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How to prepare a menu to lose weight: 7 days and shopping list

You know what you should eat, but you get home at nine hungry, with a half-empty fridge and no desire to think about what to make for dinner.

Written byAlimmenta’s team of dietitian-nutritionistsReviewed byJuana María González, dietitian-nutritionist, Reg. no. CAT000921

Updated 26/09/20269 min readSee sources

To put together a weight-loss menu, fill half the plate with vegetables, a quarter with protein (pulses, fish, egg or white meat) and a quarter with wholegrain carbohydrates or potato [1]. This seven-day menu spreads pulses, fish, egg and meat according to the recommended weekly servings [2]. It is a general guide and is not calculated for you.

Table with green salad dishes, skewers, steamed vegetables and wraps prepared at a cooking workshop

You can eat

  • Fresh vegetables: courgette, aubergine, carrot, pumpkin, broccoli, peppers, tomato, onion, cucumber and leafy greens
  • Basic vegetable preserves: asparagus, hearts of palm, sweetcorn and natural crushed tomato with no added sugars
  • Cooked or dried pulses: chickpeas and lentils, ready for stir-fries, purées or salads
  • White fish and seafood: hake, gilthead bream, sea bass and cuttlefish, grilled, steamed or baked
  • Oily fish rich in omega-3: salmon and bonito or fresh tuna in a traditional stew
  • Lean white meat: chicken breast and lean beef steaks or burgers
  • Hen's eggs: boiled, poached, in an omelette or fried with little oil
  • Whole grains and tubers: brown rice, couscous, wholewheat pasta and potatoes
  • Wholegrain bread: to accompany breakfasts or dinners according to your appetite
  • Extra-virgin olive oil: as the main fat for cooking and dressing, keeping an eye on the amount

What to avoid

  • Miracle diets and menus of fewer than 1,200 kcal per day: they cause loss of muscle mass, fatigue and an almost certain later rebound effect [3]
  • Skipping meals to make up for what you ate yesterday: it disrupts appetite and often ends in binge eating or uncontrolled snacking
  • Fried, battered and breaded foods: they multiply the calories of any food without providing better-quality fullness
  • Fatty cold cuts and ultra-processed meat: they provide excessive saturated fat and salt; keep them for very occasional situations
  • Alcoholic drinks, sugary soft drinks and juices: they provide free sugars and liquid calories that do not relieve hunger
  • Commercial sauces with added sugars or cream: they mask the natural flavour of food and add unnecessary energy
  • Pastries, sweets and ultra-processed snack foods: they displace nutritious foods and increase the constant feeling of hunger
  • Obsessively weighing every portion by the gram: it is much more useful to learn to portion the plate visually and sustainably

Habits that help

  • Go shopping with a fixed list and after you have eaten, and you will buy less on impulse.
  • Eat slowly, at the table and without screens, to notice when you have had enough.
  • Look after your sleep, because when you sleep little there is usually more hunger and more craving for sweet foods the next day.

It is what we hear most in consultation: on Monday you follow the plan and by Wednesday you are already improvising dinner. What is usually missing is having decided what to eat and having it bought.

That is why this menu relies on the plate method, which you can apply with everyday foods, and on cooking a few basics in one go. That way you do not depend on weighing food or counting calories.

Who is this menu for, and who is it not for?

This menu is designed for healthy adults who want to organise their eating and lose weight gradually, without going hungry. It uses everyday foods that are easy to find, and it works for the whole family.

This menu has not been calculated for pregnancy or breastfeeding, for anyone under 18, or for people with diabetes treated with insulin or with medicines that can make blood sugar drop too low. It is also not for people with chronic kidney disease, people who have or have had an eating disorder, or people who need to gain weight. If you have a condition with its own dietary plan, such as coeliac disease, a diagnosed allergy, or heart or liver failure, follow your own plan. In those situations, the plan is tailored to you and, where appropriate, coordinated with your doctor.

If what worries you is your relationship with food (binges, guilt, making up for what you eat), the first step is specialist psychological support, before any menu.

This menu does not include a fixed calorie calculation. The energy you need depends on your age, sex, height, muscle mass and physical activity. That is why it works better to focus on the quality of the food and on the proportions of the plate.

