30-Day No-Sugar, Anti-Inflammatory Meal Plan for Weight Loss, Created by a Dietitian

Delicious meals tailored to reduce inflammation and promote weight loss!

Follow this anti-inflammatory meal plan for a month of meals and snacks tailored to reduce inflammation and promote weight loss. You’ll find an abundance of antioxidant-rich produce, healthy fats from fish, nuts and seeds, and plenty of flavor, too. To facilitate a smooth routine, we also included some meal-prep tips at the start of each week and opted for leftovers a few times throughout the month. Let’s get started!

Why This Meal Plan Is Great for You

This meal plan is great for you because it’s chock-full of anti-inflammatory ingredients while also being flexible and setting up a realistic routine. Healthy eating is not necessarily cut-and dried; perfection is not required to reduce inflammation. We included meals rich in ingredients that can help reduce inflammation, such as nuts, seeds, fish, avocado, beets, cherries, berries and dark leafy greens, to name a few. 

To maximize nutrition and this plan's anti-inflammatory benefits, we opted to skip added sugars, which can exacerbate inflammation. We do, however, include foods that contain natural sugars, such as fruit, vegetables and unsweetened dairy, because these foods also provide many important nutrients, like vitamins, minerals, protein and fiber. 

We mapped out a routine that can help facilitate weight loss by including nutrient-rich meals and snacks, providing at least 28 grams of satiating fiber each day and filling snacks throughout the day to stave off hunger. At first glance, inflammation and weight may not appear to be linked, but research shows that markers of chronic inflammation increase with weight gain and losing excessive weight can help reduce inflammation.1 If your goal is to lose weight, reducing inflammation is key. 

To help promote weight loss, we set this plan at 1,500 calories a day, which is a level where many people will experience weight loss. As with all meal plans, this is meant to serve as a framework for a healthy eating plan. Listen to your hunger cues, make adjustments to fit your routine and know that this meal plan doesn’t have to be followed exactly to reap the benefits. 

This 1,500-calorie meal plan has modifications for 2,000 calories to support those with different calorie needs. While we previously included meal plans and modifications for 1,200 calories, we no longer do. The 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans suggests that limiting your calories to 1,200 per day is too low for most people to meet their nutritional needs, plus it’s unsustainable for long-term health and well-being.

• Fish, especially fish rich in omega-3 fatty acids, such as salmon and tuna
• Shellfish
• Fruits
• Vegetables
• Olives and olive oil
• Avocado and avocado oil
• Nuts and seeds, including natural nut butters 
• Beans
• Lentils
• Edamame
• Whole grains
• Herbs and spices
• Unsweetened fermented dairy, such as yogurt, kefir and cottage cheese

The anti-inflammatory diet is very similar to the popular Mediterranean diet. The anti-inflammatory diet emphasizes eating foods that may reduce inflammation, such as highly pigmented fruits and vegetables like cherries, kale, berries and beets. It also includes plenty of fish, nuts, seeds and other healthy fats. While eating this way 100% of the time is not required to reap anti-inflammatory benefits, the diet does limit added sugars, refined grains and ultra-processed foods.