Losing & gaining weightOne of 10 articles on the topic

Losing weight: how to do it healthily and what really helps

Eating less, moving more, and still nothing happens? Losing weight is a matter of calorie deficit, time and habits, not bans. How much is realistic, what you should eat, which exercise is worth it and why diets fail.

Gregor AßlaberJoerg Hauke
Gregor Aßlaber, Editor at Saturo · ✓Fachlich geprüft von Joerg Hauke, Nutrition expert
Aktualisiert 15 October 2026 · 14 Min. Lesezeit · 42 Quellen
In 30 seconds
Frau richtet in einer hellen Küche eine Bowl mit Gemüse und Kichererbsen an
Losing weight starts with shopping and cooking: vegetables, pulses and a protein source fill your plate for few calories.

The key points in 30 seconds

Daily deficit
500–600kcal

That's what the German obesity guideline recommends. For most adults, that means 1,200 to 2,000 kcal a day, depending on height, sex and starting weight.

Realistic pace
0.5kg/week

That's how much you lose with this deficit in the first three months. After that, your body conserves energy and the scales slow down. That's normal.

Already noticeable
5%

Five per cent less weight measurably improves blood pressure, blood sugar and blood fats. At 90 kg, that's 4.5 kg, the guideline's goal for six to twelve months.

The second part
Maintaining

Without a plan for afterwards, 30 to 50% of the weight you lost comes back in the first year. If you're losing weight, plan for maintenance from the start: exercise, weighing, everyday life instead of a diet.

01 Understand

How losing weight works: the calorie deficit

Losing weight means giving your body less energy than it uses, over several weeks. It gets the rest from its stores, mainly from fat. That's why every diet that works, works: low carb, intermittent fasting, Mediterranean diet or shakes are just different routes to the same deficit. What matters is the size of the deficit, the time, and whether you can stick with it.

How big a calorie deficit makes sense?

Around 500 to 600 kcal a day is what the S3 guideline on obesity (2024) recommends. That's big enough to lose weight visibly, and small enough to feel full and cover all your nutrients. For most adults, that means an intake of 1,200 to 2,000 kcal, depending on sex, height and starting weight. The calorie calculator shows how much energy you use. Anything well below 1,200 kcal belongs under medical supervision: that's where the risks begin that make crash diets costly (chapter 2).

How much can you lose in a week?

Around 0.5 kg of fat per week is realistic with a 500 to 600 kcal deficit, in the first three months. In the first week the scales often show more: when your carbohydrate stores empty, the water bound to them goes too, three to four parts water for every part glycogen. This water is gone quickly and just as quickly back. One kilo a week requires a deficit of around 1,000 kcal, which hardly anyone can sustain without hunger and muscle loss. More than 1.5 kg per week is considered unsafe because of the risk of gallstones.

How long does it take to lose 10 kg?

By the well-known rule of thumb of 7,000 kcal per kilogram, a 500 kcal deficit would take 20 weeks. In reality it takes longer, because a lighter body uses less: with every kilo lost, the deficit shrinks by around 24 kcal a day, the curve gets flatter and heads towards a new balance. The calculator shows both figures side by side.
Interactive

How long will your goal take?

Choose how much you want to lose and how big your daily deficit is. You'll see the rule of thumb and, next to it, what happens when your body uses less with every kilo lost.

Your goal
Your deficit
0Weeks to goal
Rule of thumb (7,000 kcal per kg)
With body adaptation
Pace at the start
Pace at the end

Guide values for healthy adults, not a forecast. Rule of thumb: 7,000 kcal per kilogram of body fat. Dynamic model simplified after Hall et al. 2011 (Lancet): daily energy use falls by around 24 kcal (100 kJ) per kilogram lost, so the effective deficit shrinks; the course is calculated week by week, for two years at most. Water loss in the first few days, menstrual cycle, muscle gain and everyday activity are not included. If you have a medical condition, are pregnant, breastfeeding or have an eating disorder, get medical advice before starting a diet.
02 Pace

Losing weight fast: what's realistic in weeks

“Lose weight fast” is the second most common weight-related search, and the honest answer is uncomfortable: only water goes fast. Fat disappears at the pace of your deficit, and a big deficit costs you muscle, nutrients and nerves. The timeline shows what actually happens in the first twelve weeks.