What we do advise against are fad diets and menus of less than 1,200 kcal a day without supervision. They are hard to sustain and encourage muscle loss. The British obesity guideline reserves those plans for specialist services, with long-term support [3]. Excess weight is managed individually and over the long term [4], and the basics are in our guide to a healthy weight-loss diet.

The weekly weight-loss menu, day by day

Every lunch and every dinner includes vegetables, protein and carbohydrates. Several preparations are made in advance so you cook less during the week. At Alimmenta we recommend eating breakfast, unless it makes you feel unwell or does not fit your lifestyle. Having breakfast matters more than the time you have it.

Day Breakfast Lunch Dinner
Monday Coffee or herbal tea · Oats with plain yoghurt and chopped apple Roasted vegetables (pepper, pumpkin, whole tomato and broccoli) with wholewheat pasta and grilled marinated chicken breast Courgette, onion and carrot purée · French omelette roll with tomato, lettuce and grated carrot · Wholegrain bread
Tuesday Coffee or herbal tea with milk or a plant drink · Wholegrain toast with grated tomato, extra-virgin olive oil and fresh cheese Complete salad with lettuce, tomato, rocket, cucumber, sweetcorn, hearts of palm, cooked lentils and brown rice Roasted vegetables · Oven-baked sea bass or gilthead bream served with thinly sliced potatoes with spices, baked in the oven
Wednesday Plain yoghurt with oats, a small handful of walnuts and blueberries · Tea or coffee Vegetable purée · Grilled salmon, or steamed in parchment, with boiled potato Lettuce, tomato, rocket, cucumber, sweetcorn and hearts-of-palm salad · Grilled marinated chicken breast · Hydrated couscous
Thursday Coffee or herbal tea · Wholegrain toast with scrambled egg and tomato slices Roasted vegetables with couscous and grilled hake fillet or hake cooked in parchment Courgette, aubergine, onion and tomato ratatouille with cooked chickpeas and microwave or boiled potato
Friday Milk or a plant drink with oats, cinnamon and banana slices Vegetable ratatouille with brown rice and a grilled lean beef burger Green-leaf, asparagus, carrot, radish and cherry tomato salad · Poached egg · Wholegrain bread
Saturday Wholegrain toast with tomato, ricotta and a drizzle of olive oil · One kiwi · Coffee or herbal tea Leaf and vegetable salad · Traditional tuna or bonito marmitako with potato, pepper, onion and tomato Vegetable purée with crisp chickpeas toasted in the oven or a frying pan · Grilled cuttlefish with garlic and parsley
Sunday Plain yoghurt with oats, chia or linseed and diced pear · Coffee or herbal tea Warm lentil salad with brown rice, chopped ripe tomato and half an avocado Vegetable ratatouille · Fried egg in a non-stick pan with a few drops of oil · Wholegrain bread

The week’s shopping list

The quantities are approximate for one adult for seven days. If you swap milk for a plant-based drink, choose one with no added sugar and at least 3 g of protein per 100 ml. Soya is the best option; bear in mind that soya is an allergen.

Fruit and vegetables

  • Onions (1 kg) and garlic (1 bulb)
  • Tomatoes for salad and roasting (1.5 kg)
  • Courgettes (3 medium)
  • Aubergines (2)
  • Carrots (1 kg)
  • Pumpkin (500 g, peeled)
  • Broccoli (1 head or 500 g)
  • Red and green peppers (3)
  • Potatoes (1 kg)
  • Mixed lettuce, rocket and lamb’s lettuce (2 bags of ready-to-eat leaves)
  • Cucumbers (2) and radishes (1 bunch)
  • Fresh seasonal fruit for breakfasts and between meals: apples, bananas, pears, kiwis and blueberries (approx. 1.5–2 kg in total)
  • Avocado (1) and lemons (2)

Fish and meat

  • Whole or fillet chicken breasts (400 g)
  • 100% lean beef steaks or burger (150 g)
  • Gilthead bream or sea bass in fillets or butterflied for the oven (1 portion-sized fish, about 250–300 g)
  • Fresh or frozen hake fillets (200 g)
  • Fresh salmon loin (150–200 g)
  • Fresh diced tuna or bonito for stewing (150–200 g)
  • Cleaned cuttlefish (200 g)

Eggs and dairy

  • Fresh hen’s eggs (half a dozen)
  • Plain whole or skimmed yoghurts with no added sugar (6)
  • Whole or semi-skimmed milk, or plant-based drink with no added sugar (1 litre)
  • Low-fat fresh cheese or ricotta (250 g)

