Protein Sources

Joe84

As most of know, it becomes difficult to find a wide varity of protein sources especially on-the-go. Some of the sources I have looked at recently are:

1) Natural Peanut Butter
2) Beef/ Turkey Jerky
3) Low Fat Cottage Cheese

Anyone know of any good places to buy these products in Ireland. I usually buy my cottage cheese in Tesco great value - 1euro for tesco brand. The peanut butter is harder to find, I haven't found any good brands which do natural stuff yet (Kelkin maybe). As for the jerky which is a great source of protein I haven't found this available anywhere in Ireland, but it's very popular in the US. I'd love to find some of this close to home.

Thanks

Cravez

What about Milk? Has alot of protein in it and has a complete protein profile(aminos), natural simple sugars and vits & minerals. And you can just pick it up in any shop.

As for peanut butter id recommend highly going to one of the Health Matters stores, either on Grafton Street or in Bray main street. They sell delicious organic natural peanut butter(99% peanuts) and its lovely stuff altogether. Kelkins 'seem' to be healthy but they're peanut butter is only 77% peanuts.

Degsy

Joe84 wrote:

As most of know, it becomes difficult to find a wide varity of protein sources especially on-the-go. Some of the sources I have looked at recently are:

1) Natural Peanut Butter
2) Beef/ Turkey Jerky
3) Low Fat Cottage Cheese

Anyone know of any good places to buy these products in Ireland. I usually buy my cottage cheese in Tesco great value - 1euro for tesco brand. The peanut butter is harder to find, I haven't found any good brands which do natural stuff yet (Kelkin maybe). As for the jerky which is a great source of protein I haven't found this available anywhere in Ireland, but it's very popular in the US. I'd love to find some of this close to home.

Thanks

Beef/turkey jerky is usually full of fat and salt..far more by weight than protein.

yomchi

Joe84 wrote:

As most of know, it becomes difficult to find a wide varity of protein sources especially on-the-go. Some of the sources I have looked at recently are:

1) Natural Peanut Butter
2) Beef/ Turkey Jerky
3) Low Fat Cottage Cheese

Anyone know of any good places to buy these products in Ireland. I usually buy my cottage cheese in Tesco great value - 1euro for tesco brand. The peanut butter is harder to find, I haven't found any good brands which do natural stuff yet (Kelkin maybe). As for the jerky which is a great source of protein I haven't found this available anywhere in Ireland, but it's very popular in the US. I'd love to find some of this close to home.

Thanks

Everyting you've mentioned there is higher in fat than it is higher in protein. Especially the peanut butter. Natural peanut butter can be gotten in Nourish on Liffey street or the GPO arcade. They do kilo tubs of the stuff. A s for the Jerky, anything Homer Simspon classes as 'hmmmmmmmm'...can't be all that good



Better sources of protein would be chicken breasts, turkey mince, steak and fish. Cook it up and bung it in a lunch box before you set out. Failing that you could add in whey protein in the form of a shake.

iascanmore

Lidl do mackerel fillets (150gs) for €2, also salmon fillets at a similar price - I have at least one pack a day. Another obvious one not on your lost is eggs. I eat 4 (only 2 yolks) every other day.

yomchi

are the fish fillets fresh from Lidl or are they laced with preservatives?

Mickk

San sucre do a peanut butter that has 45g protein, 27g carbs and 22g fat per 100g that I am working on getting and I also have turkey and beef jerky that has only 80 cals a stick with 1.5g fat(.5 saturated), 2g of carbs and 14g of protein. Sodium isn't too high at 300mg.

Hail 2 Da Chimp

Can somebody clear this up for me: Nuts while a good source of protein have a hell of a lot of calories. So is it just a trade off between more calories for more protein?

Degsy

Avoid it like the plague i say..go to your fishmonger..get a better product and keep small shops in business.

Lidl fish i mean..

Dragan

Mickk wrote:

I also have turkey and beef jerky that has only 80 cals a stick with 1.5g fat(.5 saturated), 2g of carbs and 14g of protein. Sodium isn't too high at 300mg.

You have Jerky???

How much???? :eek:

t-ha

Hail 2 Da Chimp wrote:

Can somebody clear this up for me: Nuts while a good source of protein have a hell of a lot of calories. So is it just a trade off between more calories for more protein?

