Put fat loss on autopilot and remove the stress around calorie counting by adopting this plan to lose weight without trying to lose weight.

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The fat loss journey can really suck sometimes.

It’s a long and arduous process. And if you aren’t prepared that it could take months (if not years) to reach your goal, it can lead to frustration.

Especially if you’ve been chasing a weight loss goal that just simply never materializes.

Going down that path of frustration can (and oftentimes does) result in many people just throwing up their hands and quitting. Only to attach yourself to the next fad diet phase in hopes of finally finding the magic pill that will make this unwanted weight disappear.

Rather than fall into the repeated pattern of yo-yo dieting and constant restriction, let’s talk about some ways to simplify this stuff.

Today, we’re going to talk about how to lose weight without trying to lose weight.

Sounds counterintuitive, but it really is possible for some folks.

As with most of my advice, the key is all in how you plan things out and then your execution and consistency.

But, that’s what I’m here for … I’ll show you a brand new strategy to make this work so you can loosen up the reins a bit and let the fat loss go into autopilot.

Let’s get into it.

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Now before we dive into this thing, you must know that the science is undefeated:

In order to lose weight, you must be in a calorie deficit.

To create a calorie deficit, you must eat fewer calories than your body burns.

So in order to lose weight without trying to lose weight, you must be able to create that deficit consistently.

The difference is that you won’t be so attached to the deadlines of hitting specific fat loss goals. Instead, you must embrace that this will take a long time.

And results will come slowly.

That’s okay. Because this approach should allow for more mental sanity and freedom so the process should be much more enjoyable, even if it is slower.

If you are looking for a quicker approach, you’ll likely need to get a bit tighter with your food and macro tracking.

But, if you have weight to lose, don’t have a specific timeline, and want to be a little less stressed about it, this article will walk you through the process.

All that said, we’ve got to establish some ground rules to make this work.

You should be familiar with the pillars of nutrition before you dive into even attempting to lose weight without trying to lose weight.

Otherwise, you’ll just blow up your deficit and come out of this heavier and puffy and you’ll curse my name for making you fat.

With all said, here is my actionable strategy, with built-in nutritional guidelines, to get you started today.

Introducing the 1-2-3-4-5 Approach to lose weight without trying to lose weight

This is a concept that I just created.

Because I’m awesome.

And now you get to read it here first and implement it right away.

Here is how this breaks down:

• 1 palm-sized portion of protein at each meal (minimum)
• 2 servings of fruit as a snack between meals
• 3 bottles of water each day
• 4 servings of veggies
• 5 hours of total exercise per week

It’s as easy as counting to five … but no actual calorie counting is needed.

To break things down even further, let’s look at each guideline to this 1-2-3-4-5 Pattern.

Protein at every meal

This is non-negotiable. Protein is the most filling macronutrient, it’s also incredibly important for reaching composition goals––which is essentially what we’re after here, because scale weight might not budge much.

Your job is to aim for at least one palm-sized portion of protein every single time that you eat.

You’d likely do a tad better if you try to get more like two palm-sized portions at each meal, but you’ll need to work up to that amount.

Fruit does not make you fat

In fact, fruit is a really handy sidekick to the weight loss game. It’s low-calorie, full of nutrients, and most fruit has a ton of fiber to keep you satiated between meals.

When you swap out some overly-processed, high sugar snack for a lower-calorie fruit, you’re cutting calories without really giving it much thought.

So adding a fruit to your snacking arsenal between meals will help bolster that calorie deficit and help you avoid the random snacking throughout the day.

Bonus points if you add a small dose of protein to snack time.

It’ll go a long way towards hitting adequate protein goals while adding more potential satiation between actual meals.

Hydrate

You need to drink more water. To make things simple, I just want you to commit to drinking three bottles of water per day.

Whatever that looks like for you.

If the bottle holds a pint, cool.

Perhaps you’ve got a two liter jug, awesome.

I don’t care what it looks like right now, I just want you to drink more water.

And setting a simple and measurable goal like drinking three bottles of it will help you stick to the process.

Eat your veggies

I’ll spare you the lecture on why vegetables are important. But, you’ll need to eat about four to five fistful serving sizes of vegetables throughout the day.

Mix a handful of spinach in a smoothie or your pasta sauces.

Add a BAS (Big Ass Salad) to your daily regimen. And be sure to check out my article for making your salads suck less.

A good rule of thumb is to aim for half of your plate at meal time to be covered with a variety of veggies. If you can manage that with the majority of your meals, you’ll be right on track.

Move every single day

Before we dive into the exercise piece, I want you to know that my goal for you is to find some forms of movement that you enjoy and that you can stick to for the rest of your life.

If that’s strength training, then it will go a super long way towards helping you reach your goal to lose weight without trying to lose weight. I am a personal trainer, after all, so I’m definitely going to promote picking up heavy stuff regularly.

However, the best form of movement is the type of movement that you will actually do. So 30 minutes of jogging is better than zero minutes of movement.

