Lean Protein Foods: The Best Indian Options for Weight Loss and Everyday Meals

Lean protein foods give you plenty of protein with very little fat. The best Indian options are egg whites, chicken breast, fish, prawns, hung curd, soya chunks, tofu,s and dal.

Here's how much protein each one gives, which "healthy" foods aren't actually lean, and how much you need daily.

Lean protein is any food that delivers a lot of protein for few calories, with little saturated fat. For meat, a 100 g serving counts as lean if it has under 10 g of total fat, no more than 4.5 g of saturated fat and under 95 mg of cholesterol.

That rule was written for meat, so it doesn't help much with dal or curd. A simpler test works for every food: check the protein you get per 100 calories. Around 10 g or more per 100 kcal is lean. Under 7 g means the food brings a lot of carbs or fat along with its protein.

Animal foods top most lean protein lists. They are complete proteins with almost no carbs.

Lean mutton surprises people. Goat meat is naturally low in fat. The problem is the fatty curry cuts and the ghee in the gravy. Ask your butcher for leg pieces and trim the visible fat.

The cooking method matters as much as the cut. Tandoori or grilled chicken breast stays lean. Butter chicken made with the same breast does not. If you eat chicken, breast is leaner than thigh, and removing the skin cuts the fat sharply.

Also read: 1000 Calorie Diet Plan | Safe Weight Loss Complete Guide | Uncover Clinics

Good vegetarian lean protein sources are already in most Indian kitchens. The catch is that many plant proteins come with carbs, so the protein per calorie drops.

Soya chunks are the strongest vegetarian lean protein by a wide margin. A 30 g serving (dry weight) gives you about 15 g of protein for roughly 100 calories.

Dal is lean in the sense that it has almost no fat, but most of its calories come from carbs. That's why a plate of dal and rice keeps you full without adding much protein. Pair dal with curd, sprouts or a tofu side to raise the protein in the same meal.

Some protein-rich foods fail the lean test. They aren't bad foods, but portions matter.

• Regular paneer has about 18 g protein but around 20 g fat per 100 g. Swap half of it for tofu, or buy low-fat paneer made from skimmed milk.
• Peanut butter has about 25 g protein and close to 50 g fat per 100 g.
• Nuts and cheese give useful protein, but most of their calories come from fat.

Protein keeps you full for longer than carbs or fat, so you tend to eat less without forcing it. It also protects muscle while you're in a calorie deficit. Lose muscle and your metabolism slows, which makes the weight easier to regain.

Your body also spends energy digesting food. With protein, roughly 20 to 35 percent of its calories go into digestion, compared with 5 to 15 percent for carbs.

A high-protein diet for weight loss still needs a calorie deficit to work. If you've cleaned up your meals and the scale won't move, a doctor-led weight management programme can check for medical causes and plan your nutrition with you.

ICMR-NIN sets the daily protein requirement at 0.83 g per kg of body weight for healthy adults. For a 65 kg adult, that's about 54 g a day.

That figure prevents deficiency. When you're losing fat, dietitians often use a higher target of 1.2 to 1.6 g per kg, which works out to 78 to 104 g for the same 65 kg person.

Spread it across the day, about 20 to 30 g per meal. Most Indian meals load protein at dinner and leave breakfast short.

Here's what roughly 85 g looks like on a vegetarian day:

• Breakfast: two moong dal cheelas with a bowl of hung curd (about 22 g)
• Lunch: dal, roti and 100 g tofu bhurji (about 30 g)
• Evening: 30 g soya chunks chaat and a glass of toned milk (about 23 g)
• Dinner: dal with a bowl of curd (about 12 g)

Eating non-vegetarian? Replace the tofu with 100 g of grilled chicken breast and you add another 14 g.

Hair is made of a protein called keratin. When your diet runs short on protein for a long stretch, it can show up as hair loss, dry skin and brittle nails. Uncover Clinics' dermatologists explain the early warning signs in this guide to protein deficiency and how to fix it.

If your hair fall continues after your diet is on track, see a dermatologist. Thyroid problems, low iron and hormonal changes cause similar shedding, and the dermatologists at Uncover Clinics can help find which one is behind yours.