Protein-forward cooking

What's happening underneath

When a meal is carb-heavy, blood sugar spikes and then drops, and that drop is what sends you looking for the next snack an hour later. It's not a willpower problem — it's chemistry. Do that enough times a day, enough days a week, and your body starts leaning toward insulin resistance, which makes it even harder to hold onto muscle and easier to store fat. It's a loop that feeds itself.

How protein interrupts the loop

Protein digests slower, so blood sugar rises gently instead of spiking — which means no crash and no urgent craving an hour later. And just as important, your body needs a steady protein supply to actually maintain the muscle you have. Muscle isn't just about strength; it's metabolically active tissue. The more you hold onto it, the better your body handles blood sugar on its own. So every time you lead a plate with protein, you're doing two things at once: giving your body less reason to crave carbs, and giving it what it needs to keep the muscle that's doing you the most metabolic good.

Finding your number

Eat more protein is easy to say and hard to act on without an actual target. Here's how to get one, no app required.

Protein needs scale best off lean body mass, since muscle is the tissue actually using it. If you don't know your lean mass, your goal weight works as a solid starting point instead.

If you know your lean mass [from a body comp scale or scan]: aim for roughly 0.7–1g of protein per pound of lean mass, per day. If you don't: use your goal weight instead, same ratio — 0.7–1g per pound.

For example, a woman with a goal weight of 150 lbs would land around 120g of protein a day using the middle of that range. Spread across three meals and a snack, that stops looking overwhelming fast: a palm-sized portion of chicken, turkey or steak runs 25–35g, an egg is about 6g, a cup of cottage cheese runs about 25g and a scoop of quality protein powder [or our electrolyte protein refresher] adds another 20–25g.

This is a solid working range, not a medical prescription — kidney function, medications and certain health conditions can change what's appropriate for you, so check with whoever manages your care before locking in a number if that applies to you.

Protein-forward, by design

That's the whole reason protein-forward isn't a diet trend here — it's a direct response to what's happening inside a body that's managing insulin resistance, cravings and muscle loss all at the same time. Lead with protein, and you're working with your metabolism instead of fighting it.

And because knowing the theory and knowing your actual number are two different things, we've built a handy protein calculator so you can find your sweet spot — the daily target that best supports your metabolism, your muscle retention and your insulin resistance, all in one place.