FREE 7-Day Vegan Fat Loss Meal Plan With Grocery List

Looking to lose fat on a vegan diet? This 7-day high protein vegan fat loss meal plan includes a PDF of the meal plan, grocery list, recipes, and nutrition information to help you become the best version of yourself.

What Is A Healthy Vegan Diet?

A vegan diet is a way of eating that avoids all animal products like meat and dairy products. A whole food plant-based diet is made up of legumes, fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, and seeds.

If you don’t already know about all the benefits of a plant-based diet, make sure to check out my post for more details.

What Vegan Foods Should I Eat for Fat Loss?

Best Vegan Protein Foods

• Seitan (I like to make this homemade)
• Tofu
• Tempeh
• Lentils
• Beans (black beans, chickpeas, red kidney beans, cannellini beans, pinto beans, etc.)
• Edamame
• Chickpea and lentil pasta
• Vegan protein powders (I prefer pea-based protein powders)
• Nutritional yeast
• Plant-based milk (pea milk and soy milk only)
• Vegan meat substitutes (I generally recommend eating whole foods and minimally processed foods for the majority of your protein intake, but vegan meat substitutes are fine in moderation, which usually have soy, pea, or wheat protein as the main protein ingredient.)
• Vegan protein bars (these are convenient when on the go)
• Non-dairy protein shakes (these are convenient on the go, but again I generally recommend whole foods for the majority of your diet.)
• While nuts and seeds have some protein, I consider them fat sources so using them for protein during fat loss wouldn’t be efficient, but they will add some extra protein.
• While whole grains have some protein, I consider them carb sources so the protein they add is just a bonus.
• Some non-starchy vegetables add extra protein as well but they are so low in calories that I also count this as a bonus and not a protein source in itself.

Vegan Whole Food Carb Sources

When it comes to carbohydrates for fat loss, the best way to go is with nutrient-dense foods. The best carb sources will be the whole foods like legumes, whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. Fiber-rich foods will also help to keep blood sugar more stable compared to refined grains and sweets.

• Legumes (soy, peas, beans, lentils)
• Vegetables (sweet potatoes, potatoes, broccoli, leafy greens, green beans, carrots, bell peppers, onions, cucumber, squash, tomatoes, etc.)
• Whole grains (quinoa, brown rice, whole wheat pastas, whole wheat breads, oats, barley, millet, farro, bulgur, etc.)
• Fruits (berries, bananas, apples, citrus, melons, grapes, etc.)

Does this mean I am completely against eating enjoyable sweets or refined carb foods in moderation? Absolutely not! I believe that all foods can fit into a healthy diet. What matters is what we are doing the majority of the time.

Vegan Healthy Fats

While healthy fats are important to consume in a healthy diet and should not be feared, it’s important to remember that they do have high calorie density, meaning there are a lot of calories in a small amount of food. Therefore, it’s helpful to keep this in mind if you’re trying to consume less calories overall.

On a vegan diet (or any diet for that matter) it’s important to prioritize omega-3 fatty acids and unsaturated fats as your main fat sources. Saturated fat should make no more than 7-10% of your daily calories for best health outcomes.

• Omega-3 fat sources (chia seeds, hemp seeds, walnuts, flax seeds, algae-based supplements)
• Unsaturated fat sources (nut butters like peanut butter, olive oil, pumpkin seeds, cashews, avocados, brazil nuts, etc)

Most of the nuts and seeds above will contain small amounts of saturated fat, but the biggest saturated fat sources from a vegan diet will come from foods derived from coconuts (including most vegan butter) and palm oil.

Who Should Not Follow A High Protein Diet?

Keep in mind that a high-protein diet may be something to avoid if you have certain medical conditions such as chronic kidney disease (if you're not on dialysis). Therefore, always speak with your doctor and a registered dietitian about your own specific needs before starting any new diet plan.

How To Lose Fat On A Vegan Diet

There’s a difference between losing weight and losing fat. Weight loss can come from fluids, muscle loss, or fat loss. However, the last thing we want to do is lose muscle. Losing muscle slows down our metabolism, making the calories we need to consume to maintain our weight lower, and therefore making weight gain (in the form of fat) much more likely.

