How this plan works
Three rules run the whole week, and they are the same rules that run every meal guide on this site:
- Protein anchors every slot. 25 to 40g at meals, 8 to 15g at snacks. If appetite runs out mid-plate, the anchor gets eaten first.
- Fiber does the filling. Vegetables, lentils, beans: mechanical fullness that works whether or not a medication is helping chemically.
- Cook once, eat twice. Monday's salmon is Tuesday's lunch. Tuesday's chili covers Wednesday. Sunday is a zero-cook night on purpose, because a plan that assumes seven cooked dinners is a plan that dies on Thursday.
Portions are deliberately not specified in grams: on a strong dose you might eat half of each plate, tapering you might eat all of it. The menu holds; the portion is the dial. Set your personal targets with the protein calculator and the maintenance calorie calculator.
The week
| Day | Breakfast | Lunch | Snack | Dinner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | Greek yogurt power bowl | Rotisserie chicken bowl | Apple + peanut butter | Sheet-pan salmon + roasted vegetables |
| Tuesday | Three-egg cheese scramble | Leftover salmon over greens | Cottage cheese bowl | Turkey chili with Greek yogurt |
| Wednesday | Protein shake + banana | Turkey chili (from last night) | Hummus + cucumber and peppers | Grilled chicken, sweet potato, spinach |
| Thursday | Cottage cheese + peaches | Chicken wrap with hummus | 2 boiled eggs | Sheet-pan lemon shrimp + broccoli |
| Friday | Egg bake slice | Grain bowl + egg + roasted veg | Roasted chickpeas | Lentil soup with greens |
| Saturday | Smoked salmon toast | Big salad + any leftover protein | Cheese stick + almonds | Cottage cheese egg bake + side salad |
| Sunday | Greek yogurt power bowl | Lentil soup (from freezer) | Edamame, salted | Rotisserie chicken bowl (zero-cook night) |
Every dinner on this table is broken down, with its photo and why it works at a small appetite, in the dinner guide; the breakfasts are in the 30g breakfast guide, the snacks in the 4pm snack list, and the Sunday cook session that preps it all is the one-hour meal prep.
The swap lists
Hate a meal? Swap inside its column and the plan holds:
- Protein anchors: salmon ↔ any white fish ↔ chicken thighs ↔ pork tenderloin ↔ tofu ↔ shrimp. Ground turkey ↔ lean beef ↔ lentils in the chili.
- Breakfasts: any of the six in the breakfast guide; the only rule is 25g+ before noon, drinkable counts.
- Fiber sides: roasted broccoli ↔ green beans ↔ cauliflower ↔ cabbage steaks ↔ big salad. Sweet potato ↔ quinoa ↔ a slice of whole grain bread.
- Snacks: anything from the snack list at roughly the same protein. Sweet craving: apple + peanut butter or yogurt + berries, on purpose, not as a failure.
Week-one grocery list
- Proteins: Salmon fillets (2), chicken thighs or breasts (1 tray), ground turkey (1 lb), shrimp (1 bag frozen), rotisserie chicken (1), eggs (18), smoked salmon (1 pack)
- Dairy: Greek yogurt (large tub + single serves), cottage cheese (large tub), cheese sticks, shredded or sliced cheese, milk for shakes
- Produce: Broccoli, carrots, brussels sprouts, sweet potatoes, spinach (big box), bagged greens, cucumbers, bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, avocado, apples, bananas, berries, peaches, lemon
- Pantry: Lentils, canned beans, chickpeas (canned, for roasting), quinoa or rice, whole grain bread, hummus, peanut butter, almonds, olive oil, protein powder, chili spices, everything bagel seasoning
- Frozen / flex: Edamame, a backup bag of frozen vegetables, frozen berries for shakes
One cart, about 30 items, and it covers all 28 slots on the table. Reality check built in: two dinners come from the same chili pot, two lunches are planned leftovers, and the rotisserie chicken is store-cooked because the best plan is one you can run on a bad week.
Dose-day modifications
The day after an injection, appetite bottoms out and queasiness peaks for many people. Swap toward the gentle set: the shake, yogurt bowl, cottage cheese, egg bake slice, lentil soup. Cold and mild beats rich and warm, small and frequent beats large and rare, and a protein-zero day is the only real failure mode. Recurring nausea has its own toolkit in the nausea guide.
If you are tapering or past your last dose, run the same table at bigger portions and treat the fiber sides as non-negotiable: as chemical fullness fades, the volume is what replaces it. The full transition playbook is in how to not gain the weight back.