Pulses, grains and store cupboard

  • Tinned cooked lentils (1 jar of 400 g)
  • Tinned cooked chickpeas (1 jar of 400 g)
  • Brown rice (500 g packet)
  • Wholewheat pasta (250–500 g packet)
  • Wholegrain couscous (250 g packet)
  • Wholegrain oat flakes (500 g packet)
  • 100% wholegrain bread (loaf or tin loaf from the bakery, sliced and frozen)
  • Natural crushed tomato with no added salt or sugar (2 tins of 400 g)
  • Sweetcorn in a small tin (1 tin)
  • Tinned white asparagus (1 jar) and hearts of palm (1 small jar)
  • Raw shelled walnuts (1 bag of 150 g) and chia or flax seeds (100 g)
  • Extra virgin olive oil, vinegar, oregano, parsley, black pepper and sweet paprika

How to portion each plate with the plate method

The most practical tool is the plate method. It is proposed by the Harvard School of Public Health [1] and avoids depending on a fixed menu or weighing food every day. Divide the plate into three parts.

A woman organises containers with vegetables, rice and chicken beside a pot.
  • Half the plate is vegetables, raw or cooked. They provide water, fibre and volume with few calories, and that fills you up. The method includes fruit here too; in this menu it goes mainly at breakfast.
  • A quarter is protein, such as fish, egg, pulses, lean white meat or tofu. Getting enough protein is filling and helps keep your muscle while you lose fat.
  • A quarter is carbohydrates, such as wholegrain rice, pasta or couscous, quinoa, potato, sweet potato or wholegrain bread. Wholegrains provide more fibre and are more filling than refined ones.

In a one-dish meal, such as Tuesday’s lentil salad or Saturday’s marmitako, the three parts are mixed together in similar proportions.

Once you know how to portion the plate, you can put together a dinner in ten minutes with whatever you have in the fridge.

The menu deliberately leaves out fried and breaded foods, fatty cold cuts, pastries, commercial sauces, sugary drinks, juices and alcohol. They add calories, do not curb hunger and are kept for occasional use.

How much protein is right over the week?

When you lose weight, getting enough protein helps keep your muscle and reach the next meal less hungry. To spread it out, the Spanish Agency for Food Safety and Nutrition (AESAN) recommends these weekly servings for adults [2].

  • Pulses. At least 4 servings. This menu includes 4, between chickpeas and lentils.
  • Fish. 3 servings or more. This menu includes 5, between white fish, oily fish and cuttlefish.
  • Eggs. Up to 4. This menu includes 4 egg meals.
  • Meat. 3 servings at most, preferably poultry or rabbit, with little red and processed meat. This menu includes 3, two of chicken and one of lean beef.

How to cook the week in one afternoon

What decides whether a menu lasts is organisation in the kitchen. This menu uses batch cooking, one afternoon in the kitchen that leaves the basics ready.

  • Roast vegetables. Fill a tray with pepper, pumpkin, tomato and broccoli. In an airtight container in the fridge they cover three meals (Monday, Tuesday and Thursday). If you roast them on Sunday, freeze Thursday’s portion.
  • Purée and ratatouille in bulk. A pot of each serves as a starter or a side in several lunches and dinners.
  • Rinsed tinned pulses. Tip them into a colander and run them under water to remove some of the salt from the canning liquid.
  • Cooking with little oil. Oven, steaming, microwave and griddle with a few drops of olive oil. Ratatouille, cooked slowly with a lid on, cooks in its own juice and needs less oil.

What mistakes do we see in consultation?

With this kind of menu there are three slip-ups that keep recurring, and all three can be fixed.

  • Skipping meals to make up for it. If you ate more yesterday and skip dinner today, you reach the next meal hungrier, and it often ends in snacking at odd hours.
  • Weighing every portion to the gram. It wears you out within a few weeks. Learning to portion the plate by eye is what you can keep up.
  • Following the seven days to the letter. If you do not fancy hake on Thursday, swap it for the fish from another day. The order of the days can be changed.

Planning the week is above all useful for the days when work or tiredness bear down. With the plate portioned and the basics prepared, eating well takes less effort.

If you want a plan made for you, with your blood tests, your schedules and your goals, our nutritionist for weight loss service supports you in person in Barcelona or online.