Week 1 to 12: what happens on the scales

  1. Day 1 to 7 The scales drop fast

    Your carbohydrate stores empty, and the water they bind goes with them, three to four parts per part of glycogen. You also have less content in your gut. Only a small part of this first drop is fat.

  2. Week 2 to 4 The real rate

    Now the deficit counts: around 0.5 kg a week at 500 to 600 kcal. The hunger and tiredness of the first few days ease off once your protein, fibre and sleep are right.

  3. Week 5 to 12 Your body saves energy

    Your resting energy use and the cost of moving fall with your weight, while hunger hormones rise. Weight loss levels off even though you're doing nothing differently. If you recalculate your deficit here, you stay on plan.

  4. Month 4 to 6 New balance

    According to the guideline, a new energy balance settles in after three to six months. Then maintaining takes centre stage; after 12 months, expect 5 to 6 kg.

Can you lose 5 kg in 2 weeks?

On the scales yes, as fat no. What drops in the first days of a strict diet is mostly water and gut content; on top of that, a deficit of 500 to 600 kcal gives you roughly one kilo of fat in two weeks. To lose five kilos of fat in 14 days, you'd need a deficit of 2,500 kcal a day, more than most people burn in total. The number that counts after two weeks isn't your weight, but whether you can keep going this way.
Crash diet

Below 800 kcal a day (formula diet) only under medical supervision and for twelve weeks at most. In a Swedish analysis, the risk of gallstones that needed treatment was three times as high on 500 kcal a day as on 1,200 to 1,500 kcal.

What happens on a crash diet?

Your body breaks down muscle as well as fat, your resting energy use drops, hunger hormones rise, and you're short of protein, iron, calcium and vitamins. The guideline explicitly advises against extremely one-sided diets: no lasting weight loss, and unnecessary risks. Rare but serious consequences of very low-calorie eating are gallstones, kidney stones, gout attacks and hair loss. And faster doesn't last longer: in an Australian study, people had regained the same amount three years after fast and slow weight loss, around 70 per cent each. The difference isn't in the pace, but in what comes afterwards.
03 Understand

Why diets fail

Three mechanisms your body uses to respond to every deficit. Once you know them, you won't panic at a plateau and you won't fall for promises to “kick-start” your metabolism.

1

Your body saves energy

As your weight drops, so does your energy use: a lighter body needs less at rest, less when walking and less for digesting smaller meals. After three to six months a new balance sets in and the scales stand still. That's not failure, it's physics. You can't boost your metabolism with teas, spices or lemon water, only with more muscle mass and more exercise.

2

The hunger stays

After weight loss, satiety hormones fall and the hunger hormone ghrelin rises. In a study with 50 participants, these levels still hadn't returned to where they were before the diet a year later. Your body defends its old weight. That's why keeping the weight off needs a strategy, not stronger willpower.

3

The yo-yo effect

In the first year after a diet, most people regain 30 to 50 per cent of the weight they lost. After three to five years, more than half are back at their starting weight. This happens after fast and slow diets alike. What helps: nutrition and exercise together, regular weighing and an everyday routine that works without diet rules.

04 Nutrition

Nutrition for weight loss: what you should eat

The deficit happens on your plate, not in the gym. The good news: you don't have to ban anything, just swap. Foods with lots of water, protein and fibre fill your stomach for few calories; ready meals, sugar and liquid calories deliver lots of energy for little fullness. Which way of eating you choose is secondary: low carb, low fat, Mediterranean and intermittent fasting all lead to the same weight loss after a year.

Which foods help you lose weight?

The ones with low energy density, so few calories per gram: veg, salad, fruit, soups, pulses, potatoes, low-fat quark, fish, poultry. People eat a similar weight of food from one day to the next; if it gets lighter, your intake drops by itself, without counting calories. Add fibre (DGE: 30 g a day) and a protein source in every meal. At the other end are ultra-processed products: in a controlled study, participants ate 508 kcal a day more with them than with freshly cooked food, with the same calories on offer.

