Hello

mim528
mim528 Posts: 1 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi
I've just joined the community. Any tips on how to increase natural protein in my diet? I seem to end up low on protein/high on fat!
Thanks.

Replies

  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,404 Member
    Here's a thread with a great chart of the top 185 high protein foods on a spreadsheet:

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10244142/list-of-foods-with-highest-protein-calorie-percentage/p1
  • recover808
    recover808 Posts: 13 Member
    edited March 2023
    I just joined too. No idea MFP had this community lol

    Can you give more info? What is your goal? what your diet looks like at the moment? What do you actually mean by getting more protein? Are you opposed to supplements?

    Easy answer is eat more of your protein sources. Take calories out of your diet from fat and just eat more of the lean protein you are already eating daily.

    If you are able answer a few of the questions above im sure you will be able to get a more specific answer

    Aloha
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,133 Member
    Don't just get protein from one big protein item per meal. Do that plus choose other foods for sides, snacks, beverages, etc., that have at least a little protein in them. Little bits add up, on top of the bigger contribution of those main sources.

    Look at your diary. Notice foods that have relatively many calories, but that aren't super important to you (in their current portion size) for feeling full, getting other nutrition, or just for happiness while sticking to your calorie goal. Eliminate those foods, or reduce their portion size or frequency. That frees up a few calories. Find foods you like that have more protein for the calories than the ones you reduced or eliminated, and eat those more often instead.

    You can use the thread Riverside linked (which is great) to identify protein sources you may not have thought of.

    Repeat the process of diary review and food-habit adjustment until you're hitting your protein goal pretty consistently via new, routine eating habits.

    That is how I gradually got myself to a minimum of 100g protein daily, as a vegetarian, without using protein powder, bars or other supplements. (I don't think there's anything wrong with using those, I just don't personally find them tasty or satisfying. Other people do.) For people who eat meat and fish, the process should be even easier, because some of the most efficient protein choices are meat/fish, plus eggs and dairy.
  • bathsheba_c
    bathsheba_c Posts: 1,873 Member
    How much protein are you looking to add? I ask because MFP’s default is actually slightly higher than the amount of protein you need, I suspect because people losing weight have an easier time restricting calories when they’re eating more protein.

    If you’re looking at ways to slightly increase your protein, try eating more green vegetables and legumes.
  • sollyn23l2
    sollyn23l2 Posts: 1,751 Member
    bathsheba_c wrote: »
    How much protein are you looking to add? I ask because MFP’s default is actually slightly higher than the amount of protein you need, I suspect because people losing weight have an easier time restricting calories when they’re eating more protein.

    If you’re looking at ways to slightly increase your protein, try eating more green vegetables and legumes.

    Just a note: Green vegetables are not going to increase your protein. The amount they contain is, at best, minimal. They're mostly carbohydrates. Which isn't bad, but different
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,133 Member
    bathsheba_c wrote: »
    How much protein are you looking to add? I ask because MFP’s default is actually or slightly higher than the amount of protein you need, I suspect because people losing weight have an easier time restricting calories when they’re eating more protein.

    If you’re looking at ways to slightly increase your protein, try eating more green vegetables and legumes.

    Great point: It's always good to ask what people are shooting for, because it's true that some people over-estimate their requirements.

    But it seems rare, to me, that the MFP default percent is overkill in grams, for someone losing weight: When we shoot for a smaller number of calories, the same number of grams of protein will require a higher percent of the total calories. We don't need fewer grams of protein just because we're losing weight.

    Setting in percentage terms, any given percent can be too few grams, just about right, or more than essential, depending on how the person has set their calorie goal.
  • zebasschick
    zebasschick Posts: 1,067 Member
    if i'm working out, i shoot for over 100 grams of protein per day. i'm a 5'4" woman and a vegetarian, btw.

    good protein sources for me that don't include protein powder or protein bars include eggs, egg whites, cottage cheese, yogurt, skim milk, soy beans, tofu, tempeh. if you're a meat eater, there's stuff like tuna, chicken breasts, fish and pretty much any lean meat.

    some protein powders only have like 3 ingredients, none of them artificial. muscle feast brand whey protein isolate uses stevia for sweetening (stevia is a plant), and it uses milk from cows that are grass-fed.
  • bathsheba_c
    bathsheba_c Posts: 1,873 Member
    sollyn23l2 wrote: »
    bathsheba_c wrote: »
    How much protein are you looking to add? I ask because MFP’s default is actually slightly higher than the amount of protein you need, I suspect because people losing weight have an easier time restricting calories when they’re eating more protein.

    If you’re looking at ways to slightly increase your protein, try eating more green vegetables and legumes.

