The short answer: you can lose weight eating desi food every day. This is a full six day plan at around 1,500 calories a day with 90 to 100g of protein. Real food. Roti, rice, dal, chicken, paneer, idli. Nothing imported, nothing you have to order online, no protein powder.
Most Indian diet plans online do not add up. They list "1 bowl dal" and "2 roti" with no weights, then claim a total. This one was built from weighed portions and the daily totals are printed so you can check them.
Read this first. The numbers in this plan are typical values for home cooked food, from published nutrition data. They are not CurryFit meals. Our own food has its own section at the end, and it is clearly marked.
Probably, if you are an average sized adult trying to lose weight at a steady pace. Not if you are a 95kg man training six days a week.
A rough guide. Most women maintain their weight somewhere between 1,800 and 2,200 calories a day. Most men between 2,200 and 2,800. Eating 500 below your maintenance number takes off roughly half a kilo a week.
So 1,500 is a sensible deficit for many women and a fairly aggressive one for most men. Work out your own number first, then adjust this plan by adding or removing a roti and a portion of rice.
Do not go below 1,200. Below that it gets hard to hit your protein and your micronutrients, and you lose muscle along with fat.
1. Protein in every meal. This is the whole game. Protein keeps you full and protects muscle while you lose fat. Every meal here has a real protein source, not just dal.
2. The roti and rice are counted. Two chapatis, not "some roti". 150g of cooked rice, not a plateful. This is where most home diets quietly fail.
3. The oil is measured. Two teaspoons per dish, not a free pour. Oil is 120 calories a tablespoon and it is invisible once it is in the pan.
The numbers in this plan are typical values for home cooked food, from published nutrition data. They are not CurryFit meals.
| Meal | What to eat | Calories |
|---|---|---|
| Breakfast | 50g oats in 250ml skim milk with 10g peanut butter | 320 |
| Lunch | 180g chicken tikka, 2 chapatis, kachumber | 550 |
| Snack | 150g curd with an apple | 185 |
| Dinner | 150g dal tadka, 2 chapatis, bhindi, salad | 512 |
| Meal | What to eat | Calories |
|---|---|---|
| Breakfast | 3 idlis with 150g sambar | 300 |
| Lunch | 200g rajma, 2 chapatis, salad, 100g curd | 540 |
| Snack | 150g Greek yoghurt with berries | 120 |
| Dinner | 180g tandoori chicken, grilled veg, 1 chapati | 480 |
| Meal | What to eat | Calories |
|---|---|---|
| Breakfast | 3 besan chillas with mint chutney and curd | 365 |
| Lunch | 180g tawa fish, 150g rice, sabzi | 520 |
| Snack | 100g sprouted moong and an orange | 92 |
| Dinner | 60g dry soya chunks cooked as curry, 120g rice | 480 |
| Meal | What to eat | Calories |
|---|---|---|
| Breakfast | 200g Greek yoghurt, 15g pumpkin seeds, 1 banana | 300 |
| Lunch | 200g home style chicken curry, 2 chapatis, salad | 492 |
| Snack | 100g boiled chana chaat | 164 |
| Dinner | 180g tandoori tofu, 120g rice, salad | 480 |
| Meal | What to eat | Calories |
|---|---|---|
| Breakfast | 3 moong dal chillas with 150g curd | 370 |
| Lunch | 150g grilled paneer tikka, 2 chapatis, salad | 522 |
| Snack | 1 glass chaas with 10 almonds | 128 |
| Dinner | Grilled chicken salad with a bowl of dal soup | 440 |
| Meal | What to eat | Calories |
|---|---|---|
| Breakfast | 150g low fat paneer bhurji with 2 chapatis | 405 |
| Lunch | 200g chana masala, 150g rice, raita, salad | 515 |
| Snack | 100g healthy bhel puri | 150 |
| Dinner | 150g paneer tikka salad with 1 chapati | 474 |
Sunday is deliberately not here. Eat a normal family meal, enjoy it, and start again on Monday. A plan you cannot keep for six days is not a plan.
Swap these and the calories stay within about 30 either way.
| Day | Instead of | Have |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | 180g chicken tikka | 150g paneer tikka |
| Tuesday | 180g tandoori chicken | 180g tandoori soya chaap |
| Wednesday | 180g tawa fish | 150g grilled paneer or tofu |
| Thursday | Chicken curry | Chana masala or rajma |
| Friday | Grilled chicken salad | Paneer tikka salad |
Vegetarian protein takes more planning, not more food. There is a full breakdown in our guide to high protein vegetarian food.
Protein: chicken breast or thigh, one fish fillet pack, paneer (low fat if you can get it), tofu, soya chunks, eggs if you eat them, Greek yoghurt, curd, skim milk.
Pulses and grains: atta, rice, toor dal, rajma, chana, moong dal, besan, oats, idli batter.
Vegetables: onion, tomato, cucumber, bhindi, capsicum, spinach, lemon, coriander, mint, whatever is in season.
Fruit: apples, bananas, oranges, berries if the budget allows.
Extras: pumpkin seeds, almonds, peanut butter, olive oil.
That is one weekly shop. Nothing on that list is unusual or expensive.
The oil. A tablespoon is 120 calories. Most home cooking uses three or four without noticing.
The chai. Three cups a day with sugar and milk is close to 300 calories.
Serving rice by eye. Most people serve 250g thinking it is 150g. That is 130 calories a meal, twice a day.
Swapping chapati for naan. 120 calories against 280. Full breakdown in our roti and naan guide.
Counting dal as protein. A katori gives you 5 to 8g. It is a side, not your protein.
Weekend blowouts. Six clean days at a 500 calorie deficit is 3,000 saved. One heavy Sunday can take back 2,000 of it.
Drinking your calories. One mango lassi is 250. A soft drink with dinner is 150.
If you want the portion numbers behind all of this, they are in our guide to calories in Indian food.
This is the only section on this page with CurryFit food in it.
If you would rather not weigh anything, this is what we do in our kitchen, and it is the reason our numbers land where they do.
Olive oil, and sometimes coconut oil. Nothing else. No vanaspati, no refined seed oil blends, no reused oil.
No refined sugar. Anywhere on the menu, including the desserts.
Lighter gravies. Restaurant gravies get their body from cream and a paste of cashews. Ours do not. That single difference is worth 100 to 200 calories on a plate of butter chicken.
A real clay lined tandoor. Not an oven pretending to be one. It is why the tikkas and the rotis come out the way they do, and why we can cook meat properly without a pool of oil.
Cooked daily. Nothing frozen, nothing reheated from a batch made last week.
Locally sourced. Our vegetables and meat come from local suppliers, not a long cold chain.
Sustainable packaging. The food is better for you. The box should not be worse for everything else.
Gluten free and dairy free are available as add ons, so the plan can be built around what you actually eat.
Every meal is calorie counted and macro tracked, bowls are 400g with 100 to 120g of protein, and delivery is free across Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Ajman.
Every CurryFit meal is calorie counted and macro tracked for you. 400g bowls, 100 to 120g of protein in every one, cooked fresh daily in Sharjah and delivered free across Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Ajman.
See the plans → View this week's menu →