Hate counting calories? Try the DTD method!
“Ed I can’t be arsed to track calories” I’ve heard this from a bunch of clients and I’ve helped many get results without tracking calories. The Don’t track dinner (DTD, unoriginal af name!) method is an in between method that has worked well for many of my clients. It has more accuracy than not tracking but is more flexible than tracking everything.
If you hate counting calories but want to lose weight then this article is for you.
If you enjoy a bigger evening meal with your family and want to relax about the calories then it’s for you too.
If you want to lose weight but don’t want your kids to see you ‘dieting’ then this method can work well.
If you have extreme goals like getting very lean then this method might not be best for you.
From all the people I’ve trained I would say 80% don’t like tracking calories. Honestly, I don’t like it but I hate it a whole lot less nowadays than when I was younger. You see, pretty much everything in life is hard when you first start out. Think about when you learned to ride a bike or play an instrument.
It’s SUPER frustrating in the beginning and can be painful when learning to ride a bike but with time it becomes a lot easier and takes less time. It’s the same with tracking calories and protein for that matter. After a while it doesn’t take much time at all.
I started using this ‘DTD method’ mainly because it suited me and I didn’t like counting calories in the evening. I realised most of us eat similar things for breakfast and at lunch. There are certain foods we just don’t get bored of and like to rinse and repeat.
It’s often in the evenings when we want to relax and not worry so much about counting calories and have a bit more variety. I’ve used it with clients too and it works well for many of them especially parents who’ve got kids etc.
So how does it work Ed? I hate counting calories chico!
If you hate counting calories having 1-3 breakfasts and lunches already tracked that you just repeat can really help. Greek yoghurt and fruit is my go to breakfast these days.
first figure out your daily calorie intake
We need to do this so that we can figure out how many calories you have to work with. It’s important to point out that a bigger person like me (112kg and 6ft3) has more calories to work with than say someone who’s 5ft3 and weighs 50kg. If you’re a bigger person you use more calories just moving around and similarly to a hummer car, you will use more gas than say a small Fiat. This can make it a bit harder for smaller people to lose weight.
Working out your calorie target for weight loss.
If you want a really simple way to do this take your goal body weight in lbs and x it by 12.
eg your goal body weight is 160lbs. That would be 160x12= 1920kcals each day.
The idea of the DTD method is you have to give yourself a decent amount of calories for your evening meal. Enough so that you can enjoy a decent meal, eat sensibly and not worry about tracking.
In this example (above you could leave 1000kcals for the evening and divide your lunch and breakfast into 920kcals.
Next you need to figure out your breakfast and lunch options.
figure out 1-2 breakfasts and 1-3 lunches that fit into your calories
Even though you may hate counting calories you’re gonna have to do it once for this to work. Using the example above choose a 1-2 breakfasts you enjoy that fit into 400kcals and track them properly the first time and store the figures on your app like myfitnesspal. Then you will rotate between them during the week and during your weight loss journey.
Do the same with 1-3 lunches and fit them into 520kcals (the leftover from 920kcals). Once you’ve added a food on myfitnesspal it saves it so you just have to press the button to add it. You can also save meals that you’ve added before.
So now you have breakfast and lunch sorted you have 1000kcals to have for your evening meal. Obviously not everyone will have this much as you may have less daily calories to ‘play’ with but you can figure out what works for you.
The idea is you enjoy your dinner without tracking but you still need to eat sensibly. Lots of veggies and some protein for example.
important points about dinner
So now that you have most of your calories ‘saved’ for the evening meal so that you can not track it and relax with the fam there are still some things to remember.
You still have to eat like an adult. Even though you’re not going to track your dinner it still should follow the principles of a nutritious meal (be built around a lean protein source, have lots of veggies on the plate).
Don’t go mental with puddings and alcohol. I’m sure you already know this but the reason puddings are bloody delicious is because they tend to be higher in fat and sugar which doesn’t make them bad but easier to overeat and higher in calories. Alcohol has calories too and just makes most things not work so well (sleep, choices etc).
Eat slowly. It will make you enjoy it more, have better digestion and people who eat slower tend to have a lower BMI.
other things to remember
Once you’ve been doing this method for a while you should have a good idea of what portion sizes look like for you so if you did want to stop tracking completely you could start by not tracking breakfast and then eventually lunch.
If you go on holiday etc this method might be hard to follow. I would say enjoy your holiday and don’t track but eat plenty of veg and fruit, have protein at each meal and be active every day.
If you have extreme goals like getting a 6 pack this might not work so well as it’s not as accurate but it can get you great results never the less.
Me in a city I love, Sevilla. No calories were counted here!
final words
I hope this article helped you out and if it did please share it etc. If you’re interested in me being your coach then please fill out the form bellow.
Ed