Actor Chae Jeong-an, 48, shares her morning diet combination for satiety and weight management

Actor Chae Jeong-an, 48, has revealed the diet she follows ahead of filming — boiled eggs for protein, tomato juice with olive oil, and a salad with figs and vegetables. The combination of protein, produce and healthy fat is reasonably well-balanced, though portion sizes still matter for weight management.

Chae recently shared her pre-filming routine on her YouTube channel, Chae Jeong-an TV, showing herself stretching before sitting down to boiled eggs, tomato juice and a fig salad.

"Every morning I make sure to have tomato juice or carrot juice," she said. "In winter I warm it up and drink it like a soup."

What stands out about Chae's diet — she is listed at 172 centimeters tall and 48 kilograms — is that rather than simply cutting portions, she builds each meal around foods rich in protein and dietary fiber.

Boiled eggs for protein help curb morning hunger. Eggs are a high-quality protein source containing all essential amino acids. Boiling them requires no cooking oil, making calorie control relatively straightforward.

Protein also promotes satiety. A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials published in Physiology & Behavior found that protein intake reduced short-term hunger and cravings while increasing feelings of fullness, with associated changes observed in satiety-related hormones including GLP-1 and cholecystokinin. However, research on the long-term effects of high-protein diets remains inconsistent, meaning more protein does not automatically translate to greater weight loss.

Adding eggs to breakfast can help manage hunger, but eggs alone do not cause weight loss. Total daily calorie intake and the overall composition of meals must also be in order.

Adding olive oil to tomatoes boosts lycopene absorption. The combination of tomatoes and olive oil that Chae favors is also nutritionally well-matched.

Lycopene, the pigment that gives tomatoes their red color, is a fat-soluble carotenoid. Consuming it alongside fat can improve absorption in the body.

A randomized crossover trial in healthy adults found that drinking tomato juice with olive oil significantly raised blood lycopene levels compared with plain tomato juice. Research also suggests that heating or processing tomatoes helps release lycopene from the food's cellular structure, further improving bioavailability.

Warming tomatoes in winter and adding a small amount of olive oil, as Chae does, is therefore a practical approach worth adopting.

Olive oil is still a fat, however, and is calorie-dense. Its unsaturated fat content does not make it calorie-free, and adding it without restraint raises the overall energy content of a meal. For those focused on weight loss, the amount of oil or dressing added to a dish deserves as much attention as the vegetables themselves.

Figs add fiber, but dried varieties require portion control. The figs Chae adds to her salad provide both water and dietary fiber.

According to the Cleveland Clinic, figs contain dietary fiber along with several nutrients including potassium, magnesium, copper and manganese. Dietary fiber supports gut health and regular digestion, and adds bulk to meals, helping to sustain fullness.

Fresh and dried figs can differ considerably in sugar content and calories for the same serving size, because drying concentrates sugars and nutrients into a smaller volume as moisture is removed. The Cleveland Clinic recommends consuming dried figs in moderation given their sugar content.

In practice, adding a few slices of fresh fig to a salad and snacking continuously on dried figs are two very different propositions in terms of total intake.

Even healthy foods can fall short if portions are inadequate — the full day matters more than any single meal. Chae's disclosed diet draws protein from boiled eggs, dietary fiber and micronutrients from tomatoes, figs and vegetables, and fat from olive oil.

For those managing their weight, building meals around protein and fiber can help maintain satiety more effectively than simply eating less.

That said, a single meal snapshot is not enough to assess someone's overall daily diet. For people with high activity levels, insufficient carbohydrates or total calories can affect exercise performance and recovery.

The key to Chae's approach lies not in any single ingredient but in the combination — pairing eggs with vegetables, fruit and a small amount of healthy fat is a practical model. For weight management, however, choosing nutritious foods matters just as much as calibrating total intake to match one's own level of physical activity.