Check this out.
I’m working with someone in Results In 12 Weeks who told me something interesting during week #1.
They said…
I want to lose fat but I don’t want to track my diet.
When I asked them why, they said…
It’s annoying and takes up too much time, so I’d rather not do it.
Uh huh.
I see.
So… what now?
- Are they doomed if they don’t track their diet?
- Will they never lose fat if they don’t track their diet?
- Do I refuse to work with them if they don’t track their diet?
Nah.
Here are the 3 things I told them instead…
1. That’s fine.
You don’t want to track your diet?
Okay. 🤷♂️
I won’t fight you on this.
After all, the only requirement for losing fat is a caloric deficit, and that can be accomplished without tracking your diet.
So, if you’re really against tracking, that’s fine.
What I do with clients instead is give them diet guidelines to follow that don’t involve tracking or even having specific calorie/macro targets.
It’s just a simple set of recommendations (e.g. prioritize protein, fiber, and fruits and vegetables, avoid drinking anything with calories, etc.) that will make them more likely to naturally end up in a deficit.
Does this actually work, you ask?
Yup, plenty of times.
Of course, it works best the more overweight a person is and the worse their existing diet is.
So if you have a lot of weight to lose and your diet is a total shit-show (technical term), this approach can work well.
But if you don’t have a lot of weight to lose and your existing diet isn’t too bad, it may not work at all.
But hey…
If you’re not open to tracking calories, I’ll at least be open to seeing if we can make progress using a non-tracking approach.
Then we see what happens over the next 4 weeks.
2. If it works, awesome!
If you end up losing fat without tracking your diet, that’s awesome!
We can continue doing things this way for as long as it continues to work.
BUT…
3. If it doesn’t work, guess what that means?
If you don’t end up losing fat this way, or you initially do but it doesn’t continue happening, then guess what?
That’s the best sign you’re ever going to get that you need to start tracking your diet.
Plain and simple.
This doesn’t mean you’re sentenced to a lifetime of diet tracking.
It means you will at least need to do it for long enough to develop the habits and skills needed to become capable of making progress (and maintaining it) without tracking.
So, like it or not, you will need to track your diet for the foreseeable future.
Then I always show the person how to make the whole diet tracking process as quick, easy, and efficient as possible so it’s much more doable than they assumed it would be.
What happens next?
That depends on the person, and it typically goes one of two ways…
✅ Scenario #1: They listen.
- They put my advice into action.
- They realize that diet tracking wasn’t as bad as they thought.
- They see how much faster and easier it is with my recommended tips and tweaks.
- They go on to make consistent fat loss progress.
- They come to appreciate tracking their diet for what it is: a wonderful tool that helps them get the results they want.
❌ Scenario #2: They push back.
This is when the person tells me something like…
Ugh, but it’s so annoying and it takes up time and I don’t want to do it and it’s too much work and blah blah blah.
That’s when I tell them this: I know.
This isn’t a secret, my friend.
Tracking your diet IS an annoying pain in the ass that takes up time and no one truly wants to do it.
But then I explain the reality of the situation:
- As annoying as tracking your diet is, it’s very easy to do. You’re literally just sitting on your ass tapping on your phone. That’s a thing most of us spend an embarrassing amount of time doing already. Now it’s at least productive.
- And while it does take up some of your time every day, we’re talking about what? Maybe a total of 5-10 minutes a day at most? That’s nothing.
And if the person STILL pushes back?
Even after trying the non-tracking approach, realizing tracking would be needed, and being taught how to do it as efficiently as possible?
That’s when I get really real.
Because here’s the brutally honest truth.
If you’re not willing to do something that’s this easy…
Something that takes up hardly any of your time…
Then how the hell are you going to do the things that are ACTUALLY hard and ACTUALLY time-consuming???
You know… like eating right, working out, and being consistent.
If you’re not willing to spend a few minutes every day putting some foods into an app, you’re outing yourself as someone who’s not even willing to do the easiest parts of what’s needed to reach your goals.
If that’s the case, then how exactly are you going to reach those goals?
The unfortunate answer is: you probably won’t.
Sorry, but I know this from experience.
I’ve seen it before.
There are tons of reasons why certain people struggle to make progress for years, or decades, or their entire lives.
Tons of reasons why “nothing works for them.”
This happens to be one of those reasons.
And it’s not about diet tracking specifically.
It’s about a lack of willingness to do things they have no legitimate reason not to do.
And please note my use of the phrase “legitimate reason.”
There are plenty of legitimate reasons — financial, medical, physical, mental, emotional, behavioral, logistical, etc. — why someone may not currently be capable of doing some or all of what’s needed for losing fat or building muscle.
And a lot of it may be stuff that’s out of your control.
I completely understand.
But… is tracking your diet legitimately one of those things?
Usually not.
Usually, if you have a phone, a food scale, and the willingness to do what needs to be done, you can track your diet.
So if you aren’t, ask yourself this question…
Which one of those things don’t you have?
Is it a phone?
Is it a food scale?
Is it the willingness?
Then tell me again why you’re not tracking your diet.
