How To Eat More Protein… Without a Food Scale
You can’t shake a stick in the fat loss, performance, or muscle-building nutrition world without hearing that you need to eat more protein.
From the bro at the gym sucking down a shake from a rarely-washed container to your supermarket shelves where even candy bars are being juiced with protein, it’s everywhere. Protein’s the name of the game if you’re in the fitness world.
Marketing aside, protein DOES have some good reasons for being a priority. The thing about protein is that you need to consume it in your diet. Your body can’t produce it. We need a certain amount to support life, but there’s a big difference between staying alive and optimal.
Optimal protein intake:
- Supports muscle growth and healing
- Increases satiety so you’ll feel more full, longer
- Is burned at a higher rate for energy, so you can eat more and stay leaner
- Tends to supply some useful vitamins and minerals that would be hard to get from non-protein foods
As you become more active, particularly with strenuous activity such as strength training or athletics, the demand for protein goes up. For many people, though, if they’re not used to a higher protein diet this can be tough. I’ve had a lot of clients over the past 20 years as a personal trainer who struggled to eat more protein.
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I have a simple, three-step method that I take people through, at their pace, to get used eating more protein without having to break out a food scale and track every single little morsel of food.
- Have a quality protein source at every meal (3x/day) — Fish, meat, poultry, lean dairy, beans/legumes. No more meals consisting entirely of macaroni and cheese or plain salads. It doesn’t need to be a crazy amount, just a recognizable portion of lean protein.
If you struggle with feeling too full to eat this portion of protein then make sure you eat it FIRST in the meal. That way it gets done. - When getting your three meals a day has become standard fare, add a fourth protein meal/snack. An easy place to do this is right around your workout. It’s not required to be at this time; the workout protein connection is overblown. However, I find that it’s a good mental “connection” point to help you remember.
- Once you’ve got the frequency down, aim for quantity. For an easy guide, if you’re about 180 lbs or below (or want to get there), then you want each serving to be about the size of your palm. If you’re bigger than that, do two servings.
- (BONUS) If you still want to sharpen the blade a bit more then NOW you can use the maths. For most people about 0.8–1.0g/lb is the end goal if you train pretty hard. So a 150 lb person would shoot for 120–150g/day. Can you eat more? Certainly, if it supports your goals, but that’s a good place to be.
If you have very particular goals around your fitness and nutrition, then you might have different requirements. At that point you’ll probably have the knowledge as to what works best for you or it’ll be worth it to invest in working with a professional. This is a great starting point for those who struggle with that first step of eating enough protein to maximize their fitness journey.
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If you’re getting started or repeatedly frustrated on your journey to get in shape, I’ve prepared a five-step plan to help you get there. In my Get In Shape — The Ultimate Guide article I cover the five basic pillars of a fitness journey, going beyond the fitness and nutrition components. If any of these five pillars is neglected, it can be tough to get there. Make sure you’re addressing each pillar and there’s also a weekly training template in there.
