Empower Your Fitness Journey
4 Essential Tools You Actually Need for Optimal Protein Intake
When readily available when you start your fitness journey, these tools will make your protein intake stress-free and convenient.
In a previous post, I explained the importance of eating protein for weight loss and muscle gain.
However, for a starter, you need the following tools to get started if you seriously want to lose weight, gain muscle or achieve some fitness goals:
Food scale
Food tracking app
Measuring cups
Measuring spoons
Food scale
A food scale measures your food.
Thankfully, most food scales in the market are cheap and affordable, so buying a less fancy one won't break the bank.
I bought the one I currently use in my kitchen a long time ago, and if my memory serves me right, it cost under 15 Canadian dollars.
Before you use a food scale, you need to know how much protein you should get.
By the way: opinions differ on how much protein you should get daily for optimal protein intake.
By and large, the amount of protein you need depends on factors such as your:
Fitness goal
Weight loss goal
For example, to prevent adverse effects from protein deficiencies such as:
Fatigue
Muscle loss
Brittle nails/skin
Adults are recommended to consume the bare minimum protein intake: 0.75g/kg of body weight of protein intake.
For example, if you weigh 60kg (132 lbs), you should eat about 45g (0.75g/kg x 60kg)of protein a day.
Note: This is the least amount of protein you should get daily if you’re inactive.
On the other hand, if you’re trying to build muscles, lose weight, and lift weights consistently, you need more than the bare minimum to get by.
If that’s the case, you should aim for between 1.2g/kg and 2g/kg of protein daily.
My current target is 1g/lbs (I know, I’m staying in pounds mode for now! lol.) of my body weight.
So, remember these essential details before putting your protein sources on a food scale.
Food tracking app
Essentially, a food tracking app tells you how many nutrients you take in each food.
All you need to do is scan your food, and you’ll get its nutritional profile.
In addition, you’ll learn the calories in each food item.
A word of caution: It can be daunting to start because some people can find scanning every food they eat challenging.
At least, it happened to me, and I had to abandon this process.
However, scanning just the proteins I ate was less tasking, so I continued with it until I started adding other nutrient sources.
Now, I have a repertoire of my staple foods in the food app I’m using, and I know what I’m getting from each of them, so I don’t rely on the app anymore.
However, this could change in the future when my fitness goals change.
You can try this method as a starter to see how far it takes you.
Lastly, I understand most food-tracking apps are free to download. I’m using the MyFitnessPal app, which I downloaded for free. It has a paid version, but I don’t need it for now on my journey.
You don’t need a paid version either, so go ahead and download a food-tracking app.
Measuring cups and spoons
These tools do the same thing as a food scale but are used for diggable foods. Simple!
Seriously, they’re auxiliary tools to the food scale.
For example, if you need one cup of chicken breasts and want to know how many grams it will give you, place it on your food scale, and you’ll know exactly how much you’re getting.
So, enjoy using measuring cups and spoons with a food scale, and you will have a perfect food measuring system.
Final Thoughts
By having a food scale, food tracking app, and measuring cups and spoons readily available in your kitchen, you are empowering yourself to achieve optimal protein intake.
Although starting on this journey is daunting, having these tools will make your journey stressless.
Your health and wellness ally,
Ola.