less overall volume than usual
• eating slower across the meal to feel more full

3: Swapping higher calorie foods for lower calorie foods

Included but not limited to:

• Choosing lower fat items (reduced fat dairy, trimmed meat, extra lean mince)
• Zero-sugar soft drinks instead of full sugar
• Changing carb-dense food for higher volume, lower carb options
• Cooking more at home and getting less takeaway
• Exercising more

4: Conscious consumption

• Cooking more at home
• Getting less takeaway
• Becoming more aware of nutritional content of foods
• Tracking food
• Reading food labels
• Learning more

5: Increasing calorie output

For example:

• Exercising more
• Increasing incidental activity
• Harder weights sessions / more intensity
• Adding more cardio
• Changing social catch-ups from sitting to walking

Hopefully, this helped to highlight how nuanced weight loss strategies can be and how wide the scope is.

It's not all just 'macro tracking', nor does it have to be! You don't have to use apps, log every piece of food or weigh everything, you can achieve weight loss with a combination of approaches from above- as long as it's something that you can do sustainably for the duration of the diet. 

The key is the individualisation of your approach, guidance, consistency, and making changes when required.