How to eat more protein?

melaniecheeks

Just had a look at your diary.

Leaving aside the calories are set so low, make sure if you're really keeping an eye on protein that the values you pick from the database are all there - you had a whole load of nuts the other night but the protein value shown was zero. The daatbase is very incomplete at times, don't rely on it for accuracy.

cjsacto

Which Protein shakes do you find most palatable?

The ones you can't taste because you have lots of other stuff in the shake... I don't care for the taste either, though i want to try one someone recommended that is unflavored.

JAT74

It's really hard to keep the calories low and unfortunately I know my body and I am unable to eat more than 1000 calories per day without putting on weight.

I gained the weight I'm carrying now (over the past 2-3 years by eating healthily 80% of the time (Christmas aside!) and I was eating around 1300-1600 calories per day on average which left me pretty full up. I ate plenty of vegetables and protein with every meal plus most of my snacks were fairly healthy. I only ate whole grains most of the time too and although I did have more high carb snacks/alcohol at weekends during the week my diet was pretty good. For whatever reason my body can't tolerate more calories and my body fat shoots right up.

I watched a documentary last night and I've read research to say that people who eat a very low calorie diet live longer and are able to maintain a low body weight/body fat eating this way.

Personally I am currently drinking Promax diet shakes as they're low carb but I can't have more than one per day as I can't afford to.

Bronx_Montgom I'll bear in mind what you've said. Everyone I know who's fit/slim in reality doesn't eat a lot and I don't think that 980 cals is very low. Yesterday I did the 30 day shred workout 1 and that's hardly a very long/very intensive workout. If I did something more strenuous I'd eat a little more.

CougarVic1

Peanut butter is high in protein.

nexangelus

It's really hard to keep the calories low and unfortunately I know my body and I am unable to eat more than 1000 calories per day without putting on weight.

Really? Are you really small? 1000 cals is really low. I mean it is one step up from a VLCD. (very low calorie diet) Are you eating the right things in the right proportions. Too much sugary things and you probably won't shift the weight for example.

GetFitCarly

Greek yogurt is good

alexbusnello

sprouts!

I'd love me some sprouts right now. Mmmmmm

alexbusnello

Greek yogurt is good

VERY good

JAT74

I know about sugar and heathly eating, I've got a Diploma in the subject and theoretically it should be as simple as following scientific principles but in my case it just doesn't work quite so easily.

What works for some doesn't necessarily work for others and I'm not one of these people who eats loads and denies it. I am quite small framed but I'm carrying a very high percentage of body fat and not a lot of muscle. My mum is exactly the same. She's a UK size 8 but is very flabby despite exercising regularly and eating very healthily. It's in my genes and all I can do is my best to change the situation.

I have been battling my weight problems really since the age of around 16 or 17. That's when I realised that even by eating well I would gain weight. As a student my healthly eating went completely out the window and I ate nothing buy junk food take aways and drank 6 units of alcohol per night as a minimum and of course my weigh ballooned so when I changed my eating habits to eating normally again I was able to lose a lot of that weight very easily.

The problem I have now as I get older is getting my body fat down and I'm probably also carrying quite a lot of water. Not a week goes by when I don't work out for at least 3 days but that along with eating well 80% of the time at what is considered to be a normal level just doesn't work for me.

I have now decided to try increasing my protein and cutting my carbs right down because I really don't know what else I can do.

jallen47

I just read your dairy and you need to eat more. I am sorry that I sound like I am being your dad but if you really want to be "Healthy" You need to eat more than just 980 calories a day. You are starving your body. I don't even recommend people doing 1200 cals especially if you work out. I am surprise you can even get through a workout with only 980 cals a day. Please go to bodybuilding.com or add woman with similar workouts and goals as you so that you can get some input. I have a some great female friends who work hard and eat hard. You can check them out. They are ChitownFoodie and love4fitnesslove4food

True story! There is a great equation to use to calculate your daily caloric need which takes into account your body weight, age, activity level, etc. Food is energy and your body needs it or else it will store your fat trying to preserve until the next food it receives instead of burning it. Also you risk losing muscle instead of building it. This is a tricky concept for most people as we are trained to think that losing weight means you cut down on you calories drastically. If you'd like that equation, let me know and I'd be more than happy to type it out for you

JAT74

I'm 5'4" by the way with a 27 inch waist even now and at my very heaviest it didn't go above 30% Most of my fat is on my upper arms, boobs and thighs/bum. I'm an hourglass shape

JAT74

I've already done the equation suggested in another post and according to that I should be eating 1400 calories to maintain my current waight based on my current measurements/body fat and age etc. which sounds about right. On that site it said that I could go 30% below that number in order to still be healthy and to lose weight fairly quickly.

I don't want to eat back all the calories I burn off if I exercise so I would eat a little more if I trained on that day but not a lot more.

jallen47

Out of curiosity, when you say you gain weight, is this based on a scale reading or by body measurements? If you are working out regularly and eating well then you may just be gaining muscle weight which is more dense than fat. So, as you may be burning fat, you are also gaining muscle which may cause the scale to not budge at all. I struggled with this probably the most out of all the changes I was making when I first began my fitness journey. I still do on occasion

sandradev1

Fage Total 0 yoghurt.

^^^ This^^^ I use it everyday to bump up my protein intake to my macro goal.

