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If you’ve been hearing a lot about protein lately, you’re not alone.
“Eat more protein” seems to be everywhere right now.
But what does that actually mean?
How much protein do you need? What foods should you eat? And how do you realistically get enough protein every day without feeling like you’re eating chicken breast at every meal?
As a personal trainer who works primarily with women over 40, protein is something I talk about a lot.
And there’s a good reason for that.
As we get older, getting enough protein becomes increasingly important—especially if you’re doing strength training and want to maintain or build muscle.
One of the biggest reasons protein matters is its role in maintaining and repairing muscle.
When you strength train, you’re challenging your muscles. Your body needs fuel to repair and rebuild them.
Protein provides those building blocks.
This is one reason strength training and adequate protein go hand in hand.
You can spend time lifting weights and getting stronger, but if your diet isn’t providing enough protein, you’re not giving your body as much of the nutritional support it needs to recover and maintain muscle.
And maintaining muscle becomes increasingly important as we age.
We naturally lose muscle as we get older, so preserving the muscle we already have—and ideally building more—is a major part of healthy aging.
Protein isn’t just about building bigger muscles.
It’s about helping you stay strong and capable as you get older.
There isn’t one magic number that applies to every woman.
Your protein needs can vary based on your body size, activity level, goals, overall diet and other factors.
But 100 grams per day is a simple, practical place to start.
That’s not meant to be a precise prescription for every woman.
It’s simply an easy target.
And here’s something I’ve noticed after years of working with women who consider themselves very healthy eaters:
Many women think they’re eating plenty of protein—until they actually track it.
They may eat healthy foods all day long but still come up surprisingly short.
That’s why my first recommendation is simple:
Track your normal diet for a few days.
Don’t change anything yet.
Just find out how much protein you’re actually eating.
Once you know where you’re starting, you can figure out what you need to change to get closer to your goal.
Fortunately, you have plenty of options.
Some of the easiest protein sources include:
And don’t forget that some plant foods contain protein, too.
One of the easiest ways to increase your protein intake is to stop thinking about protein as something you have to “add” at the end of the day.
Instead, make it part of every meal.
Ask yourself:
“What’s my protein source?”
At breakfast, that might be Greek yogurt, eggs or egg whites.
At lunch, it could be chicken, turkey, tuna, ham, beans or edamame.
At dinner, you might have fish, chicken, turkey or another lean protein source.
And then you can use snacks to fill in any gaps.
This is much easier than getting to 8 p.m. and realizing you still need another 50 grams of protein.
I realize that not everyone wants to eat the same thing every day, but I don’t mind it.
And now that my kids are in college and I’m not cooking dinner for a whole family every night, I’ve found it much easier to keep my meals simple and repetitive.
So here’s what a typical day looks like for me.
I have about a cup of plain, nonfat Greek yogurt.
I add about 10 walnuts, blueberries and a little honey.
It’s quick, filling and gives me a solid amount of protein first thing in the morning.
I usually have a sandwich made with two slices of Oroweat Keto Seeded bread, three slices of Black Forest ham, a slice of Colby Jack cheese and mustard.
I also have edamame.
I buy frozen edamame in the shell, heat it up and add a little salt. Because the pods take up quite a bit of space, the amount of actual edible edamame is less than the volume of the pods.
And then I have an Atkins Chocolate Peanut Butter protein bar.
Dinner is usually a frozen turkey burger patty with a slice of Colby Jack cheese and a couple of slices of tomato.
I also have about two cups of roasted broccoli with salt and lemon juice.
For dessert, I have a Honeycrisp apple with an almond butter and chocolate protein powder dip. I mix about a quarter cup of no-sugar-added almond butter with two scoops of chocolate protein powder and a little unsweetened almond milk to thin it out.
It tastes a little bit like Nutella.
Altogether, my typical day comes out to around 125 grams of protein.
You don’t need to eat exactly what I eat, of course. I’m sharing it simply to show you what getting a higher amount of protein can look like in a normal day.
Ideally, most of your diet should come from nutritious whole foods.
But here’s where I think women sometimes make getting enough protein unnecessarily difficult.
When you’re trying to hit your protein target, protein powder and protein bars can be useful tools.
Would I recommend getting all of your protein from protein shakes and bars?
No.
But if you’re consistently falling short, adding a protein shake to your day or having a protein bar as a snack can make reaching your goal much easier.
And in my opinion, getting enough protein is more important than being so rigid about protein sources that you make the goal impossible to achieve.
Use these foods as tools—not as the entire foundation of your diet.
If you’re struggling to get enough protein, you don’t necessarily need to completely overhaul your diet.
Try making small additions to foods you’re already eating.
Add egg whites to your eggs
If you already eat scrambled eggs, add some carton egg whites.
You get extra protein without having to dramatically increase the amount of food on your plate.
Add protein powder to Greek yogurt
Plain Greek yogurt already has a good amount of protein.
Adding protein powder can increase it even further.
Add protein powder to oatmeal
If oatmeal is part of your breakfast, protein powder can turn it into a much more protein-rich meal.
Make chia pudding
You can mix chia seeds with milk or another liquid and add vanilla protein powder for a convenient protein-rich snack or breakfast.
If you’re a woman over 40 who is strength training, paying attention to protein is one of the simplest nutritional changes you can make.
You don’t have to figure everything out at once.
Start with one goal:
Include a meaningful source of protein at every meal.
Then track your intake and see where you land.
You may be surprised by how little protein you’re currently getting—and you may also be surprised by how easy it is to increase it once you start paying attention.
And if you have some great high-protein meals or snacks that you love, I’d love to hear about them.
Because even those of us who are perfectly happy eating the same thing every day eventually get tired of eating the same thing every day!