Appetite gone after intervals: how do you hit 175g protein?

The dead appetite after hard bike intervals is a thing people hit with GLP-1s too. Common surprise: liquid egg whites plus whey in iced coffee lands 40g before you even notice it going down.

Coffee whey sonuds grim. Does it keep you full too long?

Not the coffee person, but Greek yogurt with cereal at 9pm saved my 160g target during marathon block. Took weeks to not hate it.

What finally worked for me was treating protein like a train schedule, not a hunger thing. I set two alarms: 10am and 1pm, and only ate 20-30g each time. Cold cottage cheese with berries, or 6oz Greek yogurt with a scoop of unflavored whey stirred in. Weirdly, the cold texture went down way easier than shakes when my appetite was dead. Got from 145 to 168g without ever feeling hungry. The 10am one is still the hardest.

I stopped tracking total protein and started tracking what I call 'gap coverage' — how many grams I still owe after 2pm. At 3pm I'd look at the number and plan two 35g moves: 5oz chicken thigh at dinner plus a casein-ish pudding before bed. The surprise was that my 9pm meal was doing nothing because I was too full from forcing shakes at noon. Moving 40g to 9pm fixed the average without more food volume.

My intervals wrecked my mornings, but the day after was a bottomless pit. So I shifted my protein target to the evening and day after intervals — 50g at 7pm, then 40g by 11am next day. Sounds backwards but my weekly average went from 148 to 171. The fail was buying fancy protein bars; they sat in my desk drawer for a month because chewing felt like a chore.

Honestly, I'd question whether 175g is the right number for you right now. I'm 5'9, 172, also on a slow cut, and dropping to 150g changed nothing in my lifts or waist over 8 weeks. The extra 25g was just stress and bloating. If you're hitting 140-155 consistently, maybe that's enough. What's your current waist trend? That told me more than my protein app ever did.

My appetite tanked more from bad sleep than training. Once I got 7.5 hours for 10 straight days, a morning yogurt went from forced to easy, and my waist dropped half an inch with the scale barely moving. If you're under 7 hours, I'd fix that before adding another shake.

I stopped fighting the no-appetite window and ate 2-9pm for a few weeks. Three meals at 55-60g: chicken rice veg, salmon potato, then Greek yogurt berries. Hit 175g by 8 without shakes. Weirdly my sleep improved because I wasn't stuffed at 10pm.

Are those intervals fasted? Morning intervals kill my appetite till 3pm. Moing them to late afternoon after a shake made the no-hunger window way shorter. For solid-ish protein: 1 cup carton egg whites nuked with salsa is ~26g and goes down like soup. Cottage cheese with seasoning too. Also weigh meat cooked, not raw. I was undershooting by 20g/day. What time do you train?

I quit trying to make solid breakfast happen on interval days. Instead I sip a savory “protein soup” over an hour: bone broth + shredded chicken + egg whites + a little miso. Easier than sweet shakes when my appetite is dead, and it gets ~45g without chewing. Then I count protein weekly, not daily—170g most days, 140g on interval days still averages out. Daily weigh-ins go into my 10-day trend, and those low-appetite days haven’t moved the slope. Are you tracking weekly totals or just the daily number? That switch made it feel less like force-feeding.

I am a similar height and also track weekly averages rather than daily. What helped me was making interval days a different template: a savory sipped protein soup around 2pm (broth, blended cottage cheese, shredded chicken), then a normal dinner and a yogurt-ricotta bowl later. It feels like food, not another shake, and got me from 150 to 172g without forcing breakfast. Are your two interval sessions both 60 minutes, or could one be shorter and lower intensity? That might soften the appetite crash enough to fit one solid protein meal earlier. Also, are you counting protein from oats, bread, or vegetables? Those bonus grams added up for me when appetite was low.

Airport/hotel trick that saved my brain on interval days: I stopped trying to eat a Real Meal before 2 and build a “pantry plate” in my room at night instead. Single-serve tuna or chicken packets, microwave brown rice, roasted edamame snack bags. Weirdly, cold grocery-store roast chicken goes down way easier than a shake when I’m still not hungry. I also keep a tiny fork in my laptop bag because hotel forks have vanished into the void. Do you count plant proteins like oats and edamame toward your 175g, or only the heavy hitters? That changed my math.