What should you eat in the evening to lose weight?

A proper meal with protein and veg, no going without. What counts for your balance is the day, not the time; if you go hungry in the evening, you make up for it the next day or in the night. Roasted veg with fish or tofu, salad with pulses and egg, quark with berries or a vegetable soup with bread all work well. What regularly does harm in the evening is the liquid calories afterwards: wine, beer, juice and fizzy drinks don't fill you up and still end up in your balance.
Weight-loss plate from above: half vegetables, a quarter fish, a quarter potatoes, plus a glass of water
Half vegetables, a quarter protein, a quarter side: that's how your plate stays full, the calories stay low and the hunger comes later.

Losing weight without a diet: habits instead of bans

Without a diet means without rules that have an end date. What carries you instead: eating more slowly (measurably lowers the energy you take in per meal), smaller plates and packs (144 to 228 kcal less a day according to a Cochrane analysis), weighing yourself regularly and writing down what you eat. In weight-loss programmes, self-monitoring is the strongest single factor. And swap your drinks: every daily serving of fizzy drink or juice adds around 0.4 kg a year, and cutting it out takes it off again. The table shows what individual swaps save in everyday life, without you counting a single calorie.
Swap instead of going without

Seven swaps that save calories without counting

Same situation, same portion, different product. The saving applies per portion.

InsteadSaves per portion
Cola, 0.5 lMineral water or unsweetened tea213 kcal
Apple juice, 0.5 lApple juice and water 1 : 3 (125 ml juice, 375 ml water)173 kcal
Chips, 150 gOven-baked potatoes, 150 g164 kcal
Latte macchiato, 300 ml whole milkCoffee with a splash of milk136 kcal
Butter croissantSlice of wholemeal bread with 50 g low-fat quark105 kcal
Pilsner, 0.5 lAlcohol-free pilsner, 0.5 l101 kcal
Crisps, 50 gVegetable sticks with 45 g hummus75 kcal

Values from the Bundeslebensmittelschlüssel 4.0 (Max Rubner-Institut) and USDA FoodData Central, portions as stated (slice of bread 50 g). One swap a day saves 700 to 1,500 kcal over a week, as much as one to two full days of deficit.

Weight-loss shake: meal replacement as a tool

A meal replacement under EU rules provides 200 to 250 kcal per meal with protein, fibre and at least 30 per cent of the daily reference intake of vitamins and minerals. Its advantage isn't the powder, but the fixed number: if you replace lunch with 203 kcal, you can't misjudge it. In 23 studies with 7,884 participants, people using meal replacements lost 1.4 kg more after a year than on other diets. According to the authorised claim, two replaced main meals are the way to lose weight, and one replaced meal keeps the weight off afterwards. More in the article Meal replacement.
Shape Shake
From the Saturo range

Shape Shake: meal replacement with a fixed 203 kcal

30 g of powder in 300 ml of unsweetened soya drink gives you 203 kcal with 17 g of protein, 11 g of fibre and 26 vitamins and minerals. Replacing two of your main daily meals with a meal replacement like this, as part of a low-calorie diet, contributes to weight loss. Replacing one of your main daily meals helps you maintain your weight after weight loss. The shake only does its job as part of a low-calorie diet that also includes other foods, and with enough fluids throughout the day.

203kcal per portion
17 gProtein
26Vitamins & minerals
11 gFibre per portionmore than a third of the 30 g a day
Choose a flavour
17,07 krper meal
All weight-loss shakes
Shape Shake · Cocoa17,07 kr per meal ·
05 Protein

Protein diet: how much protein helps when losing weight

Protein is the nutrient you should skimp on least when losing weight. It keeps you fuller than fat and carbohydrates, costs your body more energy to process, and protects the muscle that every diet would otherwise break down too. A "protein diet" is therefore not really a diet, but a question of distribution: more protein, less of everything else, at the same deficit.

How much protein when losing weight?

