Sports Nutrition Guide - Part 5
Snacking Ideas - Protein Snacks
Simple
Snacking Ideas - Protein Snacks
Other than the regular main meals you
eat during the day, you want to try to feed your body with
food every 1 to 3 hours - obviously, eating full meals isn't
an option for most people, unless you have a live-in chef
that can cook a health meal for in a snap.
A more realistic solution to constantly
fuel your body is to snack often. In between all your main
meals, snacking once or twice will provide the extra protein
and carbs your body needs. This also avoids letting your
body go a few hours without getting any food, which is a
NO-NO.
Side note: by eating
meals and snacking often, you will naturally increase
your resting metabolic rate - meaning that you will naturally
burn more calories. Many people in an effort to diet and
lose weight eat just one meal a day, which is about the
worst thing you can do for your body, and its metabolism.
It's much better to eat small portioned
meals often, than to eat 1 or 2 large meals in a day.
When you only feed your body once or twice in a 24 hour
period, you body tries its hardest to hold on to the food
you eat - storing as much of the fat as it can, and slowing
down its resting metabolic rate at the same time.
On the contrary, if you eat small meals
often, your body knows that within an hour or two, it'll
be getting more fuel and food, so it doesn't hesitate
to use whatever you just fed it, and also over time, this
will increase your body's resting metabolic rate - increasing
your natural fat burning.
Protein Snack Ideas
Other than supplements you can buy such
as protein powder, protein bars, meal replacements, you
need some solid food snacks that will provide good protein
content. I will list the protein snacks I eat most often
below (note: this will not include supplements, just solid
foods).
Beef Jerky
Beef jerky is by far one of my favorite
protein snacks. Its very low in fat, and high in protein
content. If you have a lot of money to spare, then by all
means, by it from the grocery stores. If you need a
much more economical solution like me, then make your own
beef jerky! That's right! Homemade beef jerky!
You can get a good quality food dehydrator
for around $50 to $60 bucks, but trust me, you will make
your $60 investment back after making just 2 or 3 batches
of beef jerky - I can't count how much of my investment
I've made back by making my own homemade jerky.
I bought a Nesco food dehydrator, which
I found works very well. You can check your local walmart
for one. Each batch I make, I use about 6 to 10lbs of lean
cut beef. The finished beef jerky will be a little less
than 50% of what you start with - I can't imagine how much
it would cost to buy that much from a grocery store.
I usually eat 25g of beef jerky at a time,
which gives roughly 14g protein, 0g carbs, and 2.5g fat.
Below is a recipe I use to make my own beef jerky:
- Cut the lean beef into 1/2 to 1/4 inch thick slices,
depending on how thick you like it.
- Important: cut AGAINST
the grain, unless you want extra chewy jerky
- Add 1 teaspoon of salt for each pound of raw beef
- Add some liquid smoke (more or less depending on how
'smoky' you like your jerky
- Add some black pepper
- Add in grounded dry chilies (if you like it spicy)
- Add in teriyaki sauce as a marinade
- Mix everything well, and store over night
- Just follow the food dehydrator instructions for drying,
and you'll have your own homemade beef jerky! Enjoy!
Egg Whites
Egg whites is another protein snack that
I eat often. Like I mentioned in previous article, when
I go bulk shopping, I buy 15dozens of eggs each time. I
usually eat 6 egg whites, and 1 egg yolk. This gives me
24.3g protein, 1.8g carbs, and 4.5g of fat.
The easiest way to eat them is to hard
boil, then eat with salt and pepper. ;-) I actually bought
one of those "Eggstractor" contraptions I saw
on infomercial... Tried it twice, and didn't really like
it. It doesn't really work that well, if you ask me.
Peanuts
I also like eating peanuts. They have
good protein content, and are somewhat high in fat - but
high in good fats. I eat them usually in 20g portions, which
gives me 5.16g protein, 3.22 carbs, and 9.84g of fat.
Grape Fruit
Various types of fruits also make a good snack. I'm just
listing grape fruit here, since it's something I eat more
often than other fruits. Each 1/2 a grape fruit (roughly
100grams), gives 0.78g protein, 10.65g carbs, and 0.13 fat.
Cottage Cheese
I was suggested to try cottage cheese
by some members on our chat boards. Although it's quite
tasteless, I never got used to its taste and texture. But
cottage cheese is a very good source of protein if you enjoy
it, and can be bought for quite cheap at grocery stores.
Carrots
I also like snacking on carrots as well.
When you need a quick snack, grab one or two sticks of carrots
and a peeler - dump on some salt and pepper, and you're
all set. ;-) Every 125g of carrots gives 1.2g protein, 12.3g
carbs, and 0.3g of fat.
The above pretty much sums up the snacks
I like to eat, maybe you can get some good ideas from them,
and mix it in with your own snacking ideas. ;-)
>> Next part will be the conclusion.
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