protein requirements??

JSanFran

so...randomly I heard from someone the other day that toward the end of your pregnancy you should be getting approx 80gms of protein...a day....

 I have hard enough time getting like 30-40 a day I think...I can't fathom fitting more in...lol

So...I bought some protein bars and muscle milk (haha!) drinks just for fun yesterday just to see if will be easy for me to add some more umph to my protein needs. 

any thoughts or ideas...I'm not a vegetarian but don't particularlly LOVE to eat meat all of the time so i try eat some nuts and stuff...but...easy protein I am finding hard to just "grab and eat"....

gymnst1013

Yep, 80-100g a day is ideal.  It helps prevent pre-e and toxemia.  In fact, there have been studies done where women who ate that amount of protein every day had virtually zero incidence of pre-e and toxemia.

I drink a ton of milk.  Seafood is high in protein if you like that.  Clif Bars, Boost High Protein drink is delicious, nuts and seeds are good, surprisingly pasta has 7g per 2 ounces - not a ton but more than I would expect from pasta, maybe beef ravioli would work?

JSanFran

yeah...I think milk will work well for me too... drinking this muscle milk is just kind of torture and too sweet.  baby is kicking though so maybe he/she likes it! lol

 I'll just have to be more aware...I tried to count my protein yesterday and didn't think I did well...when I actually broke it down I had had 20gms with breakfast eating just my normal cereal and milk. So...maybe it won't be too hard...

Turtle143

I'm vegetarian and get my protein sources from tofu, nuts, beans, cottage cheese, almond milk (since I don't drink milk), peanut or almond butters.
I like cottage cheese though. It tastes so good with fruits!

I stock up on protein powders that I can simply add to my cereal, waffles/pancakes, or smoothies and if I feel I am lacking for the day, I just make myself a smoothie or some fruit shake with protein powder. 

LauraOTR

I've been having a hard time with this also, especially since I'm not a huge milk fan. I drink some each day, but not a ton. I do love eggs, peanut butter, nuts...I eat a Clif bar almost every day. Recently I've started eating greek yogurt with my lunches. It took some experimenting to find one I liked, because it tastes "different" but I like Brown Cow brand. A 5oz container has 13g of protein. I also eat a ton of cheese.

skidunks

Costco has some protein shakes that are really good. I usually have either one of those or a yogurt mid morning between patients so I'm not chewing off my arm by lunchtime. I'm switching to Greek yogurt though, I am addicted to that stuff.

heie0008

you might be surprised to find out how much protein you are actually eating if you really add it all up. I use calorieking.com a lot to look up nutritional information.

For example:

1 slice of Pepperidge Farm 100% whole wheat bread has 5 grams

1 serving of wheat thins has 2 grams

1 cup of skim milk has 9 grams

1/2 cup of cottage cheese has about 16 grams

1 kraft singles cheese has 4 grams

3 oz of chicken breast (~the size of a deck of cards) has 27 grams

1/2 cup of black beans ~8 grams

1 string cheese has 6 grams

A mcdonalds regular cheese burger has 33 grams

Oikos vanilla greek yogurt has 15 grams

a tablespoon of peanut butter has 4 grams

even 1 serving of cheetos has 2 grams

amanda1680

Some of the highest, non-meat sources of protein that I can think of are Greek yogurt (my fave is Chobani, it has like 14 g), cottage cheese, and eggs.  Beans (like black beans, not green beans) are another good source.

ETA: All the protein in an egg is in the white, so when I make scrambled eggs, I usually use one whole egg and 2 whites.  I do this to reduce the cholesterol from the yolks, but you're also getting a lot more protein too.   

kbel424

Yep, my midwife yells at me at every visit for not getting enough protein, it is really hard to get 80g a day! I got protein powder from trader joes and I've been putting that into a smoothie (tons of smoothie recipes online). My midwife also said to watch the sugar in the premixed stuff like muscle milk, that it almost cancels out some of the protein because the sugar content is so high. I struggle with it everyday!