The reference value from the DGE (German Nutrition Society) is 0.8 g per kilogram of body weight, calculated on normal weight if you're overweight, and 1.0 g from age 65. For the weight-loss phase, expert authors cite 1.2 to 1.6 g per kilo and 25 to 30 g per meal. That isn't a DGE recommendation, but in controlled studies the higher amount preserved more muscle mass and led to an average of 0.8 kg more weight loss than the standard amount. For 70 kg, that's 85 to 110 g a day: egg and quark in the morning, lentils or fish at lunch, tofu or poultry in the evening. What counts is protein per calorie, not per portion.

Protein per 100 kcal: what gives you the most protein for the least energy

  1. Tuna in its own juice: 24.1 g
  2. Chicken breast, pan-fried without fat: 21.5 g
  3. Lean quark: 18.0 g
  4. Skyr: 16.2 g
  5. Cottage cheese: 16.2 g
  6. Salmon, steamed: 10.6 g
  7. Egg, boiled: 9.8 g

Grams of protein per 100 kcal, cooked or as eaten, Bundeslebensmittelschlüssel (BLS) 4.0 (Max Rubner-Institut). In portions: 150 g lean quark 18 g protein for 99 kcal, 150 g chicken breast 44 g for 204 kcal, two eggs 14 g for 144 kcal.

Does protein powder help with weight loss?

Only if you can't reach your target with normal foods, and most people can. The DGE considers high-protein products unnecessary from a nutritional point of view: if you make use of the variety of normal foods, you get enough. A protein shake in water also contains almost nothing but protein; as a meal, it's missing everything else. Powder makes sense as part of a meal replacement with fibre, fat and micronutrients (chapter 4), or after training when there's no meal within reach. Doctors don't advise against powder, but against the idea that powder can replace your diet.
Woman in a modern kitchen with a Saturo shaker, next to the Shape Shake pack
Powder doesn't replace a diet, but it can replace a meal: as a meal replacement with protein, fibre and micronutrients, not as a protein shake in water.

Is a protein diet dangerous?

Not for healthy adults, as long as you drink enough: surplus protein is broken down into urea, which has to pass through the kidneys. According to the DGE guideline, it isn't clear whether a permanently high intake harms healthy kidneys in the long term; the existing studies found no link. With reduced kidney function, however, a lot of protein is a problem, and your doctor decides what's right for you.

When you're losing weight, protein isn't a fat burner, it's a shield: it keeps you full and protects your muscle. If you manage that with quark, lentils, fish and tofu, you don't need powder.

Joerg Hauke, Nutrition expert, expert review of this article

The second risk is eating too one-sidedly: if you only eat meat, eggs and cheese, you lose out on fibre, vitamin C and folate and get more saturated fat than is good for you. The solution is in the bars above: get half of your protein from pulses, tofu and dairy. Low carb isn't a must, either. In the DIETFITS study with 609 adults, a healthy low-fat diet and a healthy low-carb diet led to the same weight loss after twelve months: 5.3 and 6.0 kg.
06 Everyday life

Losing weight without exercise: is it possible?

Yes. The calorie deficit comes mainly from what you eat; according to the guideline, exercise alone only gets you two to three kilos in a year. If you can't or don't want to train, you can still lose weight through diet, everyday movement and sleep. What you miss without exercise is the protection of your muscle and the help with keeping the weight off.

Why the deficit happens on your plate

Do the maths: 30 minutes of brisk walking burns about 176 kcal at 70 kg, and around 37 kcal of that would have gone on your resting metabolic rate anyway. One glass of juice less saves the same amount in two seconds. Saving 500 kcal a day means swapping breakfast and drinks in the kitchen, but on the running track it means an hour of jogging, every single day. That's why diets that try to balance out food with exercise fail, and why losing weight without exercise works when your food is right (chapters 4 and 5).

