High Protein Low Calorie Diets

slothlorien
slothlorien Posts: 3 Member
edited March 23 in Food and Nutrition
Is anyone else struggling to get high protein and lower calories?

I'm trying to maintain my muscle and optimize fat loss. From what I've heard, in order to do this, it's a combo of resistance training, calorie deficit and high protein (to keep muscle mass).

Right now, my calorie deficit limit is around 1600 calories a day, but I'm trying to get up to 150g of protein each day. I've only hit this goal once and had to have protein oatmeal and drink a protein shake.

Anyone else struggle with this? What high protein foods do you eat that fit into your calorie goals?

Replies

  • wunderkindking
    wunderkindking Posts: 1,615 Member
    It took me a long time but a combo of adding deli chicken/turkey (low cal, high protein, and convenient), cottage cheese, yogurt, and protein oatmeal did it. It takes all of those + one real 'piece of meat' meals.

    I was super low before because I didn't realize that some 'common' protein sources just aren't that impressive (eggs, for example) when compared to their calorie density.

    But for me I HAD to add the dairy stuff.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,521 Member
    Yeah well it might be a bit of a Rubik's Cube with those goals. 150g protein on 1600 skews things. Are you getting exercise? That should give you more than 1600 calories to play with.'

    Here's the protein list thread:

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10247171/carbs-and-fats-are-cheap-heres-a-guide-to-getting-your-proteins-worth-fiber-also/p1
  • slothlorien
    slothlorien Posts: 3 Member
    cmriverside wrote: »
    Yeah well it might be a bit of a Rubik's Cube with those goals. 150g protein on 1600 skews things. Are you getting exercise? That should give you more than 1600 calories to play with.'

    Here's the protein list thread:

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10247171/carbs-and-fats-are-cheap-heres-a-guide-to-getting-your-proteins-worth-fiber-also/p1

    Yeah I do workout around 4x a week and guess I usually burn 200-300 calories so on those days, I stick to around 1800. Thanks for sharing this, it's super helpful!
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  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    150 grams of protein daily is overkill...like way overkill unless you're training like an elite bodybuilder or something...even then, it would be questionable. 1 gram of protein per lb of LBM is the high end...and even then, not remotely necessary for the average person looking to put on or maintain a little muscle and working out some. The resistance training is actually going to be far more important than getting in copious amounts of protein. At some point, you're just making expensive glucose and that protein isn't actually working for you.
  • slothlorien
    slothlorien Posts: 3 Member
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    150 grams of protein daily is overkill...like way overkill unless you're training like an elite bodybuilder or something...even then, it would be questionable. 1 gram of protein per lb of LBM is the high end...and even then, not remotely necessary for the average person looking to put on or maintain a little muscle and working out some. The resistance training is actually going to be far more important than getting in copious amounts of protein. At some point, you're just making expensive glucose and that protein isn't actually working for you.

    I'm 190 lbs right now so even at 0.8 gram/lb of body weight that's 152g protein. I'm not trying to gain more muscle necessarily, but I think in the long run, it's better for me to maintain as much muscle as possible. I think I could still manage decent fat loss with around 110-120g but even that's quite a lot.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,887 Member
    slothlorien wrote: »
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    150 grams of protein daily is overkill...like way overkill unless you're training like an elite bodybuilder or something...even then, it would be questionable. 1 gram of protein per lb of LBM is the high end...and even then, not remotely necessary for the average person looking to put on or maintain a little muscle and working out some. The resistance training is actually going to be far more important than getting in copious amounts of protein. At some point, you're just making expensive glucose and that protein isn't actually working for you.

    I'm 190 lbs right now so even at 0.8 gram/lb of body weight that's 152g protein. I'm not trying to gain more muscle necessarily, but I think in the long run, it's better for me to maintain as much muscle as possible. I think I could still manage decent fat loss with around 110-120g but even that's quite a lot.

    The typical recommendation is 1 g/lb of lean mass or 0.8 g/lb of a healthy goal weight. For me, that's a pretty easy to get 95-100. You could certainly be much larger than me (height), but then 1600 wouldn't be the ideal goal if one were trying to retain lean mass.

    That said, look at your diary and see your sources of protein and increase them. If they also come with lots of fat, consider leaner options (lean meat and low fat dairy are easy if you aren't vegetarian/vegan). If you have meals/snacks with little protein, change that up -- when I was losing I tried to make sure I had at least 30 g in each meal, which was easy enough (I don't snack, if you do include protein in those too).
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