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Basics · Lesson 2 of 16 · 4 min

Protein: what it does, and how much

The one macro that changes how full and how strong you feel.

Protein does two jobs you can feel. It keeps you full for hours instead of minutes, and it gives your body the material to hold onto muscle — which matters more every year past 30, and even more in a calorie deficit or on a GLP-1.

Most adults do well somewhere between 0.7 and 1 gram per pound of goal body weight per day when they're losing weight or lifting. That sounds like a lot until you spread it out: 25–40 grams per meal and 15–20 in a snack gets most people there without a single shake.

Where people go wrong is the shape of the day, not the total. Coffee for breakfast, a light lunch, then most of the day's protein at dinner. Your body uses protein best in moderate amounts across the day, so front-loading breakfast usually makes the biggest difference of any change you can make.

Anchors worth knowing: 3 eggs ≈ 18g, a cup of Greek yogurt ≈ 20g, a cup of cottage cheese ≈ 25g, 4 oz cooked chicken ≈ 30g, 5 oz salmon ≈ 35g, half a block of firm tofu ≈ 20g, a scoop of powder ≈ 20–25g.

Do this today

Put 25–30 grams of protein in breakfast tomorrow, before anything else changes.

Quick check

Three questions

No score, no pressure — answering is just how the ideas stick.

  1. 1. What usually needs fixing first in an adult's protein intake?

  2. 2. Roughly how much protein is 4 oz of cooked chicken?

  3. 3. Why does protein matter more in a calorie deficit?

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