Your challenge for the week: Eat Lean Protein with each meal
In today’s lesson we’re going to cover the power of protein and why eating it at every meal will help you lose fat.
There’s a big difference between eating just enough protein each day for your muscles not to waste away and eating the right amount for your body to run at it’s best.
Eating protein 4-5 times through the day (with each meal) will do three things for you:
Keep you fuller for longer (helping you resist the temptation to snack)
Speed up your metabolism (getting you burning more calories)
Provide the building blocks you need to make lean, toned muscles
Most people stick to having a small serving of protein with lunch (like a slice of ham in a ham sandwich) and perhaps a piece of meat or fish with their evening meal.
All in that’s probably around 30-50g of protein per day, which leaves you woefully short of what your body needs to thrive.
Over the years we’ve found that women who eat closer to 100-150g per day see the biggest changes in their body and get the best results on the programme.
How much to eat at each meal
To get you started seeing the benefits of increasing your protein intake let’s aim for a palm-sized serving of protein with each meal or snack. So that’ll be 4-5 servings of protein rich foods each day.
What does 5 servings look like?
5 servings = 2 large whole eggs (or 1 egg:3 egg whites), 1 scoop of protein powder, 100g chicken breast, 60g low fat cottage cheese, 100g lean steak
Example day
Meal 1: breakfast omlette with mushrooms and peppers
Meal 2: mid morning shake with 1 scoop protein powder
Meal 3: lunchtime salad with 100g chicken
Meal 4: mid afternoon snack with ½ cup cottage cheese and apple
Meal 5: Roast veggies with 100g lean steak
Eating protein requires planning in advance
Protein rich foods tend to be hard to get on the run. So the best way to make sure you’re able to meet your quota is to prep in advance so you can take it with you while you’re out and about (sounding like a broken record yet?).
½ cup plain yoghurt
½ cup cottage cheese
60g feta cheese
60g low fat cheese
2 large eggs (or 1 egg : 3 egg whites)
Vegan
1 small veggie burger
100g Quorn (mince, chicken etc)
100g tofu
1 cup of lentils/beans
Supplement
1 scoop whey protein
1 scoop rice protein
1 scoop hemp protein
Step 2 (your assignment): Eat one serving from the above options at each meal today
Once you’ve selected 4-5 protein rich foods write them down, pick up any supplies you need from the shops, and eat one of the servings every 3-4 hours (one at each meal or snack)
What we’ve learned
Today we’ve covered how you’re potentially only getting 50% of the protein your body needs to be at it’s best. And that by simply eating a serving of lean protein at each meal you’ll bring your diet back into balance, keep hunger and cravings under control and give your body the necessary building blocks required to look and feel great!
