15 Food Sources of Lean Protein that Can Help with Weight Loss

“When life gives you lemons, ask for something higher in protein.” Only people who follow Rati Beauty weight loss program would understand the essence of this quote 😛 Fitness instructors, dieticians, health experts unanimously recommend keeping your protein level high in order to shed weight. When you consume protein, it increases the levels of the satiety hormones, reduces appetite by lowering the level of hunger hormone “ghrelin.” In order to lose weight fast, you need to consume more protein and less of simple carbs and unhealthy fat. This way, you boost satiety hormones and keep the hunger hormones in check, which in turn means that you will be less likely to binge. Since protein helps to build muscle, the body tends to burn more calories, even when someone is at rest! It is believed that what you eat is what you are. If you notice women who are in good shape, we bet they are on a healthy diet with high lean protein. In this post, we look at different types of lean protein that can help with weight loss.

Food Sources of Lean Protein that Can Help with Weight Loss

What is Lean Protein?

The United States Food and Drug Administration defines a lean protein food to have less than 10 gm of fat and less than 95 mg of cholesterol per 100 gm serving. Lean protein helps in repairing cells, in production of hormones of enzymes, and weight loss. Lean protein, since it is low in fat, carbs, helps to build muscle and trim the waistline. It also helps to bring down saturated fat intake. Lean protein scores well when it comes to weight loss because most proteins are high in saturated fats and cholesterol and when you go overboard with proteins, it can be counter-productive with regards to weight loss.

How Lean Protein Leads to Weight Loss?

Protein is extremely important for muscle building and for numerous functions in the body. Protein helps to repair and regenerate cells and body tissues. With regards to weight loss, protein keeps you full for a longer period and boosts the release of satiety hormone “leptin” and necessary for the synthesis of important hormones and essential enzymes, also for the creation of antibodies to strengthen the immune system. Talking about calories, a gram of carbohydrate has 4 calories, fat has 9 calories, and protein has 4 calories (the same as carbs). Protein also has thermogenic effect and requires more calories to break it down during digestion. A serving of protein should be about the size of your palm.

15 Top Food Sources of Lean Protein:

1. Chicken breast: A large proportion of its calories are protein and is an extremely good source of protein.

2. Eggs whites: An egg white from a single egg can give up to 3 gm of lean protein.

3. Tofu: Rati Beauty weight loss program has included tofu extensively in its diet programs and that’s because tofu has low calorie and fat content, but high amount of lean protein, which helps with weight loss.

4. Greek Yogurt: No, not the flavoured, sweet Greek yogurt that claim to have the richness of fruits which have loads of sugar and preservatives, high in calories, bad for weight loss. Instead, plain Greek yogurt has a good amount of lean protein with up to 12 to 15 gm of protein.

5. Salmon: Fish sources that are white fleshed are good sources of protein, low in fat and carbs.

6. Lentils and Dal: For vegetarians, legumes, dals, beans are great source of fiber, nutrients, minerals, and also protein. Black beans, all dal varieties are high in protein.

7. Black beans: As mentioned above, beans are a good source of protein and can pack up to 15 gm of protein in one cup serving.

8. Almonds: Eating almonds is great to boost brain and heart health, and it’s a good source of protein with up to 6 gm of protein per ounce. A good way to include almonds while dieting is to replace your regular milk with almond milk.

9. Hemp seeds: In 2 tablespoons of hemp seeds, you can get up to 11 gm of protein.

10. Low Fat milk: This kind of milk is high in protein and low in fat.

11. Mushrooms: Mushroom lovers, here’s good news, your favorite vegetable is low in calories and has a good amount of protein, and 0 gm fat.

12. Quinoa: It’s low in calories, low in fat, and is a rich of source of protein.

13. Spirulina: It’s also called as a “lean green protein machine” due to its high protein content. It also has vitamins, antioxidants, and iron content.

14. Chickpeas/Kabuli Chana: If you are looking for a good source of plant-based, this is it! (Can Chickpeas Lead to Weight Loss?)

15. Guava: All of us have ignored guava enough, but this one has more protein than any other fruit that you can think of.

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