can anyone help me with ways to get in more protein.  It seems I fall short almost daily.  I need 60-80g and I just can't seem to get it in.  Maybe some sample days.  I need to step up weight loss.  I am out almost 4 months and it is getting harder.  Thanks in advance monica

 syntrax nectar strawberry kiwi - mix with water, goes down that easy, google for the best price online.

If you have a Super Supplements in town they have lots of powders including the Syntrax. If you don't like it and it's not less than half full you can bring it back in to exchange.

Let's see. 80 grams in a day? Really not hard. Let's divide it up into four 20-gram doses here. You don't have to eat the whole serving in one sitting, and you don't have to eat the exact combinations I've listed here. You can mix them up. I'm just giving you samples of how much food makes 20 grams of protein.

Day 1:

1 liquid supplement = 20 grams
3 oz. chunk cheese = 20 grams
3 oz. canned tuna (weighed drained) = 20 grams
2 eggs and 4 oz. Greek yogurt = 20 grams

Day 2:

8 oz. Greek yogurt = 20 grams
3 oz. tilapia = 20 grams
3 oz. beef filet = 20 grams
1 liquid supplement = 20 grams

Day 3:

2 eggs and 2 slices bacon = 20 grams
1 string cheese, 2 oz. cottage cheese and about 1/4 c. soy nuts = 20 grams
3 oz. chicken meat = 20 grams
1 liquid supplement = 20 grams

Day 4:

2 tablespoons peanut butter and 6 oz. Greek yogurt = 20 grams
3 oz. salmon = 20 grams
about 2 dozen almonds,  1 cup of milk and 1 oz. of cheddar cheese = 20 grams
1 liquid supplement = 20 grams

Day 5:

1/2 c. ricotta cheese and 1 oz. mozzarella cheese = 20 grams
3 oz. pork loin = 20 grams
3 tablespoons soy nut butter and 1/2 c. tofu = 20 grams
1 liquid supplement = 20 grams

ELIZABETH-I don't think I've seen such a "user friendly" list before. May I print and use it for my support group members (giving you "credit", of course!) ? Seems we all get in a "protein funk"-myself included-I looked at the list and thought "Hey-I haven't had that in a long time-forgot I even liked it!"...LOVE the list!

Sure, by all means.

I was truly stunned to discover how many people have dieted all their lives and even gotten WLS without having the first clue about nutrition. If I had my way, nobody would get WLS without being able to rattle off a certain list of nutrition facts in their sleep. One of those things would be the protein content of just about every possible (basic) source of protein.

By that I mean stuff like: eggs, meat, fish, fowl, kinds of cheese, milk, kinds of yogurt, nuts, seeds, legumes, soy products.... Not the stuff on the nutrition labels of "mixed food" products. When you know what the building blocks of your foods are, the whole thing gets really easy to do.

I really dislike diet programs or lists based on calories. IMNSHO a daily plan should be based on x grams of protein, y grams of fat and z grams of carbs. Then you budget your grams and to hell with the calorie content.

To  make this work, you need to know a very simple fact: Protein and carbs = 4 calories per gram. Fat = 9 calories per gram.

Say you want 800 calories a day. Dumb, but okay. You need, oh let's say 80 grams of protein. That's 320 calories from protein. 30% of your calories come from fat (don't be moronic and try to get in even less; it's bad for you), so that's 265 calories or about 30 grams of fat.

You're left with 215 calories from carbs, or 54 grams of carbs. Voila! Now you make your food budget accordingly.

To summarize: 800 calories a day = 80 grams protein, 30 grams fat, 54 grams carbohydrate.

If you're doing 60 grams of protein, then you get 74 grams of carbohydrate. 

Since we have the Internet, nowadays finding the nutritional value of a food is seconds away at all times. Plus we learn to look at labels. Thing is, we rarely pay attention to what we find there :-). 

I like to think I'm failrly well versed in nutrition-and doing pretty well-for MYSELF. It's when I'm trying to help my "challenged" members that can't grib the concepts that "french and tator tots cannot be your two daily veggies"...seriously...just peeps just wipe me out..I've tried the "divided" plate visual charts, and all kinds of other visual aids.

Today I read a thing that said to shoot for 1/2 gram protein for every pound you weigh. Do you agree with that?  It seemed feasible to be-as least a GUIDELINE.

I think that formula for protein consumption is too complicated for the folks you're trying to reach. For me as a DS'er it would be utterly inadequate.

If I were in your shoes, I'd make a list of veggies that are appropriate and say, "Two xyz size servings FROM THIS LIST every day. If it's not on this list, it's not a veggie and it does not count." I'd keep it short and simple, stuff that comes from an average grocery store in your area.

Such a list where I live would look something like:

--Any kind of veggie that's made of leaves, whether leaves you cook or leaves you put in salad or coleslaw (BUT you cannot count coleslaw unless you make it yourself and control how much dressing is in it!)
--asparagus
--artichokes (but NOT in dip)
--broccoli
--Brussels sprouts
--cucumbers
--RAW carrots
--endive
--fennel
--peppers
--onions
--squash (NOT candied or otherwise cooked in a lot of sweet stuff)
--kohlrabi
--rutabaga
--turnip
--jicama
--green, string or wax beans
--cauliflower
--celery
--tomatoes

....etc. I'd just mentally walk around the produce section of the local grocery store and list them that way.

Then let 'em squawk lol.

For fats, I'd explain that x grams of fat equals this much butter,lard or oil. Say 30 grams from our 800 calorie example. This is a total of two tablespoons of oil. BUT you have to look at every single label and find out how much fat is in what you're eating and subtract that from 30 grams.

So your 3-oz. pork loin from my protein post has, according to www.nutritiondata.self.com , about 8 grams of fat. The piece of string cheese has about 5 grams. 1/4 c. soy nuts 9 grams. If you get the rest of that day's protein from fat free sources, like some cottage cheese and your supplement, you will have consumed 22 grams of fat.

This means you have a whopping 8 grams of fat left over for use somewhere....or about a teaspoon and a half of oil.

I'm sure someone has rolled over and died reading this assessment LOL. Well, that's why 800 calories a day is less than many prisoners were fed in Nazi concentration camps. It's below starvation level by a long shot. So why try to live on that kind of silliness? This is why it's better to get the DS in the first place :-D.

Okay okay, I'll behave now. But really, this is the kind of thing I'd be breaking down to people learning about WLS. And if I were in charge of getting people cleared for surgery, there would be a test on this information before clearance would be granted.

People, you MUST learn what you are putting into your mouths!!!!!

I'm not quite 2 weeks out but I am also struggling with protein. I have found that adding unflavored protein powder to my soft foods helps alot. It mixes well in cottage cheese, mashed potatoes, pudding, yogurt, soups (i put some cold milk/water aside and mix it in there so it doesn't clump, I add this to the heated portion) and anything else soft or liquid. 

What kind of unflavored protein do you use?  I got Bioplex, but I haven't tried it yet.  I'm glad you posted what you put it in.  I was just having a brain block over the subject. I couldn't move past broth!  Anyways, thanks.