Can You Lose Weight Without Counting Calories?

Can you lose weight without counting calories?

Absolutely.

Through 2.5 million years of evolution, we never counted calories. Our Paleolithic ancestors after a successful hunt never said, “I wonder how many calories this wooly mammoth has?”

Or when they found tubers or wild berries, they didn’t say, “I wonder if this fits my macros?”

No. They just ate it. And they were all naturally lean and strong and they didn’t suffer from modern western diseases like obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.

But then you look at modern western society these days, in the midst of an obesity epidemic where 3 out of 4 American adult is classified either in the overweight or obese category.

While 88% suffer from some form of insulin resistance and metabolic disfunction. We are so obsessed with calories.

The concept of just counting calories and treating all calories equal is as prevalent as ever.

The over simplistic calories in calories model out is still considered conventional wisdom. It’s almost become a religion.

The zealots of this model will always blame you for not losing weight. Even though you’re eating less than a thousand calories every day.

This model has actually been statistically shown to have a 99% failure rate.

Yes, it works at the beginning. Assuming that you have a healthy metabolism and you go on a calorie deficit. Yes, you’ll lose weight.

But then homeostasis kicks in. Your body adjusts to this lack of energy. It goes into survival mode by slowing down your metabolism, and this is when you hit the dreaded weight loss plateau.

This is where a lot of people find themselves.

They’re absolutely miserable, they’re always hungry, they’re barely anything, worse of all, they’re not losing weight. Sound familiar?

And all it takes is one little slip up with your current calorie deficit diet and you almost put all the weight back on that you’ve worked so hard to lose, seemingly overnight. Sound familiar?

The calories in vs calories out model simply does not work without optimizing your hormones.

Weight loss in its very essence isn’t about counting calories. It’s about controlling hunger.

If you take care of hunger, creating a calorie deficit without ever counting calories will take care of itself.

So, can you lose weight without counting calories? Absolutely.

In this video, I’m gonna show you 5 key principles that you can follow so you can finally lose weight without counting calories.

Can You Lose Weight Without Counting Calories? Here’s HOW

Key Principle #1: Eat real food

I want you to eat single ingredient, mostly unprocessed, nutrient dense foods. In short, eat real food.

If you’re new to my blog, you’ll know that I’m a big proponent of following key concepts from the primal way of living.

Because that’s how we evolved as human beings for 2.5 million years. We need to honour those principles.

We evolved to eat plants and animals. So, that’s where we should start. I want you to revolve your diet around those two things.

When it comes to plants, I want you to specifically eat green leafy cruciferous vegetables because they’re extremely nutrient dense. They’re also high in fibre which is gonna activate the stretch mechanism in your stomach.

Let’s talk about animals. Meat is one of the most nutritious and satiating food on the planet. Think about a piece of ribeye steak. It’s high in fats and protein which is gonna activate your satiety hormones, CCK and PYY.

It’s also delicious.

You also get bonus points if you eat organ meat because they’re extremely nutrient dense.

If you look at the way animals hunt for example, they will always eat the liver first because they inherently know the nutrition value of it.

Ideally, you’re eating animals that came from good sources like pasture raised chickens or grass fed and finished beef.

The nutritional profile of those animals is far superior than feed lot animals. It’s not even close. But if you don’t have access to those types of meat, then just buy the highest quality meat you can afford.

Fun fact. Do you know what the most nutrient dense food on the planet is? It’s grass fed and grass finished beef liver.

But for some reason, eating organ meat has kind of become a distant memory in North America. But if you go to Europe, Latin America, and Asia, they’re very much part of the local cuisine.

Basically, eating a diet that revolves around plants and animals will activate your satiety hormones and turn off your hunger hormones. Which is then going to eliminate the need to snack in between meals.

The baseline by the way if you want to lose weight without counting calories is to just eat three square meals a day. Eat when you’re hungry, don’t eat when you’re not hungry.

When you eat this way, it’s also going to moderate your insulin levels which means you can easily tap into your fat stores and burn it for energy. Think of your body burning fat as a “snack” instead.

Again, this is what I mean when I say weight loss is all about controlling hunger.

Let’s quickly address fruit. Other than seasonal berries and avocado, I would consider it more as a treat and not part of your daily diet.

Think about it this way. Our Paleolithic ancestors consumed fruit seasonally. Now, you can get any type of fruit you want 365 days out of the year.

Fruit these days are also genetically modified to be bigger and sweeter. They look nothing like how they used to look back then. Just think of fruit as nature’s version of candy.

Now, let’s move on to another key concept that you need to understand.

What you stop eating has far more impact to your health than what you start eating. Which brings me to key principle number two.

Key principle #2: No liquid calories

I’m talking about pop, gatorade, Snapple, milk, and designer coffees. So, no more crappy Frappe’s and choco mocha lattes, no water enhancers like Mio, no diet soda, or any zero calorie version of any drink that’s just artificially sweetened.

This also includes juice. Juice is basically like drinking a can of coke but with vitamins.

And no, cold pressed juice isn’t any better. You should see if you can get a refund on your $10 juice sitting in your fridge right now.

