How to Eat Healthy Without Counting Calories as a Vegetarian

We have all heard that in order to lose weight we need to be in a calorie deficit. Recently, you’ve also probably heard of the benefits of balancing our calories to also achieve optimal health and even longevity. This idea of a calorie deficit, it comes down to basic math, doesn’t it? Similar to budgeting money, spend more than you earn, and you are in debt. Eat less calories than you burn, and you lose weight. Sounds simple enough, right? Unfortunately, it’s not always that simple.

With money, a dollar is a dollar. In our bodies, a calorie is more than a calorie. We eat food not calories. With that food comes joy, satiety, fullness, hunger + lots and lots of room for error. How then, could we be of optimal health, weight, maximize our longevity, but break free of calorie calculators, scales, and constant tallying? Let’s leave the accounting to our bank accounts and learn how to eat healthy without counting calories.

Tara’s Tuesday Tips:

How to Eat Healthy Without Counting Calories as a Vegetarian

I’m not saying calories don’t matter, they do! They really do! Especially if you are trying to lose weight. What I am saying is that we need to shift our focus to calorie awareness instead of calorie counting. Consider your health, your wealth, and your happiness as long-term investments.

You MUST get good at making a long-term strategy if you want to be happy in your life, have enough money now + in years to come, and the same goes for your weight. Relying on external calorie counting trackers on your phone are not going to get you there. Learning what makes you feel happy or sad, how your money is made, spent, or saved, are all concepts that can be applied to eating too. Intuitively understanding how calories work in your body, what you need, what you want, and how you move, are the only ways to get you there. Today, let’s talk calories. Maybe another day we will talk money + happiness 😉.

Why I Don’t Believe in Calorie Counting

Calorie counts are an estimate not a precise measurement, can be highly inaccurate creating an unpredictable deficit or surplus.
The nutrient content / fiber of a food is not accurately depicted in the number of calories.
When focusing solely on the number of calories in a food, someone might exchange a food that is providing valuable nutrition for a “low-calorie” option that is ultra-processed and devoid of nutrients.
Perpetual calorie counting can exacerbate disordered eating behaviors.
Counting calories forces out the joy and intuition of eating.
We are not machines + our daily caloric needs change based on activity, hormones, illness, stress, sleep or dehydration.

Who DOES Need to Count Calories

Anyone beginning a weight loss journey in order to obtain a baseline, establish a plan.
Special circumstances requiring monitoring of adequate caloric intake (pregnancy, children/infants, elderly, to heal from surgery/wounds/illness).
If you have hit a weight loss plateau and need to re-evaluate a nutrition/exercise plan.

How to Eat Healthy Without Counting Calories as a Vegetarian

1. Make friends with fiber

Fiber fills you up + feeds the gut bacteria. Therefore, your hunger/fullness hormones remain balanced. When you eat fiber, you prevent the ups and downs of your appetite. The best part? Foods filled with fiber are typically low in calories so eating lots of them makes it so you feel full without ever counting a calorie.

2. Move with purpose every day

Take your steps VERY seriously if you never want to count a calorie ever again. Move a little or move a lot, just find movement you love and will keep doing to keep your calorie budget balanced.

3. Stay hydrated

Water, water, water, water. Keeps your intestines functioning, wards off symptoms of dehydration, sometimes you are more thirsty than hungry!

4. Prioritize plants on your plate

Make a plate that is mostly plants. Plant proteins + fiber fill you up with less calorie dense foods and therefore you feel full on less calories, no calorie counting needed!

5. Get enough sleep

So many studies on the correlation between fatigue and excessive calorie intake. Sleep better, eat better.

6. Listen when your body tells you its hungry or full

Don’t let yourself get too far into the pits of hunger that the only way to come back from that is to eat your way out. Eat before you get that hungry + you will automatically control the excessive calorie intake. Keep in mind, it takes time for your body to register a full feeling, so check in with yourself regularly while eating.

7. Ditch the booze

Calories in alcohol add up. Coupled with that, the food you eat alongside the booze adds up. Then, you get dehydrated + don’t sleep as well after drinking alcohol + you are set up for consuming more calories, a cycle you can’t get out of.

8. Eat as mindfully as possible

Pause + pay attention to how foods make you feel. Keep a journal if you need to and remind yourself of what foods allow your body to function at its best.

9. Follow the 80/20 rule

What you do most of the time matters most. 80% of the time is for the nutrient-dense foods that fuel our bodies, leaving 20% of the time for fun foods that bring us joy.

10. Be mindful of oil

A little drizzle or spoonful of oil can add up to hunderds of extra calories today without you even noticing it! This is a huge problem if you use oil in your cooking, baking, or dressings. You don’t need as much as you think in your cooking!

Food For Thought

If you are stopping by my little piece of the internet, it means you have an interest in your health + wellbeing + maybe eating more plants. I am so glad you are here! I hope each one of you finds a way to happily eat more plants, eat them intuitively, and reap the health benefits of both.

The current research and literature is so supportive of the concept that we must put our bodies in some sort of calorie deficit in order to obtain optimal health, prevention of chronic disease burden, longevity, and ideal body weight. How then, do we break free of rigid calorie counters, food rules, and restriction?

If your ultimate goal is weight loss, weight maintenance, or prevention of obesity and obesity related chronic illness, you must learn to live a lifestyle that somehow manages calorie overload. My tips today will help set you on the path to doing that without relying on a calorie counter.

Calorie counting does work for some people.

For me, it does not work, and it may not work for you. That is why I wanted to share with you other ways that you can be healthy without ever looking at the calories on a package. I suffered with LEA (low energy availability) and RED-S (relative energy deficiency in sport) and counting calories was, at one time, something that I used as a tool to only support my disordered eating. When I learned new tools to be sure my eating did not take me down this path ever again, I discovered that not counting calories or macros or using any number tracking that might perpetuate disordered eating behaviors was the healthiest option for me.

As I emerged from this, I learned a whole host of other tools that helped me become a mindful, intuitive eater and I have lots of tools in my toolbox that have kept me lean, of ideal body weight, free from disease, and happily running many miles and many marathons fully fueled.

To optimally support your health + weight, my best advice is to try to pause and think of how foods make you feel – full, tired, hungry, sluggish, energetic? Start making sure your plate focuses on colorful whole foods, fiber, and plant-based proteins. Then, check in on your sleep and water intake. Above all, MOVE! Find movement that makes you feel happy. All these habits build on each other without ever counting a single calorie! My friends, I hope you can enjoy good food (and calories) in the company of good people!

All the best,

Tara 💚