Not timing, but session type. My spreadsheet shows my 2pm appetite tanked only on threshold/interval days, not Z2. So I moved intervals to after my last solid meal (6pm) and treat the evening as liquid-only: 40g casein in milk, 200g 0% Greek yogurt, 30g peanut butter powder. Cold, no smell, easy. Solid lunch is cold chicken + mustard. The smell of reheated meat is what kills me. What’s your interval HR/zone? If you’re doing 4x4s vs steady 60, that might explain the dead appetite more than when you do them.

What’s your interval intensity? I lift 4x too, and 60-min intervals nuked my appetite until ~1:30. What worked was treating interval days as 3 feeds: 45g shake + Greek yogurt around 2pm, then 50–60g real food at 5 and 8. Not elegant, but it broke my 140g ceiling. Also, my sleep gets wrecked if intervals are late, and that tanks appetite the next day. Are you doing them on lifting days or separate?

I’m 57, kids launched. My appetite trick: I make a batch of savory egg bites with cottage cheese and smoked salmon, freeze them. On interval mornings I eat one cold, standing at the counter—no cooking, minimal chewing. Two = about 24g. Then I stop negotiating with breakfast. The other thing that helped was a 10-min walk after intervals; it often brings a little hunger back by 11. Does your appetite return for lunch, or is it a full no-go till dinner?

Cafe owner here, so I’m around carbs all day. What finally helped on interval days was treating 2pm as my “first meal” but making it a 45g anchor: rotisserie chicken, cottage cheese, edamame, chili crisp. Then two 30g mini-meals at 5 and 8. Also, I front-load 30–40g the night before because I know next-day appetite will be trash. Are you tracking by meal or just end-of-day total? Seeing the 2pm anchor as non-negotiable made the math way less miserable.

That dead-until-2pm stretch is familiar. One thing that helped me was treating evening as my protein anchor instead of fighting the morning: dinner gets 50–60g, then a cold snack later, like cottage cheese with berries or shredded chicken with salsa. Cold and savory goes down more easily than hot food when appetite is low. I’d also ask: does your hunger return by dinner, or stay flat all evening? If it returns, shifting your target later may feel less forced than a morning shake.

Fellow road warrior here. On interval days I don’t fight the dead-appetite window; I pack a hotel-room protein picnic: pre-cooked chicken packets, shelf-stable cottage cheese, roasted edamame, and smoked salmon. I graze 30–40g around 4, 6, and 8pm. Zero-cook, TSA-friendly, and way easier than chewing when nothing sounds good. Sharp question: do you count collagen or protein coffee toward your 175g? I used to, then realized my actual food protein was way lower than I thought.

Intervals are a stressor; appetite is downstream. I'd stop fighting the first half of the day and stack protein in the back half. For me: 60g at 2pm (250g 0% Greek + scoop), 60g at 6pm (250g chicken), 55g at 9pm (casein pudding). That's 175 with zero chewing-heavy meals. The only hard part is the 2pm bolus; I set an alarm and treat it like a task. What does your 2pm–9pm window look like now?

The no-appetite window after intervals is real. What moved my average from ~150 to 175 was treating protein as 4 small, cold/savory anchors instead of meals: 100g shredded chicken with hot sauce, 1/2 cup edamame, 0% Greek yogurt with cocoa, and sardines on crispbread if I’m desperate. Eating by clock, not hunger. Sharp question: is your 175g based on total body weight or lean mass? Mine felt way less awful at 1g/lb lean vs total. Are you weighing solids? I found my eyeballed chicken was ~20% low.

