How to start a weight-loss diet: 10 key steps

Where do you start a diet for weight loss?

Start with the goal, not the menu. Before deciding what you will eat on Monday, it is worth knowing what you are aiming for and whether you will be able to sustain it three months later. A goal that only lasts two weeks ends up as a countdown.

There is a figure that helps put this in perspective. According to European guidelines for obesity management in primary care, losing between 5 and 10% of your starting weight already improves health [1]. Those same guidelines say something else, and it is heard less often: achieving the maximum loss in the shortest possible time is not the key to treatment.

The other half of the goal is about method: what you change is how you eat, not the number on the scales. The Spanish GIRO obesity guideline [3] and UK NICE [4] call this a multicomponent approach: food, physical activity and behavioural changes that help maintain both habits. It is what separates a lasting change from a diet that ends.

What are the 10 key steps to getting started?

They are the same steps we use in consultation, in the order they are usually needed:

1. Set a clear, achievable goal. Look for a method that allows you to lose weight and then maintain it without compromising your health. What needs improving is how you eat, beyond the kilos per week.
2. Do not become obsessed with weight. If you weigh yourself, do it once a week at most. To track changes, measure your waist and hips, or use a belt you wear regularly. The number varies with the water you have drunk, what you have eaten, bowel transit, your hormonal cycle and even stress.
3. Spread your food across the day. More than three eating occasions: breakfast, lunch and dinner, with something mid-morning or in the afternoon.
4. Learn to say no and identify the situations that make change difficult. Sometimes you make excuses not to do what you want to do. Eating by your own decision, rather than by inertia, is half the work.
5. Make exercise part of your routine, not a punishment. Exercising to compensate for what you ate yesterday eventually takes its toll; doing it because you enjoy it helps you lose fat, preserve muscle and feel better.
6. Plan meals and shopping. A weekly menu, a prepared list, and shop with it in front of you. What is at home is what ends up being eaten.
7. Use the plate method. Half a serving of vegetables, one quarter protein and one quarter carbohydrates, without weighing anything.
8. Drink water before anything else. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) estimates about 2 litres of water a day for an adult woman and 2.5 for a man [5]. The figure also counts the water in food. Needs can vary in older people, in hot weather or with exercise, and during pregnancy and breastfeeding. It is the drink that quenches thirst without adding calories.
9. Be consistent, not perfect. One difficult day does not break anything. Count what you do on most days, not an isolated day.
10. Look after rest and free time. Do things you enjoy that help you let go of stress: when life is full of other things, food stops being the outlet.

How many times a day should you eat to lose weight?

More than three is what we usually suggest in consultation: breakfast, lunch and dinner, with a mid-morning snack, an afternoon snack or both. The exact number depends on your schedule and habits, and matters less than not reaching any meal ravenously hungry. The most common mistake is the opposite: thinking that the fewer calories you consume, the better.

What happens when you leave many hours in between is quite straightforward: you reach the next meal ravenously hungry, and when you are ravenously hungry, you do not make good choices. Nor does skipping a meal to compensate for overeating the day before help; that is the version of this most commonly practised.

And a note about breakfast, because it is the question we hear most: at Alimmenta we recommend having breakfast, at whatever time suits you best. If it makes you feel unwell or does not fit your lifestyle, you can do without it. Choose something that keeps you going so you do not arrive at lunch ravenously hungry. You have nine breakfast ideas and nine dinner ideas so you do not always repeat the same thing.

What should your plate look like?

It is the only rule you need to learn, and it works for lunch and dinner. It is about proportions, not grams, so there is nothing to weigh:

• Half vegetables, raw and cooked. A salad alone is usually not enough: add cooked vegetables.
• One quarter protein: eggs, meat, fish, shellfish, pulses or plant protein.
• One quarter carbohydrates: pasta, rice, potatoes or bread.
• For dessert, a piece of fruit or a dairy food.

This is in line with AESAN, which recommends giving the largest share of the day to vegetables and fruit, and the smallest to meat, especially red and processed meat [6]. To see it applied across a whole week, the menu to lose 5 kilos sets it out plate by plate.

How long does it take to notice results?

Changes may show in your waist, your hips or a belt you wear regularly before they show on the scales. Half a kilo of fat per week is a good pace: that 5 or 10% we mentioned above is, for almost everyone, a matter of months, not weeks.

The first week usually drops more, and it is almost all water. That initial drop reflects the starting point. And the closer you are to your stable weight, the more slowly it will go, without that meaning you are doing it wrong.

If you are looking for guidance with its timeframe in view, the general weight-loss diet guide expands on the guidance in this guide. And if you arrive here after trying several fad diets, begin by ruling out what you already know you cannot sustain.

What mistakes do we see in consultation?

If you go off plan for a day, nothing happens, and that is the whole answer. You are changing habits, not sitting an exam: you do not have to do it perfectly; you have to sustain it over time and keep making small improvements. Any progress in how you eat is progress towards the goal.

What is worth doing is not turning a slip into a debt. Compensating the next day by skipping meals or adding an extra exercise session is what turns an ordinary day into the first step backwards.

Do you prefer it as a video?

The Alimmenta team also explains it in a video: “How to lose weight: 10 tips for losing weight”, a little under nine minutes long. It is the one the page has shown for years.