About to hit a nutrition wall.

RaeYballe

I'm looking for ideas to add variety to my diet. My doctor has me on a high protein, low carb, low fat diet. Trying to get 130g of protein each day while keeping my carbs below 100g.

The biggest struggle is getting my daily protein. I use protein shakes as a meal supplement. At home I rely on low carb frozen meals. At work, I'm mostly eating green beans, broccoli, zucchini, grilled chicken, or some kind of white fish.

Suggestions for other protein sources?

queenliz99

Eggs and Greek yogurt

RodaRose

High protein and low fat and low carb are unusual and hard to follow and can be hard on the body. Are you sure what the doc wanted? Can you eat fat/oils.

Low fat protein foods include shrimp & lobster.
Maybe filet mignon and pork chops and turkey.

ninerbuff

Your doc may have it wrong here. Maybe try the ratio 30/40/30 to your calorie intake.

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Sued0nim

Why has your doctor put you on such an odd macro combination? What's the medical condition? Is there any chance you misunderstood? Is this a primary care physician or a specialist?

If you want low carb your protein and fats generally increase

Fat and protein are both minimums even when not on low carb

Hope you get to the bottom of this

azulvioleta6

Low fat for a medical reason?

I did what you are doing for a long time. Increasing the fat* really helped me, but I am still generally under the daily MFP limits and have no medical reason to further restrict fat. In the year since I have been doing that, my cholesterol actually went DOWN and my good:bad ratio improved too.

130g protein and under 100g carbs is very doable, even without protein shakes. You can feel free to poke around my diary as I am usually around those numbers, but my tracking has been spotty and my diet a bit off track for a month or two. ER...maybe just look at this week or WAY back.

Eggs and Greek yogurt are both very good suggestions. I would add: cottage cheese, turkey (burger, breast, etc.), shrimp, tuna (home canned is amazing), and salmon. Other seafood would be great on occasion too--clams in white wine sauce? Mussels in a tomato herb broth? If you eat beef and pork, leaner cuts could probably be worked into your diet as long as you aren't having those every day.

You can probably have *some* cheese, nuts and other dairy, even with fat limitations. Check out things like fresh mozzarella, fresh Latin American cheeses (panela, queso fresco) and mini babybels.

Legumes are fairly high in carbs, but I find that I can add them in limited amounts and still end up well under 100g of carbs/day. For example, a couple of days ago I had a green salad with chicken, an ounce of feta cheese and 2 ounces of garbanzos. Today I had a turkey taco salad--I mixed 75g of kidney beans into the meat/veggie/spice mixture. I guess that what I am doing is pairing a couple of different proteins together in most of my meals.

Getting some protein at breakfast also seems to be key, both in hitting nutritional goals and feeling good throughout the day. I love cottage cheese with a limited amount of low-GI fruit, usually 2-4 ounces. A breakfast fritatta or tortilla espanola is another thing that you can do with lots of veggies. You can pre-prep those and bake (instead of frying) in the morning while you do other things--it's really pretty simple...use non-stick spray on a cake pan and bake at 350F. Reduce the yolks and cook without oil/butter and that can be fairly low in fat.

Good luck!

*started eating more full-fat dairy and added bacon to my diet

azulvioleta6

RodaRose wrote: »

High protein and low fat and low carb are unusual and hard to follow and can be hard on the body. Are you sure what the doc wanted? Can you eat fat/oils.

Low fat protein foods include shrimp & lobster.
Maybe filet mignon and pork chops and turkey.

Doctors are not nutritionists, and lots of them still give this advice even if it isn't necessary...particularly if they were around in the no-fat 90s. It's hard to break out of that paradigm.

My mother is a retired doctor...she eats a ridiculously low-fat diet and takes cholesterol medication. I really wonder if she would actually need the medication if she stopped being so restrictive on the healthy fats.

Of course the OP may have a specific situation that warrants the recommendation.

RaeYballe

I was just recently diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes and have at least 100 lbs to lose (long term). I don't have high cholesterol or hypertension.

I'm actually under the care of an endocrinologist who specializes in weight loss and uses the integrated team approach. So as part of my care there is also a nutritionist, a nurse, and other specialists.

The macros are correct. No misunderstanding.

RaeYballe

Low fat, not no fat. So I can still have mayo, guacamole, etc. - just not in large quantities. I will ask the next visit. I suspect part of it is that some of the high fat foods are often eaten with high carb foods.