What we want to focus on is losing fat itself, which is a slow process. We can’t expect to lose several pounds of fat in a week like some fad diets claim. It can take several months to lose just 6-12 pounds of fat. It’s important that we preserve our muscle and eat in a healthy way for us to lose fat instead of muscle.

Pay Attention to Your Hunger and Fullness Cues

Okay, so what I'm about to say may sound radical to some people, especially with the advice you've likely heard for most of your life.

If we want to lose fat and get healthier, we don't need to track calories.

I know. It's completely against everything you've heard. While calories technically matter, it's absolutely not what you should be focused on. Focusing on and tracking calories backfires 99% of the time.

What I want you to do instead is start eating mostly whole plant-based foods with plenty of protein and get more in tune with your body's hunger and fullness cues.

Paying attention to how you feel brings the focus inward and you become more intuitive and mindful in your eating behaviors. When we rely on tracking calories, it tends to become obsessive, counterproductive, and usually ends in binging until we don't even feel good.

Calorie calculators are just an estimate, and the calories listed on labels are legally allowed to be 10% off. It's much more reliable and useful to pay attention to your own body. These calculations have no way of knowing how much muscle mass you have and how fast or slow your metabolism actually is. Your body knows what it needs better than a calculation.

Personally, I find fat loss most sustainable and effective when I eat intuitively according to my hunger and fullness cues (while focusing on balanced plant-based meals with plenty of protein) and simply increase my physical activity. We don't need to restrict or count calories.

Get Plenty of Protein

Because the body can convert protein from muscle into blood sugar more easily than it converts fat to sugar, we need to make sure that we are eating plenty of protein (especially if in a calorie deficit) to preserve muscle.

Muscle burns more calories than fat, so losing muscle actually brings our calorie needs down, making it harder to lose weight. Therefore, we want to build muscle and keep as much of it as possible.

An ideal protein goal for most people to have is 1.2-1.6 g/kg body weight. (To prevent muscle loss while calories are decreased, protein needs are even higher up to 2-2.2 g/kg body weight during a calorie deficit.) A 150 pound person may need about 82-109g and up to 150g of protein per day for fat loss.

Protein also helps greatly with satiety and keeping us full, which ultimately helps with weight loss or fat loss. So long story short, protein is your friend.

Don't Overly Restrict Carbs

People often try to cut out carbs too much when trying to lose weight. At first, it results in a large amount of water weight loss because the storage form of carbs in the body (aka glycogen in the liver and muscles) is bound to water.

People tend to think this first weight loss is fat and get excited, only to find their success quickly wanes when they stop losing weight. That's because it's just water weight being lost. How many times have you heard about different diets where people lose 10 pounds in 3-7 days? That's just water weight and an industry feeding you lies to buy their scammy products.

Carbs give us energy, which helps us stay more active throughout the day. Furthermore, when our blood sugar is low, we feel much more hungry (and hangry), making us more likely to crave carbs and binge out on them once all inhibitions are out the door.

It's much more helpful to continue to eat a moderate amount of carbs along with sources of fat, fiber, and protein. And when I say continue to eat carbs, that doesn't mean a ton of refined grains and sweets. I'm talking about mostly whole grains, beans, fruits, and veggies.

Exercise for Fat Loss

It's helpful to include both resistance training and cardio during periods of fat loss. The resistance training helps to build or maintain muscle mass and increases our metabolism at rest while the cardio helps to burn a higher amount of calories during the actual exercise itself.

Keep Fat Intake at a Healthy Level

The AMDR (acceptable macronutrient distribution range) for fat is 20-35% of daily calories to keep our body functioning properly. Fat is important for hormone production, fat-soluble vitamin absorption, and blood sugar regulation, so we don't want to cut it out too much when trying to lose fat.

Include A Pre-Workout and Post-Workout Snack

You want to make sure you go into workouts feeling energized and hydrated. It's not necessary or even helpful for most people to go into a workout in a fasted state.

