My first post about this was here. I and others got together and created the Quick Start Guide currently on Reddit. We need a Lemmy version, so this is my attempt at this blending ideas from the two. Suggestions welcome.

NOTE: This guide is meant for adults who have completed puberty years ago. Teenagers should start with their doctors, as they have additional considerations not included in this guide.

Our habits are our destiny.

Since our current habits led to being overweight, and our habits in the future will maintain our desired weight, this needs to be a gradual effort to change habits. It’s not a quick “diet” or a complete shift to a new way of living. Instead, it’s about fine-tuning and modifying what we currently eat. We can lose weight and maintain it by adjusting our favorite foods, flavors, and the way we usually do things. By personalizing the approach, we’re more likely to stick with it and successfully make these habit changes.

How to get Started Losing Weight

To lose weight, your body needs to burn more calories than it gets from the food you eat. When this happens, you’ll gradually lose weight over time. This idea is often talked about using the term “Calories in, Calories out,” or CICO. The part of the equation that deals with the food you eat, which is the “Calories In” side, is the one you can control the most. It’s the most important focus when you’re trying to lose weight.

This guide is a simple way to get started with weight loss.

The Plan

Perfect is never required.

Don’t procrastinate for the ideal moment to begin because it might never arrive. Don’t assume you’ll feel more driven tomorrow, as motivation will always be inconsistent. Waiting until you have all the answers is also a trap, as that day might not show up either. You don’t have to find the flawless diet or exercise routine. Start now and adapt as you move forward.

Download a calorie tracking app. Any of these will do:

• Cronometer
• FitBit
• Lifesum
• LoseIt!
• Macrofactor
• MyFitnesspal
• MyNetDiary
• Nutritionix Track
• Yazio

• Enter your current stats as part of the sign-up process
• Choose conservatively for normal daily activities (If you exercise, you can add it in separately for more accuracy. Do this conservatively, too.)
• For the first week, set your goal to Maintain my Current Weight. Your goal for this first week is just to get in the habit of logging.

Week 1: Commit to Logging Your Food

For this week, just write down what you eat every day. Don’t worry about calories yet. Get used to it: check food labels, actually weigh and measure your food and drinks, and keep track of how many calories you’re having using a calorie tracker.

Buy and use a digital kitchen food scale and good measuring cups to measure portions, at least for the first couple months of counting. You can also use your hand to estimate portion sizes as well as common objects. You will be calibrating your eyes to do this more quickly later, but for several weeks use these tools as often as you are able.

Starting this week, make sure to log your activities every day, and expect frustrations. These first weeks are hardest. Life has its twists and turns, and plans can shift. Remember, it’s completely fine, and it is not happening so fast we can’t adapt! Just keep track of things. As long as you’re keeping a record, you’re still in the game. Even if you’re dealing with a crisis, the moment you log your next meal, you’re right back on track. Don’t worry about the high or low totals occasionally, steering towards our right habits are more important. Don’t give up. Your log is a tool, not a critic. The aim isn’t a flawless log; it’s about having the details that will help you understand and manage your longer-term eating and weight.

[Further Reading: Studies Show that Logging Helps Lose Weight]

Week 2: Setting our weight-loss goal rate

Now that you are used to logging, you can start focusing on a calorie goal. Enter at most -1 lb/week or -500g/week weight loss into the tracker, and it will provide you with a calorie goal.

During this week, aim to stay within 100 calories of this target, but don’t stress if you occasionally go a bit above or below. The goal is to balance it out over time. In the upcoming weeks, you’ll gradually make progress towards reaching this goal.

If you haven’t already, take progress pictures of yourself, and start recording your weight every day. Remember that your weight will fluctuate quite a bit day to day, so enter your weight into your calorie tracker to see the long term trend.

Week 3 and beyond: Small, doable improvements

To make weight loss last, your strategy should be something you can keep up with over time. It’s better to make small, steady adjustments that help you form healthier eating habits. While making big changes might bring quick scale results initially, it doesn’t make habit changes nor fit your long-term life. Temporary measures only have temporary results. Stick with YOUR life and tuning YOUR habits.

Tip: Subtract by adding

It is easier to replace things than to eliminate them. A few examples:

• Aim to take a 20-minute walk on a few days this week. Grow this slowly.
• Swap out your usual nightly snack of chips for either air-popped popcorn or an apple.
• Choose a vegetable as a replacement for one of the sides during dinner.
• When visiting a restaurant, preview the menu online and opt for a healthier menu choice.

Use your logs from the previous couple of weeks to see where you can make small changes to get closer to your calorie goal. Look for the “low-hanging fruit” that give you more calories for smaller changes.

Only you can lose this weight, but you are not alone

Lean on the community for advice and support, and give some support of your own. It feels less alone when we do this together.

How to Stick with It

Make the good choices the easy choices

Losing weight requires self-control, yet it’s best if you don’t have to rely on it too much. Make sure you always have healthy, low-calorie, and filling foods ready to go. Some examples include apples, oranges, berries, cut-up vegetable snacks and light popcorn. Keep these foods easily accessible at the front of your fridge. Avoid buying big packages of unhealthy snacks. If you want something less healthy, just buy a small portion from a convenience store. It’s easier to use self-control once while shopping than to resist temptations throughout the week at home.

You don’t have to go hungry

You should eat the calories you’re aiming for without feeling hungry all the time. When you’re not hungry, it’s easier to make smart choices. If you have to go slower in your progress, that’s okay; it’s better to go slow than to quit. Eating more satisfying foods can help, like those with more fat, protein, and fiber. Foods with simple sugars are less satisfying and might even make you want to eat more.

While both are natural forces, cravings and hunger are different. We should always eat enough, so if it makes sense that we are actually needing food, we should eat. To identify if you are craving, think about if you would eat an apple or other healthy vegetable. If not, it is a craving. Sometimes it’s still the right answer to feed the craving, but it may not need a full meal or a large serving.

Plan Ahead, but Variety is Important

We get our nutritional coverage by varying our food daily. Many of us have a simple go-to meal, but the other meals in our day are varied. This makes sure we get our essential minerals and vitamins, fatty acids and enzymes.

When Things Go Wrong

Keep tracking through the skid. Everything else is rather optional and opportunistic, but if we’re tracking, then we haven’t quit. Most important is not quitting.