Things You’ll Need:
- foods high in protein
- unflavored protein powder, if desired
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Step 1
Begin by keeping track of how much protein you eat per day for a few days. Just read the labels on food you eat to see how many grams of protein it contains. If you’re eating something that doesn’t come in a package or if you’re eating a meal in a restaurant, you can find the nutritional information online.
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Step 2
The average person needs about 45 - 55 grams of protein per day. You can check with your doctor or a registered dietician if you want to make sure your own individual protein needs are not different than that. Once you learn how many grams of protein you get in an average day, you can decide if you need to increase your protein or not.
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Step 3
If you eat eggs, they are a fairly good source of protein. An average egg contains 6 or 7 grams of protein, and people usually eat a couple eggs at a time.
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Step 4
If you eat dairy products, they are a good source of protein. For instance, 8 ounces of skim milk contains 8 grams of protein, one cup of plain yogurt contains about 10 grams of protein, one cup of cottage cheese has about 28 grams of protein, and a one-ounce slice of cheddar cheese has about 7 grams of protein. If you like yogurt, you can boost your protein intake by eating Greek yogurt instead of regular yogurt; it has about 20 grams of protein per cup.
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Step 5
If you don’t eat dairy products, you can use soy milk and soy yogurt. Soy milk has about the same amount of protein as skim milk. Soy yogurt is a little lower in protein than regular yogurt, but it’s still a good source of protein.
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Step 6
Eat beans. One cup of kidney beans has about 14 grams of protein, one cup of black beans has about 15 grams of protein, and one cup of navy beans has about 20 grams of protein.
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Step 7
Try some tofu. Half a cup of tofu has about 20 grams of protein. That’s actually more protein than tuna!
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Step 8
Check out some of the great meat substitute products available these days. For instance, the average veggie burger has about 10 grams of protein. There are veggie breakfast sausage patties and veggie hot dogs available that also have about 10 grams of protein each.
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Step 9
If you find you are not getting enough protein from the food you are eating, you can buy some unflavored protein powder and add it to your food. It goes well in all kinds of foods, like soup, stew, chili, yogurt, oatmeal, bean dishes, casseroles, pudding, milkshakes, smoothies, and more.
