Protein is an essential nutrient for healthy weight loss, as it provides your body with enough energy to fuel your exercises, while also helping you gain muscle. With that said, we reached out to health experts for three tasty breakfast ideas that will revamp your usual egg recipes and provide more protein. Read on for tips, suggestions and insight from Jay Cowin, registered nutritionist and Director of Formulations at ASYSTEM and Lisa Richards, registered nutritionist and creator of The Candida Diet.
1. Use Egg Whites
When craving scrambled eggs for breakfast, Cowin notes that using egg whites is an instant way to add more protein to your meal. Protein, he stresses, is needed for healthy weight loss for several important reasons. "The best breakfast food for healthy weight loss is anything that's packed with protein or filled with nutrients," he says, "Eating protein while doing strength training will help you maintain muscle mass, which means the weight you'll shed during this period will be pure body fat."
Cowin explains that out of the three macronutrients (fat, carbs, protein), protein (egg whites contain 3.6 g) will keep you fullest for the longest because it "suppresses your appetite." This, he notes, is a "big help when you're trying to cut back." Protein also has a "higher thermic effect than the other macronutrients," which means your body has to burn many calories to digest and process it, he points out.
2. Add Spinach
While Cowin suggests using egg whites for your scramble, he also recommends adding spinach for even more weight loss-promoting protein. "Egg whites are low in calories but very high in protein," Cowin adds, "They're also a good source of vitamin B." Making a scramble with this, "plus vegetables," he says, is a "great way to get some nutrients into your breakfast." Spinach in particular contains 0.7 g of protein per one cup (25 g). One 100 g serving of raw spinach contains 2.9 g of protein.
3. Eat Eggs with Quinoa
Another great way to create a filling meal, Richards notes, is to add quinoa. This "plant-based complete protein," she says, is high in protein, which can help you "to lose your belly fat and keep it off." When paired with high-protein eggs or egg whites, quinoa can provide you with even more energy. "A diet high in protein can help to reduce and prevent belly fat," Richards explains, and "lean protein both boosts metabolism and increases satiety." An increased metabolism, she adds, will "lead to weight loss and having a feeling of fullness will prevent overeating and indulging in calorie-dense, sugar-laden foods."
Overall, Richards concludes, eggs and egg whites are a "great way to add lean protein to your breakfast and the nutrient contents may increase your metabolism." Eggs contain a nutrient called choline, which she says "works in the body to suppress leptin, the hunger hormone while the yolks increase the body's absorption of antioxidants." These attributes make eggs "effective in increasing metabolism and enhancing supporting health," she continues. When adding spinach or quinoa to your scramble and cooking with egg whites, Richards points out that you are enhancing an already "excellent source of many vitamins and nutrients beneficial to our health." Noted!
