How to get more protein into your diet
Christopher Worthington considers what steps you can take to increase the amount of protein in your diet.
You must be mindful of your nutrition when considering starting a fitness regime. If you have specific fitness goals, your diet will likely change, and your nutritional needs will shift. For example, if you plan on trying to build muscle, your protein intake will need to increase to help your body repair itself after workouts. So, what steps can you take to increase the amount of protein in your diet?
Snacks
You do not need to derive your protein solely from meat or protein shakes. Many protein snacks are available, many of which are even suitable for vegans.
Buying snacks such as brownies and protein bars can help get additional protein into your system and work as a fantastic pick-me-up after a workout. You could also make your own. There are loads of recipes for protein balls and bars online. You could even use one of those recipes as a starting point to create something that appeals more to your specific tastes.
You can also increase your protein intake by adding beans, pulses, and nuts to your diet. These are the cornerstones of adding protein to a diet for vegans and vegetarians. People who eat meat can also take on more protein by incorporating it into their diet.
Keep an eye on your intake. While you might need more protein to help meet your fitness goals, this should be done carefully and in line with a properly defined nutrition plan.
Meal planning
Part of your nutrition plan, especially if you are trying to get more protein into your diet, might be to look at meal planning. Specifically, you must plan and prepare the many meals you will have daily.
If you are looking at building muscle mass and following a regime focused on bodybuilding, you should eat more throughout the day. Preparing meals the day before can help you stick to a regime more closely. It might involve setting time aside each day to prepare ingredients. Depending on how many meals and your dietary requirements, this could take a reasonably long time, so ensuring meal prep fits into your daily routine is key to making sure you can stick to a plan.
Knowing you have food to eat and the set meal times can help you avoid snacking and maintain a balanced diet based on your nutrition plan. It would help if you also looked at a variety of your meals. Aim for the same nutritional benefits but mix ingredients and flavours whenever possible. It can be invaluable in a long-term plan. Getting bored of the same mix of ingredients can make it much harder to resist slipping from your nutrition plan and make it harder to hit your overall fitness goals.
Whenever you change your diet to help meet a fitness goal, it is vital to ensure you get the right advice. If you are unsure about nutrition's role in your fitness plans, it is worth talking to your GP or personal trainer or seeing if your gym has a nutritionist to get advice and point yourself in the right direction.
Page Reference
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- WORTHINGTON. C. (2018) How to get more protein into your diet [WWW] Available from: https://www.brianmac.co.uk/articles/article317.htm [Accessed
About the Author
Christopher Worthington is an experienced medical writer with several years of experience covering sports injury topics. Christopher has written for various hospital websites and contributed to health blogs.