Let’s talk about how to get more protein into your diet.
If you’re reading this article, it probably means you’re in one of three positions:
You’re either skeptical about how high the evidence-based protein recommendations are for athletes/trainees who want to maximize their muscle growth response, or…
You’re already bought into the idea of eating a higher-protein diet, but you’re not sure how to practically eat that much protein on a daily basis, or...
You’re the parent of a young athlete and you’re trying to figure out how to cook and prepare food at home to support their goals.
In any case, this blog is for you.
But I have one quick disclaimer before we get started:
ONE QUICK DISCLAIMER
These tips and tricks only apply if you know that you are currently eating less protein than you could be eating for optimal muscle retention and/or growth.
I just want to be clear that there’s no meaningful benefit to eating excess protein if you’re already eating plenty in the first place. That makes sense, right?
But, how do you know if you’re already eating enough protein?
How to Know If Your Protein Intake Is Adequate
To start, you’ll need to track your food for a few days.
I recommend tracking your intake for 3-5 “normal eating days” using an app like MyFitnessPal or Cronometer and a food scale for ensured accuracy.
Once you have a few days of data collection, you’ll need to reference this article I wrote on how to determine an appropriate protein target.
But just as a brief summary, I think eating between 0.7-1.0g of protein per pound of lean body mass (LBM) is sufficient for nearly all of the muscle growth most people are hoping to obtain.
Then, when you know for sure that you’re under-eating protein relative to your goal, you can start digging into these tips like a grizzly bear in a picnic basket.
Now let’s get into a few tips and tricks on how to get more protein into your diet.
A SECOND QUICK DISCLAIMER
I originally published this article as a meat-eater, but I no longer eat meat or any other animal products (including fish, dairy, or eggs).
Because of that, this article has been heavily updated to reflect my own personal preference toward eating a plant-predominant diet.
9 TIPS FOR EATING MORE PROTEIN
Tip #1: Stop Being Bashful about Protein Shakes.
If you’re looking to get more protein into your diet as simply as possible, consider adding a plant-based protein shake to your daily routine.
Or, consider doing a shake with a double scoop of protein or making your plain shake into a smoothie with berries and your favorite nut butter.
Why the double scoop though?
Well, not to get too geeky on you, but when it comes to building muscle, the muscle protein synthetic response appears to be optimally activated in doses of 20-40g of protein (with diminishing returns between 40-60g per dose).
You could, however, easily achieve this by using a higher-protein plant milk like soy milk to bolster the protein content of your smoothie.
Either way, consuming 40-50g of protein from your shake would be giving you an excellent hit of muscle protein synthesis to support the hard training you’re executing in the gym.
The key here is to stop associated protein shakes with “being a bro.”
Drinking protein shakes doesn’t make you a “bro” any more than wearing a pair of basketball shoes makes you LeBron James.
So, if you’ve been avoiding protein shakes due to your ego, I would highly encourage you to drop the stigma and press into the bigger picture of achieving your body recomposition goal.
What I Do Personally: I generally drink one plant-based protein smoothie a day for my first meal that contains one scoop of pea/rice protein blend, 300mL of high-protein soy milk, hemp hearts, and powdered peanut butter for a hit of 40-50g of protein.
For more details on my morning smoothie, click here,
Tip #2: Double Your Lean Protein Portions.
There’s no need to overcomplicate this one.
Instead of eating one chicken breast for dinner, you could eat two.
But as plant man myself, I’d love to see more people choosing plant proteins like tofu and tempeh over poultry.
Rather than eating one portion of seitan for dinner, you could serve yourself two.
Or, as crazy as this may seem, you could even make yourself two servings of chickpea pasta instead of one (if your caloric goals allow for this).
And, really this applies to any kind of lean protein you might be eating.
Just remember that it’s very important that your calories still be kept nice and tidy if you’re focusing on a body recomposition goal - especially if your goal is to lose body fat.
For example, if your goal is to lose body fat, but you’re eating 600 calories worth of chickpea pasta each night because you took my advice to double your protein serving, that might actually be the wrong choice contextually because it’s knocking you out of the caloric deficit you need to lose fat.
In other words, make sure you account for calories above all else. It’s an easy mistake to make, which is why I wrote an entire article on it.