Juice does absolutely nothing to your body except make you fat. I’m also gonna include kombucha here. The “health” claims are honestly weak at best.

If you’re someone who regularly drinks any of the stuff I just mentioned and you take it out of your diet, your life will change.

Especially if you’re someone who’s been drinking diet Pepsi or anything that’s branded as “zero” calories but is sweetened with sucralose or stevia.

All you need to know is that diet soda is one of the biggest lies in the nutrition industry. It’s often connected to weight gain and obesity because it destroys the gut microbiome.

When it comes to alcohol? Keep it to once a week. But then you’ll hear someone say, “But I thought a glass of red wine every night was good for you?”

No. Those are based on observational studies where they cherry pick data to suit their hypothesis. I have a separate video about alcohol’s relationship with weight loss if you wanna know more about it.

To make it easy, here’s what should you drink. Water, soda water, black coffee, and tea. You can add a tiny splash of heavy cream to your coffee and it’s not gonna be the end of the world. That is it.

Key principle #3: No processed food

Let me make this easy.

If there’s a bar code or a nutritional value label, or if it comes in some special packaging, I want you to think twice whether you should put it in your mouth or not.

This is when we get into what I like to call ‘frankenfoods’. These aren’t real food. These are food like products.

If you want a snack, how about some pistachios? There’s only one ingredient. Pistachios. Or, a hard boiled egg. Again, there’s only one ingredient.

It also contains 13 vitamins and minerals like lutein and choline for example which is crucial to you eyes and brain health.

For all the plant based believers out there, especially the ones who’s seen What The Health or Game Changers, none of the claims from those documentaries are based on good science.

Let’s talk about plant based meat substitutes.

A beyond burger patty has something like 18 ingredients. Think about it this way. They’re taking a plant and they’re making it look like a burger patty.

Think about the amount of processing that this food like product had to go through? When you eat a  piece of steak, you’re just eating that. A piece of steak.

Other example of processed foods are low calorie and low fat versions of foods. To make any food low calorie, fat usually gets taken away because it’s calorically dense.

But as I mentioned earlier, fat plays a huge role when it comes to satiety. And when fat gets taken out, they have to replace it with something else and that something else is sugar.

So that combination of processing and high amount of sugar makes these foods extremely insulinogenic which makes them extremely fattening.

All you need to know about this principle is this. There are no bad foods, only processed ones.

Key principle #4: Increase general movement throughout the day

No, you don’t need to do multiple workouts or anything like that.

Your number one focus should be on general movement throughout the day.

This can be as simple as walking. Walking up regulates your fat burning metabolism because you’re mostly burning fatty for energy.

That’s why setting a goal of getting 10,000 every day is extremely beneficial because it forces you to move throughout the day.

Then a few times per week, do some resistance training to build lean muscle. Having a lot of lean muscle mass is the primary driver of your metabolic rate.

If you wanna lose weight, there is nothing better you can do than increasing your metabolism.

And when it comes to improving your overall health and wellness, there is literally nothing better you can do than to be as physically strong as humanly possible.

The side effect its that it makes you look good shirtless. Who doesn’t want that?

If the benefits of exercise could be put in a pill, it would be the biggest blockbuster medication of all time.

Key principle #5: Incorporate intermittent fasting

Back in the Paleolithic times, our ancestors sometimes would go all day or  even days without food.

Their bodies simple tapped into their fat stores for energy. That’s what body fat is there for. The human body is designed to fast.

And, guess what? You still have those same fat burning mechanisms.

I talk about intermittent fasting a lot on my YouTube channel but all you need to know is that in terms of specifically targeting body fat and burning it, its efficacy is unparalleled. Fasting also heals the body.

There are so many benefits of fasting that if it could be put in a pill, it would be neck and neck with exercise as the best blockbuster medication of all time. And, it’s free.

In fact, it saves you money because you do nothing. You just stop eating.

This is also where we can create that coveted calorie deficit. But the big difference is that your hormones are fully optimized to tap into your fat stores and burn it for energy.

(BONUS) Key principle #6. Allow for life to happen by scheduling a cheat meal

Again, let’s go back in the Paleolithic era.

Our ancestors would probably come across seasonal berries or some honey every once in a while, and guess what? They probably stuffed their faces with it.

In terms of modern society, this is when “life” happens.

So, have it. But be intentional about it. You need to schedule it.

This is where the ’90/10 Rule’ comes into play. 90% of the time, follow everything I’ve told you so far. The other 10%? Live your best life.

This concept also satisfies the 80/20 principle. The cheat meal is the 20% that gets you 80% of your results because you never feel deprived.

And that’s a very important thing. It keeps people sane because the more you tell someone they can’t have something, the more they want it.

So, have it. Just not all the time.

Can you lose weight without counting calories? I just gave you the blueprint. Try it and let me know how it works out for you.

As always, if this was helpful, share it with a friend who could benefit from it as well!

Need More Help?

Use this simple 4-step process to melt ALL the fat around your stomach and look good shirtless WITHOUT going on a crazy diet or wasting hours at the gym. Get the Lean Body Blueprint here for free!