My Quest To Increase My Protein to Shrink My Waist
Why I Count My Protein
How much protein should I eat daily?
Before I got the weight loss balloon, I was using a personal trainer. My trainer would tell me to increase my protein intake, so I’d eat an extra egg a day (eggs only have 6 grams of protein, but I didn’t know that then.)
Finally, I decided to drag myself to an actual nutritionist. I can’t recommend going to a nutritionist enough and plan to write an entire blog post on why diets are awful and registered dietitians are amazing. First, my nutritionist checked my metabolism. It was LOW – shockingly low. I don’t track all my foods, since I find that it’s not something I can do regularly with consistency. However, I do use MyFitnessPal to track my protein consumption. It’s my app of choice, but there are others.
Low Metabolism: Metabolism Checking
There are many places you can go in New York City to get your metabolism checked, but I like it at Weight Zen. It’s simple and fast. I go every couple of months and get it rechecked.
My metabolism was 1255. That is very low – it means it makes total sense why I wasn’t losing any weight eating a 1200-calorie diet.
Back to My Protein Saga
The first thing I learned was without a tool like the gastric band or the Orbera Balloon, due to my low metabolism, it would be nearly impossible to lose the weight on my own.
Essentially, I’d need to eat only 1000 calories a day (plus, I tried every diet already and that would maybe have me losing .5 pound a week.) With the weight loss balloon taking up 75% of my stomach, it’s simply easier for me to eat less, because I feel full with so much less food now.
How much protein should women eat a day?
Now, even BEFORE I got the balloon, Megan (my fave nutritionist on the planet) said I needed to hit 20 grams of protein per meal. Females typically need to eat 60-80 grams of protein a day. She recommended I go back to tracking my food on the MyFitnessPal app, and start reading labels again just to track my protein consumption.
It’s hard to eat 20 grams of protein each meal, with or without the weight loss balloon. I was shocked by how little protein some things that I thought were high in protein, simply weren’t.
How to maximize your protein every meal? Double down.
I try to double my protein. Most proteins don’t have 20 grams in a serving, which means I had to figure out creative ways to hit 20 grams of protein per meal or between meals.
Meals
- Lox with Greek Cream Cheese and Greek Yogurt Filling
- Frozen Greek Yogurt Chia Bark
- Meatballs with High-Protein Bean Pastas – The meatballs have 30 grams of protein and the high protein pasta has 15 – 20 grams, depending on the brand
High Protein Snacks
- Cottage Cheese – One full cup is 25 grams of protein
- Collagen in Miso Soup or Sugar-Free Hot Chocolate for a snack
- Turkey Rolls with Spicy Mustard
Quick Protein Grabs Always in My Fridge
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Greek Yogurt
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Egg Whites
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Tuna Salad (Yes, I do use mayonnaise. Listen, it’s worth it to have my food taste good and I will write more in my next blog post about why high-fat foods are now my friend.)
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Rotisserie Chicken (I just buy it on the bone and then pull the meat off, so anytime I’m hungry, I can grab a piece easily.)
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