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​You and I.

Yes us!

We live in a bubble.

Our little nutritional bubble of perspective that we’ve cultivated over the years.

Many things we believe that are “duh, everyone knows that.”

BUT the irony is, most do not.

I am constantly reminded of this by the conversations I seek out with random people I encounter in life.

Yesterday, I was talking to a woman in her 50s that lives in my building.

We talk all the time. She’s soo nice and recently found out that I cook for a living.

Let’s hypothetically call her “Sally.”

So after finding out about this, Sally started telling me about her diet and wanted my feedback.

She starts with her breakfast.

Then her lunch.

And then her dinner where she lights up about her enchiladas!

She then tells me how she makes them.

I nod my head as she goes just listening.

Then Sally says, “That’s pretty healthy right!?”

I go:

She looks at me like I was speaking another language lol.

Then she says, “I just got ground beef. What do you mean?”

I then go into detail about the difference in calories of each option.

How you could get ground beef with different levels of leanness and it can be double the calories for the same amount of food.

Her mind was blown.

And a caveat to all this.

She’s not a dumb person lol. She’s a big-time executive and makes far more money than I do.

And she’s in pretty good shape but def wants to lose some weight.

And the best part of all this is, she can lose those few extra pounds while eating the same amount of food just from a few swaps.

Anyways, all I wanted with this story was to remind you and me of the bubble we live in.

So as a result of this conversation with “Sally”, I went ahead and created some valuable breakdowns of all protein source options to make this all incredibly easy to understand.

These charts are going to show two things:

1. Oz per 500 calories = By choosing leaner protein sources, you can eat significantly more volume for the same amount of calories.
2. Grams of Protein Per 500 calories = The more protein per 500 calories means it’s a much better protein source.

Here we go...

For 500 calories of Ground Beef, you could eat:

• 6.1oz of 75/25 Lean Ground Beef (27g of protein)
• 7.04oz of 80/20 Lean Ground Beef (34g of protein)
• 8.3oz of 85/15 Lean Ground Beef (43g of protein)
• 10.2oz of 90/10 Lean Ground Beef (57g of protein)
• 11.6oz of 93/7 Lean Ground Beef (67g of protein)
• 14.3oz of 96/4 Lean Ground Beef (87g of protein)

500 calories of Ground Turkey, you could eat:

• 8.6oz of 85/15 Ground Turkey (41g of protein)
• 10.9z of 90/10 Ground Turkey (52g of protein)
• 12.5oz of 93/7 Ground Turkey (70g of protein)
• 17.9oz of 99/1 Ground Turkey (113g of protein)

For 500 calories of some other meats, you could eat:

• 5.8oz of Pork Sausage (25g of protein)
• 7oz of Ribeye (37g of protein)
• 7.1oz of Chicken Thighs (51g of protein)
• 8.3oz of Chicken Drumsticks (63g of protein)
• 10.4oz of Sirloin (60g of protein)
• 12.8oz of Pork Tenderloin (74g of protein)
• 16oz of Chicken Breast (105g of protein)

500 calories of Seafood, you could eat:

• 8.5oz of Sardines (59g of protein)
• 10.6oz of Mackerel (59g of protein)
• 12.2oz of Salmon (74g of protein)
• 12.2oz of Shrimp (95g of protein)
• 20oz of Canned Tuna (110g of protein)
• 21.7oz of Tilapia (111g of protein)
• 25oz of Cod (128g of protein)

500 calories of Eggs and Dairy, you could eat:

• 11.9oz of Whole Eggs (43g of protein)
• 16.7oz of 4% Fat Cottage Cheese (58g of protein)
• 25oz of Non-Fat Cottage Cheese (80g of protein)
• 27.8oz of Whole Milk (28g of protein)
• 31.3oz of Egg Whites (103g of protein)
• 50oz of Skim Milk (50g of protein)

500 calories of Bacon, you could eat:

• 3.3oz of Regular Pork Bacon (35g of protein)
• 3.8oz of Center Cut Bacon (42g of protein)
• 4.7oz of Turkey Bacon (39g of protein)
• 5.2oz of Pork Breakfast Sausage (28g of protein)
• 8.62oz of Turkey Breakfast Sausage (67g of protein)
• 9.4oz of Canadian Bacon (65g of protein)

500 calories of Plant-Based options, you could eat:

• 3oz of Peanut Butter (21g of protein)
• 9.3oz of Tempeh (56g of protein)
• 10.6oz of Lentils (26g of protein)
• 12.5oz of Seitan (88g of protein)
• 19.2oz of Black Beans (33g of protein)
• 20.8oz of Firm Tofu (56g of protein)

I hope you find these breakdowns of each protein source category super helpful!

If you're an avid reader of the Macro-Friendly Kitchen, you know I love these data-oriented frameworks around nutrition.

I’ll link a few of my most popular previous ones that you can check out if you are new here.

1. ​The CTP Score​
2. ​The GPC Rating​
3. ​Satiety Score​

AND if you enjoyed this breakdown, feel free to reply to this email letting me know!

I keep tallying the number of replies each email gets to gauge how much impact it really had.

So you replying helps a ton. And any extra feedback you give on what you liked and what questions you still have helps a ton as well.

Appreciate you being here!

Your friend and macronutrient data analyst,
​Zach

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