They are generally high in (good) fats so they have alot of calories. They're definitely a good food to have in your diet - just watch your portion sizes (read the labels).

Mickk

Dragan wrote:

You have Jerky???

How much???? :eek:

2.5euro each or 20 for a box of 10, the shop is out at the moment but I personally am stocked up nicely:D

Degsy

Hail 2 Da Chimp wrote:

Can somebody clear this up for me: Nuts while a good source of protein have a hell of a lot of calories. So is it just a trade off between more calories for more protein?

Nuts= vegetable protein,that means they dont contain the right ratios of essential amino acids needed to build muscle,at least not by themselves.

iascanmore

Jon wrote:

are the fish fillets fresh from Lidl or are they laced with preservatives?

They're not fresh - I'm assuming cold smoked. Ingredients listed as mackerel, salt + water which is normal enough for cold smoked produce.

I don't use salt directly in any other form so its not too bad.

Incidently I made my own cold smoker last summer for mackerel I caught, its a great way to preserve meat. I've tried all sorts since rabbbit, hare, pidgeon, cod, trout, pike, chicken. Strips of beef are pretty much like shop bought jerky and you get to expermient with your brines (flavouring).

p-nut

Here are some great sources of protein:
Natural organic peanut butter(from health store),
milk/chocolate milk(better than any protein shake after a workout),
chciken/turkey breasts,
tuna steaks/tinned tuna or any fish for that matter,
eggs,
beans(NOT baked beans in tomato sauce!)
Im sure there are tonnes more, jus cant think of them right now:D

rubadub

Mickk wrote:

San sucre do a peanut butter that has 45g protein, 27g carbs and 22g fat per 100g that I am working on getting

Getting this for your shop? if so how much do you think it would cost. I wouldnt mind getting a giant tub of that. I was looking online for low fat peanut butter but couldnt find much.

I figured there has to be some, you can buy peanut oil, which would be pressed nuts so this is probably the leftovers from that process.

Degsy

iascanmore wrote:

They're not fresh - I'm assuming cold smoked. Ingredients listed as mackerel, salt + water which is normal enough for cold smoked produce.

I don't use salt directly in any other form so its not too bad.

Incidently I made my own cold smoker last summer for mackerel I caught, its a great way to preserve meat. I've tried all sorts since rabbbit, hare, pidgeon, cod, trout, pike, chicken. Strips of beef are pretty much like shop bought jerky and you get to expermient with your brines (flavouring).

Thats a great idea,tasty too!Can you PM me how you did it?

iascanmore

Degsy,

The web is full of sites which detail both hot and cold smoking, try http://www.3men.com/allabout.htm for starters.

Hot smoking is very easy and quick, cold smoking is far more involved but fantasic to do.

Basically I've an old water tank sitting on top of a semi sealed home built block "bbq". Damp sawdust is placed in bbq and lit, the smoke is chanelled in to tank via pipe, a hole in top on tank creates a draught.
The meat (hanging from cooker racks) is "cured" as the passes through chamber.

The smoke must be cool (<34c) before hitting meat, a friend uses an old fridge as a chamber which is a great idea I thought.

Its something I'd been planning on doing for about 5 years and decided to go for it last summer,
we used it last over christmas for some ham and pheasants I shot.

MMMMMMM.....

Joe84

San sucre do a peanut butter that has 45g protein, 27g carbs and 22g fat per 100g

Thanks for the replies, Mickk that peanut butter sounds ideal. I know peanut butter isn't a fantastic source of protein, but it's a good alternative & contains good levels of essential fats. I use it in great moderation aswell i.e. 1tsp a day as a snack. But it's also is great in a shake with oats to boost kCals.

Should have mentioned too that I already use all the obvious protein sources e.g. chicken/ turkey breasts, lean beef/ turkey mince, fish fillets, steak, tuna, egg whites, protein powder etc....

yomchi

I have a problem with Peanut butter... once i start I can't stop. Then along came Almond butter courtesy of G'em's info and now the whole thing has gotten worse..

