High protein grocery list, by aisle

How much protein should the list cover?

Start with a target, because it decides how much of each food you buy. The 2025 to 2030 U.S. Dietary Guidelines, published by the USDA and the Department of Health and Human Services, give general guidance to prioritize protein at every meal and aim for 1.2 to 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day (AAFP summary, realfood.gov). They name eggs, poultry, seafood and red meat among the animal sources, and beans, peas, lentils, nuts, seeds and soy among the plant sources.

For a 70 kg (154 lb) adult, that range works out to an estimated 84 to 112 grams a day, our arithmetic. Our guide to how much protein you need per day shows how to set your own number, and the one on protein per meal explains how to spread it across the day.

A word of caution: these are general figures, not advice for you. If you have a kidney condition or any other medical condition, are pregnant, or are unsure what suits you, ask a doctor or a registered dietitian before you change how much protein you eat.

What we measured, and how

The test was simple. For each of 27 foods we took the USDA values per 100 grams (the SR Legacy release, April 2018) and calculated three things: estimated protein per 100 g, calories per 100 g, and estimated grams of protein per 100 kcal. That last number is the one most lists skip. It tells you how much protein you get for the energy you spend on it, and it changes the ranking a lot.

All weights are as bought: raw chicken, dry lentils, dry oats, drained canned beans. Cooking changes a food's weight (meat loses water, rice and lentils gain it) but not its protein, so always compare raw with raw. If that trips you up, our guide on whether to count macros raw or cooked covers it. The values are generic USDA averages. A branded product can differ, so read the label on the one you buy.

Meat and fish aisle

This aisle holds the foods with the most protein for the fewest calories. Five of the first six places in our ranking are here.

Two results surprised us. Ground turkey is often bought as the lean choice, yet at 93% lean it gives an estimated 12.5 g of protein per 100 kcal, below chicken breast (18.8 g), pork tenderloin (19.3 g) and even 95% lean ground beef (15.6 g). Pork tenderloin, easy to overlook, sits just ahead of chicken breast. Per 100 g, chicken, pork and beef give about the same protein. The difference is the calories that come with it.

Canned tuna and canned salmon are the easiest shelf-stable options on the list. One can of drained tuna is an estimated 32 g of protein for about 142 kcal.

Dairy and eggs

Dairy has the widest spread in the whole list, from nonfat Greek yogurt near the top to cheddar near the bottom. The lesson is to buy the lean versions of the foods you eat in bulk, and to treat cheese as a flavor.

Cheddar and mozzarella have more protein per 100 g than yogurt or cottage cheese, which is why they look good on a label. Per 100 kcal the order flips: the yogurt gives about three times as much (17.3 g against 5.7 g). Eggs sit in the middle at an estimated 8.8 g per 100 kcal, which makes them a good value rather than the leanest source. Two large eggs are an estimated 12.6 g of protein.

Plant proteins and the pantry

Plant sources spread over a wide range. Tofu and tempeh are dense enough to anchor a meal. Beans and lentils bring protein and fiber with modest calories. Nuts, nut butters and hummus are useful foods, but they are not where most of your protein will come from.

The table shows why dry lentils look so impressive per 100 g (24.6 g) and so ordinary per 100 kcal (7.0 g): you are counting them before they absorb water, and they bring plenty of carbohydrate with the protein. Peanut butter and almonds have a similar protein content per 100 g, yet at 3.7 and 3.5 g per 100 kcal they are among the least efficient protein foods on the list. Hummus has an estimated 2.3 g of protein in a 30 g scoop. None of this makes them bad foods. It means a handful of nuts is a snack, not a protein source.

The week test: two days, one list

A ranking is not a cart. To see how the staples behave together, we composed two days from the table above and repeated them: day A four times and day B three times, so seven days in all. Day A leans on animal foods, day B on eggs, lentils, tofu and edamame. Every figure is estimated from the same USDA values, summed item by item.

These are high-protein example days, not a target. They land at an estimated 164 g and 140 g, which is more than the 84 to 112 g we calculated for a 70 kg adult. If your target is lower, scale the quantities down: at about three-quarters of every amount, the days would sit near 120 g and 105 g. Calories scale with it, so check the result against your own needs.

Adding the seven days together gives the cart below. We merged each food into one line, converted the totals into things you can pick off a shelf, and sorted by aisle, the method we describe in our guide to a weekly grocery list from a meal plan. Prices are left out: they vary by store, region and week, and we only quote one we can source and date.

In all, this cart supplies an estimated 1,071 g of protein and 13,111 kcal over seven days, an average of about 153 g and 1,873 kcal a day. That is 18 lines for a whole week. The total is summed from unrounded values, so the rounded lines above can differ from it by a few grams.

Where the protein really comes from

We expected the meat aisle to carry the week. It did not. Here is how the estimated 1,071 g split across the cart:

• Dairy and eggs: 327 g, or 30% (yogurt 154 g, cottage cheese 94 g, eggs 57 g, mozzarella 22 g).
• Meat and fish: 308 g, or 29% (chicken 180 g, tuna 128 g).
• Plant proteins and pantry: 385 g, or 36% (tofu 104 g, bread 71 g, lentils 59 g, edamame 54 g, rice 46 g, oats 41 g, peanut butter 11 g).
• Vegetables, peas and fruit: 52 g, or 5%.
• Group figures are rounded, so the items in a group can sum to a gram or two more or less than its total.

Two things stand out. First, the whole-grain staples, bread, oats and rice, supplied an estimated 158 g, or 15% of the week, more than the tuna (128 g). They are rarely written on a protein list, yet they add up. Second, a list of only meat and fish would miss around 70% of the protein in this cart. A good high protein grocery list is spread across every aisle.

Five rules for your own list

• Rank by protein per 100 kcal, then by typical amount. The first tells you which food is efficient, the second tells you what one real serving gives you. Use both.
• Buy lean in the foods you eat the most of. Nonfat Greek yogurt and 2% cottage cheese give far more protein per calorie than most cheeses, and lean cuts do the same in the meat aisle.
• Pick one anchor per meal. One can of tuna, 150 g of chicken or 200 g of tofu already covers a large share of a meal. Fill in with grains and vegetables.
• Keep two shelf-stable and two frozen items. Canned tuna, lentils, frozen edamame and frozen peas stay good for weeks, so a missed shopping trip does not break the week.
• Weigh what you buy, not what you cook. The list above uses as-bought weights. Write yours the same way.

If you want dinners built on these staples, our high protein dinner ideas turn several of them into recipes with estimated macros. For a batch-cooking routine around the same foods, see the macro-friendly meal prep guide.

Let an app do the list

Doing this by hand takes a food database, a calculator and some patience, and you must redo it whenever a dish changes. MacroRecipe plans your week of menus around your macros and the goal you choose, with the grocery list. It works from the dishes you pick, with ingredient data from USDA and CIQUAL (ANSES), sizing portions so each day lands near your estimated calorie and protein targets. Swap a dish and the portions and the list follow, with quantities added up across recipes.

MacroRecipe runs on iPhone only. You can preview your first menu for free, after which it is a paid subscription.

Frequently asked questions