Following on last month’s Beginner Series, this new 3 Tips Tuesday series will give you easy and practical tips on different topics from weight loss to gym intimidation or mindful eating. Make sure to visit the blog every week for new tips :)

Let’s start with 3 top diet tips to start losing weight without having to count calories.

The simple fat loss rule: calorie deficit

You gain weight when you consume more calories than you burn. You lose weight when you burn more calories than you consume. When you do this, you are in a calorie deficit. How do you achieve this?

• By increasing your activity levels (workouts but also and most importantly your non exercise activity, such as daily walking).

• By decreasing the amount of calories you eat (maximum 500 cals below your daily maintenance calories)

Figuring out your maintenance calories then tracking your meals does help to make sure you are actually in a deficit. However, if this is a little bit too overwhelming for you, here are 3 simple changes you can make to your diet to decrease your daily calorie intake.

3 diet tips for fat loss (without tracking calories)

1: Whole over processed foods

Processed foods are foods that have been refined, transformed or had ingredients added to them. On the other side of the spectrum, whole foods are not processed and are just staying in their natural state.

It’s been proven that eating processed foods can make you consume an excess of up to 500 calories per day.

Why? Because these foods are easier to chew, faster to eat and therefore you tend to consume more than you actually need before your brain sends you a satiety signal. Not to mention the fact that they are packed with hidden, addictive sugars!

To lose weight, prioritise foods that are the less processed possible: fruits, vegetables, grains, seeds… For instance: boiled sweet potatoes instead of sweet potato fries, home cooked meals instead of ready meals…

2: Eat your calories, don’t drink them

There’s around 60 cal in 100ml of whole milk. If you use 250ml for your oats then another 50ml in a few coffees, that’s a few hundred calories you might have not thought of.

There are easy swaps, such as choosing semi-skimmed or unsweetened almond milk (only 13cal/100ml) and using half milk half water in your porridge.

I also advise my clients looking to lose weight to avoid smoothies, as they can contain up to 600calories but you down them in 5 minutes and are hungry a couple hours later.

3. Healthy doesn’t mean low calorie

Peanut butter is classed as a healthy food but one tiny spoon contains nearly 100 calories (and let’s be honest, it’s hard to only eat one spoon).

Oil is healthy, but one table spoon also contains nearly 100 calories. I’m not telling you to cook without oil or ban nut butters from your life, but be aware of the quantities.

This is why being aware of the calorie content of some foods and reading labels is useful, but this doesn’t mean that you have to track your calories. Start with being a little bit more mindful :)

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