Calories in the Protein Group

Written by Sky Taylor, Diet Bites

The Protein Group & Your Diet Plan

When protein-based food selections - and beverage selections contain minimal fat content they all make a healthy choice for your weight loss plan.

Meat for Meeting Protein Recommendations

Even common ground beef is an excellent choice for your plan if it's extra lean. It contains just a tab over 115 calories and can be used in everything from burgers to spaghetti meat sauces while dieting.

You'll need four ounces to end-up with a three ounce serving as all meat proteins reduce in size while cooking. The great news is that when they are of the leanest cut, they don't reduce as severely as their fatty peers.

A three ounce serving of most lean beef foods - such as T-Bone steak, sirloin steak, and roast contains from about 160 to 180 calories.

Three ounces of cooked chicken or turkey contain about 140 calories. Speaking of 'cooked' - be sure that you utilize wise cooking methods that add no additional oils or batters to the proteins. Grilling, baking, boiling, pan or oven roasting, these are all very acceptable low calorie cooking methods.

Meats aren't the only great source for protein grams. Other fantastic choices include eggs, nuts, seeds, nut butters such as peanut butter, lentils and beans. There are so many different varieties of beans that you could eat a different variety each day and still have some leftover to try for the following month.

Eggs, an Excellent Protein Source Low in Calories

Eggs contain from about 50 calories to just under 100 in their raw state. A good way to shake your weight loss plan up is to scramble an egg for your dinner. If you're concerned about the cholesterol, seek out the egg substitutes. You can even boost the protein grams by adding healthy vegetables to your diet plan along with lean meats by preparing an omelet. Or you can simply add these ingredients - along with shredded low fat cheese to the scramble egg.

You'll get about 6 protein grams from a large egg.

Nuts, Nut Butters & Edible Seeds for Protein

Nuts and seeds as well as the butters prepared from them are high in caloric values but a little goes a very long way. When you think about a pecan, think about a quarter as the whole nut contains about 25 each. Four quarters equal 100 calories.

The seeds can make an excellent snack choice, particularly when they are still lodged inside their original seed containers; they'll require a bit of time to eat so you'll have more time to savor the flavor.

While peanut butter is a popular food when it comes to nut butters, other spreads are quite tasty. Look for hazelnut and cashew butters as well when shopping. Spread a little into a stalk of celery - about one Tablespoon and you'll be enjoying about 90 calories and 5 protein grams.

The hazelnut spread is usually in a chocolate form and contains 200 calories per Tablespoon and  2 protein grams.

Nutrition Facts, Calories in Cashew Butter

Here are the caloric and nutritional values for cashew butter:

While there are reduced fat varieties of peanut butter - chunky and smooth, at the market, they generally contain about 10 calories less than the full-blown jar - so the dieter isn't saving many calories; however - there is a whipped peanut butter that will save the dieter about 1/3 the calories. Look for whipped on the label next time you shop.

Foods Rich in Protein

If you're looking to add more protein to your diet plan, here are a few of the richest food sources:

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