6 weeks at 180g protein and my appetite disappeared

High protein never kills my appetite unless carbs are low. How many grams on lifting days?

Ferritin 31 stnads out. Mine was 28 and my appetite and bench went flat.

Was it ferritin or just under-eating? Your calories look low for 4 lifts plus rows.

Fasted cardio wrecks mine too, but only for a few hours. Sleep makes me skip meals.

Under 6h sleep and I can forget lunch. Adding 40g carbs pre/post brought hunger back.

I'd look at total intake before pinning it all on protein. At 81kg and four lifting days plus rows, 2,300 kcal can be a decent deficit. My appetite vanished around week six too; I was at 175g protein but only 45g fat, and sleep was 5.5h. Adding 40g carbs pre/post and one rest day brought hunger back, but bench didn't rebound until I held calories steady for two weeks. 180g protein is only 720 kcal, so it can't be the whole story. What are your fats and weekly weight-loss rate?

Dropped 3.1kg in 7 weeks at basically your intake and my bench fell 5kg around week 5, then clawed back to within 1kg by week 9 without touching a single macro — the early dip was glycogen and water, not muscle, and my waist was down 4cm the whole stretch so the scale wasn't lying about fat loss. What actually fixed the dead-appetite-by-dinner thing for me was flipping the day: I moved about 450 kcal into breakfast and a rice-heavy lunch right after lifting, let dinner be small and boring, and hunger came back inside two weeks because I wasn't staring down 600g of yogurt at 9pm anymore. So my contrarian take is that 180g probably isn't your villain, the back-loaded day is. Two things worth watching: use a 7-day weigh-in average instead of the single number, and check whether squat and deadlift are holding while only bench sags, since bench is usually first to tank when you're flat on carbs and short on sleep.

Six weeks is about when I stopped trusting daily numbers and started logging weekly averages instead — on paper I was "2,300" but the log said 1,950 on training days and 3,100 on Saturdays, so the weekday hole was way deeper than the plan implied, and that's the first thing I'd check before blaming protein. The counterintuitive part for me: I was getting 60g in before noon and then couldn't face dinner, so I moved 30-40g of it to post-workout and actual hunger showed up aain around 7pm. Last thing worth a look is your fat number — the two weeks I was under 50g (all chicken, yogurt, rice) my appetite went completely flat and food felt like a chore, and putting olive oil and full-fat yogurt back at lunch fixed dinner without really changing the calories. Are you tracking fat at all, or just protein and total?

Six weeks at 180g put me in the same hole at 85kg — what fixed it wasn’t more protein, it was less. I dropped to 165g, moved those 60 calories into rice and olive oil, and my bench came back 4kg in 12 days. At your weight, 180g is already overkill unless you’re actively cutting to single digits; the appetite kill is probably low fat, not high protein. Your ferritin at 31 is also low-ish for a lifter — that alone can tank training drive before dinner even hits. Try two weeks at 160g protein, 70g fat minimum, and see if you’re not force-feeding yogurt by Thursday.

At 81kg and 2,300 kcal, 180g protein is ~31% of calories—not insane, but if you're front-loading it, dinner becomes a chore. I hit the same wall at 6 weeks: 50g at breakfast, 50g at lunch, then couldn't face chicken. I started splitting dinner into a small plate, then a second 90 min later if hunger showed up. Also swapped some chicken for cottage cheese + fruit or edamame. Lifts came back when total intake stayed steady and meal volume dropped. Are you actually hungry at breakfast/lunch, or are you just hitting a number early and paying for it at night?

Cafe owner here. Tasting all shift—sauce spoons, pastry trims, latte foam—was quietly killing my dinner appetite. I started a no-taste rule until final seasoning, and suddenly 150g chicken wasn’t a fight. Also, cold plain chicken and plain yogurt would make anyone gag; warm shredded chicken in broth or frozen yogurt bark with berries goes down way easier. Quick one: is your ferritin 31 something your doc is watching? Mine floated low 30s and my bench felt flat, but that’s just my n=1. Are you eating dinner at the cafe or at home?

Are you logging chicken/yogurt raw or cooked? 180g cooked chicken is ~55g protein; 180g raw is closer to 40g. I caught that while comparing $/30g protein and freezer stock—my “180” was actually 200+ some days. If dinner is the issue, I’d check fiber/water: at 2,300 kcal I need 35g+ fiber and 3.5L water or appetite tanks. What’s your raw/cooked logging and fiber look like?

ferritin 31 is the more interesting number than the protein. I had low-30s ferritin, flat appetite, and a sagging bench; it wasn’t the 180g. What’s your CRP and transferrin saturation? Ferritin can read falsely reassuring when inflammation is in play. At 81kg/2,300 kcal, 180g protein is 2.2g/kg—not extreme. I’d want to know fat and fiber intake: if fat is very low, satiety and energy often go sideways. Bench down 2.5kg after 3.2kg loss is also within glycogen/leverage noise. Are you tracking waist or arm, or just scale?

