What is the easiest way to hit my protein goal every day?

If you keep coming up short on protein, the problem is usually the approach, not your willpower. Nikkiey explains that the most common mistake she sees is planning as you go: eat breakfast, log it, eat lunch, log it, and by evening you're 40 grams of protein short and inventing strange recipes to catch up. She calls it macro hoarding. On Ep. 158, her client Lisa puts it bluntly: if you wing it, you'll go over on carbs and fats and you will not meet your protein goals. Lisa plans her whole day the night before, and says it takes her less than five minutes once you're used to it.

Once the day is planned, spread the protein out. Big daily numbers feel impossible; small meal-sized numbers don't. In Nikkiey's 150-gram, 2,000-calorie day, her five meals land at 31, 27, 27, about 25 and 38 grams. Lisa eats six meals with protein at every one, and says that's why hitting her number feels easy.

Nikkiey also warns against the snack bars she relied on early in her own journey. They may have five grams of protein but come packed with carbs and fats, so you feel like you're eating plenty while staying nowhere near your target. Whole foods win. Lisa makes it practical by batch-cooking on Sundays, and sometimes again midweek: a big tub of ground beef, a batch of chicken and a steamed vegetable that the whole family eats from.