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MyFitnessPal Community

What are easy ways to get 20g of protein per meal?

anxietyfairy

I feel like banging my head against a wall

Replies

AnnPT77

I'm not sure how to answer this, since I'm not sure what you've done or tried, how much protein you're trying to get, what your eating style or schedule is, what foods you like/dislike, etc.

When I was starting out:

I looked at my diaries, saw which foods that I already ate/liked that were higher in protein but calorie efficient, and increased portions or frequencies of those
I looked for things I could eat, even if not eating them now, that would add some protein, and experimented with those to find ones I liked
I found snacks, side dishes, flavoring ingredients and more that had at least a bit of protein, and put those in my regular rotation to add a bit more protein on top of main sources
At the store, I started reading labels to find things like breads with more protein, grains with more protein, cheeses that had relatively more protein, pasta with more protein, etc., and put those in my routine in place of things that had less protein. A help in this step was looking at the grams of protein in the food vs. how many total calories were in the food
I made it a point to get at least one major protein source in every meal.

Some people use protein powder or protein bars to increase their protein intake. That's fine, but I don't do that because I don't personally find those tasty and satisfying. I prefer to get protein and other nutrients from food, to the extent possible.

When I was on reduced calories, I reached the point where I was getting at least 80s-90s grams protein daily as a vegetarian. In maintenance, my daily minimum is 100g, and I usually get more than that, often up to 110-120g.

In case you haven't seen it, you might find this thread helpful for identifying calorie-efficient protein sources - it helped me:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10247171/carbs-and-fats-are-cheap-heres-a-guide-to-getting-your-proteins-worth-fiber-also

glassyo

Does it HAVE to be 20 g per meal? Can you space it out and have 5 g here and 10 there?

When I was forced to lower my carbs, I, of course had to look to upping my protein (which I should have done anyway imo) and fats. Not gonna lie, I still have a brain blockage when it comes to not eating low fat.

So, basically, I brought a couple protein snacks to eat at work (steamed chicken, baked cheese bites, string cheese) and added canned/pouched salmon/tuna/chicken mixed with avocado and no sugar added bbq sauce (to make the salmon and tuna less fishy) as an after work snack because I prefer to eat later at night.

But, yeah, I also add protein powder to my greek yogurt/cottage cheese mixture and started making protein popsicles and buying protein bars, cutting them up, and freezing them.

Ooooooh and eat a hard boiled egg every night.

It adds up!

nossmf

Twenty grams protein is a pretty low threshold to reach. To whit:

Breakfast
8oz milk: 8g
Two eggs: 12g
Total: 20g

Lunch
1.5 cups creamy tomato soup: 11g
Grilled cheese sandwich: 10g
Total: 21g

Snack
1 oz almonds: 6g
2 oz cheddar cheese: 14g
Total: 20g

Dinner
3 oz chicken or pork: 27g

This is just an example, and doesn't include all the other stuff eaten during the day. But just a few items can easily top 20g per meal. Remember, even stuff you don't think of as having protein (bread, rice, etc) often does in at least small amounts, which all add together.

CrazyMermaid1

For me it’s tricky because I don’t have a lot of calories to work with. I try for 100 g of protein but I rely on one protein drink per day for 25 g at 150 calories. I eat Costco canned chicken breast and air fry fish, both of which are high protein foods. I hope this helps