Wondering how to lose weight without exercise? It’s relatively easy, if you have the will. What you do is you count calories. Anyone who tells you different is a shyster trying to make a quick buck off of you. Counting calories is how I lost 30 pounds without touching a weight, doing wind sprints up flights of stairs, or doing any cardio whatsoever.
Counting calories gets a bad wrap because, I don’t know, maybe it seems too simple, but there’s quite literally no other way to lose weight than to be in a caloric deficit. Some people just have an adversarial relationship with the truth and would rather read about the next diet fad than stick with what works.
It certainly doesn’t help that the fad-artists out there are always thinking about how to shiny-object people into taking their eyes off of the simple truths in life.
How do you count calories?
It’s probably even easier now than twenty, or even ten years ago to count calories. Why? Because the internet is your friend. You can easily Google, ‘how many calories are in X grams of Y food’ and bam! You add that number to your daily calorie count.
Years ago, you’d have to rely on the Weight Watchers point system to keep track of your calories, or use some other sophisticated calculations, or whatever.
Today, it’s a no-brainer, which also means that the average person who’s looking to lose weight has zero excuses not to utilize this simple calorie counting system I’m about to show you. The only limiting factor is will.
The other invaluable tools you’ll need, however, other than easy internet access, is a food scale and a set of measuring cups.
A food scale is relatively cheap, at around $20, and has the ability to tell you how many grams of food you’re eating. Once you have the number of grams, you ask Google to convert it to calories of X food and then you add that number to your daily calorie count.
For example, let’s say we want some oatmeal. We don’t just pour ourselves an indiscriminate amount of oatmeal into a bowl, cover it in water and heat it up in the microwave. No!
We measure out exactly 1 or 2 servings of oatmeal by first looking at the nutrition facts on the back of the oatmeal container and zeroing out our food scale by placing a small bowl on it and turning it on. Then, we carefully pour out the precise number of grams that the nutrition facts says equates to that 1-2 servings. Now we know how many calories are in the oatmeal by itself! Good! Let’s write it down on a note in our phone, or in our diet journal.
Then, we add a cup of milk to the oatmeal, using our trusty measuring cup, which cost us a dollar at the Dollar store, and check the nutrition facts. Now we know how many calories are in the milk! Great! Let’s write it down on a note in our phone, or in our diet journal.
Now, we can enjoy our bowl of oatmeal knowing exactly how many calories we’re eating! If you’re new to this, over time, you may actually find this type of calorie counting to be comforting. It makes the food taste better, in my opinion. Mmmmmm, delicious.
You see, knowing is half the battle, just like G.I. Joe. We have a lot more leeway to eat what we want, so long as we know how many calories we’re eating.
Why? Because, then we can make sure we don’t go above your daily calorie limit.
Why does that matter? Well, because, if we were to go above our daily calorie limit, then we’d be in a calorie surplus instead of a calorie deficit! Not good! We wouldn’t lose any weight!
How do you know how many calories you should be eating on a given day?
There are calculators on the internet designed to help you figure out your basal metabolic rate (BMR), or the number of daily calories required to keep your body functioning at rest, but I prefer the ones that incorporate your activity level as well.
These daily calorie calculators are fairly accurate and can provide you with a good starting point for how many calories you should be eating on a given day in order to lose weight.
You would just find out your BMR number using the calculator and subtract 200 to 500 calories from that, depending on how drastically you wanted to cut calories, and that would tell you how many calories you should be eating in order to be in a calorie deficit and lose weight.
The other way you can do it is to count the number of calories you typically eat when you don’t care how much you’re eating.
In other words, the number of calories you eat on a regular day, when you’re not counting calories (except, this time you are).
This can often provide you with a slightly more accurate number of your daily maintenance calories, or BMR. You simply subtract between 200 and 500 calories from this number and now you have your daily calorie limit for losing weight. It’s as simple as that.
How many calories should I be subtracting from my maintenance calories (BMR)?
