If I had to design a weight-loss program for someone it would be very simple and based on three things: eating less each day, walking most days and lastly, lifting weights. Tracking weight loss would be based on a weekly average. What I'm going to do is break each of those down to give you a clear idea of what I mean. Just keep in my mind that this is my recommendation and nope, I'm not a dietician or a nutritionist. But. I have used this program and with great results.
EATING LESS EACH DAY
Personally, I'd reduce all eating to three meals over 12-hours or less. Some snacking is permitted during the 12-hour time period but only occasionally and absolutely none before or after said period. To lose weight you need to be in a calorie-deficit i.e. eat less than you need, in which case you'll be hungry quite often. But. You will get used to it both mentally and physically but you need to get used to it first.
Allowing yourself to "snack" whenever the hunger pangs occur basically makes a mockery of the whole process. That is why said snacking should only ever be occasional and I provide an example snack(s) further below. Lastly, the only reason I say 12-hours is based on my own schedule (yours might be different) whereby I have breakfast at 7am, lunch at 12:30pm and dinner somewhere between 5-6pm. So yes, you may need to tweak the time frame for yourself.
Breakfast options
Breakfast would be a small omelette on toasted whole-grain bread, two slices max, possibly with sliced tomato. These could have either humus or cottage cheese on them. Yes, you may choose to have eggs on toast but again, if you fry then use olive oil or an olive-oil based butter substitute. Fats add up when you look at your sauces, condiments and oils. Less is best. I would skip the salt and just stick to pepper for flavouring.
Another option is a bowl of porridge with cinnamon, no sugar and either trim or low-fat milk. It could also be two pieces of whole-grain bread with an olive-based butter substitute and either honey or peanut butter. Vegemite is high in salt so eat sparingly. I also like having cottage cheese with sliced tomato on my toast with a healthy dose of pepper - no salt, no sugars but if you do have either, then in very limited amounts (aim for 10g per 100g, a little higher for fruit sugars). I would personally recommend you get used to having little if any salt and sugar.
I'd recommend water for a cold drink or a cup of tea or coffee. Fruit juices are sugar-heavy and teeth unfriendly. As always, milk should be low-fat or trim milk with no sugar. Drop the sugar. Note that apart from the above recommendations, there are no other options; if you wanted other options you wouldn't be reading this, would you? Like I said, this here is my suggestion and yes, it works.
Lunch options
I'd recommend a smoothie with the following items: 1 x banana, some berries (strawberry, blueberry, raspberry etc.), a half teaspoon of chia seed and crushed flaxseed, 2-3 spoonful's of oats, a dash of cinnamon, 2-3 spoonful's of Greek yoghurt topped off with either trim milk or low-fat milk. That's it. You may wish to switch the smoothie to breakfast and make the breakfast options your lunch. Up to you. Note we're going low on dairy so there's no cheese here for a reason.
Dinner options
Two-thirds of your dinner meal needs to be salad and this should occur at least five nights a week minimum. For me a good salad has almonds, raisins, diced onion, grated carrot, diced cucumber, diced yellow & red capsicum, diced apple, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, tomatoes and of course salad. You may add a bit more and/or take some items out. Up to you. With the above I'd have shredded chicken, diced chicken, oven-baked salmon, fish done in water or tinned fish -- I prefer salmon -- that's low in salt.
If you're a red-meat eater (we're not, though occasionally our whanau will have mince "something"), make sure to cut all the fat off and oven bake your meat rather than fry. However, if you wish to fry, use olive oil to reduce fat or some olive-based butter substitute (as you can see, I'm a fan of olive anything. Including olives). Said red-meat portion should be the size of your palm. If you buy mince get quality mince i.e. minimal fat, and drain off excess oil after cooking.
Occasionally I'll oven bake cubed kumara and/or potato to add to the mix, but overall you're going low-carbs. You can have one cheat meal a week if you wish and 2-3 pieces of dark chocolate that's 60% cocoa minimum, during the week too. Dinner portions can be measured simply by putting your hands together and cupping them like you're trying to hold water -- they shouldn't be facing each other inasmuch as they're side by side. That's about how big your dinner meal should be (heaped) which for most of us is a lot smaller than what we'd usually have. There is no dessert.