Joe84

Jez Jon you make it sound like crack cocaine btw i like your Homer Simpson quote above about the jerky, here's one of my own:

Homer: Aw, twenty dollars! I wanted a peanut!
Homer's Brain: Twenty dollars can buy many peanuts!
Homer: Explain how!
Homer's Brain: Money can be exchanged for goods and services!
Homer: Woo-hoo!

yomchi

class!!

g'em

Jon wrote:

I have a problem with Peanut butter... once i start I can't stop. Then along came Almond butter courtesy of G'em's info and now the whole thing has gotten worse..

sorry I'm the same though, I can't have PB/ cashew butter/ almond butter in the house - whole jars "mysteriously" disappear in two hour nut-gorging sessions... yummm....

yomchi

its NGA (Nut gorgers anon) for us then hehe..

wasabi

Peanut butter on oatcakes keeps me sane! Two of those when I really want to eat crap does the job and keeps me on the relatively straight and narrow.

It'd be snickers bars otherwise

g'em

Jon wrote:

its NGA (Nut gorgers anon) for us then hehe..

I'm trying to think of a polite way to say the dirty joke that statement brings to mind...

as regards to the San sucre PB, that seems to have a high carb content. Where are those carbs coming from? Peanuts are naturally low in carbs so the carbs are likely to be from added ingredients?

One of the big differences you see between organic (or "pure") PB and regular spread is that the organic PB is usually gritty and paste-like and the oils separate in the jar. That's no big deal, you jsut remix the oil before serrving. But spreads will have all manner of stabilisers added to stop the oils from separating as well as lots of added salts and sugars for taste.

The higher the nut content in PB the better. Yes, it's high in fat, but peanuts are good sources of vitamin E, niacin, folate, protein and manganese. In addition, peanuts provide resveratrol, the phenolic antioxidant also found in red grapes and red wine that's been shown to increase cardiovascular health.

amazingemmet

Other nutty butter you mention

nuts+ blender= butter, yes or no?

rubadub

amazingemmet wrote:

nuts+ blender= butter, yes or no?

Yes indeed, tesco do own branded nuts very very cheap, cheaper than their cheapest peanut butter. And you can have it as crunchy as you want, and you know it is not the crappy scrapings off the factory floor in KP!

Asian shops sell shelled pistachios cheaply, and raw uncooked cashews.

amazingemmet

nah holland and barrett seem to have a different variety of nuts on special here each week so was gonna stock up with them.

g'em

amazingemmet wrote:

Other nutty butter you mention

nuts+ blender= butter, yes or no?

yup, absolutely. take the nut of choice and roast them or buy pre-roasted. Chuck in the blender with a few drops of complimentary nut oil (i.e. peanut oil with peanuts, almond oil with almonds) and blend to the required consistency. Store in the fridge in a lidded jar and enjoy.

yomchi

LOL I must say I love you guys who prefer to go through the whole making and preparing, the buying the seperate ingredients and the hassle of making it..instaed of buying a ready made tub!!!

To each their own i suppose

g'em

Jon wrote:

LOL I must say I love you guys who prefer to go through the whole making and preparing, the buying the seperate ingredients and the hassle of making it..instaed of buying a ready made tub!!!

To each their own i suppose

lol, lazy baxstard

But there's a lot to be said for cooking from scratch tbh.
- For one, you know *exactly* what's going into the food - no hidden ingredients.
- it's fun to do, and it really encourages you to eat a variety of foods
- strangely enough for weightloss I find it much easier to control my appetite when I cook relatively elaborate foods. Have you ever cooked a meal and noticed that as you cook it you get less and less hungry? Our sense of smell is closely linked to our appetite. The smell of food can actually trigger various chemicals and will start to supress your appetite. So even if I'm ravenously hungry when I start cooking, by the time it's all prepared and can sit down I'm actually less hungry and won't over-eat. Fabulosock!!

Mickk

g'em wrote:

as regards to the San sucre PB, that seems to have a high carb content. Where are those carbs coming from? Peanuts are naturally low in carbs so the carbs are likely to be from added ingredients?

Carbs from wheatgerm and 4g sugar from honey

g'em

Mickk wrote:

Carbs from wheatgerm and 4g sugar from honey

ah, coolers. well those are both ingredients easily allowable in good diet. Sounds perfect for bulking really.