There’s 3,500 calories in 1 pound of body fat, so if you want to lose a pound a week, which is a good goal, you’re going to want to subtract 500 calories from your daily caloric intake.
If you want to lose weight at a slightly slower pace, then maybe subtracting 200 calories from your daily caloric intake might be a better fit for you. It’s also not as “painful” because your body will feel it less.
But, no matter what you do, don’t restrict your calories too much because that’s when you might start to lose too much muscle. You’ll also feel more like crap the more you restrict and your diet will become much more difficult to maintain. That means your weight will have more of a tendency to go up and down over time, instead of going down slowly and staying down.
There’s a conversation to be had regarding severe cases where a person needs to lose around 100 pounds or more of body fat, however. In those cases, it might benefit a person more to follow a one meal a day (OMAD) protocol instead, or a juice fast, or some other type of fast that requires severe caloric restriction, the reason being that person might be at a heightened risk of heart or other health complications that could result in them going to an early grave if drastic measures are not taken.
But, for those of us who want to lose upwards of 50-75 pounds, my belief is that the calorie counting system I’m showing you would be your most pain-free and easy to implement option.
How long does it take to lose weight when you’re counting calories?
Using the example from above, where you’re subtracting 500 calories from your daily maintenance calories (BMR), you should lose roughly 1 pound per week. This means you’ll lose about 4 pounds per month and 24 pounds every 6 months. Within the span of one year, 50 pounds of weight loss or more is not out of the question.
In the grand scheme of things, 1 year to lose 50 pounds of fat is phenomenal and the ramifications of losing that amount of fat are life-changing!
Don’t look down on the 1 year because the pace of fat loss that I’m describing is very healthy and sustainable in addition to being something I would consider highly achievable for someone with the motivation to want to lose weight.
How I lost 30 pounds without exercise
At one point, not too long ago, I was 245 pounds.
At 5′ 8,” this was about 50-60 pounds more weight than my frame should’ve been carrying.
Not only did my joints in my knees and ankles kill me, but I felt like I was prematurely aging. I had next to no energy and was absolutely miserable.
Even walking down the street was hard for me because my lower-back what start to ache and cause me a lot of pain.
But, that’s when I finally decided I needed to lose weight ASAP. I started counting calories and over the course of a few months, I lost 30 pounds!
For me, it was a matter of writing down everything I ate, along with the calories in each food item and adding it up to ensure it didn’t go above my daily limit.
What is the best way to keep track of your calories throughout the day?
I don’t know the best way to keep track of your calories per se because everyone has their own opinion, but I do know what worked for me and what I would recommend for someone who wants to keep things really simple.
What’s something you carry around with you, regardless of where you are, even in the house? Your phone.
So, I would use your phone, specifically the notes section, to log all of your calories. It’s usually within arms reach and super quick and easy to do, without having to worry about misplacing a food or diet journal, much less a pen to write with.
‘Calories I’m Eating’ (Sample Food Log)
There’s a note in my phone called, ‘Calories I’m Eating’ and it’s where I log all of my calories for the day. The following is a sample from my notes.
