How to maintain protein intake

[midestinee]

I’m struggling with maintaining my protein intake at the moment. At best, I have eaten up to 65 g of protein per day including a protein shake (I’m 157 cm and I weigh 52 - 53 kgs). I want to go upto 80-90gms a day. I mostly eat vegan/vegetarian and the days I lift, I eat chicken. How do you maintain your protein intake?

 

[marytx0]

@midestinee I eat a lot of tuna, shrimp and ground turkey.
Also Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, egg whites.
Fairlife protein drinks when I need to

I do 140-145g a day

 

[midestinee]

@marytx0 Thanks. I think I can try shrimp. I’m not really big on seafood but I try my best.

 

[chrisangello]

@midestinee Chicken, peas, kefir, two eggs everyday, chickpeas, maybe some dairy… I can make it to 90 these days but im eating chicken everyday and it kinda started to feel boring, im actually thinking about using protein powder to make it to 100

 

[can_belle]

@midestinee Take all of the proteins you enjoy eating and just eat a little larger serving of it.

Greek yogurt + a scoop of protein powder. I only eat poultry and fish so ground chicken meatballs, chicken breast/thighs, shrimp, all kinds of fish, canned tuna.

 

[grace181994]

@midestinee I make sure that I consumed at least more than half of my protein intake (around 60g) before 2 pm so I wouldn’t panic and eat too much at night.

My protein sources are eggs, chicken breast, tuna, protein shake, tofus, and sometimes shrimp.

 

[midestinee]

@grace181994 That makes sense. I only start eating my protein from lunch onwards

 

[loveyhwh]

@midestinee Something is considered a good source of protein if it has 10g of protein or more for every 100 calories.

If you’re vegetarian, you’ll want to focus on dairy, protein powder, and egg whites to meet your protein goal. These are the best protein sources relative to calories.

For dairy, you can go for low fat cheeses, Greek yogurt, low fat milk, dairy based protein shakes, like Fairlife Core Power, and cottage cheese.

You could also supplement with products like protein bars as well.

 

[rasreyes]

@midestinee eggs, protein shakes, chia pudding, chickpea salad, hummus

 

[ccallagh]

@midestinee I regularly eat 100g of protein a day in about 1300 calories. Protein is the focus of every meal I eat. Here’s a short list of some of my most frequently eaten meals:

Breakfast

• Oikos protein yogurt (20g protein) + 1/2 cup Premier Protein cereal or 1/4 cup Ratio Keto granola (7g protein)
• 2 large eggs + 1/4 cup shredded cheese + 1/4 Fairlife Ultra filtered skim milk (20g protein)
• Atkins Plus protein shake (30g protein)

Lunch

-3 to 4 oz grilled meat or fish. I eat a lot of chicken thighs, salmon, and pork. + 2 to 3 oz of green veggies, usually zucchini or bell peppers (20-25g protein)

• “Pizza” (Mission Carb Balance tortilla, shredded mozzarella, pepperoni or Canadian bacon, Rao’s tomato sauce as a base) (15-20g protein depending on toppings)
• 1 cup Progresso Light soup + 1/2 scoop Isopure unflavored protein powder (15-20g protein, depending)

Snack

• Sugar free jello vanilla pudding with 1/2 scoop Isopure unflavored protein powder (12g protein)
• Quest protein bar (20g protein)
• 2oz burrata / mozzarella + 4-5 Ritz crackers (12-13g protein)
• 3oz cottage cheese with sweet or savory toppings (10g protein)

Dinner
- 3 to 4 oz grilled meat or fish. I eat a lot of chicken thighs, salmon, and pork. + 2 to 3 oz of green veggies, usually zucchini or bell peppers (20-25g protein)

• Sashimi! Usually 3oz of raw salmon and 3oz raw yellowtail or, if I have the calories, I’ll do a poke bowl (25g protein plus, depending)
• 4oz of steak and 2oz of baked sweet potato

I had bariatric surgery last year, so I can only eat 6-8oz at one time and have to get in at least 100g of protein a day, which can be pretty challenging!

 

[midestinee]

@ccallagh Thanks. I liked your idea of protein yogurt.

 

[midestinee]

Thanks everyone for sharing your ideas. I have started looking at my pantry differently now. I created “protein section” with labeled grams per protein per item so that I can always start with protein. I’m keeping my breakfast simple at the moment and just making savoury chickpea flour crepes with speise Quark which I top with vegetables likes tomatoes, cucumber and avocado and some hot sauce (I don’t like sweet breakfast, it is also bad for my blood sugar) which could be around 10gms. For lunch, I usually hit 15-20gms and I’ll leave it to that. I added a protein smoothie (30gms) for snacks and dinner is usually 15-20gms as well. I added dessert of 10gms yogurt with sweetened carrots. I can’t take more than one serving of bottled protein per day, my stomach gets bloated so I’ll keep it down.
My protein sources are:
All kinds of lentils like green gram, yellow split lentils, chickpeas, kidney beans, red lentils, split peas, black gram, beluga, tofu, tempeh, seitan, paneer, soy chunks, chicken, prawns (occasionally), eggs, yogurt. I also found some vegan sausages but they seemed to be too processed to have any nutritional value at all, though they were high in protein.

 

[marks1mpson]

@midestinee Greek yoghurt, protein powder, fish, even certain veg like brocolli adds up.