Snack-drawer hack here, because sitting down to chew a meal before 2pm is a losing battle for me too. I keep a bin: roasted edamame packs, turkey sticks, light string cheese, tuna/chicken pouches, frozen Greek yogurt tubes. After intervals I set a 30-min timer and eat one small salty protein thing, no plate, no negotiation. Then I just make dinner heavier. It gets me 25–40g without gagging on breakfast. My kids steal the same bin for lunches, so it stays stocked. Are you doing intervals before the kids are up, or is it the post-workout window that’s dead?

Same here—intervals mute my hunger, so I lean on cottage cheese and a later dinner.

Honestly, interval days kill my appetite too. I’m in a one-grocery-town, so I lean on boring stuff: cold ultrafiltered milk with unflavored protein sipped mid-morning, then a 2pm “snack plate” of turkey roll-ups, cheese cubes, and roasted edamame. Nothing warm appeals until supper. I also track by time blocks in a cheap notebook—if I’m under 60g by 2, I know I need to play catch-up. My insurance covers a few dietitian visits, which helped me loosen the all-or-nothing mindset. Are you tracking time bloks or just the daily total?

Interval days kill my appetite too. What worked: I stopped trying to eat breakfast. I make a 50g protein “slurry” — unflavored whey, 0% Greek yogurt, frozen cherries, splash of milk — and sip it over 90 minutes. Cold, no chewing, no decision fatigue. Second 30g hit around 3pm: turkey roll-ups or edamame. Dinner covers the rest. Tracking grams per hour instead of per meal made 175g less emotional. Question: are you doing those intervals fasted? If so, the post-session window might be your only real lever.

Interval days wreck my morning appetite too. What worked was pre-portioning 4 oz cold shredded chicken with mustard or kimchi—20–25g, zero cooking smell, eats in 3 minutes. I set phone alarms for 25g every 90 min from noon, then finish the rest at my last meal. Also, I track 7-day protein average, not daily; interval days just get a shake and I don’t panic. Are you hitting 175 on rest days? If yes, your weekly average may already be closer than those daily numbers suggest.

Not to be that guy, but where did 175g come from? If it's 1g/lb, that's more habit than evidence; Morton et al. 2018 put the lean-mass breakpoint around 1.6g/kg, which is ~130g for you. At 140–155g you may already be covered. When intervals nuked my appetite, I tracked a 7-day average instead of daily and made 3pm my first real meal (leftover chicken/rice). Are your intervals fasted? Fasted morning ones tank my hunger way more than afternoon ones.

Intervals killed my appetite too, but it was worse when I did them fasted. I moved them to after work and started a “liquid first, solids later” rule: salty broth right after, then around 2:30 a cold protein pudding (250g 0% Greek yogurt + 1 scoop vanilla whey + cocoa, ~55g protein). I log by meal, not just daily total: 55g at 2:30, 50g dinner, 40g before bed. Chewing is what I can’t face early, so cold spoonable stuff works. Are your intervals fasted or fed? That changed everything for me.

Same after intervals — Greek yogurt + chia is my pre-2pm hack. What have you tried?

intervals kill my appetite too—cottage cheese straight from the tub is my pre-2pm cheat code. 😅

Same dead-appetite thing here on interval days. I stopped trying to eat a real breakfast and went “protein by numbers”: 8am 45g unflavored whey in iced coffee, 11am 30g turkey sticks, 2pm 50g chicken wrap, 5pm 30g Greek yogurt, 8pm 25g shrimp. That’s 180g without forcing solid food early. The shift was hitting 25–30g every 2–3 hrs instead of waiting for hunger. Do you track per-meal or just daily total? Per-meal made 175g feel way less daunting for me.

running a cafe, I just sip a shake while prepping and call it breakfast.

Cafe owner here—croissants are my nemesis, so I feel you. What got me from ~150 to 175 after intervals was prepping “protein tapas” in deli cups: 2 oz cold shredded chicken, 2 oz edamame, a hard-boiled egg, hot sauce, eaten standing in the walk-in. Cold/neutral food doesn’t trigger that “I just ate a meal” wall the way warm food does. I also track a 2pm checkpoint, not the daily total, so I stop panicking. Are you finding cold protein easier than warm, or is it all texture for you?

