Protein: I can't get enough!
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Kerryatoon
Posts: 374 Member
Hey everyone, I'm at the very early stages of what I hope will evolve into heavy weight lifting although I've been doing body weight exercises for several months and Shred for a few weeks. I am 5'5" at 148 lbs and want to start recomp while continuing to lose a bit more BF. I recently recalculated my TDEE (slightly higher than 1200 MFP had me at). I'm still transitioning to 1390 at a 25% deficit, estimated at 1lb loss/week. I used the formulas in this group and my personal consistent tracking over 10 weeks to get my TDEE and my Protein, Fat & Carb macros so I feel fairly confident in my numbers.
THE PROBLEM: I am consistently falling short of my protein goals. On average I'm about 30g+ short daily and when I get closer to my goal I usually end up going over on my calories. I'm not opposed to using protein shakes but I would rather learn to get it from nutritious whole foods. I feel like I'm eating a lot of lean meats, cheese, yogurt, eggs, nuts etc.. but its not enough.
Do you have any suggestions on ways to increase my protein through diet? If you think I need and you suggest protein shakes, can you explain why its necessary? Also any experience with brands and types is appreciated.. I need an economical option. Thanks!
THE PROBLEM: I am consistently falling short of my protein goals. On average I'm about 30g+ short daily and when I get closer to my goal I usually end up going over on my calories. I'm not opposed to using protein shakes but I would rather learn to get it from nutritious whole foods. I feel like I'm eating a lot of lean meats, cheese, yogurt, eggs, nuts etc.. but its not enough.
Do you have any suggestions on ways to increase my protein through diet? If you think I need and you suggest protein shakes, can you explain why its necessary? Also any experience with brands and types is appreciated.. I need an economical option. Thanks!
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I'm going to guess that if you're having a hard time staying within your calories while reaching your protein target, you're getting too much dietary fat that's tagging along with that protein.
For example, cheese and nuts aren't ideal as a choice to get in additional protein unless you have a high calorie target. They both have a decent amount of fat, and so consequently the protein to calorie ratio on them is pretty bad.
Zero fat greek yogurt, lean fish like tilapia and shrimp, you could do eggs and add in additional egg whites to volumize the meal and add in additional protein, chicken breast are some examples of foods that will have a much better protein:calorie ratio.
Look for proteins that have very low fat along with them and start eating larger quantities of those and see if that makes it easier.2 -
At first this makes sense, I recently transitioned from Keto so I'm used to looking for fat where I can get it. I'll try incorporating more lean proteins.
However, I looked at my macros for the last 2 weeks and I'm not reaching my fat goals either.
I currently have them set at
C:35%, F:35%, P:30%
120g, 55g, 109g (respectively)
Those percentages were determined using the calculations in this group and an estimated LBM of 109lbs.
I did notice something however, when I look at my grams of fat & protein, I'm not meeting either consistently. But when I look at the percentages MFP uses, my fats are usually over my 35% and protein under 30%. I'm also not reaching my 1390 cals/day, probably because I'm used to eating 1200 and I'm falling close to that most days. I suppose I should work on reaching my cal goals and lowering the fats in my protein sources at the same time. (Im noticing it is difficult to increase calories after being at 1200 for months.)
Any thoughts appreciated!!0 -
low- or no-fat cottage cheese is a great protein source that is very versatile in recipes and good eaten plain if you prefer...2
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Aha!! Thanks
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