How to get more protein
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So i had this issue and brought it up last weekend and got great advice. Hard boiled eggs, tuna, ground turkey, lean chicken, greek yogurt were where I started and it helped boost my protein count and I have felt *so much better* this week. I hated adding the whey into my smoothies, it made them texturally unappealing.
Good luck! Once I started hitting and exceeding the MFP count (which is the minimum you should be going for btw) my energy evened out and my mood improved considerably.2 -
egg whites2
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1. Eggs
2. Bacon
Repeat.3 -
I love coffee so i will get a starbucks drink and sip it about halfway and then refill the cup with a container of premier protein pre-mixed drink0
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Cottage cheese, homemade protein bars, yogurt, egg whites, boneless skinless chicken thighs.0
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I have a handful of protein-heavy snacks I turn to when I am trying to get to my protein macro goal...
- Dannon Oikos Triple Zero Greek yogurts (coffee flavor is my favorite, some don't taste that great)... 120 calories, 15g protein, and only 14g of carbs.
- Tuna salad snack (made with fat free Greek yogurt, garlic salt, pepper, and a squeeze of lemon) eaten with celery stalks (I skip the bread).
- Questbars are great, around 20g protein and between 170 and 210 cal. in the various bars (+ lot's of fiber). I also recently discovered their Quest Chips, 130 cal. and 21g protein.
- Protein shakes (lot's of good options out there, skip trying to make it into a smoothie which adds too many calories and carbs). I use Optimum Nutrition's Platinum Hydrowhey, 140 cal. and 30g protein per scoop (designed for fast absorption after lifting weights).
- Also, on occassion, I enjoy Optimum Nutrition's cake bites. The red velvet flavor is 230 cal. with 20g protein.
For main courses, I primarily focus on fish options. I like recipes with shrimp, it's easy to add and remove the number of shrimp based on how much protein you need (but be careful if you have high cholesterol).
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As others have said, it totally depends on what your protein goal is!
Mine's 135-155g a day (different for training and rest days), and I struggle to meet it without shakes, bars etc because of the sheer volume of e.g. chicken breast I'd have to eat, and how that would make me feel.
I know I should get more natural protein rather than relying on processed supplements, but eh. This way works for me.2 -
hollyshealthylife wrote: »FYI - cottage cheese is high sodium, and for the life of me, I can find low fat but not low sodium. Greek yogourt has a bit more protein than cottage cheese, with little/no sodium.
Cheese, in general, is very high salt (and makes a huge difference in flavor). I accidentally bought No-Salt-Added cottage cheese once - most disgusting tasting thing ever. On the flip of that, my boyfriend adds a huge amount of extra salt above and beyond what is in the typical cottage cheese (apparently, with the added salt, it's close to a cheese he commonly ate with patacones back home).
It was Friendship brand, but since dairy is usually from regional suppliers (and this dairy is indeed a New York State dairy), you probably don't have it by you.
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I started tracking macros last week too. Here are my favorite go-to's for protein:
Fage 2% mixed with Quest protein powder (it's delicious!)
Chicken breast, lean beef, shrimp
Eggs (i eat a couple of hardboiled eggs a day)
Beef jerky
String cheese
Protein powder mixed with coffee or cashew milk (Quest is my fave right now)
Peas, broccoli and edamame
edit to add: Peanut powder (I found one at Costco that has more protein than PB2)1 -
Boars head Canadian bacon from deli counter. Greatness!1
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Get a protein bar there is one called
Syntha 6 protein bar it tastes really god it has about 20 g if am not mistaken
I get them from amazon1 -
hollyshealthylife wrote: »FYI - cottage cheese is high sodium, and for the life of me, I can find low fat but not low sodium. Greek yogourt has a bit more protein than cottage cheese, with little/no sodium.
Cheese, in general, is very high salt (and makes a huge difference in flavor). I accidentally bought No-Salt-Added cottage cheese once - most disgusting tasting thing ever. On the flip of that, my boyfriend adds a huge amount of extra salt above and beyond what is in the typical cottage cheese (apparently, with the added salt, it's close to a cheese he commonly ate with patacones back home).
It was Friendship brand, but since dairy is usually from regional suppliers (and this dairy is indeed a New York State dairy), you probably don't have it by you.
And realizing I didn't actually respond to the OP... lowfat cottage cheese is my main goto for adding protein with minimal additional calories.
My breakfast is usually 2% Greek Yogurt and a Clif-esque bar (made with protein powder added). (Lots of protein, but lower grams/calorie) 0-1% greek yogurt would match or best the cottage cheese (but [1] I taste-wise prefer my yogurt with mix-ins having some carbs, and [2] also use peanut butter in the mix-in bar since I often come up low in fat and it holds the bar together, and [3] the store/cheap brand at my usual store is 2%).1 -
my most common protein sources:
ETA: correction: the chicken thighs should say 112 grams.1 -
And fish is extremely high protein/calorie as well. (I don't eat it as often because $$$).1
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Tuna , chicken , yoghurt , quark , eggs.0
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I find the target harder to reach if I skip protein in any meal.1
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If you are trying to keep calories low while getting plenty of protein, it probably means more about cutting calories from another macro category to make sure you've got room for the protein calories.
It totally depends on your personal protein goals. My protein goal is 150g, and my calorie goal is 2000 calories per day. That means that 30% of my calories should come from protein.
So when I plan my meals, generally speaking I'm shooting for 30-40% of my calories in that meal to come from protein (that allows me some calories that are not tied to protein goals, or in case I over eat or have a glass of wine or something).
That also means that for each meal, I'm very aware of which items in the meal are helping me with that goal or making it hard to meet that goal. While I don't have anything against carbs per se, I don't find it difficult to get enough carbs, so I tend to give foods that are high in carbs but low in protein the side-eye or to be very controlling about portion size (lookin' at you, white rice). I eat oatmeal almost every day, but I am careful to eat a small portion to keep the calories down and leave me more calories "leftover" for protein in that meal.
I have a friend on here who complains that she can't hit her protein goal. She also bakes cookies and bread all the time. I love cookies and breads too!!! But eating lots of those things is a choice that does make it hard to get plenty of protein when you're trying to stay w/in your calorie budget.
That said, I do eat a little pot of (real, strained) Greek yogurt nearly every day. It's a huge bump in protein all at once for a very reasonable amount of calories, and it's a tasty treat too.0 -
caralynnbrothers wrote: »I am just starting macro counting and it seems impossible to get enough protein, any suggestions?caralynnbrothers wrote: »I am just starting macro counting and it seems impossible to get enough protein, any suggestions?
Frozen tuna steaks, bang a couple in the oven watch your protein macros skyrocket !!1
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