Low-calorie Protein Foods

A List of Low Calorie High Protein Foods

By Sam Ashe-Edmunds Aug 16, 2013

If you're looking to add more protein to your diet, but don't want to add more calories than necessary, you gave a variety of options. Most protein-rich foods come from animal products, making your search for low-cal, high-protein foods difficult if you're a vegetarian. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration classifies a food as high protein if it contains more than 20 percent of your daily recommended value of protein--about 10mg for an adult woman. Using online research tools can help you find the foods you're seeking.

Seafood

Tuna, monkfish, roughy, pout, cuttlefish, clams and crayfish are low-cal, high-protein foods. A 3 oz. serving of tuna has 22g of protein and 99 calories. Atlantic salmon, by comparison, provides 10g more of protein in the same serving but has triple the calories. Shellfish may have more cholesterol than you want in your diet. For example, a 3 oz. serving of crayfish, which has roughly 13mg of protein, has 91mg of cholesterol, almost 1/3 of your daily DMV for cholesterol. A 3 oz. serving of roughy, by comparison, provides almost 14g of protein and has only 51mg of cholesterol.

Cottage Cheese

A cup of non-fat cottage cheese has 15mg of protein and only 104 calories.

Eggs

If you'd like to cut the cholesterol out of your omelets, one cup of egg whites has only 117 calories, provides more than 26mg of protein and has no cholesterol.

Chicken

Three slices of oven-roasted, fat-free chicken provide slightly more than 10mg of protein, with fewer than 50 calories.

Soy

Edamame is a popular, low-cal, high-protein snack, with 12g of protein in a 3.75 oz. serving, providing 120 calories. Unlike sources of protein from animal products, edamame is a cholesterol-free food.

6 grab-n-go high-protein snacks

Another great post from UnderAmour MyFitnessPal

12 Workout Myths That Just Need To Go Away

For every two fitness truths, there’s a lie, and sometimes it’s hard to determine which is which. (Especially when it’s something many of us have just assumed for as long as we can remember.) So, now presenting: Mythbusters, Fitness Edition. Letting go of these 12 fitness misconceptions will help you get better, faster, stronger, and more powerful. Flex on friend, flex on.

Myth #1: Strength training will make you bulk up. 

Truth: It’s pretty hard for women to bulk up from a normal strength-training routine because they don’t have as much testosterone as men (the difference in this hormone level makes men more prone to bulking up). In fact, if weight loss is your goal, strength training can actually help you lean out, but you have to keep your nutrition in check, too. “Muscle is metabolically active,” explains Adam Rosante, C.S.C.S., author of The 30-Second Body. Simply maintaining lean muscle mass requires higher energy, he explains. “So, the more lean muscle you have, the more calories your body will burn at rest.” #Science.

Myth #2: You can focus on losing fat from certain body parts.

Truth: Spot-training is not a thing. “Fat cells are distributed across your entire body,” says Rosante. “If you want to lose fat from a specific spot, you need to lose overall body fat.” High-intensity interval training can work wonders—after an intense workout, your body needs to take in oxygen at a higher rate to help it return to its natural resting state. This process requires the body to work harder, burning more calories in the process. Incorporating strength training can help you hit your goals too, since having more lean muscle will help your body burn more calories at rest. (Psst—here are 10 workouts that are insanely effective for weight loss.)

Myth #3: Doing lots of cardio is the best way to lose weight.

Truth: If your goal is weight loss, logging endless miles on the treadmill isn’t always the best approach. Yes, traditional cardio workouts will help create a day-to-day calorie deficit (in addition to a healthy diet), which is essential for losing weight. But in the long-term, since having more lean muscle mass helps your body burn more calories at rest, you’ll be adding to this deficit without doing a thing. A combination of both high-intensity cardio and strength training is a good idea. And don’t forget, when it comes to weight loss, having a smart nutrition plan is key.

Myth #4: Not feeling sore means you didn’t get a good workout.

Truth: While soreness and workout intensity are sometimes connected, how tired your muscles feel isn’t always a good indicator of a solid sweat session. “Being sore doesn’t necessarily mean it was a great workout—it just means that a significant amount of stress was applied to the tissue,” says exercise physiologist and trainer Pete McCall, M.S., C.S.C.S., host of the All About Fitness podcast. “You can have a great workout and not be sore the next day,” he says. Proper recovery will help prevent achy muscles. “Refuel within the first 30 to 45 minutes post-exercise, stay hydrated, and get enough sleep—all of these things can help boost recovery and minimize soreness.”

Myth #5: You should give 100 percent effort during every workout.

Truth: Sort of. You should try your best to stay focused, be present, and give 100 percent during every workout. But not every gym session should require a balls-to-the-wall level of intensity. And if you are sore everyday, that may be a sign that you’re going too hard. “It’s not a good idea to exercise at too high of an intensity too frequently—it limits recovery and can lead to overtraining,” says McCall. Ideally, to avoid putting too much stress on your body, you should only be going extra hard two to three times per week.

