3 Fat Loss Tips (that have nothing to do with tracking calories or macros)

Losing fat comes down to one simple thing: eating less calories than your body uses.
However, if counting calories feels slightly overwhelming or if you just want to get a bit leaner, start by implementing these tips:

3 Fat Loss Tips That Don’t Involve Tracking Calories

1: Eat Less Ultra-processed Foods

A recent study proved that ultra-processed foods are making us eat more than non processed foods and therefore lead to weight gain.
For this study the participants were randomly assigned a diet of ultra-processed or non-processed foods. Quantities were not restricted and participants were told to eat until satiety. The groups then swapped diets.

The results? The participants consumed around 500 more calories every day when eating ultra-processed foods and gained about 1kg in 2 weeks.

The reason? We tend to eat ultra-processed foods faster therefore consume more calories per minute. This leads to excess calorie intake before your body gets a chance to send satiety signals.
Not to mention that most ultra-processed foods contain much less dietary fibre, which are an important satiety factor because they take longer to chew.

On the other hand, non processed (or slightly processed foods) are richer in dietary fibre and therefore help us control our pace when eating, which reduces the amount of calories we eat before feeling full.

Now what? It’s impossible to completely cut out processed foods. Technically a chicken breast in its packaging is processed. But it’s far less processed than chicken nuggets. The key is to reduce your ultra-processed foods intake by prioritising fish over fish fingers, baked sweet potato over sweet potato fries, oats over cereal… You get the idea! The less processed foods are, the better.

2: Get your Steps in

Being active doesn’t only mean going to the gym. The best way to burn more calories on a daily basis without adding any more gym session is to walk more.

Take any opportunity to get some steps in: walk to the shop, the pharmacy, the post office… Park far from your office or get off the bus/train one stop before your final destination. Put a podcast on and go for an evening walk.

By averaging 10,000 steps a day you can easily increase your energy expenditure by a few hundred calories. Not the mention the benefits of walking for your circulation and even your mood.

3: Don’t Neglect your Sleep

Have you noticed that you tend to crave sugary treats when you’re running on too little sleep? I explained this when I talked about how you can boost your metabolism. One of the functions of sleep is to regulate your hormones especially those impacting hunger. An adult needs about 7 hours of sleep per night but this can depend based on each individual. Make sure to give yourself enough time to sleep and not only you’ll feel energised but you’ll also be less likely to face intense cravings.

Find out more about my Thrive Strong Programme.