High Protein Diets Explained: Benefits, Risks, and What Actually Works

Protein has somehow become the main character of modern eating.

Scroll for five minutes and you’ll see protein bars, protein coffee, protein cereal, and people panicking because their lunch “only” had 20 grams.

Somewhere along the way, eating enough protein turned into organising your life around it.

So let’s slow this down and talk about high protein diets without the hype.

What do they actually do?

Who are they useful for?

And when do they quietly make eating harder than it needs to be?

This is Scrummy, so we’re aiming for clarity, not commandments.

What is a high protein diet?

There’s no official definition.

In practice, a high protein diet usually means:

• Protein makes up a larger share of total calories than average

• Meals are deliberately built around protein first

• Foods are often chosen because they’re high in protein, rather than because they’re enjoyable or practical

For context:

• Most people naturally eat around 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight

• High protein diets often push intake to 1.2–2.0 grams per kilogram

That wide range tells you something important: this isn’t precision nutrition. It’s a spectrum.

Why high protein diets are popular

Protein does a few genuinely helpful things.

It:

• Helps you feel full for longer

• Supports muscle maintenance, especially during weight loss

• Makes meals feel more satisfying and structured

For people who:

• Feel hungry all the time

• Skip meals and overeat later

• Are trying to lose weight without constant hunger

…adding some extra protein can be useful.

The key word is some.

Where high protein diets often go wrong

The issues are rarely nutritional.

They’re behavioural.

Protein becomes a rule instead of a tool

When every food choice is judged by protein content, eating turns into mental arithmetic.

Instead of asking:

“What would I like to eat?”

You start asking:

“Is this worth the protein?”

That’s not food sense. That’s food anxiety with a macro tracker.

Normal foods start to feel “not enough”

Bread, pasta, fruit, soup, potatoes.

All normal foods — suddenly treated as inadequate unless they’re paired with protein.

This creates an invisible standard where meals don’t feel valid unless they hit a target you made up.

Eating should not feel like quietly failing a test.

Hunger cues get overridden

High protein diets can disconnect you from appetite.

People often:

• Force protein when they’re not hungry

• Ignore hunger because they’ve “already hit protein”

• Snack on protein bars instead of eating real meals

Structure becomes rigidity without anyone noticing.

They require too much effort

High protein eating often demands:

• More planning

• More cooking

• More tracking

• More expensive food

It works best when life is calm, predictable, and well-organised.

Real life rarely is.

The Scrummy approach to protein

Protein is not the enemy.

It’s also not the solution to everything.

At Scrummy, protein has one simple role:

Make meals satisfying enough that food stops being a full-time thought.

That’s it.

Not optimisation.

Not perfection.

Not chasing numbers.

What “enough protein” actually looks like

In real life, this usually means:

• Including a protein source in most meals

• Not forcing protein into every snack

• Not panicking if a meal is lower in protein

• Letting routine and appetite lead, not tracking apps

Examples:

• Eggs or yogurt at breakfast — not both, not weighed

• Chicken, fish, beans, tofu, or lentils at main meals

• Normal snacks that don’t need macro justification

Simple. Boring. Sustainable.

Which is exactly the goal.

Should you follow a high protein diet?

Possibly, temporarily, if:

• You’re constantly hungry

• You’re dieting and struggling with fullness

• Your eating feels chaotic and unstructured

Probably not if:

• You already eat regular meals

• Food feels mostly calm

• You’re exhausted by rules dressed up as science

If a way of eating only works when you track it, prep it, and think about it constantly, it isn’t a long-term solution.

The bottom line

Protein is useful.

High protein obsession is not.

You don’t need to chase numbers.

You don’t need protein-flavoured versions of everything.

And you don’t need another diet that keeps food centre-stage.

Eat meals that satisfy you.

Include protein without worshipping it.

Then get on with your life.

That’s Scrummy.