Need ideas for foods high in protein

sunflowerblues13

Hello,

I am a 49 yo male who within the past year lost most of my muscle mass due to an illness. During that time, trying to stay the muscle loss, I began eating meat (was a vegetarian for 15 years). I ended up gaining fat, but no muscle, and ended up 20 pounds past my running/fitness weight.

I am currently recovered from the illness, and 82 days ago began using fitpal to lose the excess fat/weight. Before the illness I was a fit 5/10k runner, also doing some occasional ultra marathons, so having the discipline to record a negative daily calorie intake was not too difficult to achieve (all 82 days have been neg). This week I reached my goal/running weight, but have achieved just a slight increase in muscle mass. I don't lift free weights, but do consistent bar exercises - pullups, dips, pushups, situps, calf raises. The past month I have consistently done 15 sets of these exercises (takes ~2 hours to complete), and from past experience 15 sets should be increasing my muscle mass.

Being a vegetarian, and only recently converted to meat, the next step in my plan to increase muscle mass is to increase protein intake. I believe eating pork/chicken/beef will increase my percentage, but would like some advice on other protein dense foods which people know about. I have increased my intake of eggs, and also have been eating the Clif Protein Bar after workouts.

Now that I am nearing 50, perhaps my body will just remain skinny due to that illness, but I am gong to keep trying to build up some mass regardless - I love a difficult challenge!

galgenstrick

Age doesn't matter. You can get lean and strong if you eat and train right.

1. You won't build much or any muscle while trying to lose fat. You can maintain what you have by eating in a moderate deficit, resistance training, and eating enough protein.

2. For the best results you need to focus on compound lifting, it sounds like the exercises you're doing are pretty good, but if you can get a dip belt so you can increase the weight you're lifting over time that would be even better. If you can start free weight training and hop on a good program like starting strength or stronglifts 5x5 that would be ideal.

3. You're right about protein. You need to eat enough to support your training. About 0.8-1g per pound of body weight. If your find it difficult to meet that goal with meat and dairy, then buy a quality whey protein powder and use that to hit your protein goal.

4. Focus on losing the fat first while retaining your muscle by doing what I said above. Once you're around 10-12% body fat, you want to slowly increase your calories until you're in a surplus (gaining weight at about 0.5 to 1 pound per week). This is where you're going to start gaining a lot of muscle and seeing your strength increase.

lemurcat12

sunflowerblues13 wrote: »

Being a vegetarian, and only recently converted to meat, the next step in my plan to increase muscle mass is to increase protein intake. I believe eating pork/chicken/beef will increase my percentage, but would like some advice on other protein dense foods which people know about. I have increased my intake of eggs, and also have been eating the Clif Protein Bar after workouts.

This may be too obvious, but fish/seafood and lowfat dairy (especially greek yogurt and cottage cheese) are two sources I rely on a lot that you did not mention.

galgenstrick

Btw, I found quest bars to taste better and have lower calories than cliff protein bars. They are about 150-190 calories depending on the flavor and have 20g protein.

You can also make you're own protein bars easily. I like to use oats, egg white, whey protein, can of pumpkin, pumpkin pie spice, stevia (or brown sugar or maple syrup), baking powder, baking soda. There are tons of recipes online, and if you buy an unflavored unsweetened protein powder you can pretty much add as much of that as you want to any of those protein bar recipes.

Steve_ApexNC

soy (edamame) beans/tofu
chicken, fish (tuna, halibut, salmon), lean beef, pork loin
greek yogurt

MKEgal

You could also use your favorite search engine & enter the string:
what foods are high in protein

Of course, then you have to wade through the results & ignore the ones from unreliable sites.
Here are some that should be pretty decent.
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/ultimate-list-40-high-protein-foods.html
http://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/guide/good-protein-sources
http://www.choosemyplate.gov/food-groups/protein-foods.html

Kalikel

I have a relative who ran his first marathon in his 60s and picked up a little muscle while training. He was always slim, but not athletic and somehow got a bee in his bonnet about not being active, so hello marathons!

At 69, his wife told him that if he ran another one, he'd better keep on running because he wasn't coming home. She was done watching the toll it was taking, lol. So he quit the marathons, but is 73 and still running. He has great legs for a guy his age.