How to get more protein in?

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Really conscious that women are meant to get about 45 g of protein a day (and more as you approach menopause.)
Would love to take your tips on how you do it. I’m not keen on the idea of shakes, it feels artificial. At the moment I’m having two eggs for breakfast and then I will often snack on healthy peanut butter or nuts. Then maybe fish for dinner. otherwise I’ve seen those yoghurts with added protein, has anyone tried them? Not sure what I think.

Otherwise open for tips of how to bank enough protein

Arla Skyr. Thick, delicious and 10% protein.
Throw on some fruit/nuts/seeds and makes for a super healthy breakfast / light lunch (I could eat it morning, noon and night).

☝🏻 meant to include. it doesn't have added protein, it's just naturally quite high.

I eat lots of protein everyday. Examples include:
Chickpeas
Nuts and nut butters
Lentils
Tofu
Nutritional yeast
Tempeh
Beans

Is it only 45g?

I follow the 2g for every kg of weight rule so have to have 110g every day. This means I usually have a protein shake every day to reach my target.

I take whey protein, its not possible to eat the required amounts because of cal intake and cost.

5kg of whey is £78 and lasts several months.

You are meant to have a lot more than 45g I believe?

I was talking to my gym instructor today about this, I usually have oats for breakfast overnight/porridge/baked and usually add a spoon of nut butter. He’s suggested getting rid of the nut butter and adding a scoop of protein powder to help me to increase. I usually have eggs or chicken / tuna for lunch and then some kind of protein and veg for tea, tonight it was tofu.

i find getting enough really hard.

I don't think people need 2g per kg - I had heard 0.75-1g of protein per kg per day, with a bit more if you're trying to lose weight maybe.

Greek yoghurt can also be a good one - the greek stuff rather than the greek style (I use Asda's extra special one as it's cheaper than Fage), lower fat has more protein per 100g.

I do sometimes top up with protein powder at the moment, I have to say. I mix mine in with the greek yoghurt above which will make a 200kcal dish with 30g of protein in it.

The 'protein' yoghurts often have less protein than a good quality Greek yoghurt, so do look at actual protein content. I buy Fage 5% in big tubs.

Cottage cheese also great for protein, I mix it with eggs for omelette/scrambled eggs.

Fish like tuna and salmon is good, and chicken breast. For snacks I have nuts.

It is tricky getting enough protein without using shakes/powder (I don't use them either) but you soon get the hang of what your meals need to look like and some key ingredients. I do also sometimes just have a Dominos though!

Oh maybe I got the daily recommended amount wrong then. I’m kind of new to this so appreciate your knowledge.
Someone told me MyProtein was a good brand for whey but not sure if they’re just all the same? Those of you who use it, do you feel ok about using whey that’s got sugar in it? Can’t understand why all the flavours are so sickly,

This is a good 'clean' source of protein https://groceries.asda.com/product/gut-health-yogurts-kefir/biotiful-gut-health-kefir-protein-original/1000383133041

If you don't mind a more processed product Huel Black edition is 20g protein per 200Kcal and an easy way to top up your daily intake

Watch out for items labelled as "protein whatever" as they're usually no more proteinous (probably a made up word) than those not labelled as such or also have heavy carbs.

Eat chicken, lean meats, eggs and have protein shakes and be done with it. Anabolic gold is the best for taste and protein but quite expensive now. I'm currently using one from b&m with a moose on it. It's £10 and you don't get a lot but the taste is good and it's a good starter to get you into it.

Cottage cheese; chicken (esp breast).
Greek yoghurt; chickpeas; tofu; prawns.

But what you're having sounds good.

I buy my Whey Protein powder from BULK, unflavoured, mix a 25gram scoop full with a little cold water, then add a pint of milk, this gives around 40grams, take it after the gym or a run.
Whey Isolate has a little more protein but is more expensive.

Can't stand the flavoured stuff.

i believe we need about 1.4grams per kilo of body weight, more if you do a lot of exercise.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/apr/15/truth-about-protein-how-to-get-enough-every-age?CMP=ShareiOSAppp_Other

I found this useful. Most people don't need protein powders and too much protein isn't great either.

