Really struggling to get protein, help please?

[user1465023742]

Really desperate for some help about my food. I'm having a problem getting enough protein. Protein is the only thing that fills me up properly but I have a very limited budget as I'm on disability benefits and I just can't afford to eat meat or fish every day. I can't eat cheese because I have migraines. Quorn is out because I'm allergic to mushrooms, I can't have eggs because I'm allergic to the white so things like omlettes and scrambled eggs are out. That leaves lentils, which I do like, but the only way I know how to make them is in things like bolognese which i can't have because I'm allergic to tomatoes.

I'm really really struggling and surviving on carbs, which are just making me fatter and fatter and I'm constantly hungry because carbs leave me starving after 2 hours. What can I do?

^^ this is true I eat fats, proteins and veges, and keep low carbs. Today I only ended up having brunch (pancakes and yoghurt and fruit) and dinner (chicken, veges and brown rice with sauce) and I felt so full all day, that's all I needed. It wasn't massive platefuls either. I try and have three meals a day but it's really very filling TBH. You should try it.
I think we've been fed our whole lives to eat low fat to lose weight, but it's a con I'm sure. I now look at the shop bought foods and cafe muffins and cakes (which I used to love) and just think yuck, and i don't want it anymore. Homemade properly made foods, with the odd treat, living on more protein, fats and veges and the weight will shift.
So keep going.

whiter I'm currently immobile due to foot surgery and sooo grateful to the bootcamp threads. If I wasn't eating low carb I would be piling on weight - but I'm losing it too, despite not being able to move further than the bathroom. I have just had a bowl of Greek yoghurt for breakfast with cinnamon sprinkled on top and I'm totally satisfied - in the old days I would have had muesli with yoghurt plus toast with marmalade and been desperate for a mid-morning snack two hours later. Doing it on a budget and with dietary restrictions would be more challenging and require careful planning but once past the first week with the carb withdrawal, I've never felt healthier and never found it easier to lose weight.

Oh, and I'm eating very high fat - cream in my coffee, cooking with plenty of oil, butter on my veggies. But three inches have come off my waist in a fortnight!

That's great Laser. It still kind of amazes me how I've managed to lose so much with all the fat I eat but couldn't feel better.

I hope your foot heals up quickly

Op, the extreme hunger feelings you experience do sound like sugar crashes. I get these myself if I don't have enough protein - also, weirdly, after porridge made with same amount of nuts as I'd have in raw muesli. Some people are more sensitive to this than others. There's website/forum called Radiant Recovery, started by the woman who wrote Potatoes not Prozac (actually a misleading title as the dietary advice is based around protein and brown carbs).
Loads of suggestions for veggie meals, and you get to have a baked spud at bedtime.
You gradually reduce your sugar until you're not having any, while eating enough protein, briwn carbs and veg to fill you up, and you lose weight without even thinking about calories.
I had a restricted diet a few years ago, and a nutritionist suggested the Cooking Without books to me. I'm sure there's a lot more on the web now.
But ot sounds as if you need to make a concerted effort to learn to cook, which will give you the confidence to adapt recipes around your restrictions.
Beans and pulses will be the way to go, so it's a matter of finding tasty and satisfying ways to use them.
I'm another one who can't get on with the low carb thing; also, I was told by the ultrasound doctor who scanned my gallstones that it's now thought that losing weight quickly, rather than being overweight per se, is what causes them to develop.

So yesterday I made the lentil daal and god it was delicious. I actually made more portions of it for the fridge for this week too. It really did fill me up for several hours. I also made a stir fry with some chicken, veggies and some noodles, not many, just a handful thrown into the stir fry. That wasn't quite so successful in terms of keeping me full but not so bad. Doable. There was't fat in it apart from the small splash of olive oil I used to cook the onions in so the filling up was likely due to the extra protein.

The extreme feelings of hunger I get don't seem to be related to whether I'm eating sugar or not, tbh. I've had periods where I've got rid of it altogether and it's made no difference. It seems solely to be because I can't get enough protein. And the low carb thing has always been impossible for me. I just can't manage without them, I wish I could, I would dearly love to not have to eat them.

Breakfast is my biggest issue. I often feel that if I could fill myself up properly at breakfast time it would keep me going for most of the day but I just can't, mostly due to my food restrictions. I mean, for example, on the very odd days I go out for a fry-up (which I haven't done in well over a year), I'm full till mid-afternoon with all that protein.

This morning for example, I had two pieces of wholemeal toast with Anchor Spreadable (not low fat, so there you go) and marmite at about 7. I was still hungry so at about 8.30 I had a Huel shake which is supposed to be high in protein and fat and low carb thinking that would help. By 9.30 I was so ravenous I was feeling faint and I had to have some more toast and Anchor. I'm still hungry now :( But what in god's name else can I eat for breakfast if I can't have eggs and cheese? I don't want to be eating processed meat every day. I really have to watch the dairy too because it's a massive migraine trigger for me so big bowls of yoghurt are out (I can get away with a spoon or so stirred into a curry, like in the daal, but not big globs of it on its own).

Oh and I know fruit will be suggested but again, it leaves me hungrier than I was before I ate it. It makes my stomach growl and also aggravates my severe reflux because of the acid. Also, the only actually filling bulky fruit - bananas - I can't eat because they give me awful stomach pains. :(

Fruit makes me hungry too. It's the sugar.

Glad the Dahl worked well for you. It does sound nice.

You def need protein with your breakfast. I know you can't have egg white but could you scramble two egg yolks?

Are all nuts an issue or just peanuts? I was wondering about almond butter. Very yummy on toast.

Also - we don't need traditional breakfast foods for breakfast. You can eat anything you like. You could have leftovers from the night before.