Snack options
For snacks I'd recommend either cottage cheese or humus on crackers low in fat and salt, with either avocado or tomato, both if you wish and no more than four, preferably two crackers. Or you could have a piece of fruit, maybe carrot sticks in dipping humus which is always nice. Remember, snacks aren't meant to fill you but take the edge off and I would only snack either mid-morning or mid-afternoon, following the above portions. If you're snacking both mornings and afternoons you are taking the piss: drop one immediately.
If you're still snacking daily after two weeks, reduce snacking down to 1-2 days per week only with the goal being once every three days. Yes, you can still have a daily glass of wine, spirits or 1-2 beers, but I'd give yourself two days per week with no alcohol. If you're paranoid your alcohol is contributing towards your weight and compromising your goals, stop drinking whilst following the program. It's your choice. Just make a decision and stick with it as no-one else will give a shit.
WALKING AND WEIGHTS
Walking each day
Start off with 10-15min each day -- or at least five times per week every week -- on a flat surface at a steady pace where yes, your heart rate is up, but you can hold a conversation. I'd then recommend adding 5min each week till you're up to 30min per day. That's it. If you want to do more knock yourself out but you don't need to. If anything I'd either walk faster or find some hills if you want to challenge yourself. Having something like a treadmill or cross-trainer at home is a good back up for rainy days too.
Lifting weights
I'd recommend benchpress, overhead press, bent-over rows, squats and deadlifts. I'd do a 3-day per week program whereby on Monday you did squats and rows; Wednesday you did bench followed by an arm focus; and Friday you did deadlifts and overhead press. I'd start with a brief warm-up then pyramid up to a heavy-ish set for each, whatever that is for you. I would not go to failure but leave something in the tank. Short, sharp and simple.
Rep-wise I'd go with anything between 3-5 reps per set so your last heavy set could be, say, a triple or even a double. Cool, whatever it is then you're done. I would not be volume-focused but quality rep-focused with good form and decent weight (for you). Becoming a weight-lifting super star is something you can pursue later if that's where it leads you. Changing things up later is totally at your discretion as well; just start somewhere. Remember, ideally this "program" is something you're following for around 8-12 weeks.
...unless you make it a life-style choice.
TRACKING WEIGHT LOSS
Two ways to track weight loss is through body measurement using a tape measure and your body weight. For body measurement I'd select Sunday morning before breakfast (the last day of the week), to measure whichever body parts you're most focused on, recording this every week to track size decrease over 8-12wks. This could entail measurement of the upper/lower abdominal areas or the circumference of the upper/lower thighs and arms, wherever your fat sits.
Conversely, you may wish to measure yourself each morning before breakfast and write down the average for that week. Each week you do the same and by tracking the decrease in your weekly averages, you're able to follow your fat loss journey. As we all now know, you can't specifically target a certain area to lose the fat it's covered by anyway -- referred to as spot-reduction which is a myth -- only lose total body fat and in time, hopefully, this occurs equally everywhere.
Tracking weight-loss through physically weighing yourself on the scales is best done using the above weekly average protocol: weigh yourself each day, work out and record the weekly average, track the decrease in your weekly averages over x-amount of weeks. Just remember that as you eat better and eat less, your body will adapt which means weight loss will slow. You can either A) slightly reduce your caloric intake or B) stick with your existing intake and increase the intensity of your cardio and strength-training.
What does "increase the intensity" mean? It means walk a little quicker (yeah, you could walk further but I'm not a fan of that myself) and make sure you're adding a little more weight to your work-outs over time. Both cardio and weights contribute towards fat loss which is why the triad of diet-cardio-weights is so effective. However, if I had to promote one above the others it would be diet; this alone can achieve dramatic results for the majority of the population.
