No not scoop of ice cream...although a nice scoop of salted caramel sounds great right now. I mean, the low down. The down and dirty truth. [And the two scoops of protein powder I make my shake with...chocolate!]
Do I have to eat steaks every meal to get that much protein? NO!
There are lots of choices for protein. The obvious choices would be:
Eggs, Chicken, Lean Beef, Lean Pork, Fish
There are many non-meat sources of protein as well, check these out:
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| Protein can come in lots of different kinds of foods! |
How much protein do I need to eat to gain muscle and lose fat?
These are my two main goals - work out every day and eat more protein to help build lean muscle mass.
How much protein do I need to consume to gain muscle and lose fat? In order to up your metabolism and burn more calories per day at rest, we need to gain lean muscle mass. Right now, I have 132.1 lbs of lean muscle mass. I need to up that. In order to do that AND lose fat, you have to be really careful. If you work out and are working at a calorie deficit [you burn more calories than you take in] to lose fat, you are less likely to gain lean muscle mass. You body needs carbs and protein to be able to rebuild muscles that have been broken down while strength training. The only way to ensure that you have enough protein to do that is to eat more!
I found this handy little table that will tell you how much protein you need to achieve goals: [from here]
So, I would say I fall into the 1-1.2 grams of protein per pound of body weight. Whoa. That is a major lot of protein! Also, protein has about 4 calories per gram, so say you weigh 150 lbs, you should eat 150-180 grams of protein a day and that translates into 600 to 720 calories out of your calorie goal. If you are working at a calorie deficit of 20% of your burned calories [lets say 1400 cals per day is your goal] that is about 43% of your caloric intake. Just keep that in mind when you are trying to figure out what protein to actually eat! If you eat high fat protein like burgers, you will blow out your calorie goal. If you eat lean protein like chicken, egg whites or whey protein shakes, you can manage your calories better.
Do I have to eat steaks every meal to get that much protein? NO!
There are lots of choices for protein. The obvious choices would be:
Eggs, Chicken, Lean Beef, Lean Pork, Fish
There are many non-meat sources of protein as well, check these out:
My favorites are peanut butter, eggs, Greek yogurt, nuts, chicken and pork tenderloin.
When you are working out, make sure that you pair a protein with a small fat and a small carb. This will help your body use the nutrients to their best abilities. For example: apple with nut butter, Greek yogurt with some almonds, pork tenderloin with half a sweet potato.
Happy eating! [I'm gonna go eat a chicken to get in a quarter of my protein intake!] soooo much protein!!!!
When you are working out, make sure that you pair a protein with a small fat and a small carb. This will help your body use the nutrients to their best abilities. For example: apple with nut butter, Greek yogurt with some almonds, pork tenderloin with half a sweet potato.
Happy eating! [I'm gonna go eat a chicken to get in a quarter of my protein intake!] soooo much protein!!!!
