Protein for pescatarians

Jesschi8
Jesschi8 Posts: 3 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I’ve been trying to include protein (fish, eggs, dairy, nuts, or beans) at every meal, but I am still somehow not coming close to my protein goal most days. Does anyone have any tips on how to up pescatarian protein—without adding too many extra calories? Thanks!!

Replies

  • Stormywinter
    Stormywinter Posts: 23 Member
    Have you tried adding seeds like flax, hemp or chia to the top of meals to increase the protein?
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,011 Member
    How many grams are you getting and how many are you aiming for?
  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
    Egg whites. 150 calories of eggbeaters delivers 30 grams of protein.

    What kind of fish are you eating? Tuna is pretty high protein per calorie I believe.

    How much do you need?

    I hit most of my goal today between an egg white frittata, yogurt, and flounder.
  • Jesschi8
    Jesschi8 Posts: 3 Member
    Sorry, should have added more details: I’m trying to lose weight and currently have a calorie goal of 1400 per day. MFP has therefore calculated that I should be eating 80g of protein per day.

    Today, as an example, I ate:

    Breakfast:
    Yogurt
    Sliced almonds
    Peach

    Lunch:
    Salmon poke
    Peach
    Banana bread

    Snack:
    Apple and peanut butter

    Dinner:
    Zucchini noodles with shrimp
    Orange

    I feel like that’s a LOT of good protein sources but somehow I only came in at 60g (which is an improvement over days this week where eating similarly, or swapping tofu, eggs or beans for the fish in some instances, I still only came in at like 40/50).

    Also, I was slightly over my calorie limit (stupid banana bread in the office kitchen that I couldn’t resist, but that’s a different post) so I did walk a few miles to earn calories back—but regardless, at 1400 calories a day there’s not much room to add food.
  • MikePTY
    MikePTY Posts: 3,814 Member
    Jesschi8 wrote: »
    Sorry, should have added more details: I’m trying to lose weight and currently have a calorie goal of 1400 per day. MFP has therefore calculated that I should be eating 80g of protein per day.

    Today, as an example, I ate:

    Breakfast:
    Yogurt
    Sliced almonds
    Peach

    Lunch:
    Salmon poke
    Peach
    Banana bread

    Snack:
    Apple and peanut butter

    Dinner:
    Zucchini noodles with shrimp
    Orange

    I feel like that’s a LOT of good protein sources but somehow I only came in at 60g (which is an improvement over days this week where eating similarly, or swapping tofu, eggs or beans for the fish in some instances, I still only came in at like 40/50).

    Also, I was slightly over my calorie limit (stupid banana bread in the office kitchen that I couldn’t resist, but that’s a different post) so I did walk a few miles to earn calories back—but regardless, at 1400 calories a day there’s not much room to add food.

    How much salmon and shrimp did you have? How much protein did it tell you. It seems like you should be getting quite a lot from those two.
  • Jesschi8
    Jesschi8 Posts: 3 Member
    MikePTY wrote: »
    Jesschi8 wrote: »
    Sorry, should have added more details: I’m trying to lose weight and currently have a calorie goal of 1400 per day. MFP has therefore calculated that I should be eating 80g of protein per day.

    Today, as an example, I ate:

    Breakfast:
    Yogurt
    Sliced almonds
    Peach

    Lunch:
    Salmon poke
    Peach
    Banana bread

    Snack:
    Apple and peanut butter

    Dinner:
    Zucchini noodles with shrimp
    Orange

    I feel like that’s a LOT of good protein sources but somehow I only came in at 60g (which is an improvement over days this week where eating similarly, or swapping tofu, eggs or beans for the fish in some instances, I still only came in at like 40/50).

    Also, I was slightly over my calorie limit (stupid banana bread in the office kitchen that I couldn’t resist, but that’s a different post) so I did walk a few miles to earn calories back—but regardless, at 1400 calories a day there’s not much room to add food.

    How much salmon and shrimp did you have? How much protein did it tell you. It seems like you should be getting quite a lot from those two.

    The salmon was from a prepackaged Trader Joe’s bowl which listed 11g of protein. Shrimp was 5 pieces at 15g.
  • justanotherjenn
    justanotherjenn Posts: 64 Member
    NovusDies wrote: »
    Egg whites. 150 calories of eggbeaters delivers 30 grams of protein.

    What kind of fish are you eating? Tuna is pretty high protein per calorie I believe.

    How much do you need?

    I hit most of my goal today between an egg white frittata, yogurt, and flounder.

    Oh that's a good idea! I never thought of doing just egg whites for less calories, but more protein.
  • MikePTY
    MikePTY Posts: 3,814 Member
    Jesschi8 wrote: »
    MikePTY wrote: »
    Jesschi8 wrote: »
    Sorry, should have added more details: I’m trying to lose weight and currently have a calorie goal of 1400 per day. MFP has therefore calculated that I should be eating 80g of protein per day.

    Today, as an example, I ate:

    Breakfast:
    Yogurt
    Sliced almonds
    Peach

    Lunch:
    Salmon poke
    Peach
    Banana bread

    Snack:
    Apple and peanut butter

    Dinner:
    Zucchini noodles with shrimp
    Orange

    I feel like that’s a LOT of good protein sources but somehow I only came in at 60g (which is an improvement over days this week where eating similarly, or swapping tofu, eggs or beans for the fish in some instances, I still only came in at like 40/50).