2/10/21
1 glass of milk – 280
1 serving mini-pancakes – 190
2 servings of chips – 280
4 eggs – 288
Two slices of toast – 140
1 slice of cheese – 80
Some pear – 50
-1,298 so far
Rice cake – 90
Chicken breast (2 cups) – 460
Sauce – 200
Rice – 240
Ginger dressing – 200 (2 tbsp)
Total: 2,398 calories
2/11/21
Two servings of Grain Berry cereal – 240
Protein milk – 110
1 serving of pumpkin seeds – 55
1 brioche bun – 170
1 serving of salami – 90
1 slice of Swiss cheese – 80
745 so far
Chicken – 400
Rice – 240
Sauce – 100
Ginger dressing – 100
Chicken – 200
2 slices of wheat bread – 140
Balsamic vinaigrette – 35
Clementine – 35
Total: 1,995 calories
2/12/21
4 eggs (w/ butter) – 312
1 slice Swiss – 80
Clementine – 35
Nutritional yeast – 35
Salami – 90
1 slice Swiss – 80
Bun – 170
Rice cake – 90
892 so far
Chik-fil-A sandwich – 440
Chips – 140
Buffalo sauce – 20
Scoop of whey – 180
Cup of milk – 110
Pumpkin seeds – 50
Clementine – 35
Rice cake – 90
Total: 1,957 calories
2/13/21
Waffles – 230
Sausages – 200
Nutritional yeast – 40
470 so far
Rice – 120
Chicken – 150
Ginger dressing – 50
Yogurt – 140
1 cup of Jasmine rice – 181
Bone broth added – 45
Chicken – 335
Teriyaki sauce – 25
Ginger dressing – 50
Bamboo shoots – 10
Greek yogurt bar – 90
Scoop of whey – 95
Cup of milk – 110
Rice cake – 90
Clementine – 35
Total: 1,996 calories
When counting calories doesn’t work
Counting calories always works. That’s the beauty of it. It takes the guesswork out of losing weight. That’s if you can commit to it and you’re consistent.
But, there’s also people out there who claim that counting calories is somehow not doable, or they say it didn’t work for them.
That’s all well and good, but the truth is, the only way counting calories will fail you is if you fail to add up the numbers correctly, or you underestimate how much you’re eating. And, that’s why we use the food scale and measuring cups. It’s an attempt to be as precise as possible.
Are we going to mess it up sometimes? Of course.
Let’s say a friend invites you over for dinner and there’s no way of counting what you’re going to eat because you’re away from home, or you didn’t plan ahead. That’s when you estimate and do the best you can. That’s all you can do.
Trust me, it’s not the end of the world. It won’t throw your whole week off, or anything like that. In fact, sometimes it can even be beneficial and reset your metabolism (see: carb refeed). But, let’s put that aside for a moment. We’re not going to even get into that right now because it’s past the scope of this post.
The bottom line is, counting calories works if you commit to doing it and you keep fairly accurate notes. It works 100% of the time, every time.
How often should you step on the scale to see if counting calories is working?
There are two schools of thought on this and it really all depends on the individual.
If you’re the type of person who is easily discouraged and is devastated when they see the numbers on the scale go up from day to day, then I would recommend for this type of person to not weigh themself every day. A weekly, or even bi-weekly weigh-in would be a good option for you.
But, if you’re like me, and you want and expect to see results from day to day, then you should weigh yourself every single day.
Weighing yourself at the same time every day, like in the morning, can actually be a smart way of going about it and an additional way to keep yourself motivated because the scale will keep you aware of how far your’e drifting from your daily caloric limit.
If you underestimate how much you’re eating, go to weigh yourself in the morning and the scale says you’re heavier, it can mean that you ate over calories. However, this is not always the case either because, depending on what you ate i.e. salt, carbs etc. the body will naturally hold onto more water and just so you know, water weighs a lot!
The other thing that typically happens is, when you start exercising and lifting weights, the scale might also stay pretty much the same, or even go up, but that’s because your body is in flux and you’re putting on muscle and small amounts of fat. While this is happening, your muscles do hold onto more water as well, but again, we’re not even talking about exercise in this post, so don’t even worry about it!
At the end of the day, small fluctuations in your body weight don’t matter. What matters is a general, overall decline in your body weight over the course of the weeks and months you’re counting calories.
And that’s how to lose weight without exercise
If I can do it, you can do it. It’s really all a matter of will.
But, the good news is, a small cut in calories doesn’t feel all that bad and is very doable if you’re diligent about keeping notes on what you’re eating on a daily basis.
The problems come when you don’t log what you’re eating. Because then you either eat too much, or you eat far too little. Both can be bad.
The best results come with eating a slight caloric deficit, like we mentioned earlier, in the neighborhood of 200-500 calories short of what you normally eat per day.
And, the only way to ensure that kind of deficit is if you keep tabs on what you’re eating.
Good luck and let me know what kind of results you get from counting your calories without doing any exercise at all.
Your humble trainer,
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