3 Easy Ways To Eat More Protein

If you’ve been looking for easy ways to eat more protein, then I’m glad you found this article.

You tend to hear a lot of trainers and fitness enthusiasts talk about the importance of protein and why you need more of it in your diet.

In fact, if you follow me on social media, you’ve heard me talk about protein ad nauseam.

But here’s the issue.

Getting more protein in your diet isn’t as easy as just snapping your fingers and automatically increasing your protein intake.

While it is simple, it does require some work.

Especially for people, maybe like yourself, who aren’t already used to prioritizing protein in their diet.

Well, that’s why I’m here to help you out.

In this article I’m going to outline my top three easy ways to eat more protein in your diet.

And, by the way, the tips that I’m about to outline apply to both fat loss and muscle gain.

Because, once you learn how to get more protein in your diet, it becomes second nature for the rest of your life and it can be applied to any fitness goals you have moving forward.

Now, before I dive into those three tips, I want to very briefly discuss why protein is so important and how you can easily calculate what your protein intake should be.

And don’t worry. It’s not going to be some convoluted mathematical formula.

I wasn’t that good at math in school, so no way am I going to give you some complex calculus lesson.

We keep things simple around here.

Anyway, without further ado, let’s get right on into it!

3 Easy Ways To Eat More Protein

Why Does Eating More Protein Even Matter?

Okay.

So you’ve heard that you should be eating more protein, but why is it actually so important?

Well, there are actually many different reasons.

But, for the sake of keeping this brief, I’ll cover three really important reasons that are likely relevant to you and your goals.

You Need Enough Protein To Build And Retain Muscle

First, out of the three macronutrients (carbs, protein, and fats), protein is the only one that allows you to build new lean muscle tissue AND retain muscle tissue that you already have.

Now, why does this matter for you?

Well, let’s say you want to build muscle.

The amino acids that make up protein are quite literally the building blocks for muscle growth.

So you need them to be able to recover from your weight lifting workouts and build muscle.

Now let’s say you’re somebody who wants to lose fat and you don’t really care about muscle growth.

Great. You still need to prioritize protein for the same reason. You need those amino acids to be able to recover from your workouts.

Not only to be ready for the next workout, but also to allow you to “hold onto” as much lean muscle as possible as you lose fat.

Which is way more important than most people think.

Remember, losing weight isn’t just about seeing the number on the scale go down.

It’s about maximizing fat loss while minimizing muscle loss.

So you can get that toned and defined look as you drop body fat.

And the three best ways to make sure that happens are lifting weights, getting enough sleep, and, you guessed it, eating enough protein.

Protein Is The Most Filling Macronutrient

This one is super important if you’re someone who’s trying to lose weight.

Not only is protein the only macronutrient that allows you to build and retain muscle, but it also keeps you way fuller throughout the day than carbs and fats.

Which, as I mentioned here when I discussed how to make weight loss easier, is super important for a successful fat loss journey.

Think about it like this.

if you went to a nice dinner at a steakhouse and ordered an 18oz filet, chances are you’re going to feel pretty satisfied after.

And that’s because of how much protein you’re getting in a meal like that.

Now I’m not saying that you need to eat at expensive restaurants to get more protein in.

Although, wouldn’t it be nice if we could do that all the time?

What I am saying is that you want to make an effort to have protein be “the star of the show” when it comes to many of your meals.

When you center your meals around a protein source (eggs, chicken, beef, ground turkey, salmon, etc), you are going to feel WAY more satisfied after.

Protein Helps You Burn Additional Calories Through Digestion

This is another beneficial element of protein that can be helpful for weight loss.

Without boring you too much, there’s something called the Thermic Effect Of Food (TEF).

Which is a really fancy way of saying that digesting food burns calories (just like everything else we do).

And, when you compare protein to carbs and fats, it burns quite a few more calories when it’s digested.

Now, is this going to be a game changer for your weight loss journey?

Probably not.

With that said, it’s definitely not insignificant.

Essentially, eating a high protein diet can help you increase your metabolism just a bit.

3 Ways To Eat More Protein

How To Calculate Your Protein Target

Now that you know why you need to prioritize protein in your diet, I want to give you a super easy way to calculate how much protein you should eat.

I’ll give you an easy calculation for weight loss and an easy one for muscle gain.

Weight Loss

The easiest way to calculate your protein target for weight loss is to take your goal body weight (in pounds) and multiply it by 0.8-1.

Let’s go over an example.

Let’s say you currently weigh 180lbs but your goal body weight is 150lbs.

