Does eating more protein make you less hungry?

Short answer

Yes. A high-protein meal cut hunger by 7 points out of 100, and raising protein from 15% to 30% of daily calories meant eating 441 kcal less a day. It did not stop weight regain, though.

Does eating more protein make you less hungry?
'More protein → less hunger → eat less' — does this formula hold?
A common diet tip says more protein keeps hunger away. We checked step by step whether one meal really cuts hunger, and whether eating this way over time actually makes people eat less.
For a single meal, yes
Hunger down 7 points, fullness up 10
An analysis that pooled 49 calorie-matched experiments found that after a high-protein meal, hunger was 7 points lower out of 100 and fullness 10 points higher. The hunger hormone (ghrelin) fell and fullness hormones rose.
People actually ate less
441 kcal less a day for 12 weeks
19 people raised protein from 15% to 30% of daily calories (carbs unchanged) and could eat as much as they liked for 12 weeks. They ate 441 kcal less a day and lost 4.9 kg of body weight, 3.7 kg of it fat.
But the feeling of hunger was similar
Intake fell 25%, scores showed no difference
When 79 people ate a 30% protein diet for 12 days, intake dropped 25%, from about 2,300 kcal to 1,720 kcal a day. Yet whole-day hunger scores showed no difference; only the swings during the day got smaller. An analysis of 19 longer studies also found no difference in hunger scores.
How much more is needed?
People ate less at 30%
22 people ate 10%, 15% and 25% protein diets for 4 days each. Going from 15% to 25% did not change how much they ate, while dropping to 10% made them eat 12% more. The studies where people ate less raised protein to 30%.
Does it stop weight regain too?
It held off hunger, but weight showed no difference
2,223 people who had lost weight were split into 25% and 15% protein diets for 3 years. The 25% group held off rising hunger better from 1 year on. But weight regained showed no difference between the two diets.
Bottom line: less hungry, but it shows up as eating less
About 150 g of protein on 2,000 kcal a day
A high-protein meal cut hunger, and raising protein to 30% of daily calories meant eating 441 kcal less a day. On 2,000 kcal a day, that is about 150 g of protein. The difference was bigger in how much people ate than in how they felt, and protein alone did not stop weight regain.