200 gms of protein. How?

[Ragholmes]

I just tried half a scoop of protein powder in my morning coffee. There was a little bit floating on top but it worked fine.
When I started tracking my intake on Myfitness pal early in my LP I was hitting 120-160 gms. As I increased my intake to 4,000-4,500 calories I was able to get to 200 gms of protein.
I am working on bringing my intake down to 3,000ish calories a day and I'm struggling to keep my protein intake up.
I love burgers, I love steak, I love chicken, I have always preferred/eaten a high protein diet, but there's always fats tagging along. I don't want to be the bro/bodybuilding guy carting around Tupperware filled with chicken breasts. But is this what I have to do?
Maybe my math is wrong, but I can't seem to get the protein in without my total calories ending up too high.
What do you guys do?

[FredM]

fat free Greek yogurt, ham sandwiches, lean ground beef/turkey, chicken breasts, and yes, LOTS of whey.

It's really not that hard. My macros right now are 185g protein, 40g fat, 195g carbs. All the things I listed above have very little, if any, fat.

Since I don't really want to cook 5 lbs of meat every weekend (although occassionally I do) I probably average 1.5-2 scoops of whey every day @25g protein/scoop (Dymatize). Don't put it in your coffee and ruin a perfectly good cup of coffee. Just chug it with some water. Or -- if you really need to make it palatable, blend it with fruit and milk/yogurt.

[BostonRugger]

Whether you need the commonly recommended 200 grams (or 1 g/lb of BW) is debatable.

For me, 4-5 meals with 40-50g of animal protein has always done the trick for getting around 200/day. A meal can include 8-10oz of lean meat, 8 eggs/whites, two scoops of whey, whatever.

[broseph]

3 of my 4 meals per day consist of a carb source like oatmeal with fruit, pumpkin pancakes, sweet potato smoothie, etc AND a whey shake. So that's 3 whey shakes/day. Whey=food, it's not a big deal.

Dinner has actual meat because family meal time.

I use unflavored why isolate and I add 1/2T cocoa powder because the artificial sweetener taste got old after a while.

[GlasgowJock]

500ml of full skim milk, some ice cubes, a scoop of myprotein whey and a scoop of Huel is 45-50g of protein for me for my morning and night time shakes. ~450kcal per shake too.

"Real food" for lunch and dinner.

[RobUK]

I've had various different ways of getting around 200g of protein over the years an my current method is by far the easiest. It involves not worrying about the amount of protein in my meals and just topping up with a protein shake as and when required.

Makes it a lot easier to focus on getting a good diet in terms veg etc and to avoid over eating carbs/fats as a side effect of eating enough protein (which sounds like where you are struggling).

Admittedly I work from home, which makes it easier as I can have a shake to top up protein for each meal (if required). . But presumably it's easy enough to get 30g of protein for your 'during the day' meals? Which means you can just have a shake in the morning and the evening to get to where you want to get to?

Helps if you have tasty concentrate and mix with milk rather than water - isolate tends not to mix as well.

[michael]

Honestly 120-160g is enough.

[broseph]

Honestly 120-160g is enough.

OP is asking how to get 200g per day. Do you have any supporting arguments to go along with your contrarian statement?

[Wayne]

Similarly i top up with whey. When dieting down my whey intake increases as I try and avoid extra carbs/fats. I aim for around 50g a meal.

If you don’t already do it, having a 4th meal is very useful for spreading out intake and calories.

[Jerry]

Honestly 120-160g is enough.

OP is asking how to get 200g per day. Do you have any supporting arguments to go along with your contrarian statement?

Not Michael, but this article is a possible starting place for supporting arguments.

For OP, I'd add tinned tuna and cottage cheese to the list (if you like them) as cheap and easily available foods which have high protein and low fat/carbs.

[BenM]

I get 160-170g without whey..... but I do eat multiple serves of yoghurt each day, cold cuts at lunch most days (if not cold cuts it's tinned tuna or similar) and a protein bar every night. The only one of those that comes with much fat is the protein bar.

[Ragholmes]

Good ideas, please keep them coming.
I definitely have to clean my diet up. I've always been high activity and I'm that skinny guy who can eat take out all the time and still stay skinny, and I've gotten away with it for a very long time. I'm 46 now and even if it doesn't show on my waist I'm sure my arteries aren't great.
But it's many years of habit to break. Fast food is easy, and I can afford it, both financially and on my waistline (so far.)
During my LP I just added more meals, usually fast food, i.e. stopping at McDonald's on my way to work for a 2nd breakfast of sausage n egg mcmuffin and hash brown.
My real struggle is finding the middle ground between eating whatever I want and becoming the anal bodybuilding Tupperware guy.
I am not organized enough to even consider carting something like this around..
https://www.sixpackbags.com/gear/bags/b ... ckpack-500

I have become mildly lactose intolerant in the last 5 or so years. I can still do dairy, it makes me gassy, which is more of a problem for people around me. But in large amounts it's very uncomfortable, moving up to pretty painful cramps and diarrhea.
I drink lactaid milk with my protein powder. I can do a slice of cheese in a sandwich, but large amounts of yoghurt/cheese will cause problems.
I think that's why I had issues with the concentrate, and have been using isolate for a while without issue. I found a pretty cheap one, unflavored with 30 gms per scoop.
I'm going to move up to 1 1/2 - 2 scoops per shake. And try to clean up my diet. Any more suggestions for high protein/low fat meals will be greatly appreciated.