As other posters have already said though. I would also concentrate more on healthy the right amount of calories for your body to exist and perform the exercise that you do. Check your TDEE and eat up to 20% reduction of this, so long as the resulting figure is above your BMR. This is a more healthy and sustainable way for your body.

Bronx_Montgomery

I know about sugar and heathly eating, I've got a Diploma in the subject and theoretically it should be as simple as following scientific principles but in my case it just doesn't work quite so easily.

What works for some doesn't necessarily work for others and I'm not one of these people who eats loads and denies it. I am quite small framed but I'm carrying a very high percentage of body fat and not a lot of muscle. My mum is exactly the same. She's a UK size 8 but is very flabby despite exercising regularly and eating very healthily. It's in my genes and all I can do is my best to change the situation.

I have been battling my weight problems really since the age of around 16 or 17. That's when I realised that even by eating well I would gain weight. As a student my healthly eating went completely out the window and I ate nothing buy junk food take aways and drank 6 units of alcohol per night as a minimum and of course my weigh ballooned so when I changed my eating habits to eating normally again I was able to lose a lot of that weight very easily.

The problem I have now as I get older is getting my body fat down and I'm probably also carrying quite a lot of water. Not a week goes by when I don't work out for at least 3 days but that along with eating well 80% of the time at what is considered to be a normal level just doesn't work for me.

I have now decided to try increasing my protein and cutting my carbs right down because I really don't know what else I can do.

What foods where you eating before? I mean what you said makes absolutely no sense to me. Especially the fact that you read or heard somewhere that keeping a low calorie is ideal and that it helps you live longer. In what world does that work. Look im sorry if I sound rude but I just hate to see someone fall for the misconceptions that eating less than 1000 calories a day is the right way to lose weight. Your body needs food to survive. Eating less than that will not make you live longer. Thats a bunch of Horse S**T. I would like to see this article that you saw this in.

JAT74

Actually I use a Tanita body fat scale but my body fat just seems to creep up and up and according to that scale it's now almost 40% which is sickening. I have another scale which measures me in kilos and on that scale my body fat it a little lower but not much.

When I did the calculations suggested on another site to get a more accurate idea based on my measurements it said that my body fat was 27.5%. It's hard to know what to believe but either way it's way too high. I have some body fat calipers which you use with a skinfold too and they are reading 35%.

JAT74

Ok here's an example of my diet before, due to the portion sizes this easily amounted to 1300-1500 calories and I would see weight gain of approximately 2-3 pounds per month at a guess:

Breakfast
2 pieces of whole wheat toast with a thin spread of marmite on one and peanut butter on the other
or
A medium bowl of cereal with a small amount of nuts and made with skimmed milk
plus half a glass of fruit juice

Lunch
Main meal of the day so usually consisted of carb/protein/vegetables in approximately equal quantity although there were many times when I skipped the potatoes or the rice/bread and just increased the vegetable.

I rarely ate dessert except for weekends when I'd have a bag of low fat crisps and half a small bar of chocolate as a treat.

Dinner
Usually very small ie. a salad with no dressing and some protein like ham, chesse or tuna and very rarely did I have any carbs in the evening unless I went out for a meal. In this case I would switch my lunch/dinner around so I ate a lot less for lunch.

I only every drank alcohol during weekends and that would normally be 2-3 glasses of red or white wine 1-2 times per week.

I only ever had desserts when out for a special meal maybe once a month.

JAT74

Bronx_Montgom the information about eating less and maintaining a healthy weight and living a long life were on two UK tv programmes recently. Both were on respected TV channels (ie. one of the main 5 UK channels).

Judging by my own experience of people I know it does seem to make sense. Thin people I know eat a lot less than we're told to eat and this generally consists of one main meal (which they never fully finish) and one or two very small snacks which cannot amount to more than 800-1000 calories per day. They have great muscle tone and a low body fat percentage. I've noticed that if they do have a bad day when they eat a lot more they make up for it the following day by eating a lot less.

Ok most of these people don't exercise and I know that if I am doing a lot of training this wouldn't be enough but I sit down ALL day for my work and I literally mean sit down doing nothing but typing on a PC or speaking on the phone. Even an hour of exercise after a very sedentary lifestyle cannot increase my calorie burning capacity by much, surely.

tcunbeliever

I don't think low calorie will hurt you, if you listen to your body and you aren't like passing out in between meals, or exhausted all the time then you are probably eating enough. I would say get a good bottle of flax seed oil (refrigerated, and keep it refrigerated, The Vitamin Shoppe has it for like $11 a bottle) and have a tablespoon a day - your body really needs the healthy omega fats to keep your metabolism from crashing over the long haul, so this might help with the fat burn. As for protein sources for snacks almonds are awesome and very portable, they do pack a pretty high calorie punch if you eat a lot of them, but most days 12 almonds will do me for a snack, filling and good energy. Mushrooms - good protein, low calorie/fat, not as portable, but if you cook them in a crock pot in some broth and wine with some italian seasoning they taste awesome and if you have a snack size sealed bowl they travel ok. Tuna, easy to find cans at a decent price and I think they even make snack size portions, just some salt/pepper and lemon juice made a decent snack, crackers or toast are optional. Good luck!

KatherineStar

How about quinoa?i make a batch of it on a Sunday and it lasts through the week, very versatile and is a whole protein