Do You Eat These High Protein Diet Foods?

Protein is essential to the body for many reasons, including repairing and building muscle, strengthening the immune system, and promoting healthy heart function. Unfortunately, if you lose weight by reducing your calorie intake too low, you may not be getting enough protein and you’ll end up losing muscle instead of fat.

Most active adults require between 50 and 70 grams of protein daily.  But your daily protein needs depends on a few factors.

See: How Much Protein Do You Need to Lose Weight?

If you don’t get enough protein and you want to turn that around, take a look at this list of high protein diet foods:

Fish Five ounces of salmon fillet is packed with protein, approximately 38 grams.  Other good fish protein sources:  1 cup of tuna has 39 grams of protein; 6 ounces of cod provides 40 grams of protein; 5 ounces of halibut has more than 40 grams of protein.

Shellfish Three ounces of shrimp has almost 20 grams of protein; 3 ounces of scallops (bay or sea) has 23 grams of protein; 5 ounces of lobster meat has 30 grams of protein; and 3 ounces of crab meat has almost 20 grams of protein. 

Chicken Breast  Three ounces of chicken breast has 27 grams of protein, and less than 150 calories.

Turkey Breast Turkey is leaner, with slightly less fat and calories and approximately 26 grams of protein for 3 ounces.

Still more high protein diet foods:

Dairy Products One cup of milk contains 8 grams of protein; 1 large egg has 6g of protein; 1 ounce of cheddar cheese has 7g of protein.

See: Discover The Smart Way to Add Dairy To Your Diet

Nuts and Seeds One ounce of almonds is packed with 6g of protein; peanuts have a little less protein, but still 5g per ounce; 1 ounce of sunflower seeds contain an impressive 6g of protein; and 1 ounce of pistachio nuts contain the same, 6g of protein.

Nuts and seeds have a high amount of fat, so eat them sparingly.

Even fruits and vegetables have some protein in them:

Vegetables Some surprising high protein diet foods:  1 cup of spinach has 3g of protein; 1 cup of broccoli contains 2.5g of protein and 1 cup of sweet potato contains 4g of protein.

See: Top 5 Healthy Dark Green Vegetables

Fruit Most fruits have a small amount of protein too, like strawberries (1g per cup); grapefruit (2g per cup); mango (1g per cup); banana (1g per medium banana); and grapes (1g per cup).

See: Top 5 Healthy Fruits to Eat for Weight Loss

As you can see, high protein diet foods are not hard to find!  Picking from some of these delicious options each day should go a long way in helping you to meet your daily protein requirements while sticking to your healthy diet at the same time.

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