The best way to consume it all, says Patel, is to spread your intake across your day, with each meal and snack including some protein. Roughly 20g of protein looks like “two eggs with two slices of seeded toast, or two slices of wholemeal toast with a tablespoon of peanut butter and a latte, or 125g of Greek yoghurt with some pumpkin seeds sprinkled on top”. If cottage cheese is your thing, a cup of that with an apple is a 20g protein snack, and meal-component wise, so is “a small chicken breast or half a big one, 75g of smoked or poached salmon or a cup of cooked lentils”.

Personally, I would not get too hung up about protein but instead focus on eating a healthy, clean and varied diet along the lines of what tends to we referred to as a Mediterranean diet.

I'm 70 years old and work out 45 to 90 minutes most days. Several years ago I changed my diet, which had already been healthier than most people's, to drastically reduce or eliminate all added sugars, refined carbs and ultra-processed foods.

On a normal day I eat
2-3 eggs
1 portion of oily fish, occasionally chicken
1 portion of legumes or beans
1 portion of full-fat Greek yoghurt
A handful of nuts or seeds
1-2 portions of fruit
Plus lots and lots of vegetables/salads, cooked or dressed in olive or avocado oil.
Everything flavored with lots of herbs, lemon juice, ginger, garlic, spices.

I'm extremely fit and healthy. What's more, I genuinely enjoy my food and it is so satisfying that I never feel hungry.

Is the unflavoured stuff really unflavoured?

Any of the flavoured ones are foul (to my taste) and I just can't stomach them, but trying to get more protein by mixing them with milk with my overnight oats. If the unflavoured one is truly unflavoured, it sounds like that might be worth a go :)

My DH has had lots of whey protein shakes and most of them were pretty bad, he got unflavoured once and the smell was horrendous. He said the taste wasn’t as bad as the smell. I have the protein powder marketed at women from free soul and it takes pretty good. It also mixes well with milk or water, no horrid clumps of powder.

Well, they don't have any added stuff.

Ingredients
Whey Protein Concentrate (Milk), Emulsifier (Sunflower Lecithin).

Yes ideally its better to get protein from natural food but its expensive to do that especially as it means consuming a lot of calories.

There is no smell to the Bulk powder or the MyProtein one either, i can only think the powder was off? it adds a slight powdery texture to oats and perhaps a very mild Horlicks type taste (if eaten raw, which i wouldn't recommend) its a milk derived product after all.

Thank you - I'll check it out :). I'm fairly averse to the idea of the powders, like you say better to get it naturally, but it's so difficult !

I couldn't meet my protein needs without a powder. Powdered collegen, the decent stuff is about 18g of protein as well.

Get rid of the egg yolks and add another one.

Protein yoghurts generally have a LOT of sugar.

I eat Fage 0% Greek yoghurt with honey, or with frozen mango chunks, or a banana, or a scoop of my favourite vanilla protein powder. I need a fair bit of protein for weight training, so do add in protein powder. It also soothes my raging sweet tooth without too many calories!

Also, I buy those cartons of egg whites only. Really great for breakfast - a couple of tomatoes, a heap of (generally frozen) spinach, egg whites and cheese. Really filling and high in protein with just the egg whites. Otherwise, I use two medium eggs, but I generally try to use one whole egg, and add egg whites from the carton.

I make a form of overnight oats with Angel delight & add a couple of scoops of protein powder & extra milk, I don't like yoghurt so this is a way to still have the protein. 2 scoops of protein powder have 34g of protein & half a pack of Angel Delight made up has 8g of protein, so each serving has 24g of protein plus the protein in 40g of oats is 4.6g making around 29g.

The WHO guideline which is a minimum to avoid nutritional deficiencies is 0.8g per kg body weight. The optimal range from the science seems to be 1.2g/kg to 1.6g per kg target body weight. If you are over 65 you want to be towards the upper end of this as it is harder to digest protein with age. From what I have read there is limited evidence of increased protein synthesis above 1.6 which would outweigh the negative impacts on longitivity especially if your protein is animal based or upf.

My breafkast sandwich is over 40g of protein...

2 slices of Jason's protein bread (20g protein)
1 egg (6g)
2 heck chicken sausages (10g)
One slice of cheese (6g).

Then if you make sure lunch and dinner have meat as well you are well on your way. Protein shakes are a good low cal option. Mine is 100cal for 20g of protein.