Tip #3: Sprouted Bread
Wait, bread has protein? Yes, it does!
In fact, sprouted bread in particular is a complete protein source, which means it has a fuller amino acid profile than some other plant-based products (which is a common critique of plant-based diets for muscle growth).
Practically speaking, if you start making your lunch sandwiches with a sprouted grain like Ezekiel bread, you’ll be able to sneak an extra 10-20g of protein into your meal. And although 10g may not seem like much all by itself, it can certainly add up across the entire day.
You could also supplement a morning breakfast of oatmeal and berries with a slice or two of toasted Ezekiel bread for a protein-heavy start to your day.
What I Do Personally: I like to buy the Ezekiel bread you find in the refrigerated or even frozen sections at the store. People don’t think to look for bread there, but those products need to be kept cold since they’re typically made without the preservatives that allow for a longer shelf life.
Tip #4: Bagels
While we’re on the topic of how grains can get you more jacked, let’s touch on bagels.
Bagels are hands-down my favorite post-workout carbohydrate source. For whatever reason, there’s just nothing quite like a freshly toasted wheat bagel from Aldi with a plant-based protein shake after grueling training session.
Fortunately for me, the bagels I eat contribute 9g of protein per bagel. That’s a hefty bump, especially if your goal is to gain muscle while eating in a moderate caloric surplus.
To be fair, bagels are fairly calorie dense with around 260 calories per bagel, but if you’re a big person training to be even bigger - spending 520 calories and 108g of carbohydrates post-workout (with an added bonus of 18g of protein) might be a great idea.
The downside of bagels is that they aren’t particularly fat loss friendly for those eating calorically restricted diets, so I will admit that these will mostly often suit bigger people a bit better than smaller people.
Again, just make sure that the way you approach your protein intake is calorie-controlled for your greater goal.
What I Do Personally: One of my classic post-workout meals is almost exactly what I mentioned above: a whole wheat bagel, 20-40g of nut butter, 20-40g of raspberry jelly, and a plant-based protein shake for roughly 631 calories comprised of 43g of protein, 79g of carbs, and 19g of fat to jumpstart the recovery and growth process.
Tip #5: Hemp Hearts
You may have never heard of hemp hearts, but they have been an absolute game changer for my oatmeal and salad game.
Plus, a full serving of hemp hearts packs 10g of plant-based protein and 13g of healthy Omega-6 fats.
Just be careful not to get carried away with your calories from hemp hearts if you’re dieting for fat loss.
You don’t need to be scared of them, but it’s definitely worth noting that a full serving packs 170 calories, which can be more than 10% of your daily caloric intake if you’re a smaller person looking to consume less than 1,700 calories per day.
What I Do Personally: I spike my oatmeal with hemp hearts for a small protein bump and the added bonus of knowing I’m consuming my fats from healthy plant-based sources. If you want my go-to bowl of oatmeal, check out the graphic on the right. Just keep in mind that I would, in this case, supplement this particular bowl with a pea/rice protein shake to get within that optimal amount of 20-40g of protein per meal.
Beyond that, I used to drink a fully plant-based shake each morning with 30g of protein without the use of a plant-based protein powder when I was dabbling in veganism. So, if you’re vegan, hemp hearts might be a phenomenal way to increase your protein without the use of animal products.
Tip #6: You Could Use Egg Whites.
Although I no longer personally recommend the consumption of egg whites due to the disclaimer I gave at the beginning of this article, I do think it’s most transparent to mention that I consumed them heavily in the form of French toast from 2019-2020.
Why? Well, they’re essentially pure protein - and they are a complete protein, which means their addition to your diet will absolutely support your muscle building goals.
Just one serving of egg whites packs 5g of protein and only 25 calories.
If you’re new to tracking macronutrients, just know that that’s a really good bang for your caloric buck in terms of protein return.
Back in the day, I would typically eat them in servings of 300mL at a time.
What I Do Personally: I don’t eat them anymore due to ethical reasons, but they are a very common protein source for many physique enthusiasts.
Tip #7: Broaden Your Horizons with Seitan.
I know it sounds like the devil, but it’s really not unless you have a gluten sensitivity.
What is it?
Seitan is just wheat gluten prepared in a way that makes good sense of its “wheat meat” nickname. For a deeper dive, I felt as though this article was helpful in learning more about this ancient yet seemingly unknown plant-based protein source.