“But five hours of exercise, Pete?! That’s crazy! I ain’t got time for that.”

To be clear, that five hours of weekly total movement includes all movement. But also: yes, you do have more time to exercise than you think.

I want you to be strength training at least twice a week. But on top of that, I want you to include tons of daily movement in the form of walking.

You can skip the FitBit and all of the activity trackers if those things give you anxiety. Instead, just aim to get a 20 minute walk in per day, at least.

Ideally, you’ll get closer to 40 minutes per day. Work up to that. And yes, you can break that up into two 20-minute sessions if that makes better sense.

All movement counts. And five total hours of exercise per week is the minimal range where awesome sauce begins to happen and long-term health benefits kick in.

Make it happen.

Tracking progress

What gets measured gets managed. This still applies even though you’re not really going to be obsessing over the numbers through calorie tracking.

Now, if you have a healthy relationship with the scale and won’t find yourself riding the emotional rollercoaster of the many ups and downs during this process, then cool.

Continue to weigh yourself every single day and compare the week to week averages.

However, if it is going to be an absolute mindfuck watching the scale jump up or stagnate for days or even weeks, you’d probably be better served just eliminating the weigh-ins altogether.

Instead, be sure to track measurements on a regular interval. At minimum, you’d want to do this every two weeks.

Measure at the these points:

• Chest
• Arms
• Waist
• Hips
• Thighs

The goal with this is to make sure that some progress is happening or at least maintaining.

Obviously, if the measurements start going in the wrong direction, you’re going to have to make a tweak to reduce calories or increase activity levels.

Embrace the right mindset

This is a simple formula and easy to execute process. But that does not mean the weight will come off effortlessly.

You will still be hungry and you’ll battle with consistency and motivation.

It’s just the nature of the game and all a part of dieting … whether you are counting calories, or not.

Your job is to understand that and embrace the journey.

Embrace the slow and steady approach to seeing sustainable progress come in. And when things don’t budge for a couple of weeks, don’t get discouraged and throw up your hands to pursue a new plan.

Instead, make small and manageable adjustments to this existing plan and then get back to executing.

Sometimes, you can lose weight without trying to lose weight by simply focusing on other goals

In fact, I guarantee that if you set a goal to become the strongest you’ve ever been over the next year that you will see the best results you’ve ever achieved.

Guaranteed.

But that means committing to this plan for more than just 12 weeks. It means focusing on getting stronger with progressive overload every time you step foot in the gym (or even in your home workouts, with the right progressions).

That also means skipping some of those cardio-focused workouts and random bootcamp sessions.

I’m especially talking to you right now, ladies.

No matter how many times I tell you that lifting heavy shit won’t make you bulky, too many women have been tricked into this chronic low-calorie diet, high intensity cardio cycle of suck.

How’s that been working out for you?

Let’s flip that script and embrace getting stronger with your training.

I’m not talking about that HIIT class or cardio-inspired circuit that has you bouncing around and performing 100 squats and 237 burpees with routines that change from day to day.

Instead, I’m talking about real strength.

The type of strength that comes from repetition of serious strength-building principles:

• Pick up heavy shit.
• Put it down.
• Pick it back up again.
• Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

The core philosophy of a sound strength training program. And if you’re looking to get lean and toned … you must be focusing on a strength training program.

So, if you’ve been chasing aggressive diets and supplementing low calories with a ton of HIIT, I challenge you to make the switch today.

And commit to this change for one solid year of doing nothing but focusing on the key compound lifts and improving your strength and form in those movement patterns.

As a result, I guarantee that you’ll end up with the best physique of your life.

HIIT classes and conditioning circuits are fun. I enjoy them from time to time. And they have their place in well-programmed workout phases.

But they should be the appetizer of your meal, not the main course. Adopt an intense focus on strength and your body composition will thank you for your efforts.

Your health is a life-time commitment, not a short-term fix

But the fact remains that the best body transformations take time. A long time. More than twice as long as you think.

So, yes. I’d challenge you to flex the patience muscle and budget an entire year for your goal.

When you finally free yourself of the arbitrary deadlines of “shreddin’ for a wedding” or “six pack summer abs,” you’ll free your mind of the guilt and anxiety of trying to hurry up to meet a goal.

If you can adapt to this mindset that the reward and the payoff is in the journey and that there is no deadline, just a new normal of health and fitness, you’ll see success in so many more ways.

In fact, it will be as easy as counting to five.

Let me help you figure how to lose weight without trying to lose weight … 

Finding the right time and right workout plan can be incredibly overwhelming. But, I’m here to help you out.

If you have any questions, reach out. I answer all of my emails at pete [at] petecataldo [.] com … Hit me up with the subject line “Lose weight without trying to lose weight” and I’ll answer any questions you have about this 1-2-3-4-5 Approach to Fat Loss.

Or you can hit me up anytime on the socialz on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

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