how to get enough protein "practically"

noobie

New Member
so i just calculated how much protein i am having per day, and at most it would be around 100 grams, but probably less. I am a senior in highschool and really i have NO way of getting 167 grams of protein in a day. How am i suppose to acheive this? i have 6-7 meals a day, and... 1 gram of protein for every pound is a lot. even my protein shake is only 25 grams, getting around 160 is hard. Anyone have suggesstions based on "practicality" to acheive this? I think the reason why i havent been gaining that much is because my protein is so low, but i don't know any way to make it go up without busting my parents budget =\. please help

this is what my meals look like

cereal, milk,
16 grams protein

snack of fruit or so, protein negligible, or around 5 grams

lean turkey wrap with wheat bread: 20grams protein

chicken sandwhich for after school: around 20 grams

dinner whatever the family cooks: around 25 grams protein

snack or fruit, around 5 grams protein

rough estimate total:95 grams protein a day
i weight 167 lbs. :confused:

what to do what to do??
 
I'm a senior in highschool too. Since tenth grade I've been able to hit 300 grams in a day. I normally stick to around 220 or so, for no other reason than that's what it amounts to. My money situation is horrible. Parental finance = almost non-existant.

No offense man, but suck it up. You're whining about such a small amount of protein. Eat some red meat. Cook more chicken. Use milk. Have a scoop or two or protein powder a day. Ditch the cereal and make some dang eggs.
 
will do Tom
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Have a cup of skim milk every time you eat. That's an extra 9g of protein with every cup. If that brings up the calories too much then drop the fruit. Eat a can of tuna 25g. Have a cup of cottage cheese 30g. Just substitute lower protein foods with higher ones.

Hey, I'm cutting right now on 1850 cals a day and I manage to get 170 grams. Tom's right...suck it up and eat. ;-)
 
And throw away serials. They are just full of shitty carbs (high GI)

This may sound odd to you but try as a breakfast some porridge ( or whatever it`s spelled) add cottage cheese and some olive oil.If you want spice it up with berries. Perfect start for the morning and you get plenty of proteins and good fats. And you are also amazed how much you can eat and still have less calories than in your breakfast cerials..
 
That's kind of funny because I get around 200 grams of protein a day with ease. What I struggle to get enough of is carbohydrates. Heh.

Follow the advice the others said. Also, for snacks, try plain yogurt instead of fruit. Yogurt has decent protein content, I think 19 grams per cup, and it's easy. I use cottage cheese sometimes too.

Peanut butter, as suggested, is a good idea. A peanut butter sandwich can satisfy your sweet tooth, if that's why you're eating cereal, but with a much better protein content than cereal.
 
Try some eggs - or that '99% egg whites' egg substitute stuff, like egg beaters:
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It is soooo easy to make scrambled eggs in the morning with that stuff. Begin & end your day with eggs & oatmeal & you'll be fine.
 
Whey oatmeal is another option for breakfast or as a snack if you can't afford the egg beaters (which can get expensive if you eat alot)

Put 1 cup of oatmeal, 2 cups of water (or skim milk), a scoop of whey, and, if you want, a chopped up apple in a microwave safe bowl. Stir it all up with a spoon, especially make sure the whey is mixed in with the water. Stick it in the microwave for about 6-7 minutes (3-4 for instant).

When its done microwaving you kick it up a notch with a spoonful of natural peanutbutter. You may also need to pour some more skim milk on top if its really dry (depending on if you overcooked it or not). You can also add some splenda if it isn't sweet enough for you, but with the apple it usually is. I always use chocolate whey, seems to go good with the pb.
 
Are you sure?

Red meat seems to be most expensive, especially steaks.

What kind of steaks do you buy? I'd love to know.

Besides being cheap the ones above, they're also convenient sources of protein. Milk, tuna, eggs, etc. don't have to be cooked. (I eat raw eggs alot)
 
Tuna has to be the cheapest of protein sources. Just be sure to buy it in bigger cans so that you're not paying for the packaging.
 
Go to a cheap grocery store like FRY'S and stock up on the cheapo large cans of tuna!

Just by adding 2 extra scoops of protein powder per day to your protein shakes (an extra 36 grams) and eating a large can of tuna (65 grams) you are nearly doubling your protein intake.

In case you might wanna try this out, my super-duper simple protein shake is as follows:

8-9 cubes of ice
1.5 cups lo-carb milk
3 scoops chocolate protein powder
1 banana

mix in a blender. The ice gives it thickness with no extra calories. Tastes just like a chocolate-banana milkshake! very filling!

about 600 calories
about 39 grams of carbs
about 72 grabs of protein
about 8 grams of fat


Of course you can use whole milk or skim milk depending on your caloric goals. I avoid using raw eggs in shakes becuase of the risk of salmonella poisoning - it's NASTY stuff.
 
hrrm that sounds like one hardc0re shake. hah. my blender is so old that it won't chop up the ice
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. But i'll be getting a new one really soon, i'll try that out, hope its not too much protein at once though. thanks for the tip
 
Hey Noob.. actually we have an automatic ice-maker and the cubes are those small wedged shaped thingies, so you may have to use less than 8-9 of regular full sized cubes.  Just experiment.
As for too much protein?  No way.. I weight about 280 and shoot for at least 500 grams per day. 100 grams per meal or more.. I know some people argue that you cant absorb that much blah blah blah.. but from my own personal experience when I doubled my protein intake my gains shot up dramatically.  If you are a "hardgaining" ectomorph this is especially true.  Don't try to stay lean while bulking up - you can't do both optimally at the same time.
Personally, I think the key to gaining massive amounts of muscle (besides heavy training) is to become a human food processor.   Yea, youll get fatter and your skinny buddies will tease you - but then again those are the same guys who stay lean year around but look the same year after year with no appreciable gains. Are you trying to build huge muscles or keep your six-pack? I assume your'e not training for a contest right? I'd rather gain 20lbs of muscle and 10lbs of fat than gain 5 pounds of muscle and no extra fat.
Once you have the foundation, adding cardio and limiting carbs will strip away the fat.  If you limit your calories and protein all year there will be nothing to show underneath.
Just my 2 cents :)
- TJ
 
definately trying to gain alot of mass. I actually started off as a lardy, around 17% bf. im trying to drop that around 15 in about 2 weeks, have been working on it for the past cycle. Yea, for the past 2 cycles i've made the mistake of trying to cut/bulk same time, and now i know its a big nono, im just stubborn because i used to be HUGE, lots and lots of fat, and 17% bf was pretty good, but now i know that i gotta do one thing at a time. from the bodybuilding.com bodytype calculator it said i was a endo mesomorph. So its bit of a problem with my calories and fat gain, but the well known Jules of the forum has suggested a good macroratio for me and good calorie of keeping around 2700-3400 calories that i will probably try out for the next cycle. im 5'9 at 165 lbs, and asian, haha generally bad genes for being big
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