So you want to get more protein in you diet.
There’s about a million and a half reasons for a high protein diet.
If you’re trying to lose body fat, eating more protein in your diet is going to help you retain muscle, and lose only fat.
If you’re tying to build muscle, this is going to massively (no pun intended) going to help your recovery.
So how do you make sure you get enough protein in your diet to get all those juicy protein benefits, and juicier protein farts?
In this article, I’m going to give you some simple tips to make it easier for you to get more protein in your diet.
How To Get More Protein In Your Diet
Tip 1: Eat Larger Portions Of Protein
If you’re struggling to get enough protein in your diet right now.
This is my simplest and easiest trick that I implement with my online coaching clients.
Here’s how you do it.
Take an inventory of the protein you are generally eating at meals.
Let’s create a sample menu here.
Meal 1: A 2 Egg Omelet with cheese and vegetables – Approximately 13 grams of protein
Meal 2: A Turkey Sandwich with 4 oz of deli turkey meat – Approximately 20 grams of protein
Meal 3: A grilled chicken breast with potatoes and broccoli – Approximately 22 grams of protein
Meal 4: A protein shake – Approximately 20 grams of protein.
This totals to a measly 75 grams of protein.
Now at the end of the day, you’re going to be scrambling to find some high protein snacks to get that number up.
But here’s the truth, you don’t need more snacks.
What if we took all those serving sizes and doubled them?
Let’s take the omelet. We can add some liquid egg whites to your whole eggs to get double the protein there.
Your turkey sandwich, stack that Bad Larry with 8 ounces of turkey.
Slap two chicken breasts on your plate for dinner.
Last but not least, use a double scoop of protein powder for a thick shake.
You’ve now doubled your protein intake, without having to change anything besides portion sizes.
You’re still eating the same foods you already enjoy.
How To Get More Protein In Your Diet
Tip 2: Eat The Protein On Your Plate First
You feel more full from eating protein than you do from carbs and fats.
And protein is generally the least satisfying, from an enjoyability standpoint.
So many people will put the protein on their plate, with good intentions, and then throw half of it out because they were too full to finish it.
Then it winds up in the garbage along with the vegetables you left rotting in your crisper drawer.
A surefire way to avoid this, is dive straight into that protein first.
If you’re trying to get more protein in your diet, you want to quite literally prioritize it by eating it off your plate first.
How To Get More Protein In Your Diet
Tip 3: Know Your Protein Sources
There’s a big difference between a food that is dominantly protein, and one that is dominantly either carbs or fats, and has tagalong proteins.
When trying to get more protein in your diet, you want to prioritize the dominantly protein rich sources.
Here’s a list:
Dominantly Protein Sources
Chicken Breast, 4oz ≈ 147 calories, 26g protein
Ground beef/Ground Turkey, 4oz ≈ 160-200 calories, 21-22g protein
Pork Tenderloin, 4oz ≈ 120 calories, 23g protein
Tuna, 1 can ≈ 120 calories, 21g protein
Deli Turkey, 4oz ≈ 120 calories, 20g protein
Egg whites, 4oz ≈ 64 calories, 13g protein
Salmon or other fish, 4oz ≈ 180 calories, 23 protein
0% Greek Yogurt, 1 cup ≈ 240 calories, 17g protein
Shrimp, 4oz ≈ 80 calories, 15g protein
Protein Powder, 1 scoop ≈ 150-250 calories, 15-30g protein
Tofu, 6oz, ≈ 152 calories, 16g protein
Cottage Cheese, 1 cup, ≈ 160 calories, 22g protein
Tempeh, 4oz ≈ 170 calories, 22g protein
Foods That Are Predominantly Carbs/Fats, But Have Some Tagalong Proteins
Peanut Butter
Nuts
Beans
Now I’m not saying you can ever have peanut butter, nuts, or beans ever again.
These are great foods, but when you’re filling your plate with protein, you’re not going to be filling it with peanut butter as your protein source, since it’s mostly a fat source.
A great way to tell if your food is predominantly protein is to check the macronutrient ratio.
Unfortunately, this isn’t as simple as seeing which macronutrient has the most grams in the food.
To find out how the percentage of each calorie per macronutrient, divide each calorie amount by 90, then multiply by 100.
For example:
- 27 fat calories / 90 calories x 100% = 30% of calories from fat
- 52 carb calories / 90 calories x 100% = 57% of calories from carbs
- 12 protein calories / 90 calories x 100% = 13% of calories from protein
Foods that are mostly protein will have at least 50% of calories from protein.
Consider these your high protein sources, and prioritize these.
How To Get More Protein In Your Diet
Tip 4: Use Protein Shakes
One of the most common questions I get asked is whether you need to get protein from natural sources.
The answer is that it doesn’t matter.
Protein is protein.
And a convenient, and cost effective way to get protein in is with a protein shake.
Now we just spent some time talking about tagalong macronutrients.
So when you’re choosing a protein shake, I want to offer some factors to consider.
Make sure your protein shake is mostly protein
If your shake has 17 grams of carbs, 2.5 grams of fat, and 17 grams of protein, it’s not mostly protein.
You’re getting a lot of extra calories from it that aren’t protein.
Which isn’t inherently bad, but if you’re trying to focus on protein intake, it’s a lot easier to get those carbs and fats through other sources.
When they’re sneaking into your protein shake, you’re adding extra calories that don’t need to be there.
You can just find a shake that is mostly protein.
How To Get More Protein In Your Diet
There you have it.
No magic tips to ingest protein through osmosis, or without doing any work.
But use these tips, and it will make the process a lot easier.
Much love,
Nick