Food Diary / hitting protein goal - without protein shake
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[1] Ditto on - Probably don't need 40% (especially if you have a lot of added exercise calories). Calculate recommended grams as above, and just make sure you meet that regularly. (same for fat as well; and otherwise let the macros fall where they may).
[2] possible ways to up protein based on your log yesterday:
1st breakfast: protein added milk in the coffee instead of half & half
2nd breakfast: greek yogurt with the grapes, maybe in place of the cheese stick
elevenses: more yogurt
dinner: sub 90/10 or 85/15 for 80/20 ground beef (will significantly up the protein to fat ratio of the burger)
supper: greek yogurt with the snacky things (savory for the vegetable sticks, sweeter to go with the cookie). and a meat course of some kind.1 -
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LastMinuteMama wrote: »LastMinuteMama wrote: »cmriverside wrote: »I think there's a lot to be said for pre-logging. I manipulate my macros quite a bit depending on what I feel like eating or what needs to be used in the pantry.
After a long time of logging I can pretty much hit my macros by intuition, but I have to watch salt and sugar too - that isn't as intuitive - yet! Pre-logging helps me with that.
Yes! I love pre-logging, especially if I want to make room for a treat at the end of the day!
I do that always...my secret is to log my treat first.
When I was here initially I ate a serving of chocolate every night and still managed to hit my deficit goals and macros.
so it can be done if you think it out.
I remember hitting my calorie and macro goals even using Macdonalds food items...
PS I am 48 (49 this year) and my protein goals are right around 115grams using a macro split of 40% protein for my deficit calories....or 1 gram for lean lbs or .8 grams for each lb I currently weight (appx 156lbs right now)
So smart to log the treat first!
Hmm...you're set at 40% but MFP only give you 115 grams protein. So, your calories must be lower? I don't know. It's definitely a work in progress/learning process...that's why I'm here!
I am going to figure out the lean mass calculation for comparison.
I think lots of the foods I like with protein also are high in fat. I could live off of nuts and cheese!
I set it myself under goals....
That being said yes my calories are a bit lower. I am at 1500 and my macros are 45, 25(fat) 30 (Not 40 my apologies)at the moment trying to get rid of the covid 5 I have on my frame and maybe an extra 5 for cushion.
as for lean mass that's hard to get without a scan or estimating hence the 0.8 per each lb you weigh which puts me at 125....close to the 113 I have based on 30%.
Good luck and remember most people are here to help so reach out whenever you have questions.
Thank you for all your insights! The MFP people are the best!0 -
emmies_123 wrote: »Lentil Pasta and Edamame pasta are my secret weapons. Both are great for fiber and protein, without having high fat.
Otherwise just try to add a little extra here and there to what you are already having. Have 4 oz of chicken normally? Try for 5. Add more meat to a sandwich, etc.
Ooh, I'll definitely try those pastas!!! I could also bump up the amounts of protein I'm eating at each meal!
Thank you!0 -
Peanut butter powder (defatted peanut flour) or almond butter powder are options in yogurt, oatmeal, etc., too. I don't know whether that's too close to protein powder for you, or not: I'm not a protein powder fan personally (nothing wrong with it, just don't find it tasty/satiating), but do use peanut/almond powder sometimes to get the flavor with fewer calories, and it does add a bit of protein (not as much as protein powder).
Nutritional yeast is another add-in (for soups, casseroles, etc., mostly - savory things) that adds a bit of protein. I like the flavor - vaguely but not exactly cheesy. I put it in cottage cheese when I eat the cottage cheese plain, or put it the cottage cheese on salads as a dressing. Some thicker brands of cottage cheese, the consistency is better if I add a little nonfat milk with the yeast.2 -
[1] Ditto on - Probably don't need 40% (especially if you have a lot of added exercise calories). Calculate recommended grams as above, and just make sure you meet that regularly. (same for fat as well; and otherwise let the macros fall where they may).
