Nutrition · Protocol 3 of 7
Put protein at the centre of every meal
1In 30 seconds
Aim for 30 to 50 grams of protein at each meal, from foods that give a lot of protein for few calories. The book’s daily target is about 1 gram per pound of body weight, which is roughly 2.2 grams per kilogram. If you tend to overeat, eat the protein first.
2Picture it
3Why do it
- 1
Protein keeps you full for longer, so you snack less between meals.
- 2
It supplies the nine essential amino acids your body cannot make, which keep your muscles, organs and immune system in good repair.
- 3
Enough protein helps you hold on to muscle as you age, and muscle helps you manage blood sugar.
4How to do it
- Work out a rough target of about 2.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight a day, so around 130 grams if you weigh 60 kg. Treat it as a guide, not a rule.
- Include 30 to 50 grams of protein at each meal, about one large chicken breast, 170 to 230 grams of fish, or 140 to 200 grams of lean meat.
- Pick foods with high protein per calorie: chicken, fish, lean meat, eggs, plain Greek-style yoghurt, cottage cheese, tofu and whey.
- Treat dal, rajma, rice and nuts mainly as carbs or fats that bring some protein; you need about 700 calories of beans and rice to match the protein in 150 calories of chicken.
- Keep nut butters to a few tablespoons a week, and buy only ones made of nuts and salt.
- If you tend to overeat, eat your protein first, then your starch, then your vegetables.
5Make it work in India
- Good vegetarian choices for the calories are soya chunks, tofu, hung curd, low-fat paneer, chhena and whey. Eat dal with rice or roti across the day so you get all nine essential amino acids.
- For meat eaters, grilled chicken tikka, egg bhurji, fish curry or lean keema cooked with little oil all work well. Keep fried kebabs and rich, creamy gravies for special days.
- To be realistic, 2.2 grams per kilogram is hard on a mostly dal and roti diet. Start by adding one high-protein item to each meal, such as two eggs, a big bowl of curd or 30 grams of dry soya chunks.
6The long read: the science2 min read · tap to open
Every protein you eat is a chain of building blocks called amino acids. Your body uses twenty of them, and nine are ’essential’, meaning you cannot make them and must eat them. Foods that contain all nine are called complete proteins.
Your body rebuilds much of itself from these amino acids. Your heart, liver, spleen and muscles all replace their proteins over weeks to months. Your appetite seems to track this need. When you get enough essential amino acids, you feel satisfied and stay that way. When you do not, hunger comes back sooner, and you may overeat everything else.
One amino acid, leucine, matters a lot. When leucine rises inside a cell, it switches on a growth pathway called mTOR that tells the body to build muscle. Lean meat, fish and eggs are rich in leucine. In some animal studies, blocking mTOR helped animals live longer, but there is no evidence that eating protein shortens human life.
The book’s key idea is the complete-protein-to-calorie ratio, or CP:C. It asks how much complete protein you get for a set number of calories. For 150 calories, chicken gives about 28 grams, tofu about 15, whole eggs about 13, and beans with rice about 6. Your muscles can use roughly 30 to 50 grams at a sitting, and the rest goes to jobs such as making hormones, hair and immune cells.
Good evidence Trials show protein keeps you full and protects muscle, especially with strength training, though the muscle benefit seems to level off around 1.6 grams per kilogram, below the book’s target.
Questions people ask
Will this much protein hurt my kidneys?
For healthy people, the book says problems only show up at around 3 grams per pound, about 6.6 grams per kilogram, which almost nobody eats. If you already have kidney disease, your doctor’s limit comes first.
I feel heavy or unwell eating this much protein. What should I do?
First choose leaner protein foods without much added fat. If that does not help, swap about a quarter of your protein calories for clean starch like rice and fibrous foods like salad or apples, keeping total calories similar.
Do I need to spread protein over many small meals?
No. Your total for the day matters most. Two bigger meals or four smaller ones both work, so choose what suits your hunger and your timetable.
7Be careful
If you have kidney disease, liver disease or gout, check your protein target with your doctor first. Protein powders should top up real food, not replace it.
8Try it for 7 days
Tap a day each time you protein at every meal.
From the book: “Eat High CP:C Ratio Protein at Each Full Meal” (Nutrition Protocol 3). Evidence rating and India notes are our own.