I could try scrambling yolks but tbh the last time I had eggs (coincidentally the last time I went out for said fryup - I only ever used to have the yolks) even the yolks made me feel a bit iffy and I was worried I was starting to react to those too so I havent had them since.

All nuts, yeah. And yes I know about not having to have "breakfast" foods but I just don't know what else I could have! I couldn't stomach leftovers or very savoury stuff in the morning.

It's definitely needing more protein, but not being able to have it due to either cost or intolerances. This is the problem I've had. The only thing I can get to fill me up and stop the awful ravenous passing-out-type hunger is carbs, either because I can't eat the alternatives or can't afford them.

Maybe you could buy protein powder to substitute one meal. You will get at least 20g of protein from just one shake. They can be expensive so shop around and you will get more protein from it than you would get in meat.

Otherwise chicken/turkey steaks/salmon - frozen will be cheaper - will have high protein.

Forget the notion that high fat food will make you fat. Forget 'low fat' - your body needs fat. Just avoid processed foods and sugar.

Eta and avoid carbs obviously. Forget pasta and replace with brown rice and weigh your portions. I thought I was eating healthily until I realised I was eating three times my portion size when I should have been having about three tablespoons of brown rice!

Work out your calorie requirements and use my fitness pal to log. It was an eye opener for me.

But I had a protein shake this morning and I'm still ravenous :( And I can't afford chicken/salmon/etc for every meal. I'm on disability benefits. This is so frustrating not being able to make myself understood, there's obviously a massive comprehension fail going on somewhere here :(

I can't avoid carbs. If I can't afford or can't eat the protein I need - which I can't - I'm falling down passing out hungry without carbs.

This is why I posted, to get ideas for protein sources that I could afford to buy and eat regularly. That's been lost somewhere along the way and turned into "avoid carbs and eat fat and you'll lose weight!" That does NOT work for me.

It's definitely needing more protein, but not being able to have it due to either cost or intolerances. This is the problem I've had. The only thing I can get to fill me up and stop the awful ravenous passing-out-type hunger is carbs, either because I can't eat the alternatives or can't afford them.

Honestly, this is quite worrying and to me sounds like a major underlying issue. It is not normal to feel like that. Have you had medical advice on this?

Well, I'm not diabetic, I've been tested for it. I don't know what other underlying issue you mean. Food intolerances aren't unusual and neither are migraine triggers caused by foods which is the majority of the reason I can't eat a lot of this stuff.

Do you have any butchers or fishmongers nearby who you could ask for cheap cuts?

Sardines are v healthy and cheap too.

The stir fry chicken could have a part of a tin of pulses added in to bulk it out. A simple chicken casserole (onion, carrot,stock cube or powder, water plus chicken) could also have a half tin of pulses mixed in. Or add red lentils as you add the water.

There's a butchers up the road but last time I bought some stewing beef there it was full of veins and so tough it was disgusting even after being in the slow cooker all day :(

I've never seen sardines in any other form than canned in tomato sauce whicH I can't have. I did buy some tinned mackerel yesterday though so I will try that at some point - not sure what with, though.

I think it is 'normal' to feel hungry when dieting. You simply can't feel full all the time. I love carbs, adore bread and I feel very hungry when I don't eat it but I know I won't lose weight if I eat it so I try not to.

I recently went on a high protein low carb diet. Although I ate protein (eggs mainly) I felt really hungry for the first week. Slowly my body started to find it easier but not easy. I lost one pound a week. For me it was too little for such a big eating adjustment so I am returning to the 5:2 diet but this time using my fitness pal to calorie count on non fast days. I find it hard, I am hungry, but I can't eat lots of non green foods and still expect to lose weight.

Ok, I'm horrobly overweight but here are my tips,

Carrots, carrots, carrots.

Raw, they make a great snack. Don't both to have dips save as a treat. Rinse, to and tail, eat raw. Filling.
Cooked, filling.
Puréed, adds substance to gravy.

Fill up at meal times on veg. Including pulses. It sounds as though you need to be weaning yourself off carbs generally.

Cheap double protein, standard Italian " salad" tinned tuna, tinned beans ( not baked beans), raw onion and a tiny bit of garlic.

Tinned mackerel on baked potato with at least three vegs.

Don't forget you don't need much protein to survive, 2-4 Oz a day . Fill up on veg.

For breakfast, porridge. A dash of milk on the top if you like, half a banana, keep the rest for a snack later. Much more sustaining than toast or cereal, buy not in packets but large packs. If really hungry, eat porridge during the day. It's what the scots did. Their old diet, pre deep fried mars bars, was one if the healthiest in the world: herring/ mackerel, ie oily fish, porridge, kale. Milk and cheese occasionally. Try it. You'll find the pounds melting off. Tinned fish fine, fresh when you can.

You can get sardines in oil in bigger supemarkets, much nicer than the mackerel imo.

Being "hungry" I dont mind. This isn't "being a bit hungry when dieting". It's falling down, feeling faint and dizzy type hungry. Ravenous. So hungry I can't function.

Honestly, why aren't people listening to what I'm actually saying? Do you not comprehend that other peoples' bodies are different? hippiedays, your post is SO insulting I can't even put it into words. Read the thread next time before you're so rude to people and if you can't be bothered, don't post.

I know for me feeling full needs plenty of fibre and some raw salad.

Someone else who hasn't bothered to read the posts. Porridge with a banana? I can't eat bananas and carbs don't fill me up. Jesus. I give up.

I know recommending porridge and weaning yourself off carbs sounds contradictory. The issue is portion size. And your preferred eating pattern.

Are you a constant grazer, always hungry, or a feaster, once you start you can't stop? Work out which, and adjust. If the former, have small snacks available but don't pile the plate at main meals. If the latter, make sure that your plate is mainly veg and some protein and long playing carbs.