Everyday movement: steps instead of a sports plan

What's left without exercise is movement without the sportswear: stairs instead of the lift, bike instead of the car, walking to do the shopping, standing and walking while you're on the phone. The guideline recommends 30 to 60 minutes of movement a day, and everyday journeys count. A step target for weight loss isn't proven; for health, the point beyond which mortality barely falls any further is 8,000 to 10,000 steps under the age of 60 and 6,000 to 8,000 above it. If you're at 4,000 today, every extra thousand gets you ahead.
Woman taking the stairs instead of the escalator in everyday life
Everyday movement is the part of your energy use that you can change without a workout plan: stairs, cycling, walking, sitting less.

Sleep and stress

If you regularly don't get enough sleep, you eat more. In a study of 80 adults with overweight who usually slept less than 6.5 hours, 1.2 more hours of sleep led to 270 fewer kcal a day, with no diet instructions at all. In a small diet study, participants sleeping 5.5 hours lost 55 percent less fat than when they slept 8.5 hours, with the same deficit. Stress works through eating behaviour: more sweet and fatty foods, fewer vegetables. On average the effect is small, but for some people it's the deciding factor. That makes sleep the cheapest way to lose weight without exercise.
07 Movement

Exercise for weight loss: which kind brings the most

The best exercise for losing weight is the one you actually do three times a week. Per minute, running, skipping and interval training burn the most, but over a year, consistency wins. And exercise works twice: it widens your deficit and helps decide whether you lose fat or muscle. The bars show the energy used per 30 minutes at a body weight of 70 and 90 kg.

Calories burned per 30 minutes: ten types of exercise compared

  1. Skipping: 404 kcal
  2. Running, 10 km/h: 342 kcal
  3. Jogging, 8 km/h: 312 kcal
  4. Interval training (HIIT): 257 kcal
  5. Cycling, 16 to 19 km/h: 250 kcal
  6. Climbing stairs: 250 kcal
  7. Strength training, intense: 221 kcal
  8. Swimming, front crawl: 213 kcal
  9. Walking, brisk: 176 kcal
  10. Yoga (Hatha): 85 kcal

Guide values based on the Compendium of Physical Activities 2024 (MET x 3.5 x kg / 200 x 30 minutes), gross values as on fitness watches: your body burns around 37 kcal of that in 30 minutes anyway. Pace, technique, terrain and fitness change the figure significantly.

Strength or endurance training?

Both, for different reasons. Endurance training uses energy: according to American sports medicine guidance, 150 to 250 minutes of moderate activity a week gives modest weight loss, and more than 250 minutes gives significant weight loss. Strength training burns less per session and hardly makes you lose weight on its own, but it preserves muscle mass and resting energy use while the scales go down. That's why it's in every guideline: two sessions a week. If you can only manage one, add strength plus everyday movement while you're losing weight, and endurance while you're maintaining. As for ab exercises: fat doesn't melt away where the muscle is working.

When does fat burning start during exercise?

Straight away. Your body burns fat and carbohydrates side by side every minute, only the ratio changes with intensity. The old rule that fat only "kicks in" after 30 minutes confuses the share with the amount: what matters for weight loss is your total energy use over the day, not where the energy came from during the workout. A hard 20-minute interval session burns little fat during the session and a lot over the day. So train in a way that you'll do again next week, not by heart-rate zones.
08 Special cases

When weight loss stalls: plateau, menopause, weight-loss injections

At some point, every set of scales stands still. Usually it's your body catching up with your deficit, sometimes a phase of life, rarely a medication or a medical condition. Before you widen your deficit, it's worth looking at the list.

Why am I not losing weight despite a calorie deficit?

Because the deficit is usually smaller than you think. People underestimate their intake by up to half, with drinks, oil and weekends first in line, and overestimate how much they move. On top of that, your energy use drops with every kilo you lose. If you're still working with the deficit from day one after three months, you've long since lost it. With new strength training, muscles hold water, and in women, weight fluctuates noticeably across the cycle. And according to the guideline, a plateau after three to six months is normal, not a mistake: your goal then is simply to maintain.
Interactive

What could be holding you back: what applies to you?

Tap what applies to you. The list shows where the deficit usually gets lost.

Not a diagnostic tool. Only a medical examination can clarify thyroid issues, medication and health conditions. With a BMI of 30 or above, or 27 or above with high blood pressure, diabetes or sleep apnoea, the guideline recommends medical support while losing weight.