[2] possible ways to up protein based on your log yesterday:
1st breakfast: protein added milk in the coffee instead of half & half
2nd breakfast: greek yogurt with the grapes, maybe in place of the cheese stick
elevenses: more yogurt
dinner: sub 90/10 or 85/15 for 80/20 ground beef (will significantly up the protein to fat ratio of the burger)
supper: greek yogurt with the snacky things (savory for the vegetable sticks, sweeter to go with the cookie). and a meat course of some kind.
I don't have any significant exercise calories. I will try the lean mass method for calculating protein though. Thanks.
Good ideas....I see lots more greek yogurt in my future. We have been using 80/20 ground beef, so I will change that out....so many little things I hadn't thought of!
Thanks!0 -
Peanut butter powder (defatted peanut flour) or almond butter powder are options in yogurt, oatmeal, etc., too. I don't know whether that's too close to protein powder for you, or not: I'm not a protein powder fan personally (nothing wrong with it, just don't find it tasty/satiating), but do use peanut/almond powder sometimes to get the flavor with fewer calories, and it does add a bit of protein (not as much as protein powder).
Nutritional yeast is another add-in (for soups, casseroles, etc., mostly - savory things) that adds a bit of protein. I like the flavor - vaguely but not exactly cheesy. I put it in cottage cheese when I eat the cottage cheese plain, or put it the cottage cheese on salads as a dressing. Some thicker brands of cottage cheese, the consistency is better if I add a little nonfat milk with the yeast.
Nut powders, I've never tried those. I think they'd be great in oatmeal!
So, I should have clarified the protein powder more. If I have a shake/smoothie...I'm immediately looking for something else to eat therefore I try to avoid them. I have no problem adding the powder to something though. Not sure why I didn't think of adding them to oatmeal/yogurt/etc.
I've never heard of nutritional yeast. Sounds interesting though!
Thank you, learning so much!1 -
LastMinuteMama wrote: »[1] Ditto on - Probably don't need 40% (especially if you have a lot of added exercise calories). Calculate recommended grams as above, and just make sure you meet that regularly. (same for fat as well; and otherwise let the macros fall where they may).
[2] possible ways to up protein based on your log yesterday:
1st breakfast: protein added milk in the coffee instead of half & half
2nd breakfast: greek yogurt with the grapes, maybe in place of the cheese stick
elevenses: more yogurt
dinner: sub 90/10 or 85/15 for 80/20 ground beef (will significantly up the protein to fat ratio of the burger)
supper: greek yogurt with the snacky things (savory for the vegetable sticks, sweeter to go with the cookie). and a meat course of some kind.
I don't have any significant exercise calories. I will try the lean mass method for calculating protein though. Thanks.
Good ideas....I see lots more greek yogurt in my future. We have been using 80/20 ground beef, so I will change that out....so many little things I hadn't thought of!
Thanks!
As an aside, this is one case where the (probably inaccurate) body composition estimate from a simple BIA scale is probably close enough to be useful, assuming you can look at more than one BF% estimate from the same scale over a few days under consistent conditions, so that you don't base your protein calculations on an outlier weird day.
Once you do the math to get a protein number, the 3-5% or so probable error from the BIA device isn't of very meaningful magnitude, IMO.1 -
Count me as another vote for 40% protein being unnecessarily high.
Here's another protein calculator:
https://examine.com/nutrition/protein-intake-calculator/
I shoot for @ 500 calories of exercise per day, and when I do, using the MFP default of 20% protein aligns with the protein recommendation from examine. If I were completely sedentary, I'd need to bump it up to 30%.5 -
Lowfat cottage cheese + diced tomatoes + canned tuna + whatever you want to zhuzh up the tuna with is a good breakfast with about 30g protein. I was thinking about those single-serve pouches of tuna that come in all those flavors, and then realized hey, I have a vacuum sealer! I bet I could make those myself! And sure enough I could and did. A handful (~7) cherry tomatoes, quartered; a can of tuna; the chosen seasoning mix; all on top of a bit over half a cup of cottage cheese (136g, 1/5 of the container - I just bought a big thing of it and planned to eat this for breakfast all week) comes to ~200-250 cal depending on what you season it with.
