Why Forty Grams
40 grams is the start. Doing things properly is the point.
Why 40 is the age to start thinking about muscle, why 40 g of protein a meal, and why we cook, price and pay the way we do.
Chipotle Beef 40
on sweet potato chunks
- kcal
- 622
- Carbs
- 67g
- Fat
- 16g
Use by
Why 40
Strength is worth keeping
Forty Grams is named after the 40 g of protein in every bowl. But 40 means something else to me too.
More and more of us care about what we eat: what's actually in it, and whether it's fuelling us properly for the training we do. Around 40 is when that starts to matter even more.
From our 30s, adults lose about 3–8% of their muscle mass a decade on average, and the loss speeds up after 50.1 For women, the menopause adds to this: losing oestrogen is particularly hard on muscle mass and strength,1 and in one long-running study of women, lean mass started to fall at the start of the menopause transition.2
Men's bodies change too. Testosterone levels fall gradually, by less than 2% a year from around the age of 30 to 40.3
3–8%
of muscle mass lost a decade from our 30s, on average.Source 1
15%
lower risk of dying from any cause for people who do muscle-strengthening activity.Source 4
Strength matters for long-term health. A review of cohort studies found that people who did muscle-strengthening activities had a 15% lower risk of dying from any cause than people who did none, with the biggest benefit at about 30 to 60 minutes a week.4
So here's my advice as a coach: from 40, start thinking about muscle. The UK's Chief Medical Officers advise all adults to do strength exercise at least two days a week.5 Do some strength training twice a week and keep at it. A good coach can help you start safely.
And eat proper meals with enough protein in them.
Every Forty Grams bowl is high in protein, with at least 40 g in each one. Protein contributes to a growth in muscle mass. Protein contributes to the maintenance of muscle mass.
Our bowls are food, not a treatment for anything. The research on this page is about how bodies change, not about what our food does. For advice about the menopause, your hormones or your health, talk to your GP.
Why 40 g
A clear number. A proper meal
Every bowl starts with 40 g of protein or more. Here's why that number, and what protein does, in the words UK law lets us use.
- Building
Protein contributes to a growth in muscle mass.
- Keeping
Protein contributes to the maintenance of muscle mass.
- Bones
Protein contributes to the maintenance of normal bones.
These are the approved health claims for protein. We can use them because every one of our bowls is high in protein.
How much protein a day?
The UK reference for adults is 0.75 g of protein for every kilo you weigh, every day.6 People who train need more. The International Society of Sports Nutrition puts it at 1.4 to 2.0 g a kilo a day for most people who exercise.7
Why in one go?
The same experts advise 20 to 40 g of protein a meal, spread every 3 to 4 hours across the day.7 And the old idea that your body can only use 20 or 30 g at a time doesn't hold up: in a 2023 study, a big 100 g dose after exercise gave a bigger, longer muscle-building response than 25 g.8 So 40 g a meal is a simple number that counts. Three or four meals like that, and most people who train are well on the way, without shakes doing all the work.
Your rough number
That's about 3 to 4 meals of 40 g a day.
A rough guide from the figures in sources 6 and 7, not a plan for you. Your needs depend on you and your training. A coach or dietitian can help.
Every bowl starts at 40 g of protein. All three go past it. See the menu
We weigh what matters
Honest labels
"High protein" is a low bar
Protein is on the front of everything now: bars, shakes, crisps, cereal. Here's what the words on the pack actually mean.
The rule
20%
To call food "high protein" in the UK, at least 20% of its calories have to come from protein. That's all.
A 200 kcal snack bar needs just 10 g of protein to say it.
Read the back
Plenty of protein bars and shakes get there with added sugars, syrups, sweeteners and long lists of ingredients you wouldn't cook with. The front of the pack says protein. The back tells you the rest.
Our bowls
40g+
Proper meals: chicken, beef or paneer, with beans, veg, rice and real sauces, weighed and cooked locally, never frozen. At least 40 g of protein in every one, and the full label on every lid.
Counting calories?
Every lid shows the kcal, carbs and fat as well as the protein, so you know exactly what you're eating before you open it.
Weighed, not guessed
Every gram has a job
Nutritious, filling meals with real ingredients. Every recipe is weighed and every bowl is portioned on scales, so the numbers on the lid are the numbers in the bowl.
170g
Chicken breast in every Chicken Poke 40, weighed raw.
175g
5% fat beef mince in every Chipotle Beef 40, weighed raw.
280g
Paneer, chickpeas and Skyr in every Paneer Tikka 40: 80 g, 80 g and 120 g.