Fat loss vs weight loss
A really important thing to keep in mind is the difference between fat loss and weight loss. Yeah, I know they appear to be identical but let me give you an example where they're not: let's say you're weight-training and dieting at the same time (you can throw cardio in here too). When you weigh yourself on the scales each week you see a steady decrease in weight. Then it happens. You reach a point where yes, you're still losing fat, but your weight on the scales starts to reverse and climb.
...wtf?
Muscle is heavier than fat. As you work out, get stronger and gain muscle, your weight will increase. Some people (natural lifters) gain 20-30lbs of muscle. Goodness knows how much bodybuilders on gear gain. So there you are visually noting that yes, you're losing weight because you look smaller, your measurements confirm this in fact, you're having to cinch your belt in a notch or two and your old clothes are starting to hang off you like a sail. But you're heavier.
Does this happen to everyone? Nope.
But keep it in mind.
Weight loss through water loss
Have you seen shredded bodybuilders and/or fitness models prior to a show? Personally I find their appearances somewhere between freakish and repulsive but the point is, not only have they dropped to some ri-cock-u-lous level of 5% body fat, they've reduced water retention. When you cut carbs/go onto a low-carb diet, your water retention automatically drops because carbs, which the body converts to glycogen and stores in our liver and muscles, draw water.
I've seen different estimates as to this ratio but for every gram of glycogen you will get 2 grams of water if not 3-4 times as much. The reason I state this is few of us take into account that a diet change where carbs are dramatically reduced (or even salty, processed foods are) will see a fairly quick drop in weight initially which is often water weight. Then when this drop slows people get all antsy. Don't. Stick with the program and drink more water, not less.
...note that water retention can easily fluctuate daily weight 5lbs or more!
When the weight loss ends
Sooner or later you'll reach your desired weight-slash-appearance goal. At this point you may start to increase your carbs, calories, meals or whatever but I'd keep measuring yourself -- body measurements (even if they're simply visual) and/or body weight -- for 1-2 months afterward so as to ensure you're maintaining yourself where you want to be and not putting on fat (note I said fat not weight). The quickest way you'll increase body-fat stores is through eating too much. Most of us just don't need as much as we eat.
:: CONCLUSION
I would run the above program until you reached your desired weight. The most important thing is to eat less than you need and eat quality meals; again, get used to being hungry. Exercise may well increase your hunger but stick to the low-portion, quality meal plan. You don't actually want to lose too much weight too soon. The reason I say this is anyone can lose weight reducing food intake but when they return to their normal meals and quantities, they tend to put the weight back on.
What you want is to lose weight gradually so that your body becomes accustomed to your new, quality meals and portions. The ideas is to make this normative for you so that once you're done with the program you still eat better and less (than you once did). On this exact program but without the weight lifting part, I actually lost 5kg/11lb in just under three weeks, which was actually too much too soon. The good news is that eating better and less became standard for my family and I. We all improved together.
Would I stay on the 30min daily walk? Absolutely. Would I stay with the weight lifting program? That's at your discretion as to how you may change that up but I would definitely make strength training part of my weekly routine. If, after reaching your goal you decide to start eating more, fine. But. If more means you start putting on too much weight or means having more unhealthy meals -- so you start putting on too much weight -- you're a bloody idiot. Don't be that guy.
Remember too that by keeping up the weights and exercise on top of a better eating regime, your body will become healthier not just in appearance but inside. All the many systems -- endocrine system, digestive system, cardiovascular system etc. -- that make us up benefit and in fact, so does your mental health. Your body gets better at using the good food sources you give it; it becomes more efficient at doing what it should and those are good things. Food is fuel and good fuel means a better engine.
Chances are you may have to miss out on most of what you really like for most of your life if you do this full-time. I shit thee not. Can you handle that? Yes, you may have snippets of what you enjoy (think pizza, thick shakes, pies etc.) here and there, but basically it's over. Not many people have the will-power and believe me, watching my kids eat ice-cream for dessert most nights is torture. Walking through a food hall filled with delicious aromas is torture. But it is what it is. Kia ora whanau.