High Protein Lunch Ideas for Work

The British Nutrition Foundation puts the UK reference intake for adults at 0.75g of protein per kilogram of body weight a day, which is about 56g for a 75kg man and 45g for a 60kg woman. That figure is set for the general population. For people training hard, the BNF notes that the American College of Sports Medicine recommends 1.2 to 2.0g per kilogram a day, spread across the day.

In practice, most people on a 12 week body transformation eat three or four meals, so lunch carries a quarter to a third of the day’s protein. Your coach sets the daily figure from your weight and your goal at the first session, and it is a floor rather than a ceiling. If you have kidney disease or another medical condition, check any change in protein with your GP first.

The Square Mile is full of lunch counters, which makes a protein lunch easy to buy and just as easy to miss. The rule that works at every counter is to choose the protein first, then build the rest of the lunch around it.

High protein salad

A salad box is only high protein if the protein is the main event: chicken, salmon, prawns, eggs, tofu, beans or lentils rather than a scattering of cheese. Add a grain such as rice or quinoa if you are training that day, and treat a creamy dressing as part of the calories rather than a garnish. A salad that leaves you hungry at 15:00 usually means there was not enough protein in it.

A healthy meal deal

A supermarket meal deal can be a perfectly good lunch. Pick a sandwich, wrap or salad with a clear protein filling, swap the crisps for a yoghurt, a pot of fruit or a protein snack, and choose water, a diet drink or a milk-based drink. The label on the pack shows the protein and calories, which is more information than most restaurant lunches give you.

Preparing even two lunches a week gives you control over the meals that matter most. The NHS Eatwell Guide lists beans, pulses, fish, eggs and meat as the protein foods and asks for at least two portions of fish a week, one of them oily, such as salmon, sardines or mackerel. Those make simple lunch bases: a bean and grain salad, eggs with roasted vegetables, or salmon with rice and greens.

Meal prep for work

Cook one batch of protein, one of a grain or potato and one tray of vegetables on a Sunday, then box three lunches. It takes around an hour and removes three decisions from the week. Keep the Thursday and Friday lunches bought: Tuesday to Thursday are the busiest days in the City, so the prepared meals do the most good where the diary is fullest and leave room for the lunch someone else books.

No single lunch makes you lose weight. What matters is the calorie total across the week, and lunch is the easiest place to make that total reliable because it is the meal you eat at the same time on most working days. A lunch that works for fat loss has a clear portion of protein, a lot of vegetables or salad, and a measured amount of starch, with more of it on days you train.

Your coach sets the week’s calories from your own energy balance rather than a formula, and lunch is then built to a number you can buy near your desk. When a client lunch is in the diary, the rest of the day flexes around it instead of the week being written off.

The mid-afternoon dip is where most office eating goes off plan, usually from a shared plate of biscuits. A planned snack fixes that. Good high protein options that keep in a desk drawer or an office fridge include Greek yoghurt or skyr, boiled eggs, a pint of milk, cottage cheese, edamame beans, a tin of tuna, and roasted chickpeas. Protein bars are convenient, but read the label: some carry as many calories as a small meal.

A snack is part of the day’s calories, so it earns its place by keeping you from a larger meal later. If you are rarely hungry in the afternoon, you may not need one at all.

A lunchtime session works when the walk is short. UNTIL Liverpool Street, at 280 Bishopsgate, is about 8 minutes on foot from Broadgate Circle, 11 from 30 St Mary Axe, 14 from Moorgate and 15 from Bank. From Broadgate a 30-minute workout fits comfortably into an hour, and from Bank the walk there and back adds about 30 minutes, so an hour and a quarter is more honest.

A good 30-minute session is a warm-up, two strength pairs such as a squat with a row and a hinge with a press, and a short finisher. Eat the lunch you planned afterwards, at your desk if you must, rather than skipping it: training on an empty afternoon is how a 16:00 raid on the snack table starts.

Body Transformation City of London connects people who work in the City with independent coaches at UNTIL Liverpool Street, 280 Bishopsgate, London EC2M 4RB. The club opens 06:00 to 20:00 on weekdays and 07:00 to 14:00 on Saturday, and coaches who train clients there and publish their rates charge about £100 to £130 a session.

Your coach sets the protein and calorie targets at the first session and adjusts them as the block runs. Read how the 12 week body transformation works, or talk to a coach and UNTIL Health Concierge will reply to arrange an assessment.

If you travel for work, hotel room workouts for business travel covers the weeks away. The training guides index lists every guide on this site, and the City of London training glossary defines the terms.