Plan of action

Build your own 12-week weight plan with disciplined, week-by-week hydration, exercise and food, from a cuisine you like or your own list of foods, then come back to view each week's plan.

Prefer meal-replacement protein shakes? You can also use the Eating plan page. Enter your own calorie target and the number of shakes you want each week, and build your plan there. Then come back here for lunch and dinner ideas that fit around your shakes.

Your 12-week weight plan

Enter your goal to get a disciplined weekly plan for hydration, exercise and food, one week at a time.

Before you start: this plan is for healthy adults only. Talk to your GP first if you have diabetes (especially if you take diabetes medicines), kidney, liver or heart disease, are pregnant or breastfeeding, are under 18, or have ever had an eating disorder. Stop and get advice if you feel faint, unwell or constantly exhausted. Fasting is optional and not for everyone.

This page is general information, not medical advice. If you have a medical condition or take regular medicines, talk to your GP or an accredited practising dietitian first.

Discipline is the main driver. This planner only builds a steady, sustainable pace, because fast weight loss costs muscle, drains your energy and is mostly regained. Following a simple plan most days beats a perfect plan you can't keep.

How we keep the pace safe

Pace: no faster than 0.75 kg a week, and no more than 0.75% of your body weight a week.
Calories: never more than 25% below your estimated daily needs, never below your resting needs (BMR), and never under 1,200 kcal (women) or 1,500 kcal (men).
Goal: a goal BMI of at least 20, and no more than 20% of your body weight in one plan. Bigger goals are best done in stages with your GP or an accredited practising dietitian.
Muscle: protein of 1.4 to 2.0 g per kg of your goal weight, with strength training, helps protect muscle while you lose fat.
Each week is recalculated. Your calories drop a little as you get lighter, because your body needs less.
Intermittent fasting has not beaten regular meals in trials, so use it only if it helps you stay consistent. Total calories stay the same.
For healthy adults only. Read "Before you start" above, and talk to your GP first.

Step 1. About you

These set your daily calorie needs and heart rate zones.

Remember on this device

Units

Metric (kg, cm) Imperial (lb, ft)

Sex used in the calorie formula

Female Male

Age

years

Height

What is your work day like?

Step 2. Your goal

Be realistic. A steady pace wins.

Current weight

Goal weight

In how many months?

months

Step 3. Your food

Simple, real food from your cuisine, built around the shakes you choose.

How many shakes a week would you like to have?

Shakes replace breakfast first, then dinner. Every real meal left over (always lunch) is sized to your calories, so the fewer meals you have, the more calorie-dense each one is.

Calories a day from drinks and extras (optional)

kcal

These come off your food. Tea or coffee with milk and sugar, fruit juice, snacks and anything extra you add all count toward your daily calories, so the plan takes them out of your meals. A cup of tea with milk and 1 tsp sugar is about 50 kcal, and a 250 mL glass of juice is about 110 kcal (estimates). Enter your daily total here. The planned snack is already counted for you.

Preferred cuisine

Build your own list

Tell us the foods you like or already have: vegetables, fruit, snacks, juices, protein powder or bars, paneer, salmon, rice, pasta and more. We build the week from your list, fill any gaps and trim anything that is too much.

Foods to use

Type or paste a list, separated by commas, then press Enter or tap Add. No need for amounts. We size the portions to your calories.

Need ideas? Tap to add

Anything to leave out? (optional)

Allergies, dislikes, or words like nuts, dairy, gluten or shellfish. We won't add these when filling gaps, and we'll drop them from your list.

