Changing people's health-related behaviour involves:

• Helping them to understand the short, medium and longer-term consequences of health-related behaviour.​

• Helping them to feel positive about the benefits and value of health-enhancing behaviours and changing their behaviours.​

• Building the person's confidence in their ability to make and sustain changes.​

• Recognising how people's social contexts and relationships may affect their behaviour.​

• Helping people plan changes in terms of easy sustainable steps over time.​

• Identifying and planning for situations that might undermine the changes people are trying to make, and planning explicit 'if-then' coping strategies to maintain changes in behaviour.​

• Encouraging people to make a personal commitment to adopt health-enhancing behaviours by setting (and recording) achievable goals in particular contexts, over a specified time​

• Helping people to use self-regulation techniques (such as self-monitoring, progress review, relapse management and goal revision) to encourage learning from experience​

• Encouraging people to engage the support of others to help them to achieve their behaviour-change goals.

Deliver any behavioural intervention with the support of an appropriately trained professional, and include the following strategies in behavioural interventions for adults, as appropriate:

• self-monitoring of behaviour and progress
• stimulus control
• goal setting
• slowing rate of eating
• ensuring social support
• problem solving
• assertiveness
• cognitive restructuring (modifying thoughts)
• reinforcement of changes
• relapse prevention
• strategies for dealing with weight regain.

Include the following strategies in behavioural interventions for children, as appropriate:

• stimulus control
• self-monitoring
• goal setting
• rewards for reaching goals
• problem solving.

Give praise to successes and encourage parents to role-model desired behaviours.