But damn don't ever let me near that stuff, it sounds like I could eat a whole jar in one sitting On the very last day of the GSD I had a huge carb-up meal at the end of my dehydration cycle - McCambridges bread, natural PB and honey. I hadn't eaten that many carbs in one sitting in 8 weeks and I'd had two sips of water in the previous 36 hours - it took about an hour to eat thanks to the dry mouth but resulted in the most *unreal* sugar rush ever, I was high as a kite for ages afterwards

So yeah, keep it away from me...

yomchi

g'em wrote:

lol, lazy baxstard

But there's a lot to be said for cooking from scratch tbh.
- For one, you know *exactly* what's going into the food - no hidden ingredients.
- it's fun to do, and it really encourages you to eat a variety of foods
- strangely enough for weightloss I find it much easier to control my appetite when I cook relatively elaborate foods. Have you ever cooked a meal and noticed that as you cook it you get less and less hungry? Our sense of smell is closely linked to our appetite. The smell of food can actually trigger various chemicals and will start to supress your appetite. So even if I'm ravenously hungry when I start cooking, by the time it's all prepared and can sit down I'm actually less hungry and won't over-eat. Fabulosock!!

Thats actaully quite interesting! I must cook for meself more often

amazingemmet

How long do you roasst them for or is that a nesscary step?

g'em

about 10-15 mintues iirc. I've only ever seen recipes using roasted nuts, not entirely sure why?

Umaro

I admire everyone's restraint in not making any "nuts" innuendo jokes.

kraggy

p-nut wrote:

milk/chocolate milk(better than any protein shake after a workout),

How so? milk is fairly good but is only 5% protein while a shake is about 25%, no?

Also, can someone tell me where to get whey powder. can you get it in Tesco?

thanks,

k.

Hanley

kraggy wrote:

How so? milk is fairly good but is only 5% protein while a shake is about 25%, no?

Also, can someone tell me where to get whey powder. can you get it in Tesco?

thanks,

k.

Milk's junk post-workout.

It's full of casein ffs!!

Whey from pronutrition.ie, or their store in Phibsboro. ProX/Big Whey is the way to go.

Hanley

kraggy wrote:

How so? milk is fairly good but is only 5% protein while a shake is about 25%, no?

Also, can someone tell me where to get whey powder. can you get it in Tesco?

thanks,

k.

Milk's junk post-workout.

It's full of casein ffs!!

Whey from pronutrition.ie, or their store in Phibsboro. ProX/Big Whey is the way to go.

kraggy

Hey,

Just started going to the gym about 3 months ago.

Not interested in building up huge muscle, more into toning up and having lean muscle instead.

what should i be taking after workouts to help this.

i do fairly light weights and work on the treadmill for fitness 4 times a week.

should i take protein or would that build up the muscle too big if i increased weights?

or is there something else?

thanks alot.

k.

Hanley

Look I know you're jsut asking for advice and you've probably been mislead in what you've heard, and I've a few mins to spare so I'm gonna give you a proper reply instead of the standard "take your head out of your ass" one.

"Huge Muscle" doesn't jsut happen. It takes a considerable amount of effort, both in the gym and with a knife and fork. Saying stuff like that will just piss serious trainers off because it's very disrespectful.

"Lean muscle"... wtf? Muscle can't be "fat" or "lean". It's just muscle. I assume you're talking about low bodyfat levels which give the appearance of "lean" muscles.

Light weights aren't going to do anything for you in this regard. It's almost like saying I'm training to run the hundred meters by jogging along the track. It's just something that will give bascially sub-obtimal to zero results.

Muscle gains come from a calorific surplus. I'm 90kg and I eat 3500-4000 kcals on training days to promote recovery and muscle growth, and 2,700 on off days to retain my leaness. I do no cardio and have dropped about 4kg (over half a stone) of fat thru diet alone.

When it comes down to it, diet is far more important than cardio when it comes to maintaing leaness. I know some will disagree but I see cardio as a crutch to support a bad diet.

Focus on increasing your squat, bench and deadlift, take in about 1.5g of protein per lean lb of bodyweight (if you're a 175lb guy/girl then maybe 200g of protein's a good starting point.)