Myth #6: Strength training means using machines and heavy weights.

Truth: Strength training means using resistance to work your muscles—and that resistance doesn’t necessarily have to come from a machine or a heavy weight. (Hello, killer bodyweight exercises!) Aside from your own bodyweight, you can also use tools like kettlebells, medicine balls, and resistance bands to add resistance. None of that around? Here are 13 incredible bodyweight moves you can do at home.

Myth #7: Sweating a ton means you worked your ass off.

Truth: Not necessarily. “You sweat because your core temperature increases,” explains exercise physiologist Tracy Hafen, founder of Affirmative Fitness. Yes, your muscles create heat when you exercise so a tough workout will increase your internal temp, she explains, but it also has to do with the temperature you’re working out in. “For example, you’re not going to sweat as much in 40-degree weather as you would in 80-degree weather,” Hafen explains.

The humidity in the air also plays a role. “It’s not sweating that cools you off, it’s the evaporation [of sweat]. You’ll feel like you’re sweating more when it’s humid because sweat can’t evaporate.” (This is also a reason to be careful exercising in hot, humid climates, because your body temperature will keep increasing.)

Myth #8: Crunches are a great exercise for your abs.

Truth: Meh. Crunches probably aren’t going to hurt your core strength, but they’re not the most efficient exercise you can do to strengthen your midsection. “Your ab muscles are designed to work most effectively when you’re standing upright,” says McCall. Of course, there are plenty of great abs exercises that aren’t completely upright (for example, this perfect plank), but these four standing abs moves will set your whole core on fire.

Myth #9: You have to do at least 20 minutes of cardio to make it worth your while.

Truth: You can get an amazing cardio workout in less time by utilizing high-intensity interval training. “High-intensity cardio challenges the respiratory system to work efficiently to deliver oxygen to working muscles,” says McCall. “If the system is stressed hard enough, it doesn’t require a lengthy workout for results.” Plus, high-intensity training creates an afterburn effect, meaning you continue burning calories after you’re done. One approach is Tabata, or 20 seconds of hard work, 10 seconds of rest for eight rounds total, which adds up to a four-minute routine. Here’s what you need to know about Tabata.

Myth #10: You need to stretch before a workout.

Truth: While it’s true that you shouldn’t just jump right into a workout, dynamic warm-ups are where it’s at—you can save those static stretches for afterwards. “Your pre-workout goal should be to improve mobility and elasticity in the muscles,” says Rosante. This is best done with foam rolling and a dynamic warm-up, where you keep your body moving (instead of holding stretches still). This preps your body for work and helps increase your range of motion, which means you can get deeper into exercises (and strengthen more of those ~muscles~). Try this five-minute warm-up, or the warm-up section from this 30-minute workout.

Myth #11: Yoga isn’t a “real” workout.

Truth: “People who write off yoga probably have an image of yoga as series of gentle stretches—they clearly haven’t taken a tough yoga class,” says Rosante. “The first time I took one was at Jivamukti Yoga Center, and was a radically humbling experience. It’s been one of the best additions to my routine, both for my body and mind.” While there are some blissfully relaxing yoga classes out there, tougher types (like Bikram and power Vinyasa yoga) can definitely leave you sweaty, sore, and satisfied. Can’t make it to class? Here’s a yoga-flow sequence for stronger abs you can do at home.

Myth #12: You should work out every day.

Truth: Definitely not true—hallelujah! When you work out, you’re breaking down muscle fibers so they can rebuild stronger. However, to do this, you need to give your body time to recover from working out. Aim for one to two days per week of active recovery rest days—that means doing something that doesn’t put stress on your body, like gentle stretching or a walk. So, you’re definitely off the hook for that seven-days-a-week workout plan.

9 Mistakes You’re Making on Your Weight-Loss Journey

We all wish there were a quick fix to losing weight. Unfortunately, there’s no magic bullet to make the number on your scale match your target weight. And according to the experts, in the pursuit of finding a fast fix, a lot of us are using weight-loss strategies that either don’t work or might even be backfiring.

Are you doing it wrong? Here are nine of the worst strategies you can employ for losing weight — and tips on what you should be doing instead.

1. Working out more but eating less.

This is one of the worst mistakes that certified strength and conditioning specialist Noam Tamir sees with his clients. “These two things don’t go together,” he says. When you amp up your workout regimen, your body will naturally crave more food to fuel it through the intensified training. So when you try to cut calories at the same time, you could end up depriving your body and risk triggering a bout of binge eating.