Fortunately, store-bought seitan seems to be increasing in popularity as plant-based diets gain more traction in the consumer space, which means you don’t need to stress about making your own.
Just go buy some at the store!
What I Do Personally: I like the chorizo variety of the Upton brand because it’s goes brilliantly in homemade Mexican dishes. When I’m in a hurry, I will literally just throw together a bed or rice, black beans, 1-2 servings of chorizo seitan, a dabble of nutritional yeast, and a spoonful of salsa for an extremely simple yet physique-friendly meal.
Tip #8: Chili
Chilis are nutritional powerhouses when it comes to dieting for body recomposition.
And although I’m well aware that the majority of my readers won’t be “as plant-based” as I am, I personally add a bag of Gardein’s be’f crumbles made from a textured soy protein for an extra 18g of protein for 120 calories per serving.
That being said, I know there are plenty of people out there who are scared of soy, and I empathize with you. And although soy is still heavily-debated, I found this resource featuring Simon Hill and Dr. Matthew Nagra extremely helpful in clearing up my own personal confusion.
But back to chili.
As an added bonus, throwing tons of beans in your chili is an amazing way to get a meal packed with fiber and extra plant-based protein.
It’s also a cheeky way to get a ton of herbs and spices you might be missing out in other areas of your diet.
Lastly, chilis are amazing for meal prep because it’s an all-in-one meal that you can toss into a single Pyrex dish for a simple heat-up.
What I Do Personally: When the weather isn’t too hot, my wife and I make a large batch of chili in the crockpot and eat high-protein dinners for a full week.
If you’re curious for the recipe, send me an email at ivry.fitness@gmail.com and I’d be happy to hook you up.
P.S. Mix in 16g of nutritional yeast per serving of chili for an extra 8g of protein and enough B12 to last you a trip to Mars and back.
Tip #9: High-Protein Soy Milk
In my opinion, this stuff is almost too good to be true. Why did I make this number nine?
Silk’s version of this product packs an outstanding 20g of protein per 240mL, which is basically a protein shake all by itself given the known protein quality of soy.
How do you use it?
Throw it in smoothies.
Drizzle it into your oats.
Use it as the milk for your cereals.
Or even mix it into red pasta sauces as a thickening agent.
What I Do Personally: I drink about two cups of soy milk a day. Most often, I’ll have one in the morning as the base of my plant-based protein smoothie, and then I’ll sometimes drink a cup on the side of a peanut butter and jelly bagel post-workout.
Bonus Tip: The “Pre-Dinner Shake and Dine” Maneuver
What if you’re that person who is already annoyed at the idea of having to design every single meal around a protein source?
Well, I come to you with this final tip as a peace offering for a bit of added “normalcy,”
If you’re going out to dinner with friends and you don’t want to order the rubbery grilled chicken salad or settle for the hummus plate appetizer, just drink a low-calorie protein shake at home right before you leave and enjoy literally any meal on the menu assuming it fits the caloric needs you’ve established for your goal.
This is actually pretty genius for a few reasons:
Most importantly, you get to order the pasta you really want even though it’s basically a carbohydrate and fat explosion. Life is worth living (in my opinion), so if you want the pasta, why not pull a fast one to make that happen?
Secondly, you don’t have to look “uncool” socially. Although it doesn’t bother me personally, some people don’t like having to order the “high-protein option” in front of their friends because it just feels “uncool.” And trust me, I get it. You want to be jacked and lean and be able to order the pizza when you’re out with friends. It’s sexier and more mysterious that way. I’m tracking 100%, and this is an easy way to do it.
And lastly, the protein from the shake you consumed before you left the house might even curb some of your hunger and leave you more satiated before you even make your order. What does that mean? It means you might wind up eating even less at dinner and keeping your fat loss goals a bit more intact due to the added liquid volume and satiating properties of the high-protein drink.
So, don’t be afraid to keep that trick up your sleeve the next time it’s time to have a meal out with the squad.
And that’s that, friends! I had a blast writing this article, so if you enjoyed it, do me a favor and send it to a friend who might benefit from learning a few new tips and tricks about increasing your protein intake across the day.
Until next time,
-Andrew
