Losing weight in 2025 – everyone wants to and most eventually fail! So, I would prefer we looked at it in a different way… make the aim getting healthy. If you make simple changes, and look at building muscle, you will lose weight and be healthier. And let’s not have a goal in terms of how much, by a certain date. If you do this and the goal is too big or too soon or both, you have set yourself up to fail.
Diets don’t work. It’s a fact that 95 per cent of those who eliminate a food group (e.g. liquid diets, no carbs, Atkins) and achieve weight loss eventually revert to their original weight. Eating too much is, of course, a cause of weight gain, but the real issue is eating the wrong thing. So eating less of the wrong thing is not going to do it, and even if you eat so little of the wrong things that you manage to lose some weight when your diet ends, and you go back to eating more of the wrong thing, you will just pile it on again. So, let’s not do that. Make 2025 the year you never diet again!
The other thing I know only too well is that making too many changes at once is setting yourself up to fail, so treat this as a 2025 task… not a January task. Look at two areas and make step-by-step changes in both. Slowly. View it as a house build, layer by layer, not putting the roof on by day seven.
Food
The biggest contributor to obesity and poor health is ultra-processed food (UPF). The data is clear and over time is getting clearer. Part of the problem is that UPF is loaded with sugar, trans fats, and seed oils.
The next problem is that almost everything you buy in a packet is processed or UPF. Even that Shepherd’s pie in the posh aisle. If you aren’t sure turn it over and if it has more than five ingredients and you don’t recognise any of them, it’s processed to some degree. So, back to small steps. Have a look at your diet and decide on what small changes you can make. If you buy all of your food pre-made to some degree or delivered by that man on a moped, why not commit to having one night a week where you cook your meal from fresh? Start small. Even if it’s a fresh veg omelette with a side serving of line-caught salmon (never buy farmed fish). It’s a start.
Then, as you get used to planning your shop for that, you could do a slow cooker stew, bolognese or shepherd’s pie and freeze some into meal-size portions and then use those on a second night of the week. Slowly, you will get into the habit of planning meals, shopping for the ingredients, batch cooking and freezing until, over a few months, you gradually cook almost everything for yourself from raw ingredients.
And I say almost because the odd takeaway or pre-made meal is fine. This is the first secret to weight loss. UPF is pre-digested, doesn’t keep you full for long, is made to be addictive, and you eat more of it as a result. There are some really easy and tasty recipes on my Instagram feed (@DrReneeHoenderkamp) that I cook often and batch freeze to help once you get going.
On that note; if you drink fruit juice or smoothies, this is another quick and easy win. Studies show that you stay fuller on an apple over apple juice, on apple juice over an apple smoothie. So, wherever you can go back to basics, eat an apple, don’t have it juiced. If you must have a liquid, have a juice, not a smoothie.
If you have sugar in your coffee or tea, cut it back very slowly. I say this as a real sugar addict, and about a year ago, after realising that I was drinking my tea and coffee purely for the sugar and having tried going cold turkey many times over, I decided to take my own advice. I cut my sugar by half a teaspoon for a month and then another half. It took four months of gradual reduction, and I have now been sugar-free for more than eight months. It took me 57 years!
Dr Renee Hoenderkamp busts weight loss myths with her effective plan
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Exercise
Let’s talk exercise. We all know that exercise is better for us than sitting on the sofa. We also know that deciding to run a half marathon when you have never even walked to the corner shop is going to fail. It’s the same message from me; be realistic, don’t set yourself up to fail and do things in small steps, literally… So, if you use an escalator or lift every day, just change that instead of joining a gym.
Always walk up an escalator and if it’s a long escalator and you are struggling, walk halfway initially until you can walk it all.
Even I am panting when I travel to London Bridge where the escalator is long… If you use a lift, walk up the stairs and if that’s too hard at the start, use the lift halfway and walk the rest. I guarantee that if you do this your stamina will increase, and you will, over a few weeks, be able to add to the distances. And always walk down too! You will use different muscle sets up and down, and you will build strength and muscle.
Muscle uses more calories to just exist than fat. If you watch TV every night, commit to a 20-minute’ walk around the block, fast enough to make you out of breath, before you sit down to enjoy TV – make it the reward for the exercise. And if you don’t want to go out, use very light weights to do some simple strengthening indoors and if you want to, watch TV while you do it. I’m going to give a shout-out to Caroline’s Circuits here – @carolinescircuits on Instagram. I often do her workouts and they can be fitted into the busiest lives and can all be done at home.
If you fancy something more structured with a goal. The Couch to 5K programme is very good, and what I like about it is you choose where you start, so if you think the weekly jump is too big, do it every week or a particularly challenging one twice! There is a free app for your smartphone, but if you don’t have a smartphone, that’s okay, there’s a written plan here.
So, my message is:
- Lifestyle change not diet
- One thing at a time in each area; food and exercise
- Small changes and build on it
- Don’t have time or weight/exercise goals other than this week’s small step.
I guarantee if you commit to this over a year you will lose weight and build strength, muscle and health.