The flavors I made were:- EBTB - you can buy premixed "everything but the bagel" seasoning, but I happened to have onion powder, garlic powder, poppyseeds, and sesame seeds so I just DIY'd it. The sesame seeds add the most calories but even so, unless you're really pouring it on, you're looking at maybe 50 additional cals.
- Vaguely-Asian Spicy - garlic powder, ground ginger, and red pepper flakes. This was a little dry, I think I would have preferred fresh garlic/ginger and a sauce like sriracha or gochujang, but liquids don't fare well in a vacuum sealer. It wouldn't have been too onerous to mix this up "live" as it were, I'm just really into meal prepping.
- Cincinnati-style chili - 3 parts chili powder to 1 part each cinnamon, cumin, clove, and allspice, with a shake of cayenne to taste. If you like Cincinnati-style chili, you will like this.
- Dill and capers - I haven't tried this one yet but I'm excited to, it's breakfast tomorrow.
- Chile-lime - I used Tajin spice blend, but if you're not prepping vacuum-sealed packets, you could use hot sauce and lime juice. I also haven't tried this one yet, but I am excited for it as well.
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kshama2001 wrote: »Count me as another vote for 40% protein being unnecessarily high.
Here's another protein calculator:
https://examine.com/nutrition/protein-intake-calculator/
I shoot for @ 500 calories of exercise per day, and when I do, using the MFP default of 20% protein aligns with the protein recommendation from examine. If I were completely sedentary, I'd need to bump it up to 30%.
Thanks! I'll check it out! I'm not gonna hit 500cals burned with yoga and a walk, so I definitely won't be going as low as 20%. Probably gonna drop it down to 30/35%.0 -
goal06082021 wrote: »Lowfat cottage cheese + diced tomatoes + canned tuna + whatever you want to zhuzh up the tuna with is a good breakfast with about 30g protein. I was thinking about those single-serve pouches of tuna that come in all those flavors, and then realized hey, I have a vacuum sealer! I bet I could make those myself! And sure enough I could and did. A handful (~7) cherry tomatoes, quartered; a can of tuna; the chosen seasoning mix; all on top of a bit over half a cup of cottage cheese (136g, 1/5 of the container - I just bought a big thing of it and planned to eat this for breakfast all week) comes to ~200-250 cal depending on what you season it with.
The flavors I made were:- EBTB - you can buy premixed "everything but the bagel" seasoning, but I happened to have onion powder, garlic powder, poppyseeds, and sesame seeds so I just DIY'd it. The sesame seeds add the most calories but even so, unless you're really pouring it on, you're looking at maybe 50 additional cals.
- Vaguely-Asian Spicy - garlic powder, ground ginger, and red pepper flakes. This was a little dry, I think I would have preferred fresh garlic/ginger and a sauce like sriracha or gochujang, but liquids don't fare well in a vacuum sealer. It wouldn't have been too onerous to mix this up "live" as it were, I'm just really into meal prepping.
- Cincinnati-style chili - 3 parts chili powder to 1 part each cinnamon, cumin, clove, and allspice, with a shake of cayenne to taste. If you like Cincinnati-style chili, you will like this.
- Dill and capers - I haven't tried this one yet but I'm excited to, it's breakfast tomorrow.
- Chile-lime - I used Tajin spice blend, but if you're not prepping vacuum-sealed packets, you could use hot sauce and lime juice. I also haven't tried this one yet, but I am excited for it as well.
Ok, I LOVE this!!! Well, I don't love cottage cheese, but I'm willing to try it again in one of these tuna recipes!
