Diet to lose 5 kilos: weekly menu and how long it takes

Can you lose 5 kilos in a week?

Not in fat. The scales can drop five kilos in a few days with a three-day plan, sachet plans of fewer than 1,000 calories or single-food plans. What you lose in those days is mostly water and glycogen, the sugar reserve in muscle and liver, and it comes back as soon as you eat normally.

Also, when energy is cut heavily without strength training and without enough protein, part of what is lost is muscle [3].

The express diets change their name every year: the military diet, the egg diet, the oat diet. They all promise a deadline, cut out a whole food group and say nothing about what happens afterwards.

The British obesity guideline reserves plans of fewer than 1,200 calories a day for specialist services [4]. Those of fewer than 800 must not go beyond twelve weeks and are only used with follow-up by the health team [4]. At Alimmenta we do not recommend diets of fewer than 1,200 calories a day under any circumstances. Going below that figure requires medical supervision and can cause nutrient deficiencies.

How long does it take then to lose 5 kilos?

Around two months. Half a kilo of fat a week is a good pace, and more than that is uncommon. Ten weeks at that pace is five kilos, and eight if you start with more weight to lose.

You always lose more in the first week, two or three kilos, and almost all of it is water. From the second week, the pace settles.

If you have considerably more than five kilos to lose, start with the weight loss diet guide. If it is ten, the timescale and the menu change, and you will find them in the guide to losing 10 kilos; with fifteen, in the one on losing 15 kilos.

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, so there is nothing to weigh.

• Half a portion: vegetables, raw or cooked. This is what fills you up most with less energy.
• A quarter of protein, animal or plant.
• A quarter of carbohydrates, preferably wholemeal.

To lose those five kilos, the only thing that changes is that the carbohydrate part is smaller than you usually serve yourself, without disappearing. It is in line with AESAN, which gives the most space in the day to vegetables and fruit and the least to red and processed meat [5].

A full day, with indicative amounts: coffee with skimmed milk and 60 g of wholemeal bread with avocado and tomato. Strawberries mid-morning. Salad with lentils and griddled salmon for lunch, and two slices of pineapple as an afternoon snack. For dinner, courgette and potato purée, a mushroom omelette and wholemeal bread.

How do you spread out the day?

Three timing guidelines, in the order they are usually needed.

1. Have breakfast, unless it disagrees with you or does not fit your lifestyle. The time you have breakfast is not the most important thing.
2. Eat every three or four hours, between four and five meals a day. That way you reach lunch and dinner with hunger you can manage.
3. Do not skip a meal to make up for an excess. Hunger builds up and catches up with you that very night.

These guidelines and the habits below make up what the Spanish obesity guideline calls a multicomponent approach [6]. They are food, activity and the habits that help sustain both.

What does a weekly menu to lose 5 kilos without going hungry look like?

It has lunch and dinner for all seven days. Who it is for: a healthy adult who wants to lose around five kilos. Who it is not for: it is not calculated for pregnancy, breastfeeding or anyone under 18. Nor for anyone with diabetes treated with insulin or with medicines that can lower blood sugar too much. People with chronic kidney disease, those who have or have had an eating disorder and those who need to gain weight are excluded. If you have a condition with its own plan (coeliac disease, diagnosed allergy, heart or liver failure), your plan takes precedence.

Breakfast and the afternoon snack are not in the table because they depend a lot on your schedule. There is an example in the full day above and more options in the nine breakfast ideas. If you find it hard to vary dinners, there are nine dinner ideas.

If you cook, make two portions and keep one in a lunch box for the next day. That way the menu also holds up on busy days.

Quantities depend on you, so they are not in the table. The proportions of the plate stay the same.

What mistakes do we see in consultations?

With this goal, three stumbling blocks repeat almost every week.

• Thinking “it is only five kilos” and putting it off. Without changing habits, those five become seven or ten over the years, slowly and without it showing.
• Cutting out carbohydrates altogether. It works for a few days and is paid for with hunger in the afternoon and snacking at night.
• Reading slowness as failure. Five kilos are usually the last ones, and the closer you are to your stable weight, the slower it goes. Going slowly does not mean you are doing it wrong.

What about weight loss injections and tablets?

Medications for obesity exist and a doctor assesses and prescribes them, with a diagnosis in front of them. A dietitian-nutritionist does not prescribe them or decide who needs them.

What we do take care of is what happens afterwards. When treatment ends, what sustains your weight is habits. If you are at that point, you will be interested in what we explain about the rebound effect after Ozempic and Wegovy.