A healthy weight loss program is one where you lose between half a pound and two pounds a week. This slow loss can be maintained and should be permanent rather than a quick weight loss where the weight will go back on as soon as you return to more normal eating.

The premise behind weight loss is that you should only put into your body what you can use up. Unless you have an extremely active lifestyle, for normal weight loss this equates to eating about 1500 calories a day for women and 2000 for men.

A healthy weight loss program should not include more than between 35 and 45 grams of fat per day and it should include some complex carbohydrate (e.g. wholemeal bread, pasta, etc.), protein and lots of fruit and vegetables. Avoid refined sugars and baked goods altogether as well as fried snacks; these foods have very little nutritional value but are very high in calories. They won't satisfy your appetite and before you know it you'll want something else to eat. Use diet drinks and if you want to drink alcohol, don't forget to count the calories.

It's easiest to stick to your weight loss program if you have menus including portion sizes written out for each meal and snack for a whole week. For a start, you will know what shopping you need to do and won't be tempted to buy forbidden foods or help yourself from the biscuit tin. In fact, if you live alone, you may do well not to have anything in the biscuit tin! To help you with your plan, you may want to buy a book which has calorie counted recipes in it as it's actually very difficult to remember to count the calories of every ingredient in a home made dish. Avoid pre-made diet meals if you can as they frequently contain far more salt than is healthy.

As well as a meal plan, you will need an exercise plan. There are two schools of thought here; one which advocates aerobic exercise and one which supports resistance training, such as using weights. Aerobic exercise is probably better for overall health, particularly the heart, but resistance training targets fat more quickly and takes less time. A brisk forty minute walk three times a week would probably be sufficient but twenty minutes every day would be better. Alternatively, you could bicycle, play tennis or badminton or swim. There are charts which show you how many calories you use up doing certain activities, so you could look up what you need to do to use up more calories than you're putting in. Resistance training would require about twenty minutes twice a week, but you do need to do this kind of exercise in a very structured way with very short periods in between exercise sets, or they just won't work at all.

Finally, you need a weight loss plan which will train your appetite to expect smaller meals and your taste buds to dislike sugar, which will ensure that you are able to maintain your weight loss when you are no longer actually "on a diet". Equally, you should maintain an exercise program which is good for overall fitness and wellbeing.