Paneer Tikka 40
on cauliflower rice
- kcal
- 622
- Carbs
- 42g
- Fat
- 28g
Use by
What's on every lid
- Protein, always the biggest number.
- kcal, carbs and fat, always in that order.
- The base the bowl comes on. There's one per bowl, so the lid always matches what's inside.
- The use-by date for that batch.
- Allergens in bold on the full label. Everything is made in a kitchen that handles all 14 allergens, including nuts and peanuts, so if you have an allergy, ask us before you buy.
Cooked locally
Made here. Never frozen
We cook to order, in small batches, in a local restaurant kitchen. The bowls are chilled fast and kept at 0–5°C in cool boxes all the way to you, or to a stockist's fridge. A Forty Grams bowl never goes in a freezer.
Honest about frozen
The bowl is never frozen, but like most kitchens we buy a few ingredients frozen: the peas, edamame and sweetcorn, and the cauliflower rice is cooked from frozen. We'd rather tell you than hide it.
Local, as we grow
Today it's cooked locally. As we grow, we'll buy more of our ingredients from suppliers near the kitchen, and we'll only say "local ingredients" once it's true.
Cooked to order
Small batches, in a local restaurant kitchen.
Chilled fast
Cooled quickly, straight after cooking.
Cool boxes
Kept at 0–5°C, all the way to you.
Your fridge
Use by 3 days, counting the day it's cooked.
A fair price
Good food. A fair price. No fuss
Proper food shouldn't be a treat you save up for. One price wherever you buy, less in a pack, and a flat price for each delivery.
- From £6.50 a bowlA single bowl is £9.00 everywhere. Packs of 5, 10 or 15 bring it down, and your first order can be a taster: one of each bowl for £24.00. See the packs
- No subscriptionOrder when you want. Repeat it every week if you like: nothing to sign up to, nothing to cancel.
Local jobs
Every bowl makes local jobs
Good food at a fair price, and fair pay for everyone who makes it happen. Every bowl pays the people who cook it, drive it, stock it and recommend it, all of them local. The more bowls we sell, the more work there is near you. Forty Grams keeps a small slice to keep going.
The kitchen
Paid for every bowl it cooks, in a local restaurant kitchen.
The driver
At least the National Living Wage for every hour, whatever their age, plus their miles.
Gyms and shops
15% of every bowl they sell, on sale or return, so they never pay for a bowl that doesn't sell. Stock us
Personal trainers
50p for every bowl their clients order with their code, for 12 months. How it works
Forty Grams
A small slice, to keep going and to open the next fridge. No big cuts.
No waste
Good food deserves another chance
The plan: anything unsold is collected from the stockist's fridge on its last day, before its use-by date, and passed on the same day to a local charity that feeds people who are homeless or going without. We'll name the charity once it's chosen.
- Never past its dateFood past its use-by date isn't safe to eat, and the law treats it that way. We'll never give it away, not even a day late.
- Labels stay onEvery bowl will keep its full ingredients and allergen label, so whoever eats it knows exactly what's in it.
- Chilled all the wayFrom the stockist's fridge to the charity's fridge, kept cold the whole way. It'll never be left out.
Working towards
Better, one step at a time
Things we want to be true. We'll only claim them once they are.
Local ingredients
Today the bowls are cooked locally. As we grow, we'll buy more of what goes in them from suppliers near the kitchen.
Tubs you can recycle
We're testing tubs and lids that can go in your recycling at home, and we'll switch when we find ones that keep the food right.
Fewer food miles
We only deliver within 20 miles of our kitchen. As we grow, the aim is more local kitchens, so food travels less.
One day: a green range
A long way off, but on the list: a range where everything is organic.
Fair to everyone. Not just the customer
Sources
- UCLA Health, How muscle mass changes after menopause and what you can do, 28 May 2026.
- Greendale and others, Changes in body composition and weight during the menopause transition, JCI Insight, 2019 (the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation).
- nidirect (Northern Ireland government), The "male menopause".
- Momma and others, Muscle-strengthening activities are associated with lower risk and mortality in major non-communicable diseases, British Journal of Sports Medicine, 2022.
- UK Chief Medical Officers' Physical Activity Guidelines, 7 September 2019 (University of Bristol).
- British Nutrition Foundation, Nutrition requirements, 2021.
- International Society of Sports Nutrition, Position stand: protein and exercise, Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 2017.
- Trommelen and others, The anabolic response to protein ingestion during recovery from exercise has no upper limit in magnitude and duration in vivo in humans, Cell Reports Medicine, 2023.