How we use your list

Your calories don't change. The list only decides what is on the plate. The safe-pace limits and calorie floors above still apply.
Each day: the shakes you chose (breakfast first, then dinner), a real lunch, a dinner or breakfast on days without a shake, and a snack when calories are 1,800 or more. Portions are kept modest, with olive oil and your nuts used to add energy, and each meal is sized to hit that week's calories. Eggs are capped at 12 a week with at most 4 yolks.
Gaps we fill: at least 4 protein foods, 3 vegetables and 2 carbs, a protein powder for the shake, and 2 foods to build snacks from. We never add anything you asked to leave out, and ticking vegetarian removes meat and fish.
What we trim: one week uses up to 7 protein foods, 6 vegetables, 4 carbs, 5 fruits, 5 snacks and 3 dairy foods, up to 3 juices (a small glass, on up to 3 days) and one planned treat. Extra items take turns in later weeks. Foods that are too big for the snack slot are left out that week, and so are snacks when calories fall below 1,800.
Protein: if the menu falls short of 1.4 g per kg of your goal weight, we enlarge the protein portions (by up to 50%) and, if needed, add a high-protein snack food.
Treats and juice: confectionery, chips, cake and sweet drinks count as treats, because the Australian Dietary Guidelines class them as discretionary choices. A 125 mL glass of unsweetened juice counts as one fruit serve, but whole fruit fills you up more. Our judgement The weekly limits are ours, not an official standard.
Estimates: calories and protein are typical cooked or as-served values, and branded foods such as bars vary, so check labels. Leaving a food out here isn't allergy advice. With a real allergy, read every label and talk to your GP or an allergy specialist.

I am vegetarianNo meat or fish. Eggs and dairy are included.

Do you practise intermittent fasting?

No Yes

How this page was checked

What we checked, and what we changed

Weight plan: the pace limits are deliberately conservative. They sit below the 0.5 to 1 kg a week ceiling commonly given by health services such as the NHS, because the aim is a pace you can keep. Daily calories use the Mifflin-St Jeor equation and are recalculated each week as your weight falls. Meal calories come from typical food composition values and are estimates, usually within about 10%. Intermittent fasting has matched, not beaten, regular calorie control in trials, including the 2020 TREAT trial of 16:8 eating, so it is offered only as an option.

Drinks, snacks and extras: calories from milky tea or coffee, fruit juice, snacks and anything extra are part of your daily total, so they are taken out of your meals and not added on top. The amounts you enter are your own estimates. Default nuts in the plan are unsalted mixed nuts at 20 g a serve.

Shakes, portions and eggs: the number of shakes you pick sets how many real meals are left, and each real meal is sized to your calories. Where a meal has to carry a lot of energy, the plan adds olive oil, nuts and some avocado before it adds more rice, roti or idli, so plates stay smaller. Idli are counted at 85 g each and roti at 75 g each. The limit of 12 eggs and 4 yolks a week is a limit we chose, not a guideline, and extra eggs are used as egg whites. Calories and portions are estimates.

Our judgement Shake calories (about 340 kcal with nuts and olive oil), the breakfast options and the weighting of calories between meals are our own estimates.

Your own food list: the weekly limits on how many foods of each type are used, the minimum number we fill up to, and the one planned treat a week are our own judgement, built to keep a week varied and your calories on target. Treats follow the Australian Dietary Guidelines idea of discretionary choices. Food calories and protein are typical values and are estimates, so check labels.

Finisher and hypertrophy: the 15 minute finisher (squats, lunges, wall sit, calf raises, glute bridges, pushups, plank, ab crunches, supermans and step jacks) is a bodyweight menu we chose to cover the whole body, and anyone can swap in their own workout of the same length. Calorie burn for walks and strength days uses typical activity values (4.3 and 5 METs) and is an estimate. Muscle grows when you train it close to failure with enough total work, across a wide range of weights, as reviews of the research show. The five methods for using one set of weights are practical techniques, not a tested program.

Our judgement Ratings of "well established", "moderate", "limited" and "speculative" are our summary of the evidence, not an official grading. This is general information, not medical advice.

Sources and further reading

NHMRC: sodium reference values

Review: intermittent fasting and time-restricted feeding compared with continuous energy restriction

Eat for Health: Australian Dietary Guidelines

Schoenfeld (2010): The mechanisms of muscle hypertrophy and their application to resistance training

Schoenfeld et al. (2017): Low-load vs high-load resistance training, a systematic review and meta-analysis

Dietitians Australia: find an accredited practising dietitian

Back to the start

Head to the main page to explore every plan.

Main page

Plan of action

Your 12-week weight plan

Step 1. About you

Step 2. Your goal

Step 3. Your food

Build your own list

Choose a week

How this page was checked