Protein

Lunch and dinner regular food, no major plan other than not too high calorie, that gets me about 70-90 total. A protein shake for breakfast and post-workout late afternoon snack is 30 each. Some times a protein bar too. Total ~155.

I usually have 3 eggs in the morning, with a stir fry in the afternoon that has 1/2 pound of ground beef. that gets me around 75g of protein. Smoothie in the evening with another 25g protein powder, thats around 100g. Plant based food gets me another 10-25 grams and I usually have a whey protein as a post workout drink. I can usually land between 125-150g. Some days its only 75g. I'd rather keep my diet healthy with plenty of plant foods and have less protein if I have to.

quiksylver296 wrote: »

Protein pancakes for breakfast gets me 60. Then I can usually eat normally and hit goal.

Is it perhaps better to space out those two scoops of whey? I see conflicting information online, some sources saying it's best for MPS to not go over 30g at once, other sources saying it doesn't matter, others saying it depends on the protein source, i.e. foods take longer to absorb so it's fine to have more protein in a single meal consisting of foods rather than a whey based meal.

I'm 5'5", 128 pounds, shooting for 100g protein minimum daily based on thinking 1g per pound lean body mass is a reasonable minimum, and am exceeding that pretty routinely in maintenance eating regular food (no protein powders/bars), even as a vegetarian (ovo-lacto) - averaging 120-130g daily most weeks. (I got somewhat less, like 80s-90s grams more often, when I was losing weight at first at a good clip, TBH.)

I do try to spread it through the day, for two reasons: That makes it easier for me to hit goal by end of day, plus there's solid evidence that protein timing is more important as we age** (I'm 66).

My AM pre-workout breakfasts (Ezekiel pita, peanut butter, kefir, milk) are 29g protein. I usually have oatmeal for breakfast (if no AM workout) or lunch, with Greek yogurt, seeds, some walnuts, plus lotsa hot skim milk in my coffee. That adds up to 38g protein, but is pretty caloric. Dinners usually involve some soy food (tofu, tofu noodles, tempeh, soy pasta), legume pasta (red lentil is my preferred one), calorie-efficient cheese, or that sort of thing.

Choosing higher-protein veggies, breads, snacks, etc., helps - the small amounts add up through the day. Looking beyond "one big protein per meal" was a big help to me in getting to my target protein levels on reduced calories.

But also: Just out of curiosity, what protein goal are you shooting for, for what current height/weight and calorie goal?

Sometimes we see folks targeting unnecessarily high protein levels, because some sources of advice can be misleading (i.e., not describe well the scenarios their recommendations assume).

I'm a believer in relatively high protein intake, but an unnecessarily high protein goal just makes life difficult at weight-loss calories. (So does targeting a too-fast weight loss rate for current body size, BTW, but no doubt you're aware of that.)

** https://www.jamda.com/article/S1525-8610(13)00326-5/fulltext