How to Lose 5kg: A Realistic, Sustainable Plan

5 kilograms is achievable, meaningful, and fast enough to feel rewarding without requiring the extreme restriction that causes rebounds. It's the target that works, specific enough to plan for, short enough to sustain focus.

This guide gives you the exact setup: calorie target, protein target, training structure, and the psychological framework to get there without white-knuckling through 10 weeks.

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Step 1: Know Your Numbers

Before any plan can work, you need to know your starting point. Your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) is the number of calories your body burns per day at your current activity level.

Use our Calorie Deficit Calculator to find your TDEE and calculate the deficit needed to reach your goal.

General rules:

• TDEE − 500 kcal/day → ~0.5kg/week loss
• TDEE − 700 kcal/day → ~0.7kg/week loss (maximum recommended for most people)
• Do not go below 1,200 kcal/day (women) or 1,500 kcal/day (men) regardless of TDEE

Step 2: Set Your Protein Target

Protein is the most important dietary variable for fat loss, it preserves muscle, controls hunger, and has the highest thermic effect (burns more calories to digest).

Target: 1.8–2.2g per kg bodyweight

For a 70kg person: 126–154g protein/day. Distribute across 3–4 meals (30–40g per meal).

This alone, hitting protein, eating enough vegetables, and being at a moderate calorie deficit, is sufficient for most people to lose 5kg without complicated meal plans.

Step 3: What the Weekly Schedule Looks Like

Training:

• 3 resistance training sessions (full-body or upper/lower split)
• 2–3 moderate cardio sessions (30–40 min each: walking, cycling, swimming)

Nutrition:

• Sunday meal prep: 5 days of lunches, overnight oats or yogurt for breakfasts, protein sources ready to go
• Daily protein target hit first, fill remaining calories with vegetables and complex carbs

The simple daily approach:

1. Protein at every meal
2. Vegetables at lunch and dinner (fill half the plate)
3. Track calories for the first 2–3 weeks, then intuitive tracking with weekly check-ins

What to Expect Week by Week

Weeks 1–2: Faster scale drop (1–1.5kg) from glycogen/water loss as calories drop. This is not fat loss, it's water stored with glycogen.

Weeks 3–8: Steady 0.3–0.6kg/week of actual fat loss. Scale may fluctuate week to week, weigh daily, track weekly average.

Common week 4–5 stall: Weight loss often plateaus briefly as hormones adjust. Don't increase the deficit, maintain and trust the process for 2 weeks before reassessing.

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The Most Common Reasons 5kg Plans Fail

1. Not tracking for the first 2–4 weeks. "Eating healthily" without numbers means almost nobody is at the deficit they think they're at. Track precisely for 2–4 weeks, then use that knowledge.

2. Alcohol. One evening of drinking can eliminate a week of deficit. A bottle of wine is 600+ calories. Not forbidden, just accounted for.

3. Weekends. Eating in a 700 kcal deficit Monday–Friday then eating at a 500 kcal surplus Saturday–Sunday produces near zero weekly deficit. Consistency 7 days/week matters.

4. Insufficient protein → muscle loss. Losing 5kg on 80g protein/day means losing some of that from muscle, not just fat. The result: you're lighter but not leaner.

5. Not lifting. Cardio-only fat loss without strength training produces a smaller, softer version of your current physique. Adding strength training preserves muscle, creating a leaner, more defined outcome.

A Simple 5-Day Eating Framework

Breakfast options:

• Greek yogurt (250g) + berries + granola, 380 kcal, 30g protein
• Eggs (3) scrambled + wholegrain toast, 350 kcal, 28g protein
• Overnight oats (50g oats + 200g Greek yogurt + berries), 400 kcal, 28g protein

Lunch options:

• Chicken breast (150g) + quinoa (80g dry) + salad, 430 kcal, 48g protein
• Tuna (2 cans) + mixed leaves + cucumber + 1 tbsp olive oil, 320 kcal, 42g protein
• Tofu stir-fry (200g) + brown rice (150g cooked) + vegetables, 400 kcal, 30g protein

Dinner options:

• Salmon (150g) + roasted vegetables + broccoli, 400 kcal, 36g protein
• Lean beef mince (150g) + courgette noodles + tomato sauce, 380 kcal, 35g protein
• Prawn stir-fry (200g) + noodles (100g) + pak choi, 360 kcal, 30g protein

Total across 3 meals: ~1,150–1,250 kcal, 110–125g protein. This leaves 250–400 kcal for snacks (Greek yogurt, fruit, hard-boiled eggs).

For a complete plan with full calorie breakdown, see our What to Eat on 1500 Calories guide.

How to Maintain the 5kg Loss

The hardest part of fat loss is not losing it, it's not regaining it. Maintenance requires:

1. Reverse dieting: Gradually increase calories back to new maintenance (your maintenance has decreased slightly as you lost weight)
2. Continued protein target: Don't revert to low-protein eating
3. Continued training: The muscle you've built or preserved is your metabolic engine
4. Monitoring: Weigh weekly and respond early to upward trends (1–2kg trigger is easier to reverse than 5kg)

For a full strategy on maintaining after weight loss, see our How to Maintain Your Weight After Losing It guide.

The Bottom Line

5kg is 7–12 weeks at a moderate deficit with adequate protein and consistent training. Not a crash. Not a detox. Not extreme restriction.

Find your TDEE with our Calorie Deficit Calculator, set protein at 1.8–2g/kg, add resistance training 3x/week, and hit your numbers 6–7 days per week. The result is reliable.