No healthy meal is complete without a hearty dose of protein. This is especially true when it comes to breakfast, and especially true if you’re trying to shed a few pounds. Ensuring your morning meal has enough protein is crucial to staying energized throughout the day and helping your body burn fat at a steady rate. Lean proteins—those low in saturated fats and calories—are particularly beneficial for individuals aiming to lose weight. Luckily, there are plenty of great options that can easily be incorporated into your daily breakfast.
Looking for high-protein breakfast inspiration? Look no further! We spoke to dietitians Trista Best and Catherine Gervacio to shed light on a few fantastic options for faster weight loss. According to these experts, egg whites, cottage cheese, and yogurt are all great choices. Learn more about the benefits of each below.
1. Cottage cheese
Don't sleep on this nutritious dairy product! This underrated breakfast food can do wonders for your health, especially if you're trying to lose weight. Best tells us that "a half-cup serving of cottage cheese can provide around 13 grams of protein." We had no idea! Plus, this tasty, versatile food is "relatively low in calories," coming in just around 80 calories per serving.
Additionally, Best points out that cottage cheese offers up a healthy dose of calcium, phosphorus, selenium, and vitamin B12. "These nutrients play important roles in bone health, immune function, and overall health," Best assures us. Nice!
2. Yogurt
Parfait, anyone? Yogurt doesn't only serve as the perfect base for nutritious nuts and berries; it's also an amazing source of protein and gut-healthy probiotics. "Yogurt is probably one of the most popular breakfast choices for those who want to lose weight because of its protein and probiotics content," Gervacio says.
This protein-packed breakfast food, she notes, is amazing for your gut health because it "has millions of good bacteria to improve digestion by balancing out the microflora in the gut." These probiotics, Gervacio says, "are known to aid in the release of the hormones peptide YY (PYY) and peptide-1 (GLP-1) known to reduce appetite. Increasing the release of these hormones may burn more calories and fat." Amazing!
3. Egg whites
Eggs are certainly a breakfast staple, whether you like 'em scrambled, poached, or as part of a protein-packed omelet. And if you really want to kick things up a notch as far as weight loss benefits go, Best recommends opting for egg whites, which can keep your breakfast as low-calorie as possible while still containing a good amount of protein.
"Egg whites can be a great way to cut down on the fat of a traditional egg-based meal while maintaining a lean source of protein," she says, noting that this allows you to "cut down on calories from 71 to 18, while only losing 2 grams of protein." Meanwhile, the fat content "drops from 5 grams in an entire egg to zero when only eating the egg whites." That's perfect!
