High Protein Low Carb Diet

I’ve been asked quite frequently both on my Facebook page and on Twitter about providing healthy high protein low carb diets.

This is a bit of a tricky article because in all honesty entire books are written on this topic, but I hope to give you some staple high protein foods to include into your daily routine along with some great tips I’ve picked up in my 18 years of training.

The goal with a high protein low carb diet should be to shed your body fat and increase your lean muscle mass ratio while at the same time providing your body with all the essentials nutrients it needs to function at its best.

High Protein Diet

You’ve probably heard of the Atkin’s diet and how it basically went down in flames because it’s entire emphasis was on high protein foods with lack of consideration of healthy carbs that not only our body requires but also our brain and other vital organs.

There have also been many false recommendations in the bodybuilding world that you basically can’t ever have too much protein, most saying that you should have at least 2 times your body weight in kilograms (so if you weigh 60 kgs you would be aiming at 120 grams of protein a day).

Considering one chicken breast is about 30 grams of protein this seems like a very high number to reach right? And what about the focus on healthy protein with less fat or junk calories? Some of those protein bars you can buy at local stores have 30 grams of protein but they also have 60 grams of carbohydrates!

Low Carb Diet

Similar to the above low carb diets also often miss the mark on healthy eating. At first it may seem like a great idea to keep carbohydrate intake low so we can trick our bodies into burning fat for calories, but why have low carb diets been criticized so heavily by doctors?

The key fact to remember is like mentioned above our brain and vital organs depend on carbohydrates as a fuel source. Eliminate our carbohydrate intake all together and our entire mental game is completely drained and we find ourselves tired all the time.

Further to this, we have to remind ourselves that carbohydrates are also the key fuel source for our muscles especially when it comes to intense exercise. Try waking up in the morning and going straight to the gym while having gone through your sleep fast period. Now try it again but have a banana as soon as you get up and feel the difference. You will find you have way more energy and will be able to to get a much more intense workout in.

High Protein Low Carb Diet Plan

To increase the protein content of your diet these foods would be best:

Lean meats & eggs: chicken, turkey, fish, lean beef, prawns, & eggs
Low fat dairy: cheese, milk, cottage cheese, greek yogurt
Beans: lentils, black, kidney, pento, peas, soy
Nuts: almonds, walnuts, cashews, peanuts
Seeds: pumpkin, sunflower, flax

With this list in mind we want to target 4 or 5 protein items spread throughout each day and mix them with as much veggies as we can. Include 3-4 fruits and you’ve got a great assortment of nutrients supplied to your body.

Now if you’re like me and very short on time this kind of diet can sometimes be hard to achieve so you may find that having a whey protein shake or two throughout the day is a brilliant idea to drastically increase your high protein low carb diet. So far up the best tasting whey protein that I’ve come across is Gaspari Nutrition’s Myofusion. With flavours including Milk Chocolate, Chocolate Mint, Chocolate Peanut Butter, Srawberry & Cream and Banana Perfection you can always keep it very interesting and help you fight sugary temptations.

One final tip to include is focusing on the veggies part of this high protein low carb diet. Veggies not only have fiber, but tons of nutrients and minerals and are a great way to fill us up even though they are mostly made of water. My favorites include orange bell peppers, cucumbers, carrots and brocolli.