Why women over 40 need more protein — and most aren't getting enough
Why protein changes after 40, why most women are under-eating it, and how to fix that without tracking a single calorie.
You've finished dinner. You're not particularly hungry. And yet, forty minutes later, you're standing in front of the fridge wondering why you can't just stop.
You're not lacking willpower. You're not addicted to food. Your body is hunting for something it didn't find at dinner, and it will keep looking until it does.
That something is protein.
Here's what most diet advice gets completely wrong: it treats hunger as a calorie problem. Eat less, move more, and the hunger will sort itself out. Except it doesn't. Because your body doesn't just track energy. It tracks protein - aggressively, specifically, and persistently.
Researchers have tested this. When protein intake drops, people keep eating because their appetite system is doing exactly what it's designed to do: keeping the hunt going until the signal lands.
And here's the part that matters specifically for women over 40: after perimenopause, your body becomes significantly less efficient at processing the protein you do eat. You need more of it just to achieve the same result you got at 35. Most women are nowhere near hitting that target. Especially after years of dieting that quietly trained them to eat less of everything - including the one thing their body actually needed more of. It’s one of the most common issues we see with our clients because now the target has moved, and nobody told them.
The symptoms that bring women to us - the stubborn weight around the middle, the energy crashes, the cravings that appear out of nowhere, the muscle that seems to disappear no matter how much you exercise - are not random. They're all connected. And protein is one of the most significant threads running through all of them.
Muscle mass requires protein to maintain. Muscle is what keeps your metabolism functioning properly. Muscle loss, which accelerates after 40 anyway, means a slower metabolism, more fat storage, less energy, and a body that feels increasingly unrecognisable.
Appetite regulation requires protein. Without enough of it, you eat more overall - usually the wrong things, because ultra-processed food is specifically engineered to be calorie-dense and protein-poor. Your body keeps hunting endlessly for what it needs.
Blood sugar stability is also supported by protein. Without it, you get the spikes and crashes that drive cravings, afternoon energy slumps, and the 9pm fridge visit that you've been beating yourself up about for years.
The good news? This is extremely fixable.
So what does actually getting enough protein look like in real life?
Not bland chicken breast and misery. Not tracking every gram like a joyless accountant. Not four hours of Sunday meal prep for meals you'll be bored of by Tuesday.
It looks like knowing which meals to build your day around. It looks like having a handful of go-to recipes that are genuinely satisfying and don't take a lot of time to prepare. It looks like understanding where the protein gaps in your current eating actually are - and closing them with food you actually want to eat.
The goal is 25–30g of protein per meal, three times a day. That's it. No calorie counting. No macro spreadsheet. We can even show you a way to gauge your portions that’s just as accurate as most calorie and macro counters, without doing any maths at all.
That simple step will give you a stronger signal, consistently sent, so your body can finally stop hunting.
This is exactly why James and I created the High Protein Playbook: 52 high-protein recipes designed specifically for women over 40, plus a Digital Protein Gap Coach that helps you actually use them.
The High Protein Playbook is not a diet. It's not a restriction plan. It's a practical tool that helps you close the gap between knowing protein matters and consistently eating enough of it.
The Digital Coach is genuinely useful in a way that most recipe books aren't. You can ask it to build your week from the ingredients you already have, adapt recipes around dietary needs or intolerances, create a shopping list, or simply tell you what to eat today when you're staring at an empty fridge with zero inspiration.
Because knowing what to do and being able to do it in real life are two very different things. We built the Playbook for the second one.
Right now it's available for £11.99 — that price goes up to £19.99 on 21st June. If you've been struggling with adding more protein to your days, this is the most practical way we know to make it happen.
Get the High Protein Playbook + Digital Coach Here
And if you want to talk through what's actually going on with your health more broadly, book a free Clarity Call. We'll listen, figure out what's really happening, and give you one concrete next step. No pitch, no pressure.
Juli (and James) Fabulous Beyond 40 Menopause Coaching Company of the Year 2024 & 2025