[lonestar777]

Current macros are 210 pro, 345 carb, and 88 fat. A typical day for me looks something like this:

Breakfast (32g pro, 54g carb, 16g fat):
5 oz. turkey lunchmeat, 1 slice provolone, on wheat sandwich thins
2 eggs
banana

Lunch (76 g pro, 119g carb, 12g fat):
grilled chicken breast
sweet potato
multigrain cereal
1 scoop of whey + milk

Snack (50g pro, 87g carb 10g fat):
0% fat greek yogurt
multigrain cereal
1 scoop of whey + milk

I try and keep that pretty much the same every day, and then that gives me lots of room for a good dinner. I'll eat whatever the family is having and then add in some extra to hit my macro goals. It does seem like I've been having to rely more on the whey lately, so I need to start changing some things up.

[Jerry]

...
I have become mildly lactose intolerant in the last 5 or so years. I can still do dairy, it makes me gassy, which is more of a problem for people around me. But in large amounts it's very uncomfortable, moving up to pretty painful cramps and diarrhea.
I drink lactaid milk with my protein powder. I can do a slice of cheese in a sandwich, but large amounts of yoghurt/cheese will cause problems.
I think that's why I had issues with the concentrate, and have been using isolate for a while without issue. I found a pretty cheap one, unflavored with 30 gms per scoop.
I'm going to move up to 1 1/2 - 2 scoops per shake. And try to clean up my diet. Any more suggestions for high protein/low fat meals will be greatly appreciated.

You could also consider pea protein or soy protein powder as an alternative to whey. The % protein concentration from these plant sources is pretty high but you may need to consume bigger portions to achieve the same amount of quality proteins (BCAA's, especially Leucine) as you'd get from whey.

[Wilhelm]

3 of my 4 meals per day consist of a carb source like oatmeal with fruit, pumpkin pancakes, sweet potato smoothie, etc AND a whey shake. So that's 3 whey shakes/day. Whey=food, it's not a big deal.

Dinner has actual meat because family meal time.

I use unflavored why isolate and I add 1/2T cocoa powder because the artificial sweetener taste got old after a while.

Minus the carbs, (for me) so much this.

I paid about $4.50lb for my last two 20 kilo bags of unflavored isolate. (Glanbia Provon 292)
It is by far the cheapest protein source in the house.
Just an example, 76 grams equals 67+ grams protein, and comes to 290 calories.
32 grams, equals 27 grams protein and totals 115 calories.
I always weigh my whey a gram heavy.

I actually had fish and chicken yesterday, but that's not my usual.
And those two things only totaled about 40 grams protein.

[michael]

@Wilhelm is your protein the one from Bulk Supplements?

I've been mixing 25g unflavored whey isolate with 25g flavored whey blend. How do you flavor your whey?

[Wilhelm]

@michael, yes. Sold through Bulk Supplements. Bagged by the manufacturer, Glanbia.

Thing is, there are only so many companies actually making whey.
Everything else is repackaged. Maybe flavored and sweetend, possibly ammended, or stepped on.

I don't really flavor it. I do add two teaspoons raw cacao powder to each shake. Sometimes peanut butter, sometimes avocado.
I'll add ground flax, but that's not much of a flavor either. Almost always MCT oil, sometimes cream for calories and more fat to slow the protein.
If i'm getting fat another way, say coffee or cooked food with fat, or some veggies, i may just mix it up sans fat.
No sweetener ever.

[Ragholmes]

@Wilhelm I checked out the bulk supplements. If I found the one you're talking about Its actually more expensive in smaller amounts than what I've been getting. It's not cheaper until you get up to 20 kg bags. I've never thought to buy it in that quantity before, I'm definitely gonna think about whether I can do that kind of bulk. What's the shelf life of whey?
For those who aren't looking to buy it in 20 kg bags I've been getting this. Cheapest isolate I've managed to find in a 5 lb tub. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01HOPJA ... th=1&psc=1

EDIT: were you referring to the hydrolised or the 90% clean? I only saw the hydrolised and that is only just cheaper at 20 kgs but I just went back and saw the 90% clean one is much cheaper at 20 kgs

[michael]

What's the shelf life of whey?

I ate some that was over ten years old. It was fine.

[KyleSchuant]

I am working on bringing my intake down to 3,000ish calories a day and I'm struggling to keep my protein intake up. [...]

Maybe my math is wrong, but I can't seem to get the protein in without my total calories ending up too high.

What do you guys do?

I follow the Australian government healthy eating recommendations.

As an example of a day's food,

Breakfast
Oats, 1 cup
Milk, 1/2 cup

Morning snack
Apple
Yoghurt, 1/2 cup

Lunch
Salmon, palm-sized
Frozen mixed vegies, 2 cups

Snack
Banana

Dinner, chilli
Minced beef, 1/2 cup / 100g
Kidney beans, tinned, 1 cup / 177g
Vegies, 1 cup / 150g
Grated cheese, 1/4 cup
Tortillas, 3

And this comes to,
Vegies 6 serves, fruit 2 serves, grain 6 serves, meat/etc 3 serves, dairy 2.5 serves
or
CHO 306g, Pro 141g, Fat 62g and Fibre 57g; or 50/25/25 for those who care about ratios. And a total of 2,345kCal.

If you added 200g of chicken breast, that'd add 62g protein, 7g fat, no carbs or fibre, and 313kCal, for a total of 203g protein and 2,656kCal.

If eating the chicken is too much, then a couple of scoops of protein powder would take you up over 200g protein, and well under 3,00kCal. But I prefer to eat normal food. Red meat is higher-fat than (most) fish and chicken, so that's one thing to consider whether you want the calories up or down, and starchy stuff like bread and rice - well, it's easy to consume a lot of calories that way. The above is less starchy stuff than most people have, but also more fruit and vegies than most have.