But for many, a little extra protein has become a way to maintain energy and muscle mass while eating less overall—whether because protein makes you feel more full, or because you happen to be taking GLP-1 medications and you’re less hungry anyway. Fully 61 percent of adults last year said they were trying to increase protein intake, according to Cargill’s 2025 Protein Profile, and protein powders in your morning drink have become about as common as matcha.
Technically, I’m caffeine-jazzed on an almond milk protein latte from Factor as I type these lines—the things I do for science!—and it’s not bad. It’s like a slightly dusty Frappuccino. But what’s attractive to me about Factor’s Protein Plus options overall is that they’re the opposite of protein shakes and smoothies. They’re food.
It’s not a meal plan, per se—but if you select “high protein” as your preferred diet, the 50 or so Protein Plus options will be shown to you first on the menu. Each contains 30 grams or more of protein on a meal that might be about 500 to 600 calories.
What I found is that this keeps me feeling significantly more full than if I’d invested the same number of calories as carbs: Three meals like this is maybe 1,500 to 1,800 calories, a little less than I’d normally eat as a man my size. But I didn’t feel hungry during the day. It’s an odd version of diet plan, if it’s a diet—stocking my body up on meat so I’m less likely to feel hunger pangs for empty carbs.
Macro Comfort
Photograph: Matthew Korfhage
The meals are mostly satisfying, though rarely do they stray into exciting territory. Factor, like most ready-to-eat meals, is not often the stuff of Instagram stories. But unlike a lot of the more extreme protein-happy TikTok or MAHA diet plans, the high-protein meals from Factor generally also involve veggies.
