It is late, you are short on protein, and you do not want to think. The protein gap gives you three things you could eat right now, sized to what is left of the day, each one tap to log.
Protocols are a Loopa Premium feature.
What it works out
- What is left. Your protein goal minus what you have already logged today.
- How much room. A budget of 250 calories, or 150 if a symptom you logged today is severity 3 or higher, because appetite on those days is smaller.
- How long until your next meal, carried through so the suggestion makes sense for the hour it is.
None of this is stored. It is recalculated when you open the screen.
Where the three options come from
Your own recent foods first. Things you have actually logged, because you already eat them and you already have them.
Then protein-dense staples from the food database: Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, chicken breast, tuna, eggs, tofu, edamame, shrimp, lentils, salmon and similar.
No new food content is invented for this screen. Everything offered is a real entry with real numbers behind it.
How the portions are chosen
Scaled so that the protein never overshoots your gap and the calories never overshoot the budget, rounded to the nearest quarter serving and never smaller than half a serving.
A suggestion of a third of a yogurt is not a suggestion, so it will not make one.
What it leaves out
Anything your own log associates with a symptom. If Loopa has spotted a food that keeps turning up on your rough days, it is excluded here and named as excluded, so you can see why it is missing rather than wondering. See Symptoms and food patterns.
Anything your dietary preferences rule out. Preferences filter by food name and category.
Logging one
Tap it. It goes into today's food log at the portion shown, with the calories and macros on the card. It is an ordinary food entry from that point on: editable, deletable, and part of your day like anything else.
When it has nothing to offer
- You have already hit your goal. There is no gap to close.
- No protein goal is set, which usually means no weight on file. Set it in your health profile.
- Your remaining gap is tiny and nothing fits inside it at a sensible portion.
The screen says which. Ignoring it is also a valid answer; a missed protein goal is one day, not a failure.
Related
- Protecting muscle while losing weight
- The lean-mass score
- Protein first on a GLP-1
- Symptoms and food patterns
- Macronutrients explained
- High-protein diet
Where this comes from
Protein targets are drawn from the guidance cited on Protein first on a GLP-1 and on your protocol's own page; the full list is at loopahealth.app/sources. Loopa does not give medical advice. A suggestion here is a food that fits a number you set, not a recommendation about your diet.