Tbh Hi, brand-new here and only on week one, so apologies if this is basic. Are you spreading your protein pretty evenly, or saving most of it for dinner? I ask because my appetite vanishes at night when I front-load yogurt/eggs at breakfast and a shake after lifting. Also, how close is your last row or lift to dinner? When my sessions run late, even chicken feels like a chore. The bench dip would bug

not a doc but the thing that killed my dinner appetite was caffeine/liquid timing. i was doing soda swaps + late ranked queues, sipping diet dr pepper and coffee, then wondering why chicken was gross. logging caffeine and moving my shake to breakfast got dinner back in like a week. what's your caffeine and sleep looking like? bench dipping 2.5kg at 3kg down might just be recovery, but late gaming sleep debt is sneaky.

Tbh Not the protein amount exactly, but timing/volume did this to me. When I front-loaded a big protein lunch and a huge salad, dinner felt physically impossible—no hunger, just pressure. I started splitting it: some at breakfast, some post-lift, then a smaller dinner I actually wanted (soup + eggs, not plain chicken). Also, your bench dip plus appetite drop makes me wonder about sleep and total steps. Are you sleeping worse or moving more than before? I track resting HR and it usually flags that before my appetite does. Might be more useful than pushing more yogurt.

Daily weigher/trend-line nerd here. Your 6-week drop is 3.2 kg, about 0.53 kg/wk or ~0.65%/wk. That rate is the first thing I’d check. For me, once loss stays above ~0.5%/wk, dinner appetite disappears and bench stalls before I feel “too lean.” What’s your 7-day average delta over the last two weeks? If it’s still ~0.5 kg/wk, the 180g protein may be a red herring—the deficit/training load is likely doing the suppressing

Math check: 3.2 kg over 6 weeks is ~0.53 kg/week, ~0.6% BW. That plus bench down 2.5 kg reads like recovery debt, not the protein number. What are your daily steps and sleep hours? Mine tanked appetite when NEAT quietly rose—2,300 became a fake number. I’d track those for a week before changing macros. Also: are your carbs front-loaded? Saving most carbs for the post-lift meal made dinner stop feeling like a chore. Systems-wise, appetite is a lagging indicator; check the inputs you aren’t logging.

Not a doc, but what’s your fat/carb split look like? I hit 180g protein on the road too, and when I was living off chicken, Greek yogurt, and shakes, my fats accidentally dropped into the 40s. Bench stalled and dinner felt like a chore. Weird fix: hotel eggs/avocado/olive oil, plus rice or potatoes at lunch. Same protein, less “all lean protein all day.” Appetite came back enough that dinner wasn’t a force-feed. Are you tracking fats/carbs or just protein and cals?

girl, same—my dinner appetite clocks out early too. A little porch walk before supper usually helps me actually want food.

night shift guy here. Sleep is the first thing I'd look at, not protein. Rotating shifts tanked my appetite way worse than 180g ever did. Bench down 2.5kg while losing 3kg in 6 weeks reads underfueled to me, not overproteined. I'd track weekly averages instead of daily — my dinner hunger lies on night shifts. Sharp question: are you actually sleeping after nights, or doing the 4-hours-and-scroll thing? That changed everything for me. I quit forcing yogurt and just moved more calories into my pre-shift meal.

late-night gamer here. what time are you training and when’s your last caffeine/energy drink? i had the same dinner-appetite black hole when i was doing 2pm energy drink + 6pm lift/row. moved caffeine before noon and took a 10-min walk before dinner, and i could actually eat without forcing it. also, are you drinking a ton of diet soda/water during the day? that volume plus 180g protein made me feel full by 5pm. not saying it’s the whole story, but worth tracking for 3-4 days. your bench drop might just be the 3kg cut though.

late-night gamer here and my dinner appetite dies if i have a big afternoon shake + diet soda. i started tracking my first actual hungry signal instead of clock meals. turned out my 4pm shake and iced coffee were killing dinner. moved the shake to after lifting, swapped afternoon soda for sparkling water + a salty snack, and dinner got way easier. also, if you game late, are you eating dinner at like 9pm? i do better with a smaller 5pm plate and a yogurt/cereal bowl at midnight. what’s your caffeine/soda

Dinner appetite ghosting is so real—I keep a yogurt cup in sight and call it a win.