150 X 0.8 = 120

150 X 1 = 150 (obviously)

So, if you want to lose weight and your goal is to get to 150lbs, you’d want your protein goal to be 120-150 grams a day.

I know that’s kind of a big range to fall into.

But that’s exactly the point.

By giving yourself a range to fall into, as long as you fall somewhere in the middle of it on a daily basis, you’re good.

It takes a lot of the anxiety out of having to fall on a specific number every single day.

Muscle Gain

The easiest way to calculate your protein target if your main goal is to build muscle is to multiply your current body weight in pounds by 0.8-1.

The reason we’re using current body weight here is because, if you’re in a muscle building phase, you’re probably starting off from a relatively lean body fat percentage already.

So you’ll benefit from eating a bit more protein.

Let’s go over an example.

Let’s say you currently weigh 165lbs and you want to build muscle.

165 X 0.8 = 132

165 X 1 = 165 (again, obviously)

So, if your primary goal is muscle growth and you currently weigh 165lbs, you’d want to eat anywhere between 132-165 grams of protein per day.

As long as you consistently fall into that range, you’re good.

3 Ways To Eat More Protein

Alright, now that all of that background information is taken care of, it’s time to dive into why you’re even reading this article to begin with.

Let’s get right into the three easiest ways to start getting more protein in your diet so you can lose more weight, build more lean muscle, and feel better overall!

#1: Increase Your Protein Portion Sizes

Now I know what you’re thinking right now.

“Dude, isn’t that kinda obvious?”

It is, yes, but most people just don’t do it.

Again, in large part because you might not be used to building your meals around protein sources.

Most people over-consume carbs and fats (both of which are definitely important) and under-consume protein.

So the idea of eating more protein by increasing portion sizes is a somewhat foreign concept to them.

So let me break down exactly how you can increase your protein portion sizes in the easiest way possible.

Use A Digital Food Scale To Make This Effortless

Let’s say you’re trying to lose weight.

And you’re tracking your calories and protein in a free app like Lose It! or MyFitnessPal.

And you’re weighing out your food on a food scale (in grams) to be accurate about the portion sizes that you’re inputting into the app.

By the way, just as a quick side note, food scales are not expensive at all (you can usually get one for less than $20).

Not to mention, it takes maybe an extra minute at most to weigh out your protein on a scale.

Think about it like this.

You’re going to put the protein source on a plate anyway, right?

So, just put the plate on a food scale, zero it out, then weigh out your protein.

And, by the way, if you’re weighing it cooked (chicken, steak, ground turkey, etc), make sure to track it as cooked on the app you’re using.

Anyway, now that we have that general info about weighing food taken care of, here’s how you can use it to your advantage to make sure you’re eating more protein.

How To Use The Food Scale

Let’s run through a hypothetical situation here.

Let’s say you just cooked some boneless, skinless chicken breasts with your favorite spices and/or marinade.

You just took them out of the air fryer, oven, or whatever you cooked them in and you’re about to weigh out your portion (again, all solid foods should be weighed in grams) on the food scale.

Now, stay with me here.

Let’s assume that you’d typically eat about 4oz of that chicken. Which is a pretty typical portion size.

4oz is about 113 grams.

So, if you were to eat around 113 grams of that cooked chicken (again, 113 grams being the actual weight of the food), that would be around 30-35 grams of protein.

Which is great and a solid amount of protein for a single meal for a lot of people.

But let’s say you want to take it up a notch so you can eat more protein in that meal, and, as a byproduct, make hitting your overall protein goal for the day much easier.

Great, let’s do that in a super easy way.

Let’s increase your portion size to 6oz of chicken. Which is about 170 grams.

So, now instead of weighing out 113 grams of cooked chicken breast on the food scale, you’d weigh out 170 grams.

Then, like I mentioned before, you’d input it as “cooked boneless skinless chicken breast” in whatever app you’re using to track calories and protein.

Except this time you’re inputting 170 grams of chicken into the app since you’re making a conscious effort to increase your portion sizes of protein.

So now you’re getting around 45-50 grams of protein in that meal just by eating a little bit more chicken!

As you can see, a little bit goes a long way when it comes to increasing portion sizes of various protein sources that you’re already eating.

Why This Is So Beneficial

Here’s why I love this particular strategy of increasing your protein intake.

It doesn’t require you to find tons of “new” sources of protein to eat.

All you have to do is just eat a bit more of what you’ve already been eating.

Whether that’s egg whites, chicken breast, ground turkey, ground beef, salmon, etc.