Changes that help

  • If you do not eat meat

    Instead of marinated chicken or lean beef, try firm grilled tofu, marinated tempeh or an extra serving of pulses, cooked chickpeas or lentils, because they provide complete plant protein without relying on meat.

  • If you do not have time to cook fresh fish

    Instead of baked bream or fresh cuttlefish, try fish preserves in water or drained olive oil, such as light tuna, mackerel or tinned sardines, because they retain the protein and omega-3 profile without needing cooking time.

  • If couscous or pasta do not suit you

    Instead of couscous or wheat pasta, try cooked quinoa, steamed potato or buckwheat, because they provide complex carbohydrates that are easy to digest and naturally gluten-free.

  • If pulses give you gas

    Instead of eating chickpeas or lentils whole with their skin, try them through a food mill or in a smooth purée, such as hummus or peeled red-lentil cream, because mechanical blending breaks down part of the insoluble fibre that promotes bloating.

  • If you take a packed lunch away from home

    Instead of fish that smells strongly when reheated or dishes that dry out, take complete pulse salads or ratatouille with brown rice and diced chicken or hard-boiled egg, because they keep well cold or after a brief microwave reheating.

  • If you need to shorten dinner preparation time

    Instead of cooking elaborate dishes at night, use the purée already cooked in your fridge with a tin of fish and a slice of toasted wholegrain bread, because it gives you a complete, satisfying dinner in under three minutes.

We explain it on video

Three rescue dinners for days when you have no time to cook

  • Warm tinned-chickpea salad with tuna belly, chopped tomato and asparagus

    Two minutes: open, rinse the pulses, mix the ingredients and dress with one tablespoon of extra-virgin olive oil.

  • Two-egg French omelette with mushrooms and green-leaf salad

    Three minutes in the pan for a light, protein-rich dinner with a slice of wholegrain bread.

  • Homemade frozen vegetable purée with poached egg and crisp chickpeas

    Warm the purée, poach an egg in boiling water and add a handful of toasted chickpeas for texture and fullness.

Cover of the PDF guide: Weekly menu to lose weight without going hungry

Your week of meals, ready for the fridge

  • 7-day menu with the shopping list
  • 8 recipes: cook once, eat twice
  • What to do when the week goes off track

Where should we send it?

Free PDF, in your inbox in a moment.

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When to see a doctor

This menu is a general proposal for healthy adults. It is not an individual plan and does not replace a consultation or medical treatment. If you have any illness or take medication daily, talk to your doctor and a registered dietitian-nutritionist first.

If you notice this sign, do not wait to change what you eat:

  • You faint, feel dizzy when standing up or notice palpitations while following a very-low-calorie diet. Emergency care today.

The complete list of signs, and what to do about each, is in the guide to a healthy weight-loss diet.

The Alimmenta team

Every case is different

General guidance can only take you so far. The next step is to look at your situation in a consultation.

Adapt it to my case

Keep reading

Sources

  1. Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Healthy Eating Plate. The Nutrition Source. Boston: Harvard University; 2011 (última revisión: enero de 2023). Available at: https://nutritionsource.hsph.harvard.edu/healthy-eating-plate/
  2. López García E, Bretón Lesmes I, Díaz Perales A, et al. Informe del Comité Científico de la Agencia Española de Seguridad Alimentaria y Nutrición (AESAN) sobre recomendaciones dietéticas sostenibles y recomendaciones de actividad física para la población española. Revista del Comité Científico de la AESAN. 2022;(36):11-70. Available at: https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=8783742
  3. National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). Overweight and obesity management (NICE guideline NG246). London: NICE; 2025. Available at: https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng246
  4. Sociedad Española para el Estudio de la Obesidad (SEEDO). Guía española del manejo integral y multidisciplinar de la obesidad en personas adultas (GIRO). 2nd ed. Madrid: SEEDO; 2024. Available at: https://www.seedo.es/images/site/giro/GUIA-GIRO-2a-edicin_26NOV2024.pdf

Written and reviewed by

Writing

Alimmenta’s team of dietitian-nutritionists

Registered dietitian-nutritionists

Juana María González, technical director of Alimmenta

Clinical review

Juana María González

Dietitian-nutritionist · Technical Director

Reg. no. CAT000921

Updated on September 26, 2026.9 min readView this page’s sources

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