Make sure 30-50g of this comes with breakfast, and 40-50g postworkout. Space the rest evenly thru-out the day. Try to eat every 3-4 hours. Breakfast at 9am maybe, lunch at 12.30, something light before training at 4, post workout about 6.30, eat again about 8pm and then a small snack before bed and you're done. Taper back on carbs from 5/6 pm (this is to help prevent bodyfat levels increasing), although post workout carbs are SUPER IMPORTANT (I can't stress that enough). Look to take in around 60-70g.

I've told you the basics of it. Now try and put it into action and please don't tell me I'm after wasting my time and shorteningthe life of my keyboard for nothing...

g'em

Hanley, be nice. We all started somewhere. It wasn't long ago your diet sucked monkey b@lls and I helped you clean it up. Drop the condescending tone, this isn't TT or t-nation.

kraggy, what Hanley says is aboslutely right. There's no bulky vs lean muscle, and all those hyooooge guys you see are only huge from years of hard work and dedicaction, not doing the odd gym session I promise if you start lifting heavily you'll enjoy the difference it makes to your physique.

"light weights" won't help you achieve the look you're going for, you want to be doing weights that tax you and increase your strength, building the musculature to give you the "toned" look you want. But your #1 tool is your diet.

Get lots of protein in your diet - protein is what your body uses to build muscles - from chicken, turkey, eggs, milk, nuts. Protein shakes are literlly just a more convenient way of getting protein into you - I prefer drinking a shake after a workout than trying to wolf down a dry piece of chicken breast!! Check the weight stickie at the top of the forum for food ideas and ways of figuring out how much you need every day. Keep your food whole, lean, unprocessed and fresh and you'll benefit not just in your exercise, but your overall well-being.

Looking "toned" comes down to a very simple prinicple: eat clean and often, lift heavy, rest lots. Everything else is just details to enhance that theme.

Hanley

g'em wrote:

Hanley, be nice. We all started somewhere. It wasn't long ago your diet sucked monkey b@lls and I helped you clean it up. Drop the condescending tone, this isn't TT or t-nation.

Ehhh ok.

I didn't attack the poster, I told him how things worked and gave him the basics of what he needs to get going on the road to a good physique.

Maybe I shouldn't bother in future.

If anything, saying that you don't want to get too big, as if it's easily achieved is far more condescending than anything I said.

g'em

Hanley wrote:

Ehhh ok.

I didn't attack the poster, I told him how things worked and gave him the basics of what he needs to get going on the road to a good physique.

Not saying you attacked anybody, the information you gave was great. But there's a way to say these things without accusing the poster of being disprespectful. Think about how confusing all the diet info was when you started to clean things up? This is a 'Fitness' forum, not a weightlifting forum after all, and there's people from all sorts of disciplines looking for answers. The basic info that you take for granted isn't known by many people and so sometimes the questions asked can be a little basic. Not everyone wants to lift big things all the time... I know, I know, it makes no sense to me either, there's some crazy people in the world

Hanley wrote:

Maybe I shouldn't bother in future.

:rolleyes: don't sulk

Hanely wrote:

If anything, saying that you don't want to get too big, as if it's easily achieved is far more condescending than anything I said.

where did I say that?!?! There's no such things as too big!! And I'm not condescending. Bless your cs, now be a good boy and run along back to the gym

kraggy

Hanley wrote:

Ehhh ok.

If anything, saying that you don't want to get too big, as if it's easily achieved is far more condescending than anything I said.

Firstly Hanley, if you took proper care while reading my post, you would notice that nowhere in it did i imply that getting big is easy or takes little time. I simply said that i didn't want to get overly big, just want to tone up. that's it. so save your angry outburst for someone who gives a sh1t.

G'em, thanks for the info. will take it on board. just regarding the weights issue, the reason why i'm doing relatively light weights at them moment is that when i joined the gym, the guy said that if i wanted to tone up to do light weights, high renditions. so that's why i'm doing that now.

also interested in the protein issue because i'm vegetarian and have been for that last 14 years. was interested in starting taking protein shakes as they would be beneficial to me from a solely dietary point of view as well as a fitness/toning point of view.

thanks,

k.

Hanley

kraggy wrote:

Firstly Hanley, if you took proper care while reading my post, you would notice that nowhere in it did i imply that getting big is easy or takes little time. I simply said that i didn't want to get overly big, just want to tone up. that's it. so save your angry outburst for someone who gives a sh1t.

