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

How to Hit 40 Grams of Protein in One Meal (Without Guessing)

2 Aug 2025 · 1 min

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1:22

In this instructional segment, JJ Virgin addresses the common issue of women under‑consuming protein despite possibly overeating overall. She demonstrates a practical method to reliably achieve a 40‑gram protein target in a single meal by using a food scale to weigh a chicken thigh, entering the weight into a nutrition‑tracking app, and interpreting the resulting protein and fat values. The example shows that 4.3 oz of chicken thigh provides about 38 g protein and 5 g fat, while 4.6 oz yields roughly 40 g protein. Virgin advises beginners to rely on a scale and app until they become familiar with visual portion sizes, after which the tools can be phased out.

Chapters

Most women are totally undereating protein. They might be overeating, but they're undereating on their protein. So I'm going to show you how it's done. Now, first of all, you got to use a food scale because otherwise you're just guessing, and that got you into the mess in the first place. So the reality is, this is a chicken thigh. Now, this is not all protein. There's some fat here too. So when I am weighing it, I've got to weigh it and also factor in the fat. So how I do that is simple. I just put it into an app. So right here, this is 4.3 ounces of chicken thigh, and I'm going to enter this into the app. And the app tells me that right here, this is 38 grams of protein and 5 grams of fat. So I can easily get up to my 40 grams here with just a little bit more, right? So, and again, you don't have to be perfect, but this is 40 grams of protein right here. 4.6 ounces of chicken thigh, 40 grams of protein. And I made it super simple because I just put it into the app. And this is what I would recommend to you is, as you're starting out, use a food scale, use an app so you get clear as to how much— what 40 grams really looks like. Once you're used to it, then you don't have to use this anymore, but use it to make it easier for you to get started.