Thank you! Thank you! I do have a vacuum sealer too, but I will probably just make a batch one food prep sunday in grab n go storage containers.0 -
LastMinuteMama wrote: »goal06082021 wrote: »Lowfat cottage cheese + diced tomatoes + canned tuna + whatever you want to zhuzh up the tuna with is a good breakfast with about 30g protein. I was thinking about those single-serve pouches of tuna that come in all those flavors, and then realized hey, I have a vacuum sealer! I bet I could make those myself! And sure enough I could and did. A handful (~7) cherry tomatoes, quartered; a can of tuna; the chosen seasoning mix; all on top of a bit over half a cup of cottage cheese (136g, 1/5 of the container - I just bought a big thing of it and planned to eat this for breakfast all week) comes to ~200-250 cal depending on what you season it with.
The flavors I made were:- EBTB - you can buy premixed "everything but the bagel" seasoning, but I happened to have onion powder, garlic powder, poppyseeds, and sesame seeds so I just DIY'd it. The sesame seeds add the most calories but even so, unless you're really pouring it on, you're looking at maybe 50 additional cals.
- Vaguely-Asian Spicy - garlic powder, ground ginger, and red pepper flakes. This was a little dry, I think I would have preferred fresh garlic/ginger and a sauce like sriracha or gochujang, but liquids don't fare well in a vacuum sealer. It wouldn't have been too onerous to mix this up "live" as it were, I'm just really into meal prepping.
- Cincinnati-style chili - 3 parts chili powder to 1 part each cinnamon, cumin, clove, and allspice, with a shake of cayenne to taste. If you like Cincinnati-style chili, you will like this.
- Dill and capers - I haven't tried this one yet but I'm excited to, it's breakfast tomorrow.
- Chile-lime - I used Tajin spice blend, but if you're not prepping vacuum-sealed packets, you could use hot sauce and lime juice. I also haven't tried this one yet, but I am excited for it as well.
Ok, I LOVE this!!! Well, I don't love cottage cheese, but I'm willing to try it again in one of these tuna recipes!
Thank you! Thank you! I do have a vacuum sealer too, but I will probably just make a batch one food prep sunday in grab n go storage containers.
Enjoy! LOL. I was out of containers when inspiration struck and then I remembered the sealer, LMAO. But yeah, little to-go cups should work fine, too. I just put the tuna in the vacuum bags, I'm still weighing out my serving of cottage cheese and slicing the tomatoes fresh every morning before cutting open one of those bad boys and emptying it into the bowl with the rest of the stuff. You could use a plain Greek yogurt and make it more like a tuna salad if cottage cheese just doesn't do it for you.0 -
goal06082021 wrote: »LastMinuteMama wrote: »goal06082021 wrote: »Lowfat cottage cheese + diced tomatoes + canned tuna + whatever you want to zhuzh up the tuna with is a good breakfast with about 30g protein. I was thinking about those single-serve pouches of tuna that come in all those flavors, and then realized hey, I have a vacuum sealer! I bet I could make those myself! And sure enough I could and did. A handful (~7) cherry tomatoes, quartered; a can of tuna; the chosen seasoning mix; all on top of a bit over half a cup of cottage cheese (136g, 1/5 of the container - I just bought a big thing of it and planned to eat this for breakfast all week) comes to ~200-250 cal depending on what you season it with.
The flavors I made were:- EBTB - you can buy premixed "everything but the bagel" seasoning, but I happened to have onion powder, garlic powder, poppyseeds, and sesame seeds so I just DIY'd it. The sesame seeds add the most calories but even so, unless you're really pouring it on, you're looking at maybe 50 additional cals.
- Vaguely-Asian Spicy - garlic powder, ground ginger, and red pepper flakes. This was a little dry, I think I would have preferred fresh garlic/ginger and a sauce like sriracha or gochujang, but liquids don't fare well in a vacuum sealer. It wouldn't have been too onerous to mix this up "live" as it were, I'm just really into meal prepping.