2. Obsessively cutting calories.

Even if you’re not upping your workout routine, restricting your diet too much can backfire, says Alissa Rumsey, MS, RD. “While it sounds counterintuitive, eating too few calories can hinder your weight-loss efforts as your body ends up holding on to more calories because it isn’t getting enough fuel,” she says. “Calorie restriction can lead to metabolic damage and will make it harder for you to lose weight.”

3. Obsessively working out.

Overdoing it at the gym can also have a reverse effect, even when you’re getting enough fuel from your diet. “When you work out too much, you end up burning muscle in addition to fat,” says Tamir, founder of New York’s T.S. Fitness. “You increase stress hormones in the body, which makes it harder to lose fat. You also put a lot of stress on your joints, which can lead to injuries that cause you to move less and therefore gain weight.” Committing to time in the gym is a key part of losing weight, but only when you give your body the time it needs to recover between sweat sessions. 

4. Skipping big meals for a snacking strategy.

Rethinking our eating strategy is a crucial component of weight loss. But avoiding a full plate like the plague is not the answer. “We know that people should be eating a mix of meals and snacks, but people take it to an extreme where they’re snacking all day, and that can backfire,” says Kate Geagan, RD. “It can also blunt your sense of hunger and satiety. When you eat a lot of small meals, you lose your sense of whether or not you’re actually hungry.” If you are opting to forgo three big meals a day for mini meals, make sure you’re paying attention to the overall calories and nutrients you’re consuming in a day — all those snacks add up fast. 

5. Skipping breakfast. 

Your mom wasn’t joking when she said breakfast was the most important meal of the day: Forgoing it means your body kicks into starvation mode, where it stores food rather than using it for fuel. “I see clients trying not to eat in the morning because they think they can cut calories that way,” says Tamir. “Then they end up eating a lot at dinner when they are most sedentary and tend to overeat.” And that’s a double whammy for your waistline. 

6. Doing a cleanse or detox diet. 

Despite all the hype, cleanses can be dangerous. “Souping and juicing can be great, but you might still be consuming a lot of calories,” says Geagan, the author of Go Green Get Lean. Juices packed with “superfoods” are often high in calories, and sometimes people mistake juices intended to be meal replacements as alternatives to diet soda or other beverages. Similarly, doing a juice cleanse for a few days is not really teaching you new eating habits. “Consistency in finding an eating plan and sticking to it is a much more effective weight-loss strategy than this ‘detox-retox’ strategy,” says Geagan. “You need to be able to stick with it for the long haul.”

7. Doing too much cardio. 

According to Tamir, when people only do cardio to lose weight, they often end up “skinny fat.” Avoiding strength training when you go to the gym in order to increase your calorie burn will help you drop those pounds, but the catch is it won’t change your body composition. Doing too much cardio can even even end up burning muscle and upping your body fat percentage. “Our bodies get used to workouts pretty quickly,” adds Rumsey, who’s also a certified strength and conditioning specialist. “It’s better to have a shorter, more intense workout that keeps your body guessing. High-intensity interval traininghas been shown to burn more calories in less time, and the after-burn post-workout can last up to 24 hours.”

8. Banning fat or cutting out carbs. 

Nixing a singular nutrient group, like all fats, carbs or sugars, can backfire majorly. “While you may lose weight in the short term, these restrictive diets are not easy for people to maintain long term,” says Rumsey, a spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Cutting an entire category of nutrients means you’re cutting out the good stuff, too. “Cutting carbs and sugar can cut off your workout fuel,” says Geagan. “Carbs are those miracle molecules that really fuel our bodies.” In other words, you need them. Rather than putting a moratorium on a macronutrient, pay attention to portion size. “The portion size is what makes the poison,” says Geagan. “You want a balanced diet that has all macronutrients.” 

9. Falling for the “health halo.”

One of the biggest mistakes you can make, says Geagan, is getting sucked into the “health halo” around certain foods. Kale, quinoa, agave and coconut all get hyped up for their nutritional benefits, which are certainly real, but that’s not an excuse to start pouring coconut oil — which is still a saturated fat — on everything. Ultimately, losing weight is about looking at your overall lifestyle, not trying to target just one aspect or adding one magical superfood to your plate. Adds Rumsey: “If you try to just address your diet without working on your eating behaviors — like emotional eating or stress eating — or the rest of your lifestyle, it’s unlikely that the weight will stay off.”

Why drink infused waters?

Why drink infused waters?

1. Green tea, mint, and lime - For fat burning, digestion, headaches, congestion and breath freshener.

2. Strawberry and kiwi - For cardiovascular health, immune system protection, blood sugar regulation, digestion.

3. Cucumber, lime, and lemon - For water weight management, bloating, appetite control, hydration, digestion.

4. Lemon, lime, and orange - For digestion vitamin C, immune defense, heartburn, (Drink this one at room temperature)

Infused waters are good for detoxification energy and hydration. Put as much fruit in water as you like and let the water sit for at least 30 minutes before drinking.

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