8 High-Protein Foods You Need to Build Muscle

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Protein is a macromolecule that you need to include in your daily diet. Your diet needs to be high-protein, especially if you want to build muscle mass.

Protein is used for many different purposes in your body. Perhaps the most important thing protein is used for by your body is muscle building.

The recommended daily amount of protein for non-active people is 0.36 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight. Studies suggest you eat between 0.7–1.0 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight if you are active, especially if you are resistance training.

To calculate the amount of protein you need, multiply your current bodyweight by 0.36 if you are not active. If you are active, multiply your current bodyweight by 0.7. If you want to get more protein in, simply multiply your current body weight by 1.0 instead.

This calculation will give you the minimum amount of protein you’ll need to eat each day.

Eating enough protein for your lifestyle will help you live a healthier life, and can help lower blood pressure and prevent diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and more.

What foods are high-protein?

Getting enough protein in your diet is simple. You just need to do a little planning.

Many foods have protein. Some have a lot of protein, while some have less.

Finding foods that are high in protein will help you eat a high-protein diet easily.

Here are the main foods that are high in protein:

1. Meat — chicken, steak, turkey, beef, pork
2. Seafood -fish, tuna, salmon, halibut, shellfish, lobster, octopus
3. Protein powders -whey or casein protein powder, protein bars
4. Eggs- whole or whites
5. Dairy -yogurt, milk, cheeses, cottage cheese
6. Legumes -lentils, beans, edamame, peas
7. Nuts -almonds, pistachios, cashews, peanuts, nut butters,
8. Plant-based -tofu, tempeh, quinoa

Try including some of these sources of protein in your diet today.

Tracking your protein intake can help you know if you are eating enough protein or not. You don’t need to track everything you eat. However, tracking the foods you eat that are high in protein will give you a solid baseline for your daily protein intake.

You don’t need to track protein intake forever. However, tracking at the beginning for a few days, weeks, or months will help get you on the right path. You can then estimate your daily protein intake once you know roughly how much protein you eat on a normal day.

You may consider checking in with yourself by tracking your protein intake for a day every once in a while to keep yourself on track.

Not all protein sources are the same…

Each of the main protein sources listed above has different amounts of protein per serving.

Something to consider when choosing high-protein foods is how many calories are in each serving.

Even though a given protein source may be high in protein, it may also be high in calories. Foods higher in calories are generally easier to overeat on, and they may be more difficult to include in your diet if you are tracking calories.

Choosing your protein sources carefully is important, especially if you are trying to lose weight.

For instance, for 100 grams of almonds, you’ll get 21 grams of protein for 579 calories. For 100 grams of chicken breasts, you’ll get 31 grams of protein for just 165 calories.

Typically meats, seafood, and protein powders are the foods highest in protein per serving. You’ll be able to get most of your daily protein from eating just a few servings of these foods throughout the day.

If you choose to use eggs, dairy, legumes, nuts, or plant-based protein as your main protein sources, keep in mind that you will need to eat more servings of these throughout the day. These sources are lower in protein per serving compared to the more efficient protein sources listed above.

Also pay attention to the calories on these less efficient protein sources, as they can get quite high when consuming multiple servings of them.

Here’s a great chart of high-protein foods with the amount of protein, calories, and typical serving size for each food.

Getting enough protein in your diet is easy

You’ve likely been eating several of the foods on this list right now, without even thinking about it.

There are 8 main sources of protein. However, there are many different foods you can eat that are high in protein. There’s a protein source that can fit into any diet you may be on.

You can eat the foods you love. And you can experiment and try something new to eat!

Check out my previous blog for more information on why you need a high-protein diet here.

Eating a high-protein diet helps you live a healthy life and is especially important for people with active lifestyles.

References:

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/how-much-protein-per-day#muscles-strength https://www.dietdoctor.com/high-protein

https://www.bodybuilding.com/content/ultimate-list-40-high-protein-foods.html

https://healthbeet.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Protein-Calories-List-Printable-.pdf

Hope this article gives you some food ideas to help with your PSA, Evon!

Originally published at https://cambillings.com on January 28, 2022.