Lunch and dinner: meat, fish, and vegetables

A piece of meat or fish about the size of your palm. For a woman weighing 70 kg with a target of 85-110 g of protein per day, this is approximately one-third of the daily amount per meal.

It is important to remember the units: 1,2-2 g per kilogram of body weight means pure protein, not the weight of the food. In 120 g of chicken breast there is about 27 g of protein, so one portion covers a quarter of the requirement, not all of it.

The simple conclusion is that a protein portion is needed at every meal, not just one.

Vegetables in any form: as salad, stewed, roasted, or steamed.

Cauliflower purée almost completely satisfies the habit of eating mashed potatoes. Stewed cabbage works instead of stewed vegetables with grains. Zucchini and green beans provide volume and require little effort.

What you do not need to do is look for a “low-carb substitute” for pasta and rice in the store. Ordinary vegetables work better and cost less.

Usually, only the volume changes. The composition stays the same: protein, vegetables, fat.

The logic is simple: the last meal closes the eating window; after that, until morning, there is only water, tea, and coffee without sugar. It should be enough to keep you from reaching for the refrigerator, but not so heavy that it interferes with falling asleep.

If you feel like overeating in the evening, the reason is almost always that you did not eat enough during the day. Fix the lunch, not the dinner.

Prepare protein in batches. Two or three types of meat and fish baked together on the weekend cover four or five meals during the week.

Vegetables cook faster and keep less well, so prepare them on the day. Salad takes two minutes; stewed vegetables take fifteen.

With this approach, assembling a meal takes five minutes: take out the protein, prepare the vegetables, and drizzle with dressing.

With chronic kidney disease, a doctor determines the amount of protein per meal and per day; without dialysis, protein is often restricted.

After gallbladder removal, large fatty portions can cause diarrhea and pain—increase fat gradually, according to tolerance. With insulin-treated diabetes, changing the composition of meals requires glucose monitoring and dose adjustment by a doctor.

Look at what happens two hours later and in the evening.

If after a meal you comfortably make it to the next one and do not think about food, the portion is right. If you feel drawn to the refrigerator after an hour and a half, the portion was too small, and you need to increase it rather than fight yourself.

Evening overeating is the same signal, only delayed. Fix it with lunch, not dinner.

Assemble it the day before from prepared ingredients or choose a hot meat or fish dish at a café.

A container takes five minutes to assemble: ready protein, vegetables or greens separately, and dressing in a small jar. Do not mix them in advance—the salad will become soggy.

In a cafeteria, use the same approach as in a café: choose a hot dish without breading, replace the side dish with vegetables, and skip the bread. If there are no vegetables at all, take a double portion of protein and a salad from home.

You can, and it is easier for many people. Monotony is not harmful in itself if the composition is complete.

But there is a limit: if your diet has narrowed to chicken with cucumber every day, it is not motivation that suffers but the variety of micronutrients. The minimum safeguard is to rotate protein among meat, poultry, and fish and include fatty fish several times a week.

The flavor can be changed most cheaply with dressing and spices rather than new dishes.