High protein breakfast foods should always be on the morning menu whether your looking to build muscle or lose weight. We’ve all heard it before but breakfast really is one of the most important meals of the day. If your looking to gain muscle or lose weight a high protein breakfast consisting of high protein foods is whats required first thing in the morning. Now although building muscle and losing weight are two entirely different things they do have one thing in common and thats breakfast.
High Protein Breakfast Foods
A high protein breakfast for someone looking to lose weight will set them up for the day helping them to feel fuller for longer. This will help to stop food cravings in the mornings and will stop you raiding the cupboard for sweets and snacks. Reasearch has also shown that eating a good nutritious breakfast in the morning will encourage you to eat more healthily throughout the day. Starting the day off right will give you the added motive to finish the day off right.
A high protein breakfast is also important to people looking to build muscle and put on weight. For someone looking to build muscle you will (or should) know the importance of protein in your diet and how much protein you need to help build muscle. Upon waking in the morning your body would have gone anywhere from 6-10 hours without food. You dont want to be going long periods without food as this will only restrict your progress.
Reason being is that after 6-10 hours of no food your body is likely to enter a catabolic state. A catabolic state is where your body is breaking down tissue. This we dont want. Breakfast is therefore a great time to take in some high protein breakfast foods and switch the body back to an anabolic state (building tissue).
High Protein Breakfast Foods and Ideas
If your stuck for ideas of high protein breakfast foods then let me run some ideas past you. Breakfast doesnt always have to be boring!
Eggs and Bacon. Eggs and bacon? your probably wondering why I’ve put this down but yes eggs and bacon for breakfast is a great protein packed meal that doesnt have to be as high calorie and unhealthy as you think. For the eggs you can either choose to consume them whole or take out the egg whites. Whether your building muscle or losing weight I wouldnt worry too much about taking out the yolk unless you plan on eating a lot of eggs.
Cook the eggs in some sort of healthy oil instead of fat. You can even try them boiled, scrambled or poached. As for the bacon try cooking it on the grill and trim off the fat when you come to eat it so your left with only lean meat. If your bulking up and looking to put on weight and muscle size then you can always add some wholemeal toast to this for additional calories and carbs and put the eggs and bacon on it. Furthermore add a pint of milk to the meal for additional calories and protein. A great high protein breakfast.
Oatmeal and Protein Powder. This is a great high protein breakfast meal to start your day off. Oatmeal contains slow digesting carbohydrates helping to give you a steady release of energy throughout the day. You can also add 1 or 2 scoops of protein powder to it to boost the protein content and flavour. Many people enjoy adding a scoop of strawberry flavoured protein powder to the oatmeal and mixing it in.
1 tablespoon of sugar can be added if required for additional taste and sweetness although there has been a lot of positive feedback about adding cinammon to the oatmeal for even better taste. Experiment for yourself. Consume this with a cup of coffee in the morning and you’ll be raring to go.
Morning Smoothie. The morning smoothie is great for people who find it hard to eat first thing in the morning or are always in a rush. If you’ve got a blender handy simply add around 150ml of milk, a scoop or two of protein powder and a packet of oats and whizz it up! The oats make the liquid a little thick especially near the bottom of the glass but once you’ve had a few you will get use to it.
I often consume this with a banana and a mult-vitamin before i leave for work in the mornings. You can of course add your own items to the smoothie to experiment. If you pay attention to your healthy fat intake for each day you may consider adding a tablespoon or two of oil to the shake. Once blended you can barely taste it and can be useful to knock on a few extra calories to your morning meal/smoothie.