Pre-workout, it's better to have a small snack with some carbs (and protein if desired). Caffeine can also help pre-workout as it has been shown to increase stamina and energy. Limiting fat intake surrounding workouts will help with faster digestion to have energy more readily available.

Then post-workout, we also want a good source of protein as well as carbs to help rebuild muscle and replenish glycogen stores.

Get Enough Vitamins and Minerals

Depending on your particular way of eating, may be beneficial to take a multivitamin to make up for any gaps. A vegan diet itself also has the potential to be low in several vitamins and minerals like iron, calcium, B12, choline, zinc, iodine, vitamin D, and omega-3s when not properly planned.

So either check on your nutrient intake yourself or get the help of a registered dietitian to make sure you're meeting your needs. For the meal plan I created below, the daily average hits the RDAs (recommended dietary allowances) for men and women between 19-50 years old for all vitamins and minerals except vitamin D and vitamin E (in case you're interested in supplementing).

Avoid or Limit Certain Foods

For the best chances of losing fat while still feeling full and satisfied, we want to avoid certain foods. While I’m certainly not in favor of rigid diet plans that are overly restrictive and never allow room for these foods, we still want to limit them and replace them with whole plant-based foods as much as possible.

Foods to limit or avoid while trying to lose fat:

• Fried food and fast food
• Ultra-processed foods and junk-food snacks
• Sweets like cakes, cookies, pies, etc.
• Sugar-sweetened beverages like sodas and juices
• Alcohol

Important Things To Keep In Mind

Remember that the best way to achieve sustainable weight loss is by making small changes over time so that you don’t feel deprived. When we follow an overly restrictive diet, it’s very likely that we will rebound and binge on all of the foods that we told ourselves we aren’t allowed to have.

It helps to also have fat loss intentions coming from the right place. We are looking for lifestyle change here, not another crash diet. If you have disordered thoughts going into a new nutrition or fitness plan, it is likely to backfire eventually. Striving for better overall health and small habit changes will go a long way in helping you achieve the body you want.

Furthermore, you could lose several pounds of fat without losing much weight on the scale itself, so forget about the scale. It’s possible that you’ve gained muscle (which weighs more than fat), which will make you look and feel much better in your daily life. Fat loss is the goal here, not necessarily weight loss.

Who Could Benefit From This Meal Plan?

• Vegans Interested in Fitness: Vegans who want to optimize their fitness journey and lose fat while following a plant-based diet.
• Beginner Vegans: Individuals who are new to veganism and looking to understand how to eat for weight management or fat loss without animal products.
• Experienced Vegans: Those who have been following a vegan lifestyle for some time but want to fine-tune their nutrition for better results.
• Fitness Enthusiasts: Anyone passionate about fitness who is interested in exploring the benefits of vegan nutrition.
• Individuals Seeking Fat Loss: For those looking to shed excess body fat and achieve a leaner, healthier physique.
• Fitness Professionals: Personal trainers, coaches, and fitness instructors who want to expand their knowledge and expertise in vegan nutrition and training to better serve their clients.
• Anyone Curious About Vegan Fitness: Individuals who are curious about veganism and want to explore how plant-based nutrition and fitness strategies can enhance their physical appearance and health.

What You'll Get in the Vegan Fat Loss Meal Plan

• 7-Day Meal Plan for Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, and Snacks
• Nutrition Information for Portion Sizes with Calories, Macros, Vitamins, and Minerals
• Grocery Store Shopping List with Food Amounts
• Recipe for Each Meal & Snack (You will meal prep several servings at once for many of the recipes.)

Vegan Fat Loss Meal Plan (PDF)

Are you ready to get started? I’ve done all the meal planning for you. This meal plan is based on an average of about 1800 calories and 140g protein.

I made the protein on the high side to help show you how to create high protein meals, but not everyone will need to eat this much, so feel free to adjust it to your needs.

And remember, it's essential to pay attention to your own hunger and fullness cues. Eating 1800 calories may not be enough for you. If you eat all of the food on the plan but still feel hungry, I want you to eat more. Similarly, if this plan makes you feel too full, you don't have to eat all of it.

Avoiding feelings of deprivation is essential when we are trying to improve our health and body composition in the long term.