A calorie deficit meal plan without counting calories: how to split your plate

Why I stopped counting

To lose weight, you need to eat less than your body uses. That is all a calorie deficit is, and the NHS explains it in exactly those terms. The rule isn't the hard part. Sticking to it every day is.

Weighing and logging everything you eat works for a week, maybe two. Then a busy day or a meal out comes along and you give up. So when I wanted to lose weight, I didn't start counting. I changed what my plate looks like. That is something I can do every day, without a tracking app or kitchen scales.

My plate, in quarters

I have one rule, and you can check it at a glance:

• protein and vegetables take up more than half the plate;
• carbs (potatoes, rice, pasta, bread) get a quarter at most, and some days I leave them out altogether.

For protein, I use my hand as a guide: a portion at least the size of my palm, such as a chicken breast fillet. Protein keeps me full, and the EU register of health claims states that protein contributes to the maintenance of muscle mass.

Vegetables fill the rest of the plate. The WHO recommends at least 400 grams of fruit and vegetables a day. With vegetables on half your plate, you get closer to that without weighing anything.

If you want to build your whole week around this rule, I've written about how to make a 7-day meal plan that actually fits you.

The bowls that keep me full

Bowls are my favourite: lots of greens, good protein and something fresh for flavour. They're what I make most often.

The tuna bowl. 150 grams of tinned tuna, one or two eggs, lettuce, rocket, cherry tomatoes, spring onion and a squeeze of lemon over everything. The lemon and spring onion keep it fresh, and the eggs add to the protein from the tuna.

The smoked salmon bowl. 150 grams of smoked salmon, a boiled egg, salad leaves and pomegranate seeds, with olive oil. The pomegranate makes it: sweet, sharp and crunchy, and it goes beautifully with the saltiness of the salmon.

The formula never changes: one protein, plenty of leaves, something crunchy or sharp. Swap the tuna for eggs, the salmon for chicken, the pomegranate for another fruit. I love them in any combination.

Bread and walking

Beyond the plate, there are two more things I'd tell a friend.

First: give up bread as an everyday habit. That way you eat fewer carbs without changing the rest of your plate.

Second: move more, and it doesn't have to be the gym. A 30-minute walk a day is enough to get started. The WHO recommends at least 150 minutes of moderate activity a week for adults, and daily walks count towards that.

People say weight loss happens in the kitchen more than in the gym. The walk is the easy part. Your plate is what you look at three times a day.

Big family meals

At home it's easy, because you decide what to cook. It gets harder at big family meals with parents and grandparents, where food is made the way it always has been: mayonnaise, flour, processed food. You don't want to upset anyone. But you don't want to give up the way you eat just because it's a special occasion either.

I never asked anyone to change the menu. I filled my plate with whatever suited the way I eat. Slowly, my family understood that we want to eat healthily.

Last Easter, I had a surprise. Alongside the traditional dishes, delicious but heavy, there was a prawn tartare and a platter of game. They'd made them especially for us, to respect our choices. Nobody gave anything up; there was just one more platter on the table.

If everyone at home eats differently and you don't want to cook twice, I've also written about meal planning when your family follows different diets. And if you'd like a starting point for the whole household, here is a ready-made 7-day family meal plan.

What doesn't work

Rules you can't keep. A menu with no carbs at all, weighed to the gram, might last a week. What matters is what you can still eat this way in a month or a year. Pick a rule you can stick to on busy days too.

Eating separately from everyone else. If you cook one meal for yourself and another for the rest of the household, you'll burn out quickly. Better to have the same meal for everyone and build your plate differently: more protein, more vegetables, less of the side.

Mealody does the counting for you

In Mealody you choose your goal, weight loss for example, and the app works out the portions for everyone in your household and shows the calories and macros for each meal. You get a plan of up to 7 days and a shopping list. Your first plan is free, no card needed, and you can use it just for yourself or for the whole family. See how it works.