    Just a note: Green vegetables are not going to increase your protein. The amount they contain is, at best, minimal. They're mostly carbohydrates. Which isn't bad, but different

    Most green vegetables are 20-30% protein by calories. Also, if you eat more vegetables during a meal, that’s likely to supplant other, lower-protein foods.
  • sollyn23l2
    sollyn23l2 Posts: 1,751 Member
    bathsheba_c wrote: »
    sollyn23l2 wrote: »
    bathsheba_c wrote: »
    How much protein are you looking to add? I ask because MFP’s default is actually slightly higher than the amount of protein you need, I suspect because people losing weight have an easier time restricting calories when they’re eating more protein.

    If you’re looking at ways to slightly increase your protein, try eating more green vegetables and legumes.

    Just a note: Green vegetables are not going to increase your protein. The amount they contain is, at best, minimal. They're mostly carbohydrates. Which isn't bad, but different

    Most green vegetables are 20-30% protein by calories. Also, if you eat more vegetables during a meal, that’s likely to supplant other, lower-protein foods.

    Exactly *by calorie*, but those vegetables have, say, 15 calories per cup. That's, in reality, a miniscule amount of protein. You'd have to eat pounds of vegetables to get any real amount of protein.
  • bathsheba_c
    bathsheba_c Posts: 1,873 Member
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    bathsheba_c wrote: »
    How much protein are you looking to add? I ask because MFP’s default is actually or slightly higher than the amount of protein you need, I suspect because people losing weight have an easier time restricting calories when they’re eating more protein.

    If you’re looking at ways to slightly increase your protein, try eating more green vegetables and legumes.

    Great point: It's always good to ask what people are shooting for, because it's true that some people over-estimate their requirements.

    But it seems rare, to me, that the MFP default percent is overkill in grams, for someone losing weight: When we shoot for a smaller number of calories, the same number of grams of protein will require a higher percent of the total calories. We don't need fewer grams of protein just because we're losing weight.

    Setting in percentage terms, any given percent can be too few grams, just about right, or more than essential, depending on how the person has set their calorie goal.

    The recommended daily protein intake for adults is 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight. I’m aiming to lose 1 lb per week and using the default macronutrient settings, and MFP wants me to eat 1 gram per kg of body weight, or 25% more than the amount I actually need.
  • recover808
    recover808 Posts: 13 Member
    Are you working out as well or planning to just use diet to lose that 1 lb a week?

    If strength training I would stay on the higher side of protein and cut carbs/fat to stay at your calorie goals. Keeping lean muscle while losing fat should be the priority so the extra protein will help with that.

    If you aren’t worried about keeping muscle while you diet then don’t worry about the protein amount and focus on staying in a calorie deficit

    Good luck
    Aloha
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,133 Member
    bathsheba_c wrote: »
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    bathsheba_c wrote: »
    How much protein are you looking to add? I ask because MFP’s default is actually or slightly higher than the amount of protein you need, I suspect because people losing weight have an easier time restricting calories when they’re eating more protein.

    If you’re looking at ways to slightly increase your protein, try eating more green vegetables and legumes.

    Great point: It's always good to ask what people are shooting for, because it's true that some people over-estimate their requirements.

    But it seems rare, to me, that the MFP default percent is overkill in grams, for someone losing weight: When we shoot for a smaller number of calories, the same number of grams of protein will require a higher percent of the total calories. We don't need fewer grams of protein just because we're losing weight.

    Setting in percentage terms, any given percent can be too few grams, just about right, or more than essential, depending on how the person has set their calorie goal.

    The recommended daily protein intake for adults is 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight. I’m aiming to lose 1 lb per week and using the default macronutrient settings, and MFP wants me to eat 1 gram per kg of body weight, or 25% more than the amount I actually need.

    Personally, I'd hesitate to generalize from 1 case. If you tried to lose faster, which some here are doing - perhaps unwisely in some cases - MFP would be wanting you to eat less than that 1g per kg. Whether that still hits your recommendation of 0.8g/kg is a question. We don't know how much protein OP is trying to get, at what calorie level, or at what body size.

    0.8g per kg is indeed a common mainstream recommendation for average sedentary adults, but usually the context is avoiding deficiency, not optimizing outcomes. There is reasonable evidence that someone who is losing weight, aging, vegetarian, active (not just strength training, but other kinds of active as well) or pregnant/lactating may potentially benefit from getting more than that 0.8g/kg. Evidence-based recommendations range somewhat, but for some specialized situations research suggests it may be as high as 3.3g/kg, though that's unusual. More protein than 0.8g/kg is not risky to consume, within reason, as long as a person doesn't have any relevant health conditions (such as kidney disease).

    I'm not going to belabor details about that here, but will offer a couple of links for those who may want more information.

    A general research summary from a site generally regarded as neutral, with links to relevant research:
    https://examine.com/guides/protein-intake/
    A specific mainstream recommendation for one of the subgroups I mentioned (aging people . . . a particular case I care about, because I am one):
    https://www.jamda.com/article/S1525-8610(13)00326-5/fulltext

    To underscore, though: I think you and I differ on the amount of protein we'd prefer to consume, or what we'd recommend to others. More important, in my mind, though, is that we have very insufficient information about OP and OP's protein goal on which to speculate about the reasonableness of that goal.

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