JJ Virgin4x NYTimes Best Selling Author, Certified Nutrition Specialist, Fitness Hall of Famer

How to build your plate with HEALTHY foods!

22 Aug 2025 · 1 min

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1:11

In this segment, JJ Virgin emphasizes that the most impactful change to a diet is what sits at the tip of the fork. She cites a mentor’s mantra, “add before you take away,” to counter typical diet‑culture restriction. Virgin advocates a protein‑first strategy: first determine an appropriate daily protein target—0.7 to 1 gram per pound of the individual’s target body weight—and then consume that protein portion at the start of each meal. She argues that eating protein first ensures the protein is actually consumed, prevents premature fullness, and research shows it leads to better overall food choices and improved blood‑sugar control, similar to the effects of eating vegetables.

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And for me, I always think the biggest needle mover is what's at the end of your fork, right? That's the biggest easy way to change. And I love what one of my first mentors said to me. He said, add before you take away, because when you think of the typical diet culture, typical diet culture, it's okay, what am I not going to have? And I don't know about you, but the minute someone tells me I can't have something, what do I want? Right? So the very first thing is to just start to eat protein first is to really optimize optimize and prioritize protein. So first of all, figure out how much protein you should be eating each day, which I'm sure is more than what you're eating, having now seen so many different diet recalls over the years. And basically, you want to think of 0.7 to 1 gram per pound of target body weight. Then I have people eat that first at each meal, because if they do, they actually ate it, which sounds really silly, but I hear too often, oh, I got too full, right? Now, the research also shows that when you eat protein first, you make better food choices overall. You'll also have that good blood sugar control, just like as if you ate vegetables. So that's the first one, is eat protein first.