And you know you’re ACTUALLY eating more of these protein sources because you’re weighing out your portions in grams on a food scale.

And here’s the best part.

If you weigh your protein out for just 30 days, you’ll pretty much be able to “eyeball” your protein portion sizes for the rest of your life without really having to continue weighing things out.

Taking the time to practice weighing things out now will make your life so much easier in the future!

#2: Have Convenient High Protein Snacks On Hand

This is another practical way to immediately increase your protein intake in a pretty easy way.

Because, let’s be honest.

You probably don’t want to be eating eggs, chicken breast, and salmon all day long.

You want quicker protein sources that are easy to grab on the go.

I’ll dive into a few of my favorite high protein “snack” options.

Protein Shakes

One of the best and quickest high protein snacks is just having a protein shake everyday.

Most people opt for either a whey or casein protein powder that they can just mix with water (or blend up into a shake with other ingredients).

And, by the way, it really doesn’t matter what time of day you drink your shake.

What matters the most when it comes to protein is your total daily protein intake.

Most protein shakes are around 20-25g of protein per scoop and only around 100-150 calories depending on the brand you choose.

Hypothetically, let’s say your protein target is between 110-130 grams of protein per day.

That means that one scoop of a protein powder that’s 25g of protein is more than 20% of your minimum protein goal.

Once again, I’m no mathematician, but that’s a pretty good percentage for one shake if you ask me!

If you can hit a percentage of your total daily protein goal in one simple, easy-to-make protein shake, it’s kind of a no-brainer to have it.

It’s the little “hacks” like this that make being in a calorie deficit for weight loss AND hitting your protein target so much easier.

Beef Jerky

• One serving of beef jerky is 9g of protein for only 90 calories!

Nonfat Greek Yogurt

• One serving of nonfat greek yogurt is 13g of protein and only 140 calories!

Low Fat Cottage Cheese

I know some people think cottage cheese is gross, but if you don’t, it’s a great high protein snack option to have in your repertoire.

• One serving of low fat cottage cheese is 13g of protein for only 90 calories!

Protein Bars

• You can find protein bars that are around 180-200 calories for about 20g of protein.

#3: Divide Up Your Total Protein Goal Evenly Throughout The Day

Again, this is one of those tips that sounds so obvious on the surface yet so few people make a conscious effort to implement.

I can tell you from first-hand experience that eating protein more regularly throughout the day makes your life way easier.

You don’t want to be in a position where it’s 9pm and you still have 80g of protein to hit.

Trust me, I’ve been there and it’s NOT fun.

I’ll give you a few practical ways to divide your protein intake more evenly throughout the day.

Eat 3 Square Meals And 2 Snacks

With this strategy, what you want to do is take your total protein goal for the day and divide it up pretty evenly across three bigger meals and two snacks.

For example, if you total protein goal is 130 grams, your breakfast, lunch, and dinner would each be around 30g of protein and then you’d also have two snacks that are each around 20g of protein.

Add all of those up and BOOM. You’re at 130 grams for the day.

Here’s an example of what that might look like in practice.

Breakfast:

• 1 serving of nonfat greek yogurt (13g of protein)
• 3 egg whites (15g of protein)
• 2 slices of whole grain toast
• some berries with the greek yogurt for fiber

Add it all up and that meal is just over 30g of protein

Lunch:

• big salad (you can use a pre-made salad kit) with extra veggies and 4oz of chicken breast

This meal is around 35 grams of protein

Dinner:

• 6oz of salmon (around 35 grams of protein)
• oven-roasted diced Yukon gold potatoes
• roasted veggies

This meal is around 35-40 grams of protein

Snack 1: protein shake (20-25g of protein)

Snack 2: 1 serving of low fat cottage cheese (13g of protein)

Eat A Higher Percentage Of Your Total Protein Goal At Lunch And Dinner

This option is great for people who either don’t want to eat breakfast at all or want to eat a smaller breakfast.

Keep in mind that implementing this strategy often means eating lunches and dinners that have 30-50 grams of protein.

With this strategy the goal is similar: get more protein in at your main, bigger meals so you’re not playing “catch up” late at night.

Wrapping Things Up

There you have it!

Three practical strategies that you can start implementing right away to eat more protein in your diet.

Hope you enjoyed this article and got a lot of value from it!

If you did make sure to share it with a friend who you think might benefit from it.

If you’d like even more individualized help when it comes to your nutrition for fat loss or muscle gain, you can apply to my 1:1 online coaching program right here.

Hope you enjoyed this and we’ll talk soon!