More protein is the new selling fad for losing weight, but the non-meat foods touted as high-protein are not high in protein, and they’re actually high-calorie. If you eat too much of these foods, they might actually cause you to GAIN weight. If something has 15 grams of protein, I consider that a high protein food.
To summarize the chart below, lean animal meat has the highest amount of protein with the lowest amount of calories. The grains, nuts, seeds, and beans are either high in carbs or fat, which explains why they have so many calories. A whole can of tuna fish is only 150 calories and a whopping 33 grams of protein, but we’re only supposed to eat tuna once a week due to its high mercury content. To get that many grams of protein from flax seeds, you’d be consuming over a 1000 calories.
This is a great list for vegans to make sure they are eating enough protein. For the meat eaters, you can reduce the amount of meat you’re eating by adding a serving of any of the other items below:
| Food | Grams of protein | Portion size | Calories | Serving size | Grams of protein | calories |
| Milk | 16 | 2 cups | 206 | ½ cup | 8 | 103 |
| Peanuts | 19 | ½ cup | 414 | 1 oz | 7 | 162 |
| Quinoa, cooked | 18 | 1.5 cups | 570 | ½ cup | 6 | 190 |
| Chia seeds | 15 | 3 oz | 414 | 1 oz | 5 | 138 |
| Flax seeds | 15 | ½ cup | 449 | 1 tbsp | 2 | 138 |
| Black beans | 14 | 1 cup | 220 | ½ cup | 7 | 120 |
| Oats, cooked | 15 | 1.5 cups | 450 | ½ cup | 5 | 150 |
| Tuna fish | 33 | 1 can | 150 | ½ can | 16 | 75 |
| Chicken breast | 27 | ½ boneless chicken breast | 142 | ½ breast | 27 | 142 |
| Protein powder | 20 | 1 scoop | 100 | 1 scoop | 20 | 100 |
| Eggs | 18 | 3 eggs | 240 | 2 eggs | 12 | 160 |