Angry outburst? Don't make me laugh. It's actually quite pathetic that you'd think that was angry.

Like I said, you may as well disregard my advice because I was obviously soooooo angry when I typed it out. Just do your own thing, I'm sure you'll be a lean mean muscle machine in no time at all with some protein supplements.

You shouldn't ask for advice and only to throw in back in someone's face. Not only is it rude, but also foolish. No doubt after a few months of no progress you'll realise I was right on the money and you wasted an opportunity to get better and ask questions.

Oh well, not my problem. Happy training.

g'em

kraggy wrote:

just regarding the weights issue, the reason why i'm doing relatively light weights at them moment is that when i joined the gym, the guy said that if i wanted to tone up to do light weights, high renditions. so that's why i'm doing that now.

ah ok. The light weights have their place but not in your case- they won't help you build any muscle.

super-quick biology lesson: your muscle fibres are made of three types of fibre - Type I (slow-twitch), Type IIa and Type IIb (fast-twitch). Slow twitch muscles are used in aerobic (cardio) exercise and fast twitch are used in anaerobic (lifting or resistance) exercise. High rep light weights will use your slow twitch muscles because it's more akin to cardio, but to get a typically athletic physique you'll want to promote growth of the slow twitch fibres giving you that toned look. It's a gross generalisation but think about who has the better phsyique - a long distance runner (slow twitch dominant) or a sprinter (fast twitch dominant)?

Doing a full-body program that works all the major muscle groups is a good starting point.

kraggy wrote:

also interested in the protein issue because i'm vegetarian and have been for that last 14 years. was interested in starting taking protein shakes as they would be beneficial to me from a solely dietary point of view as well as a fitness/toning point of view.

you'll get oodles of protein from eggs and milk, and also from nuts and pulses - lentils, beans, chickpeas, walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts etc.

Ideally you'd input a typical days' eating into a program like fitday.com so you can figure out how much protein you get. Then if you need to supplement you can use shakes. Whey protein shakes are made using the whey that's a by-product of cheese making (think of litle miss muffet's curds and whey- same thing).

Hanley

g'em wrote:

Not saying you attacked anybody, the information you gave was great. But there's a way to say these things without accusing the poster of being disprespectful. Think about how confusing all the diet info was when you started to clean things up? This is a 'Fitness' forum, not a weightlifting forum after all, and there's people from all sorts of disciplines looking for answers.

So you're saying my points are valid, but my delivery is off? do you really think I should change how I give advice based on what forum I post on... My credentials are there for anyone who wants to see them, I'll go out of my way to help people (as you yourself know!) once they appreciate it. If they don't want my help because I don't sugar coat everything then that's fair enough, I'm not gonna lose sleep over it. I like helping people, but only people who want to be help. I won't try and fight for the right to help!!

where did I say that?!?! There's no such things as too big!! And I'm not condescending. Bless your cs, now be a good boy and run along back to the gym

You didn't say it, I was just making the point that depending on your perspective ANYTHING can be condescending, sorta like what you just said....

g'em

Hanley wrote:

So you're saying my points are valid, but my delivery is off? do you really think I should change how I give advice based on what forum I post on... My credentials are there for anyone who wants to see them, I'll go out of my way to help people (as you yourself know!) once they appreciate it. If they don't want my help because I don't sugar coat everything then that's fair enough, I'm not gonna lose sleep over it. I like helping people, but only people who want to be help. I won't try and fight for the right to help!!

Hanley I am not going to enter a back and forth discussion of how to post on public forums. Do what you want to do. But here's a wild idea: maybe, just maybe I'm giving you advice because I want to help you too? I *know* you like to help people, but you'll be able to help more people if you approach it in such a way that they are more likely to be receptive.

Right now you're just stomping your feet saying "I'll say what I want and fcuk anyone who doesn't want to listen to me". This isn't about credentials so stop trying to prove yourself, no-one's calling you out. You're a wealth of information and a testament to what hard work, consistency and determination can do. Now, instead of picking out points to argue with in this post, how's about re-reading that last sentence, seeing that I'm not attacking you, I'm just trying to help.