    Also, I was slightly over my calorie limit (stupid banana bread in the office kitchen that I couldn’t resist, but that’s a different post) so I did walk a few miles to earn calories back—but regardless, at 1400 calories a day there’s not much room to add food.

    How much salmon and shrimp did you have? How much protein did it tell you. It seems like you should be getting quite a lot from those two.

    The salmon was from a prepackaged Trader Joe’s bowl which listed 11g of protein. Shrimp was 5 pieces at 15g.

    Hmm.. That's not much shrimp. I am assuming they were small? If you are having about 6 ounces cooked, that should be around 40 grams of protein.

    Also while salmon is a great fish, it's not as much bang for your buck in protein as tuna or white fish, since it has a higher fat content so more calories to get your protein.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    Jesschi8 wrote: »
    MikePTY wrote: »
    Jesschi8 wrote: »
    Sorry, should have added more details: I’m trying to lose weight and currently have a calorie goal of 1400 per day. MFP has therefore calculated that I should be eating 80g of protein per day.

    Today, as an example, I ate:

    Breakfast:
    Yogurt
    Sliced almonds
    Peach

    Lunch:
    Salmon poke
    Peach
    Banana bread

    Snack:
    Apple and peanut butter

    Dinner:
    Zucchini noodles with shrimp
    Orange

    I feel like that’s a LOT of good protein sources but somehow I only came in at 60g (which is an improvement over days this week where eating similarly, or swapping tofu, eggs or beans for the fish in some instances, I still only came in at like 40/50).

    Also, I was slightly over my calorie limit (stupid banana bread in the office kitchen that I couldn’t resist, but that’s a different post) so I did walk a few miles to earn calories back—but regardless, at 1400 calories a day there’s not much room to add food.

    How much salmon and shrimp did you have? How much protein did it tell you. It seems like you should be getting quite a lot from those two.

    The salmon was from a prepackaged Trader Joe’s bowl which listed 11g of protein. Shrimp was 5 pieces at 15g.

    That's not what I would consider a full serving of salmon. For example, "Fish, salmon, sockeye, cooked, dry heat, 4 ounce" is 192 calories and 29 grams of protein.
  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    Jesschi8 wrote: »
    MikePTY wrote: »
    Jesschi8 wrote: »
    Sorry, should have added more details: I’m trying to lose weight and currently have a calorie goal of 1400 per day. MFP has therefore calculated that I should be eating 80g of protein per day.

    Today, as an example, I ate:

    Breakfast:
    Yogurt
    Sliced almonds
    Peach

    Lunch:
    Salmon poke
    Peach
    Banana bread

    Snack:
    Apple and peanut butter

    Dinner:
    Zucchini noodles with shrimp
    Orange

    I feel like that’s a LOT of good protein sources but somehow I only came in at 60g (which is an improvement over days this week where eating similarly, or swapping tofu, eggs or beans for the fish in some instances, I still only came in at like 40/50).

    Also, I was slightly over my calorie limit (stupid banana bread in the office kitchen that I couldn’t resist, but that’s a different post) so I did walk a few miles to earn calories back—but regardless, at 1400 calories a day there’s not much room to add food.

    How much salmon and shrimp did you have? How much protein did it tell you. It seems like you should be getting quite a lot from those two.

    The salmon was from a prepackaged Trader Joe’s bowl which listed 11g of protein. Shrimp was 5 pieces at 15g.

    That's not what I would consider a full serving of salmon. For example, "Fish, salmon, sockeye, cooked, dry heat, 4 ounce" is 192 calories and 29 grams of protein.

    This. The salmon and shrimp were both appetizer portions. Nothing wrong with that if you are going to rely more heavily on plant proteins but if you are looking for seafood protein you have to eat more of it.
  • Marzetta42
    Marzetta42 Posts: 8 Member
    Wow....great info on here!!!!
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    Jesschi8 wrote: »
    Sorry, should have added more details: I’m trying to lose weight and currently have a calorie goal of 1400 per day. MFP has therefore calculated that I should be eating 80g of protein per day.

    Today, as an example, I ate:

    Breakfast:
    Yogurt
    Sliced almonds
    Peach

    Lunch:
    Salmon poke
    Peach
    Banana bread

    Snack:
    Apple and peanut butter

    Dinner:
    Zucchini noodles with shrimp
    Orange

    I feel like that’s a LOT of good protein sources but somehow I only came in at 60g (which is an improvement over days this week where eating similarly, or swapping tofu, eggs or beans for the fish in some instances, I still only came in at like 40/50).

    Also, I was slightly over my calorie limit (stupid banana bread in the office kitchen that I couldn’t resist, but that’s a different post) so I did walk a few miles to earn calories back—but regardless, at 1400 calories a day there’s not much room to add food.

    As others have said, that should have easily been enough unless the servings of salmon and shrimp were small. Yogurt has more if it's greek yogurt (and more per cal if lower fat).

    Seems like the salmon poke may have gotten a lot more of its cals from ingredients other than salmon. I buy poke from a place in my office building sometimes and salmon or tuna poke will usually be about 30 g protein.

    Usually to increase protein without increasing cals just look at your diary and increase portions of protein sources while decreasing portions of other foods.

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