Many of us are short on protein, and it can show up as snacking between meals

Seven in ten fell short in a large study, but only against the higher target

The seven in ten figure comes from a 2020 analysis by PROMISS, a European research project on nutrition. The team pooled eight studies from the Netherlands, the UK, Canada, the USA, Finland and Italy, covering 8,107 men and women aged 55 and over who lived at home. What each person ate was recorded with food questionnaires, food diaries or interviews about the day before.¹

How many fell short depended on where the line was drawn. The standard recommended amount is 0.8 g of protein for every kilogram of body weight a day. Against that line, about 21.5% ate less. Against 1.0 g per kilogram it was 46.7%, and against 1.2 g per kilogram it was 70.8%. Women, people with a higher body mass index (weight relative to height) and people with a poor appetite were more likely to fall short.¹

So seven in ten is a real number, but it belongs to people aged 55 and over, measured against the higher target. The authors also said it is still an open question how far these intakes sit below what people actually need.¹ The higher target has a basis. An international expert group, PROT-AGE, recommends 1.0 to 1.2 g per kilogram a day for people over 65 to hold on to lean mass and function, and at least 1.2 g for those who exercise or are otherwise active.²

A survey of women aged 40 to 55 found a similar gap

In September 2026, CSIRO, Australia's national science agency, reported an online survey of 1,303 women aged 40 to 55, all members of a weight-loss programme it runs. Only one in three said they ate at least 1.2 g of protein per kilogram of body weight, the level CSIRO calls optimal. CSIRO put women in this age group about 35 g a day short of that level.³

This is a useful signal with clear limits. The women had signed up for a weight-loss programme, so they may not eat like everyone else, and the full method was not published with the release. Taken together, most people in both groups ate less protein than the higher target, and many of us may be in the same place.

People tend to eat more between meals when their food is low in protein

In 2005, two researchers, Simpson and Raubenheimer, put forward an idea called the protein leverage hypothesis. It says our appetite for protein is stronger than our appetite for fat or carbohydrate, so when food is low in protein we keep eating to get enough of it and take in more energy along the way.⁴

A team that included both of them then tested it. Twenty-two lean adults stayed in for three four-day periods, eating from a fixed menu of 28 foods made to be equally tasty, with 10%, 15% or 25% of the energy coming from protein. On the 10% menu they ate about 12% more in total than on the 15% menu, mostly savoury foods between meals. By the fourth day, hunger rose more in the hour or two after a low-protein breakfast than after a high-protein one. Going up to 25% protein did not make them eat less.⁵

A 2014 review of 38 feeding trials found the same pattern overall: the higher the share of protein in the diet, the less energy people ate in total.⁶ Not every trial agrees. In a 12-day study of 79 adults, a very low-protein diet did not make people eat more, though a high-protein diet did make them eat less.⁷

What the research supports is that a day light on protein can leave you hungrier and snacking more between meals. It does not show that wanting something sweet, or a bowl of ice cream, is a sign of low protein in particular. In the main trial, the extra eating was mostly savoury, and cravings have plenty of other causes.

A breakfast with some protein in it is a good place to start

One small study looked at cravings directly. Twenty young women, aged around 19, who usually skipped breakfast tried three patterns for six days each: no breakfast, a breakfast with 13 g of protein, and one with 35 g. Both breakfasts cut cravings for sweet and savoury foods afterwards compared with skipping. The 35 g breakfast looked a little better for savoury cravings, but the difference was small enough that it could have been chance.⁸

So protein is one part of feeling satisfied, and simply eating a proper meal is another. Protein at each meal, with vegetables, rice or bread and some fat on the same plate, is the whole-plate approach these studies point towards, and it gives your muscles what they need to recover after strength training. If you want to see how that adds up on everyday food, here is what 30 g of protein looks like.

And if the four o'clock snack still calls, take it as a clue about what lunch carried.

To know if you are eating enough protein, look at each meal

Many people fall short of the higher protein target of 1.2 g per kilogram a day, and a day light on protein can leave you hungrier and snacking more between meals. If you are wondering whether you are eating enough protein, start with protein at each meal, on a full plate. Eighty Thirty works out your daily protein and keeps count for you, so you can see at a glance whether today's meals did the job. Start with our free macro calculator.