Trying to lose weight and also build muscle I’ve decided to try to cut fat from my diet, limit carbs, and find protein. (Combined with weight training and cardio training)
Lots of foods seem to have a carb vs. fat tradeoff and high protein is often associated with high fat or carb.
What foods offer high amounts of protein with little or no fat/carb?
I’ve already found the easy ones of skinless chicken breast, low fat ground beef.
What else is out there?
Fish, basically.
Fish with the skin off. Poached or broiled or grilled or baked. No butter. No Long John Silver’s.
Tuna packed in water.
SeaStix[sup]TM[/sup], those imitation crabmeat things.
Also, IIRC ground turkey is lower in fat than even lean ground beef. You can make it into burgers, too, but take my advice: if you’re going to make it into burgers, go with the high-end Louis Rich brand, because the Jennie-O brand has more gross amounts of assorted “icky bits” in it, which doesn’t matter if you’re putting it in spaghetti sauce and you can’t see it, but it’s kinda glaringly obvious if it’s in a burger.
Don’t waste your money on the Mr. Turkey brand. [insert Mr. Yuk emoticon here]
Also, you can de-fat both ground turkey and ground beef even more by frying it normally, crumbling it up as you go, and then put it in a colander in the sink and pour an entire teakettle of boiling (not merely “hot”) water over it, slowly. This rinses off an amazing amount of the fat.
Any lean meats… Most meats, fish/poultry/beef/pork, can be found in very lean cuts.
Beware: Alot of fish contains fat that you really want in your diet. Salmon being just one example.
I wouldn’t recommend simply eliminating carbs and fats, without first learning which are the worst and which are beneficial. For one thing, learn about the glycemic index.
You need an energy source to go along with your protein. Fat’s a good choice, cause it promotes a feeling of fullness, and some types are essential. Even saturated fat isn’t the boogeyman that it’s made out to be.
Egg Whites. Hard boil the eggs and then seperate.
Once your diet gets to about 40% protein, you run the risk of damaging your kidneys and over-working your liver. The risk increases rapidly the higher the protein percentage goes above that.
QtM, MD
If you have unique dietary goals, I highly suggest consulting either your general practicioner-physician type or a registered dietician before implemented a home-made diet.
er… implementing, even.
Protein powder, most commonly whey powder.
Wow, so many quotes and nobody’s mentioned “vegetable-protein meat substitutes” or “chicken” which would be my first two answers to this question.
Why are you bulking up? It’s too late to be building muscle for football and the summer jobs you’d need serious muscle for (construction) are nine months away. If it’s just to “get in shape”, don’t bother with the weights and hit the roads - five miles of running per day will improve your physical condition considerably. You don’t need ridiculous amounts of protein to bulk up anyway - 80-100g per day ought to do fine for competitive distance training.
Heed the warnings about no more than 40% of your calories being from protein. What you need is a well-balanced diet that isn’t short on nutrients - take a multivitamin and get 15 grams of dietary fiber per day.
Finally, realize that your goal is to get into better shape - not necessarily to lose weight unless you weigh 300 lbs. I gained 30 lbs in my first cross-country season. I gained 30 lbs more before the one track season where I was really good - I looked more like a linebacker than a top-end miler. 5’8", 170# is technically overweight and sounds a lot worse than 5’6", 110#, but I had a resting heart rate of 36 and once reeled off 8 60-second quarter miles in 20 minutes.
PS: That much muscle mass really hurts on a cross-country course. You find that you can’t slow down for or negotiate the corners if you weigh that much. I ended up in the trees several times during the XC season that followed that track season.
I’ve heard a lot of argument about this claim. Are there recorded instances of people with healthy livers and kidneys who had this happen?
The body needs fat and carbs, so you do not have to find foods that totally eliminate these. There are good fats and good carbs (low glycemic index).
Keep away from trans fats, limit the amount of saturated fat and replace these with unsaturated fat and dietary fiber.
Read the Harvard School of Public Health Nutrition site for detailed information.
oh yeah… and don’t forget an important source of protein is from vegetables, grains and nuts (as well as meat).