How to get more protein in my diet?

jillc1807 wrote: »

I eat pretty healthy for the most part (minus a cheat meal or snack here or there); but I always come up short on my protein amount every day.

What can I eat that will be high in protein, but not blast my calories?
I don't want to do any shakes or powder, I want real foods.

I usually have some form of all this stuff most days: eggs, Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, nuts, meats (chicken breast, tuna, steaks, pork chops).

What is your protein goal? If it's realistic, it's hard to believe that you are not getting enough protein if you are eating legitimate sized portions of all of these foods daily. Have you verified that the entries you are choosing from the database are accurate? If so, the only other suggestion I have is to eat larger portions or more of the things you are already eating. I aim to eat around 100g of protein daily. Most of my protein comes from the same source as what you listed, except that I do add a protein bar or whey powder for breakfast most days, which accounts for 15-20g of protein. I almost never have problems exceeding my protein goal.

In looking at your diary, your target is 155 grams of protein...IMO, that is excessive. The general rule of thumb for the high end is 1 gram per Lb of LBM. For me that comes out to around 0.8 grams per Lb of body weight. I try to just stick to a range of 120 - 145 grams per day. It's likely you're going to have issues hitting that target without supplementation unless you just have a lot of chicken breasts laying around and easily accessible.

Eat more protein rich foods. I'm vegetarian (and I eat pretty healthy and only drink water) and I can reach over 220-250+ grams of protein on a diet lower than 2000 calories a day (that's with 2 scoops of protein powder). Without protein powder, then I can get to about 170-200 grams. Although, it's pretty useless eating a lot of protein/more than your body actually needs. If your goals are building muscle then eat 0.5g-1g per lb of body weight.

Also plain egg white. Low cal, high protein.

What's your weight and estimated body fat %? Find how many pounds of lean body mass you have, then eat between 1 and 1.4 times that in protein. For example, if you're 130 lbs and 25% body fat, you have ~97 lbs lean body mass and would want to eat about 100-135g of protein. More than that wouldn't help in supporting your muscle and would just be used as energy. (Disclaimer: I don't know if/how breastfeeding changes your protein needs.)

Beef seems to be a good calorie/protein ratio. A couple days ago I measured out a little 93/7 (extra lean) burger patty.. the little guy was only 2oz. In that 2oz I had 114 calories and 19 grams of protein for a total cost of 37.5cents (the meat was $3/#). At $2/dozen for large eggs 2 eggs cost me 33.4cents with 140 calories and 12 grams of protein. If you get your eggs cheaper than $2/dozen then that would be a cheaper source of protein. My protein goal is 70 per day. I would have to eat a dozen eggs ($2) or that beef would cost me $1.38 to reach my protein goal. The calories consumed in the dozen eggs would be 840, and the calories for beef would be 420. So beef is the quicker, cheaper, way to get to your protein goal. I think that % of ground beef is normally $5/#.. so if you paid that much it would cost $2.32/day for 7.4 ounces.