How full or hungry people feel doesn’t explain why they eat more or less after choosing their own meal.

When people eat a meal with less protein than usual, they tend to eat more total calories that day — and this pattern holds up even when accounting for other factors.

What you eat in one meal matters more for how many calories you eat that day than how hungry or full you feel.

When people on a high-protein diet eat a meal they choose themselves, their total calories go up — but they don’t feel any different in hunger or fullness.

Eating less protein makes people eat more calories — but not because they feel hungrier. Something else is going on.

Eating a meal with less protein makes you eat more calories — but not because you’re hungrier. Something else about the meal is making you eat more.