I Drank This With My Lunch Every Day For a Week and It Prevented Overeating at Dinner

I've talked before about how I started eating a handful of nuts, like almonds, before lunch. I wait 10 minutes to eat and it helps me eat my lunch slower and prevent overeating. I've tried this before dinner as well, and while it helped me not nosh while I was cooking dinner, I often still ended up overeating my meal.

As a plant-based eater, I never really worried about getting enough protein because I eat tons of tofu, tempeh, beans, nuts, seeds, whole grains, and veggie burgers. But as I've recently been working out more and changed my intermittent fasting schedule, I decided to track my macros on MyFitnessPal, just to make sure I was getting enough.

I'm supposed to get between 70 and 100 grams of protein according to my weight and activity level, and I was barely breaking 50 grams. It's probably because over the past few months, I haven't been hungry until 1 p.m., so I've switched from 16:8 to 18:6 intermittent fasting. When I did 16:8, it made sense to eat a snack in between lunch and dinner, which was often packed with protein. But with a six-hour eating window, after eating lunch, I'm not hungry until dinner.

I realised that maybe the issue with me not feeling satisfied after dinner was that I wasn't getting enough protein — ding ding ding!

I decided to increase my protein intake at lunch to see how it impacted my overeating at dinner. My meal already offers at least 25 grams of protein, so I decided to bring back my daily protein shake.

I keep a variety of plant-based protein powders on hand because they're a quick and easy way to not only get an extra 20 to 30 grams of protein a day (without a ton of extra calories and carbs), but to also get in a little more hydration. Sometimes I'd even mix the powder with Unsweetened Ripple (plant-based milk made with pea protein) — one cup offers an extra eight grams of protein (and added creaminess!).

OK, I was a little shocked by this, but the first time I tried drinking a protein shake with lunch, I didn't feel the desire to overeat at dinner. I thought maybe it worked because I wanted it to, but after trying it for a week straight, it really did make a huge difference in my satiety. Emotionally, I didn't feel the need to reach for more food after dinner because physically, I felt a different sense of fullness that I can only attribute to the extra protein I had at lunchtime.

Reaching my daily protein goal not only helped me feel fuller all day, especially at dinnertime, but I also noticed that it helped me feel stronger during my workouts. Protein for the win! I'll definitely keep this up, and although a protein shake is an easy option, I do prefer getting my protein from actual food instead. So while some days I'll reach for protein powder out of convenience, other days I'll aim to incorporate more whole-food protein options into my lunch instead.