Protein to Low

jazzy550

My trainer is getting on me about my lack of protein and too high of fat. Any recipes here for high protein low fat dishes? This morning I actually made a oatmeal bowl and ended being 57 grams of protein! LOL! But I need help or other ideas!

lemurcat2

What is your protein goal, and how much do you usually get? Sometimes people think they need super high amounts when they don't. (Good rule of thumb is around 0.8 g per lb of a healthy goal weight if losing/trying to gain muscle, and active.) Was the 57 g your total for the day or from one bowl (if so, that's quite a lot for breakfast -- did you add a lot of protein powder?).

Anyway, my tips for adjusting macros is to look at your past few days or weeks and see where you are getting lower protein and higher fat (higher fat isn't necessarily bad, but I'm assuming you are using too many cals on that vs. protein). Sometimes what happens is that people get a lot of cals in snacks, and haven't figured out higher protein snacks, or else that they neglect to get protein in breakfast and lunch. One easy thing to do is just eat smaller portions of the higher fat foods and larger portions of the higher protein foods (and if your higher protein foods also have lots of fat, think of leaner options.)

Protein should be pretty easy to get plenty of if you eat meat or even dairy/eggs. If you do, and are struggling with getting protein without lots of extra fat, think about leaner cuts of meat, low or no fat dairy. (I personally don't recommend egg whites although some do -- eggs have lots of fat with the protein but it's easy to eat them with lower fat foods like vegetables or fruit or grains.)

If you are 100% plant-based it's more challenging but there are still lots of lower fat protein options (pretty much everything but nuts and seeds) -- tofu/tempeh, seitan, and of course beans and lentils are all good sources of plant-based protein, and there are plant-based protein powders.