FWIW - this regimen seems to be working for me. It's easy to follow. But there is only so much chicken, fish, eggs and yogurt a girl can eat.

amusedmonkey

Lots of vegetables is what I have always liked for variety. You could take the same protein and make it in more than 100 different ways by introducing new vegetables and spices to each recipe.

Examples:
Teriyaki chicken with carrots and broccoli
Lemon chicken with artichoke
Chicken white chili
Chicken with mushroom sauce and caramelized onions
Chicken cutlets with cauliflower mash
Garlic chicken with asparagus
Moroccan style chicken with eggplants and tomatoes
...etc

Same with beef, eggs, fish, pork, seafood, even duck if your low fat diet can handle it.

MelissaPhippsFeagins

Low fat cottage cheese with granola for breakfast. Or an egg white omelet with lots of veggies you like.

berolcolour

Peas! Protein and fibre and lo fat. I like them with light Philadelphia and mint sauce.

I also add soya milk to protein shakes to up the protein and add different flavours to make the shakes less boring and more dessert - banana, unsweetened cocoa and peanut butter (you don't need a lot, I know it's not lo fat) are some of my favourites.

TavistockToad

RaeYballe wrote: »

Low fat, not no fat. So I can still have mayo, guacamole, etc. - just not in large quantities. I will ask the next visit. I suspect part of it is that some of the high fat foods are often eaten with high carb foods.

FWIW - this regimen seems to be working for me. It's easy to follow. But there is only so much chicken, fish, eggs and yogurt a girl can eat.

cottage cheese, sea food, 5%fat mince, cous cous is fairly high in protein, minced turkey thigh is delicious, not sure if its low enough fat for you?

otherwise i think you're going to have to just get creative with the meats you know you can have

RaeYballe

@amusedmonkey that is an awesome list!! Thanks for the inspiration.

cee134

Tons of vegetables. You will get almost half your protein from around 8 servings of vegetables and fruit a day.

Also when you eat carbs, check out the grain: Millet. I have replaced almost all my grains with things like millet, (or quinoa, amaranth, etc.)
Millet and Other Whole Grains Substantially Lower Type 2 Diabetes Risk [1] so instead of eating alot of refined breads/pasta/rice substitute whole grains like millet (when you do eat those carbs).

lemurcat12

There are lots of lean meats besides chicken and white fish. Oily fishes really aren't that high fat, shellfish (inc shrimp) is super low fat, turkey is low fat (I cooked a boneless, skinless breast in the crock pot and used it for several days, many cuts of pork are low fat, some cuts of beef are (including 95% lean ground beef, of course), game meats will typically be low fat. Other options are soybean-based foods (like tofu), beans and lentils (although watch the carbs), low fat or no fat dairy (cottage cheese, greek yogurt), and egg whites (one egg plus several egg whites can be a tasty alternative to whole eggs in an omelet if you are watching fat).

Onesnap

I would suggest lean protein. Check out www.dailygarnish.com for recipes that are vegetarian but which also have lean protein sources like beans and tofu. Plus you can eat things like turkey chili (makes great leftovers).

extra_medium

egg whites, protein powder

StarryJD

Legumes! Lentil soup, lentil salad, beans, garbanzos. Lentils + lean chicken sausage is a good combo

B4Rachael

My husband has type 2 and i think that to understand what you should/shouldn't eat you should watch this video. You don't have to switch your diet completely but it will help you understand how type 2 uses the food you provide your body.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktQzM2IA-qU&list=PLEBYagizSOCTLrX1XPPWl5CIWr5-LcqrL&index=1

Tackling diabetes with a bold new dietary approach: Neal Barnard at TEDxFremont

jemhh

Do you have

RaeYballe wrote: »

Low fat, not no fat. So I can still have mayo, guacamole, etc. - just not in large quantities. I will ask the next visit. I suspect part of it is that some of the high fat foods are often eaten with high carb foods.

FWIW - this regimen seems to be working for me. It's easy to follow. But there is only so much chicken, fish, eggs and yogurt a girl can eat.

Do you have a gram or calorie limit for fat? It's hard to make a recommendation because I'm not sure what "low fat" means, number-wise.

RaeYballe

Thanks for all the suggestions. This week I'm going with Korean bulgogi, kimchi and lettuce.