The importance of protein
When I first started tracking my food, I was shocked at how little protein I was actually getting in my day-to-day diet. By this point I was a few months into a weight training programme and realised I really needed to pay more attention to my nutrition to compliment my training. I was unsatisfied with the slim, but not toned look I had achieved by doing a year of cardio training. It’s impossible to avoid someone in the fitness industry banging on about the importance of protein. They have reason for it, though. Protein is essential to muscle growth and recovery due to the breakdown into amino acids by our digestive system.
You may have read that if we are training, it is advised we should have around 1g of protein per lb of bodyweight. Therefore, I tend to weigh around 57kg (125lbs) so would therefore try to aim for 125g of protein per day.
To someone consuming meat, this is a very achievable target, without having to get your protein from sources like whey (shakes, bars etc). However, I found that on a vegetarian diet, it was a lot harder to consume that much so I had to make a very concious effort to make sure I did get sufficient levels of protein in my day.
I would love to be able to get all my protein from plant based/natural sources without any extras. But at this point, I need a little extra help to hit that 100g+.
My top sources in my day-to-day diet are:
- Whey Protein Powder (20g per scoop) (I use the MyProtein Whey Impact in the Chocolate Smooth or the Sticky Toffee Pudding flavour)
- Eggs (13g for a medium egg)
- Greek Yoghurt (10g per 100g of Fage Total 0%)
- Quorn Pieces (13g per 100g)
- Quorn Mince (14g per 100g)
- Tofu (10g per 100g)
- Baked beans (9g per 200g)
- Chick peas (7g per 100g)
- Kidney beans (8g per 100g)
- Protein bar (most are around 20g. Grenade Carb Killa are my faves!)
I became a vegetarian for ethical reasons rather than for taste, so I eat A LOT of quorn because I just enjoy the taste. Quorn isn’t the best for macros and calories, however it is reasonable inexpensive and very versatile. I really enjoy cooking with tofu but sometimes it is less time effective and a wee bit more expensive.
So for all you plant based people out there- get those beans and pulses in! Not only do they have decent amounts of protein, they are obviously packed with fantastic micronutrients too.
My typical day of eating would be:
Breakfast – Protein Oats (25g whey, 50g oats and perhaps a banana/tangerine/grapes)
Lunch – either eggs on toast, beans on toast, or protein pancakes (25g whey, 25g flour, 1 egg, almond milk served with fruit)
Dinner – A base carb (rice, pasta, potato or noodles), a protein (tofu or quorn), and a PILE of veg including beans or pulses (chickpeas/kidney beans/black beans/mixed beans, pepper, onion, aubergine, courgete, cherry tomatoes). I cook these all together in a different sauce each day to mix it up. Sometimes I’ll make it more like a curry, or more oriental with soy or hoison, or with BBQ, or a tomato based sauce. A dollop of hummus on the side gives a little extra protein too!
Snacks – Greek yogurt and fruit, cereal (right now I’m enjoying the chocolate wheetabix protein crunch), hummus and veg or tortilla chips, protein shake. My new find for a nice sweet snack whilst I’m cutting is an ice lolly! Most fruit ice lollies you find in supermarkets are around 40 cals! Amazing 🙂
I hope this post was helpful, as it took me a while to get into a routine of what worked in my diet and what was feesable time and cost wise for me.
So if you are getting into weight training and are looking to change your body a bit more, get that protein in!