Same here—my post-interval appetite is MIA, so Greek yogurt carries me till dinner.

one thing that got me from ~150 to 175 without a real breakfast: cook a pound of chicken thighs Sunday, chop, and keep them in a container with buffalo sauce. Around 1:30 I eat 4–5 oz straight from the fridge while making the kids’ lunches. Not glamorous, but 35g and zero cooking. I also keep roasted edamame and turkey sticks in the snack drawer for the 4pm gap. Do you count your shake toward the 175 or treat it as bonus? I have to log mine or I overestimate.

Same—intervals kill my morning appetite, so I sip a shake and do a big cottage cheese bowl at 2.

Intervals wreck my morning appetite too. What finally moved my weekly average, not daily: I stopped trying to hit 175 by 6pm and did a cold, no-chew 55g bowl at 10am—200g 0% Greek yogurt, scoop unflavored isolate, peanut butter powder, pinch salt. Then normal lunch/dinner. Also track a 7-day rolling average; one 140g day doesn’t matter if the week lands at 175. Are you checking weekly or just daily?

Do you train fasted? That detail changed everything for me. On interval days I can’t do solids until ~2 either, so I stopped trying. I blend silken tofu into a savory soup around 11 and sip it warm; it’s ~15g and goes down like liquid. Then I keep tinned fish + Wasa or roasted edamame for a 4pm bridge. The big shift was tracking weekly instead of daily—my interval days average ~130g but the next day I naturally hit ~190. Over 7 days I’m at target without forcing the dead zone. Gentle Q: does your hunger rebound the day after intervals, or is it flat all week?

Night shifter here. Intervals at 5am kill my appetite too. I flipped it: 60g protein in the 2 hours before the session. Whey and egg whites in oats. Then just coffee until 4pm. Got me from 150 to 170 without forcing solids midday. Follow-up: are you tracking weekly or daily? Daily was noise for me. Weekly average is what matters.

Same! Airport lounge cheese cubes are my interval-day protein hack, sad but effective 😂

Fellow cafe owner here—interval days leave me surrounded by scones with zero appetite, so I stopped fighting it. I make a savory mug soup: 1 cup bone broth, 2 beaten eggs, 3 oz shredded chicken, hot sauce, sipped like tea. It’s ~35g protein and doesn’t feel like a meal. I keep a thermos of it behind the counter and sip between espresso shots. Then I aim for two real meals after 2pm and one before bed. That got me from 145–155g to 170ish. Question: can you do dairy? If yes, cottage cheese blended with a little salsa and scooped with cucumber is another no-chew 25–30g that isn’t a shake.

Interval days I just sip a shake and call breakfast a rumor 😅

Intervals kill my morning appetite too—I lean on a big savory late lunch to catch up.

I had the same dead-appetite window after intervals. What finally got me from ~150g to 170g+ was 10g “micro-hits” every 90 min from 10am–2pm: roasted edamame, turkey sticks, cottage cheese, or a boiled egg. No big meal, just something salty I could nibble. Then at night I do a Greek yogurt + protein powder + berries bowl for ~40g, since my appetite comes back around 7pm. Are you open to shifting most of your protein later, or does that wreck sleep? Also curious if you’re doing these intervals fasted—that always nukes my hunger for hours.

Interval days mess me up too, but warm, wet, savory protein goes down when chewy food doesn’t. I simmer chicken broth with shredded rotisserie chicken, silken tofu, and a beaten egg, then sip it from a thermos over an hour around 2:30. It’s maybe 35–40g and feels like tea, not a meal. Dinner does the heavy lifting, and I keep a little cottage cheese with Everything Bagel seasoning for later if I’m short. Curious: do you track a strict daily number or a weekly average? Letting interval dys land lower and non-interval

Hi, I’m only week one so I’m still figuring this out. Something that helped my stress: I track protein as a 7-day average instead of daily. Interval days I’m lucky to hit 120g, but on rest days I can get 200g, so my weekly total still lands near 175g/day. I just add it up Sunday night in my notes app. Have you tried zooming out like that? Or is daily the only way that works for you? Sorry if that’s obvious.