Losing weight during the menopause

The menopause doesn't make you fat, it shifts things around. In the large US cohort SWAN, weight rose steadily before and during the menopause, with no sudden jump. What sped up was the shift from muscle to fat, especially around the belly. That's why losing weight after the menopause follows the same rules, and it works: in an analysis of ten programmes, women lost the same amount before and after the menopause. Protein and strength training become more important because they slow muscle loss. Hormone therapy is not a weight-loss aid.

Weight-loss injections: who they're for

Semaglutide and tirzepatide are approved in the EU for weight management from a BMI of 30, or from 27 with a weight-related health condition, always alongside a reduced-calorie diet and more exercise. In the approval study, participants on semaglutide lost an average of 14.9 percent of their weight over 68 weeks, compared with 2.4 percent on placebo. After stopping, two thirds of that came back within a year, which is why the guideline talks about long-term treatment. The statutory health insurers have so far not paid for weight-loss medication (as of October 2026, legally excluded as lifestyle medication). Whether they're an option for you is for your doctor to decide, not an online shop.

What's the fastest way to lose 5 kg?

With a deficit of 500 to 600 kcal, in around ten weeks, with the first few days faster because of water. Anything quicker only works with a very low-calorie diet under medical supervision, and what comes off fast comes back just as fast without a plan for maintaining. The calculator in chapter 1 shows you the honest timeline.

Can you lose 4 kg in 4 weeks?

Short answer: with a 600 kcal deficit, around 2.5 kg of fat in four weeks is realistic. On top of that you'll lose some water at the start, so the scales often show 4 kg. Losing 4 kg of pure fat would take a deficit of about 1,000 kcal a day, which for most people means too much hunger and too few nutrients.

Which foods help the kilos drop off?

None of them burns fat. But foods with a low energy density fill your stomach for very few calories: vegetables, salad, soups, fruit, pulses, potatoes, low-fat quark, fish. If you fill half your plate with them, you automatically eat less without counting.

What is the 3-3-3 rule for losing weight?

It's a pattern from social media, not a scientific rule: usually three meals, three litres of water and three workouts a week, sometimes three weeks of going without. The individual parts are harmless, but the number is arbitrary. What counts is the deficit over weeks, not the threes.

What boosts your metabolism?

Muscle mass and exercise, and nothing else to any real extent. Teas, chilli, lemon water or apple cider vinegar don't noticeably change how much energy you burn. Protein takes slightly more energy to digest than fat and carbohydrates. When you lose weight, your energy use drops anyway, and strength training slows that down.

What should you eat in the evening to lose weight?

A normal meal with protein and vegetables: roasted vegetables with fish, salad with lentils and egg, quark with berries. What matters for your balance is the whole day, not the time. In the evening, the easiest place to save calories is drinks: wine, beer and juice don't fill you up.

Why am I not losing weight despite exercising?

Because exercise burns less than it feels like and makes you hungry: 30 minutes of jogging is around 300 kcal, and a muesli bar and a juice afterwards cancel that out. On top of that, new muscle holds water. Exercise protects your muscle and helps you keep the weight off; the deficit comes from what you eat.

Does protein powder help with weight loss?

Only as a gap filler. What matters is how much protein you get over the day, and most people get that from quark, eggs, fish, pulses and tofu. The DGE (German Nutrition Society) calls high-protein products unnecessary. Powder makes sense as part of a meal replacement with fibre and micronutrients, not stirred into water.

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  42. Saturo: Nutritional information table for Shape Shake (Cocoa, Strawberry, Vanilla), per serving of 30 g powder with 300 ml unsweetened soy drink, as of September 2026.
Gregor Aßlaber
Gregor AßlaberAuthor · Editor, Saturo

Has been writing for Saturo since 2019 about nutrition, nutrients and how good nutrition works in practice in everyday life.

Joerg Hauke
Joerg HaukeFachliche Prüfung · Nutrition expert

Hat diesen Artikel am 15. Oktober 2026 auf fachliche Richtigkeit geprüft. The content does not replace medical advice.

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