Healthy weekly menu: 7-day meal plan

A weekly menu that works isn’t the most perfect, it’s the one that fits into your week. Here’s a 7-day plan with Fotorie’s real recipes, daily calories and protein, a shopping list, and the rules for putting together your own.

How to create a weekly menu that works

Most weekly menus fail by Wednesday. Not because they are poorly made, but because they require cooking fourteen different dishes, buying thirty ingredients, and making decisions every day. The rules that do work in consultation are few:

• Dish structure, not recipes. Half a serving of vegetables, a quarter of protein (meat, fish, egg, legume, or tofu), and a quarter of cereal or tuber, with olive oil as fat. If the dish meets the structure, the recipe can change.
• Repeat the basics. Two or three breakfasts you like, two main meal bases (rice or pasta with protein, stewed legumes), and quick dinners. Variety is achieved with vegetables and spices, not with fourteen dishes.
• Cook extra. Tuesday’s lentils are Thursday’s lunch. Monday’s grilled chicken is Wednesday’s salad. Cooking twice a week covers five days.
• Fixed shopping list. What’s not on the list doesn’t get bought. If the list comes from the menu, shopping takes twenty minutes, and there are no decisions in front of the shelf.
• Make room for life. One meal out a week, planned, doesn’t break anything. What breaks is the feeling of having failed.

How many calories per day

A healthy weekly menu doesn’t need to be low in calories; it needs to be right for you. As an order of magnitude, maintenance for an adult woman with light activity is around 1,800-2,000 kcal, and for a man, 2,200-2,600 kcal. To lose fat, subtract between 300 and 500 kcal, never below 1,200 kcal for women or 1,500 for men: below that, muscle is lost, and people give up.

You can calculate your number in two minutes using the daily calorie calculator and, if your goal is weight loss, adjust the pace with the calorie deficit calculator. The sample menu below totals between 1,300 and 1,500 kcal for the three main meals; snacks (fruit, yogurt, nuts) make up the difference to your target number.

Sample weekly menu: 7 days

These are real recipes from the app, with an AI-generated illustrative image of how the dish looks and the calories and protein per serving. They are designed for one person; if you cook for two, double the quantities and don’t make two menus.

Monday · 1,390 kcal · 106 g protein · 47 g fat · 125 g carbohydrates

Tuesday · 1,290 kcal · 70 g protein · 44 g fat · 150 g carbohydrates

Wednesday · 1,360 kcal · 87 g protein · 78 g fat · 71 g carbohydrates

Thursday · 1,320 kcal · 73 g protein · 48 g fat · 148 g carbohydrates

Friday · 1,260 kcal · 86 g protein · 65 g fat · 76 g carbohydrates

Saturday · 1,390 kcal · 78 g protein · 78 g fat · 89 g carbohydrates

Sunday · 1,390 kcal · 106 g protein · 51 g fat · 122 g carbohydrates

The three main meals total between 1,300 and 1,500 kcal per day. Supplement with one or two snacks according to your target: an apple with peanut butter (220 kcal), a Greek yogurt with walnuts (240 kcal), or a protein shake with banana (260 kcal).

Menu shopping list

Everything you need for seven days, grouped as in the supermarket. Quantities depend on whether you cook for one or more; the app calculates them per serving.

Variants: Mediterranean, 1,500 kcal, high-protein, vegetarian

The same framework works for almost any way of eating. What changes is the choice within each slot:

• Mediterranean diet. More legumes and fish, whole wheat bread for breakfast, olive oil as the only added fat, and fruit for dessert. From the sample menu, the lentils, hake en papillote, sea bream, and paella are already Mediterranean.
• 1,500 calorie menu. The three meals from the example without snacks, choosing light dinners (zucchini cream, miso soup, hake). This is a fat loss menu for many women and too low for most men: check it first with the calculator.
• High-protein. Greek yogurt and eggs for breakfast, chicken, beef, fish, or tofu in each main meal, and a protein shake as a snack. Easily exceeds 130 g daily.
• Vegetarian or vegan. Lentils, chickpeas, tofu, edamame, and vegetable protein powder replace meat and fish; the bean chili, tofu bowl with rice, and wok stir-fry from the catalog are already suitable. See a full vegan recipe.

Fotorie generates each of these variants with the same calorie and protein rules, so the menu still balances even if you change your style. And if your way of eating is a keto diet, it has its own macro distribution; you can see it in the macro calculator.

Vegan recipe example

Vegan red bean chili

Servings

1

Calories per serving

540 kcal

Protein per serving

26 g

Carbs · fat

74 g · 14 g

Time

35 min

Ingredients (1 serving)

• Cooked red beans: 250 g
• Crushed tomatoes: 200 g
• Onion: 80 g
• Sweet corn: 80 g
• Cumin and paprika: 1 tablespoon
• Extra virgin olive oil: 10 ml

Steps

1. Dice the onion (80 g) into small pieces. Drain and rinse the beans (250 g) and corn (80 g).
2. Heat the oil (10 ml) in the pot over medium heat and sauté the onion with salt for 5 minutes until translucent.
3. Add the cumin and paprika (1 tablespoon total) and stir for 30 seconds.
4. Add the crushed tomatoes (200 g), beans, corn, and half a glass of water. Mix well.
5. Simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until it thickens. Adjust salt; a squeeze of lime at the end works very well.

Tip: Keeps for 3-4 days in the fridge and freezes perfectly: make a double batch.

Available on every plan, including Free: it is one of its 50 recipes. The app catalog has 45 vegan recipes; 17 are on the Free plan and all 45 on Essential, Plus and Family. In the app, the portion is adjusted to your calorie target and ingredient amounts are recalculated with it. Nutritional values are estimates; the image is illustrative.

How the app does it

Writing the menu is the easy part. The hard part is having it ready by Sunday evening with the shopping done, knowing what to do when you don’t feel like a dish, and not losing track when you eat out. That’s what Fotorie solves:

• 50 free step-by-step recipes, with AI-generated illustrative images, calculated for your calories and diet type.
• Equivalents with "Swap to this". Each slot has equivalent dishes in calories and protein: you change dinner with a tap, and the day still balances.
• Shopping list generated from the menu, grouped by sections and with quantities per serving.
• Always 7 days ahead. No "I ran out of menu": the next week is already done.
• The coach redoes it. You tell it "I don’t like hummus" or "I’m allergic to seafood," and it changes the remaining meals without touching what you’ve already eaten.
• What you eat off-menu, with a photo. The calorie counter estimates the dish and deducts it from your day, and you see the summary in the Today tab.

Behind the criteria are the nutritionists from Vitasane, nutrition centers in Seville: calorie floors, protein distribution, and care during pregnancy or with medication come from their consultation. An app menu does not replace a nutritionist or your doctor if you have a pathology, are pregnant, or are a minor; in those cases, consult them first.

You can start today: download Fotorie, answer the two-minute questionnaire, and your weekly menu will appear calculated for you.

Frequently asked questions

Download Fotorie for free

Fotorie creates your weekly menu with 50 free step-by-step recipes, equivalent dishes to swap, a shopping list, and a coach that redoes it if you don’t like something. Free to start.

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