Ferritin 31 would wreck my appetite and my bench too, honestly.

I’d look at recovery before blaming the protein. In past threads, a 2.5 kg bench dip at 0.5 kg/week often traced back to short sleep or a big jump in steps/cardio, not dinner appetite. What’s your sleep average and daily step count the last two weeks? If sleep’s under 7 or steps climbed, I’d park the macro tweaks and fix that first. Also, waist/arm measurements might show recomp while the scale and bench stall.

For what it's worth, cafe owner here: tsting all day means my dinner appetite clocks out early too. You’re not alone.

Tracking nerd angle: your 3.2kg over 6 weeks is ~0.53kg/wk, and the back-calc deficit is around 580 kcal/day. Before blaming 180g protein, I’d overlay weekly average steps and resting HR/HRV. My n=1 spreadsheet looked similar—dinner appetite vanished, bench dropped 2.5kg—but my steps had quietly fallen from 11k to 7.8k and RHR was down 6 bpm. Protein was basically flat in my trendline; NEAT moved first. Are your steps or HRV trending down over the last 2–3 weeks?

Appetite dying by dinner usually means I’ve stacked too many high-satiety proteins early: chicken, yogurt, casein, tons of veg. On my last recomp I kept protein at 180g but moved some to whole eggs, salmon, 90/10 beef, and a rice/oats carb source around training. Same protein, way less “force-feed” feeling. Bench down 2.5kg after 3.2kg loss can just be glycogen/leverage, but if it keeps sliding over 2–3 weeks I’d check weekly waist/arm trend and carbs around sessions. What’s your average weekly loss and are you getting carbs pre/post lifting? Also, how’s sleep? That’s what tanks my appetite and pressing strength together.

I track this stuff way too closely. My trendline says dinner appetite dies when weekly loss exceeds ~0.5% BW, not at a specific protein number. You’re at 81 kg and down 3.2 kg in 6 weeks = ~0.53 kg/wk, or ~0.66% BW/wk—above that edge for me. Have you looked at your last 3 weekly averages vs. calories? Mine stalled whenever the drop accelerated for 10+ days. Also, what’s your meal split? Moving 300–400 kcal from dinner to breakfast/lunch made dinner normal again for me; 25/35/40 was misery, 40/35/25 was fine. Bench down 2.5 kg tracks with that too.

Two kids here too—dinner appetite ghosts, so snack-drawer yogurt pouches and cheese sticks are my backup.

Not a doc, but 3.2 kg in 6 weeks is ~0.5 kg/wk—enough deficit to flatten bench and appetite, especially if sleep/NEAT dipped. In the trials, protein preloads blunt later intake, but low meal volume/fibre does too. What’s your daily fibre and veg volume? When I tracked it, dinner hunger tracked my fibre/volume way more than total protein. Also, how are you splitting the 180 g? If most lands before 2 pm, dinner satiety can be brutal. Might be worth scoring hunger 1–5 before dinner for a week and matching it to your day’s fibre and steps.

I feel you—my dinner appetite peaced out and Greek yogurt became the whole personality.

Cafe owner here, so I graze all day and my dinner hunger is basically a liar. One thing I track now is protein timing, not just total: if I hit 100–120g by 2pm, I can actually eat dinner; if I backload it, I’m forcing yogurt at 8pm. What’s your rough protein split? And are you eating soon after lifting or hours later? My appetite disappears if I wait too lng post-workout. Also, your

Same—my appetite clocks out by dinner, so I front-load protein early and a shake counts as dinner lol.

Same here—by dinner I’m just eating to hit the target, not because I’m hungry. 😅

The thing that helped me separate “high protein” from “under-fueled” was tracking morning resting HR and body temp alongside hunger. In a real deficit, my morning HR dropped 4–5 bpm and dinner hunger went ghost; when it was mostly protein/fiber volume, those stayed stable. That pattern mattered more than my total protein number. How’s your sleep and morning hunger? If those are also flat, that’s the piece I’d want to watch for a week before tweaking anything.

Protein isn't magic. 180g of dry chicken and Greek yogurt is a chore. After six weeks, food boredom kills my intake harder than any appetite suppressant. I work nights. My real dinner is at 0100. Eating at 1900 because it's "dinner" never works. What time do you actually get hungry? And are you rotating meals or eating the same four things? Bench down 2.5kg while losing 3kg in six weeks smells like under-recovery, not high protein.

Night shift here. My dinner appetite ghosted me too. I eat big before work, then just pick at yogurt after.

Ugh, the forced yogurt dinner phase is so real. Do you feel full or kinda queasy?

ngl my dorm fridge is just Greek yogurt and regret, so I feel this in my soul 😅