- Cincinnati-style chili - 3 parts chili powder to 1 part each cinnamon, cumin, clove, and allspice, with a shake of cayenne to taste. If you like Cincinnati-style chili, you will like this.
- Dill and capers - I haven't tried this one yet but I'm excited to, it's breakfast tomorrow.
- Chile-lime - I used Tajin spice blend, but if you're not prepping vacuum-sealed packets, you could use hot sauce and lime juice. I also haven't tried this one yet, but I am excited for it as well.
Ok, I LOVE this!!! Well, I don't love cottage cheese, but I'm willing to try it again in one of these tuna recipes!
Thank you! Thank you! I do have a vacuum sealer too, but I will probably just make a batch one food prep sunday in grab n go storage containers.
Enjoy! LOL. I was out of containers when inspiration struck and then I remembered the sealer, LMAO. But yeah, little to-go cups should work fine, too. I just put the tuna in the vacuum bags, I'm still weighing out my serving of cottage cheese and slicing the tomatoes fresh every morning before cutting open one of those bad boys and emptying it into the bowl with the rest of the stuff. You could use a plain Greek yogurt and make it more like a tuna salad if cottage cheese just doesn't do it for you.
I'm at the weighing most everything stage too! I'm probably going to go with the greek yogurt, sorry cottage cheese!0 -
LastMinuteMama wrote: »@Justin_7272 Thank you! I copied the link from my diary...who knew it wouldn't work?
I've got meat/protein in my lunch and dinner. Breakfast is a struggle. I don't love eggs, figured greek yogurt would help, but it's not enough.
I'll look into making breakfast bars with protein powder. And yeah, I'm not opposed to the powder, just don't find them satiating.
I've found that breakfast is my difficult meal to get protein in as well. I have recently started making oatmeal and adding the protein powder to it. I especially like to add chocolate protein powder and some peanut butter. It has helped me to up the protein. I also find drinking it is not satiating for me.1 -
@LastMinuteMama - low fat cottage cheese with a banana or frozen fruit is a yummy breakfast with a good amount of protein
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TinaLeigh67 wrote: »LastMinuteMama wrote: »@Justin_7272 Thank you! I copied the link from my diary...who knew it wouldn't work?
I've got meat/protein in my lunch and dinner. Breakfast is a struggle. I don't love eggs, figured greek yogurt would help, but it's not enough.
I'll look into making breakfast bars with protein powder. And yeah, I'm not opposed to the powder, just don't find them satiating.
I've found that breakfast is my difficult meal to get protein in as well. I have recently started making oatmeal and adding the protein powder to it. I especially like to add chocolate protein powder and some peanut butter. It has helped me to up the protein. I also find drinking it is not satiating for me.
Ooh, chocolate and peanut butter oatmeal - I think I can handle that! Yum!2 -
@LastMinuteMama - low fat cottage cheese with a banana or frozen fruit is a yummy breakfast with a good amount of protein
I can't believe how many people like cottage cheese....am I doing it wrong?
I've tried it several times and it just doesn't work for me. I'm gonna have to stick with greek yogurt...even though that tastes like sour cream. 1 -
I stir an egg white into my oatmeal. No real egg taste just makes the oatmeal a bit fluffier. Not much protein but some.1
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LastMinuteMama wrote: »@LastMinuteMama - low fat cottage cheese with a banana or frozen fruit is a yummy breakfast with a good amount of protein
I can't believe how many people like cottage cheese....am I doing it wrong? I've tried it several times and it just doesn't work for me. I'm gonna have to stick with greek yogurt...even though that tastes like sour cream.
I don't like it, at all, but I've found if I add froze blueberries the blueberries freeze the cottage cheese enough to make it palatable. LOL. It helps my struggle to hit my protein goal when I tire of egg whites quite a bit. The frozen fruit is really key for me though. 1
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