The cravings app that shows which meals will keep you full

The score is the weighted average of the six factors, rounded to one decimal. A factor the app can't estimate for a meal is left out rather than guessed, and if too much is missing the score shows N/A. Some details:

• Protein scores on whichever is lower: the amount (out of 25 g) or protein's share of the meal's calories (out of 15%). A big portion of a low-protein food, like a large bowl of cereal, can't reach full marks on size alone.
• Calorie density leaves drinks out, as energy-density research does, so a glass of water or juice doesn't make a meal look lighter. Milk poured on cereal counts as food.
• Hyper-palatable follows a 2019 research definition: a food counts if fat and sugar each supply more than 20% of its calories, fat supplies more than 25% with sodium at 0.30% or more of its weight, or carbs supply more than 40% with sodium at 0.20% or more. Whole and minimally processed foods are never flagged, because the app can't tell the sugar in fruit from added sugar.
• Satiety nutrients count when the meal gives you at least as large a share of your daily target as it does of your daily calories. A meal that is 30% of your calories needs at least 30% of your potassium target for potassium to count.
• Processing uses the NOVA groups, averaged across the meal by calories. It is left out if foods with a known processing level cover less than half the meal's calories.

• Protein gets the most weight because it has the strongest evidence for fullness. In a small trial of 19 adults, raising protein from 15% to 30% of calories led people to eat about 441 kcal a day less without being told to.
• Calorie density matters because people tend to eat a similar weight of food. In a year-long trial of 97 women, those told to cut fat and eat more water-rich fruit and vegetables ate a greater weight of food, reported less hunger and lost more weight than a group that only cut fat.
• Fiber adds bulk and slows a meal down, though the evidence is mixed: a review of 107 fiber treatments found most did not cut appetite in the short term. That is why it weighs less than protein.
• Hyper-palatable and ultra-processed foods are easy to overeat. The hyper-palatable thresholds come from a 2019 definition that classed 62% of foods in a US database as hyper-palatable, and in a 2-week NIH inpatient trial of 20 adults, people ate about 500 kcal a day more on an ultra-processed diet than on an unprocessed one.
• Satiety nutrients are our own judgment call, with the weakest evidence of the six. They reward meals built from whole foods, which tend to supply these minerals and B12.

The score has not been tested in a study of its own. It is a way to compare your meals on the factors research links to fullness, not a measurement of how hungry you will be.