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This is a one-week Filipino meal plan for people who want to lose weight without giving up rice or cooking separate food from the rest of the house. Every meal is ordinary ulam from a Filipino kitchen, so it works as a meal plan anywhere in the Philippines where there is a palengke or a sari-sari store nearby. Dinner is cooked in a big enough pot to become the next day’s lunch, so you cook once a day at most.
The plan gives no calorie numbers and no prices. Calorie needs depend on your size, age, activity and health, and a printed figure would fit almost nobody. Instead, every plate follows one pattern, and you adjust the rice to suit you. If you have diabetes, kidney disease, high blood pressure or are pregnant, take the plan to your doctor or a registered nutritionist-dietitian before you change how you eat.
How every plate is built
Half the plate is vegetables: the gulay in the ulam, a side of ensalada, or both.
A quarter is protein: fish, chicken, egg, tokwa, monggo or lean pork.
A quarter is rice, measured with a cup rather than scooped from the pot. Most people losing weight do well with a measured cup at lunch and half to one cup at dinner.
That pattern is the whole method. Our guide to low-calorie Filipino food explains why these dishes fill you for less, and losing weight on a rice-based diet covers the rice portion in more detail.
The seven-day plan
| Day | Breakfast | Lunch | Merienda | Dinner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | Boiled eggs, rice, tomatoes | Chicken tinola with malunggay and sayote, rice | Banana | Inihaw na bangus, ensaladang talong, rice |
| Tuesday | Oatmeal with banana, a boiled egg | Leftover bangus flaked over rice, ensalada | Boiled saba | Ginisang monggo with malunggay, rice |
| Wednesday | Tinapa, rice, cucumber | Leftover monggo with a boiled egg, rice | Papaya | Sinigang na isda with kangkong and labanos, rice |
| Thursday | Scrambled eggs with tomato, pandesal | Leftover sinigang, rice | Pineapple | Adobong manok without the skin, ginisang pechay, rice |
| Friday | Arroz caldo with extra chicken | Leftover adobo, cucumber, rice | Boiled kamote | Pinakbet with a little lean pork or shrimp, grilled tilapia, rice |
| Saturday | Daing na bangus, rice, mango | Leftover pinakbet and tilapia, rice | Banana | Tokwa and sitaw guisado, rice |
| Sunday | Silog with family, tomato side | Pork sinigang with plenty of vegetables, rice | Fruit of the season | Leftover sinigang, or a family meal out |
Sunday is left loose on purpose. A plan that bans the family lunch tends to end by Wednesday the following week.
The market list for the week
Buy once, at the start of the week. Fish and chicken go in the freezer in meal-sized bags.
Protein: two dozen eggs, a whole chicken or chicken parts, two bangus, tilapia or galunggong, tinapa or daing, a block of tokwa, a pack of monggo, a little lean pork or shrimp for the pinakbet and the Sunday sinigang.
Vegetables: malunggay, sayote, kangkong, labanos, pechay, sitaw, kalabasa, ampalaya, talong, okra, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, garlic, ginger.
Fruit and starches: bananas, saba, kamote, papaya, pineapple or mango in season, rice, oats, pandesal on the day.
Pantry: sinigang base or fresh sampalok, soy sauce, vinegar, patis, oil (measured with a spoon when you cook).
Sunday prep, about two hours
- Boil a dozen eggs and keep them in the fridge.
- Wash and cut vegetables for Monday to Wednesday, and store them in containers lined with paper towel.
- Marinate the bangus for Monday and portion the chicken for tinola and adobo.
- Cook the ginisang monggo for Tuesday, which keeps well for two days.
- Portion rice into containers with a measuring cup, so every lunch is the same.
Our guide to meal prep for weight loss covers containers, storage and how long each dish keeps, and the meal prep gallery shows the prepared boxes.
Adjusting the plan to you
If you are always hungry: add more vegetables and another egg or more fish before you add rice. Protein and vegetables fill you for longer.
If your weight is not moving after three or four weeks: look first at the rice, the oil and the drinks. Sweet coffee, soft drinks and milk tea can undo a careful plate.
If you train: eat a small merienda an hour or two before the session and a full meal after it. Our high-protein Filipino food article lists easy ways to add protein on training days.
For the whole family: children and teenagers eat the same ulam, with the rice they need. The plan only changes the cook’s portions, not the pot.
Questions people ask
Can I lose weight on a Filipino diet? Yes. Sinigang, tinola, grilled fish, monggo and vegetable ulam are naturally light. The weight usually comes from the portion of rice, frying oil, sweet drinks and frequent fried or fatty dishes, and those can all be changed without leaving Filipino food.
Do I have to count calories? Not with this plan. Measuring the rice and keeping half the plate for vegetables does most of the work of counting. If you want figures, the DOST Food and Nutrition Research Institute publishes Philippine food composition tables.
What about very low calorie meal plans? Very low calorie diets are hard to keep up and can be unsafe without supervision. Follow one only with your doctor or a registered nutritionist-dietitian.
What do I eat for breakfast on the days I am tired of eggs? See our twenty Filipino breakfast ideas, and for more lunches and dinners, the healthy ulam ideas for the week.
Fit Bud’s weight-loss coaching pairs training at home with habit-based guidance on portions, ulam and merienda, and sends anything medical to your doctor. If you would like help with both, tell us your town and your goal.