Cottage cheese for weight loss - calorie content, beneficial properties, how often and how much to eat to lose weight

Anyone who has ever been interested in weight loss issues and studied the works of leading nutritionists knows that cottage cheese for weight loss is considered perhaps the healthiest dish. A huge number of diets have been created on its basis, famous doctors include it in the diet of their nutritional systems, and the number of recipes where it is taken as a basis is truly enormous. What is the reason for the incredible popularity of cottage cheese, and is it possible to significantly reduce weight with its help?

What are the benefits of cottage cheese for weight loss?

From the point of view of nutritional value, cottage cheese is a real godsend for those losing weight.

The amount of protein per 100 g of product is on average 12-18 g, which is quite comparable to veal and pork. But the protein/fat ratio for low-fat (1.8%) cottage cheese is several times less.

This means that when you eat meat in addition to the healthy 15 grams of protein, you will get almost 30 g of fat, and for cottage cheese the amount of fat will be minimal.

Thus, cottage cheese is low in fat and high in protein, exactly what you need for your diet.

The glycemic index of cottage cheese is 45, which makes the product ideal for dinner after 18:00. Prepare yourself a light salad for dinner with cottage cheese and green lettuce leaves with tomatoes and cucumbers. Such a dinner will not harm your figure.

Which cottage cheese is better to eat when losing weight?

Completely low-fat cottage cheese (with 0% fat), like any low-fat fermented milk products, cannot be recommended not only for weight loss, but also for a healthy diet in general.

Our body needs fats for normal functioning. When they are completely deficient, numerous disorders are observed, including impotence in men and the inability to become pregnant in women.

Therefore, if you are going to eat cottage cheese for weight loss, it is better to stick to the golden mean in the range from 1.8% to 5% fat content.

Cottage cheese	Calorie content per 100 g	Used
101 kcal	protein – 16 g fat – 1.8 g carbohydrates – 3.3 g
121 kcal	protein – 16 g fat – 5 g carbohydrates – 3 g
157 kcal	protein – 16 g fat – 9 g carbohydrates – 3 g

Cottage cheese contains 165 mg of calcium. It seems quite a lot, but for comparison, sesame contains 780 mg of calcium. In addition, calcium is poorly absorbed if the cottage cheese is not fatty. Therefore, it is better to get calcium from other foods, such as greens and nuts.

Chemical composition of cottage cheese

Cottage cheese is rich in potassium, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium and other minerals.

Micronutrient	Amount, mg
Potassium	112
Calcium	164
Phosphorus	220
Magnesium	23 mg

Potassium affects the functioning of body cells: regulates intracellular pressure; participates in the contraction of muscle fibers, including cardiac ones; maintains fluid composition inside cells; catalyzes organic chemical reactions, including those that promote endurance and oxygenate the brain; supports kidney function - prevents swelling and slagging; participates in the propagation of nerve impulses in the body.

Calcium is involved in the formation of bone tissue; affects the growth and health of teeth, hair, nails; participates in the contraction of smooth and skeletal muscles, including the heart and vascular walls; lowers blood pressure and reduces vascular permeability; participates in the synthesis of complex proteins and neurotransmitters; normalizes sleep, increases the body's resistance in stressful situations.

Phosphorus is involved in the formation of bone tissue, cell membranes, and tooth enamel; helps redistribute molecules of complex proteins for the synthesis of other substances necessary for the body; participates in cell division, growth processes, gene transfer; participates in protein and carbohydrate metabolism, promotes glucose absorption and energy accumulation; participates in the growth of brain tissue, nerve cells, cellular respiration, muscle contraction; helps protect the body from stress; supports kidney function.

Magnesium, along with phosphorus and calcium, is involved in the formation of bone tissue; improves the condition of teeth, nails, hair; promotes the synthesis of more than 300 enzymes; participates in the synthesis of ATP, which contributes to the release of energy and its supply to the cells of the body; participates in protein metabolism and nucleic acid synthesis; normalizes heart rate, reduces blood pressure, dilates blood vessels; has a calming effect on the central nervous system, protects against stress, improves sleep; relaxes smooth muscles; participates in the synthesis of serotonin and melatonin.

Serotonin is a substance that acts as a conductor of nerve impulses, and melatonin regulates the frequency of the sleep-wake cycle.

Is it possible to eat cottage cheese every day?

Naturally, I cannot forbid you to enjoy cottage cheese every day. Since your soul asks for it and your body tolerates it well, eat for your health. However, I must still voice some arguments against it.

It should be remembered that cottage cheese is a protein concentrate. Albeit of natural origin and with minimal processing, but a concentrate. This means that if we want to protect our body, then all concentrated protein products - cottage cheese, cheese, nuts, seeds - should be consumed occasionally and/or in limited quantities. Therefore, to the question “how often can you eat cottage cheese?” I will answer that I recommend eating cottage cheese no more than once a day.

What to remember

Cottage cheese is a natural protein concentrate
300 g of “low-fat” cottage cheese is approximately 48 g of protein per serving
Cottage cheese promotes active production of growth hormone
Main microelements in cottage cheese: potassium, calcium, phosphorus and magnesium
You can eat cottage cheese of any fat content, the main thing is to count calories and dietary fat
Cottage cheese can be mixed with low-calorie syrups, fruits and nuts
Cottage cheese can be eaten morning and evening, before and after training
If you don’t like cottage cheese, don’t force yourself.

When is the best time to eat cottage cheese?

It is better to eat cottage cheese in the first half of the day, as it takes much longer to digest fermented milk products - 2-3 hours. For comparison, fermented baked milk, kefir, and natural yogurt take about an hour to digest.

If you add a spoonful of sour cream and a spoonful of sweet jam to cottage cheese for dinner, then consider that your stomach will be empty in at least 3-4 hours. This is fraught with long periods of falling asleep and unpleasant sensations.

Therefore, for dinner, we can recommend eating cottage cheese in small quantities, for example, adding 2-3 tablespoons to a light vegetable salad.

In addition, homemade cottage cheese often contains incompletely fermented milk sugar (lactose), and many people experience heartburn due to it, which is bad in itself, and even more so at night, since gastritis or peptic ulcers may worsen. Store-bought cottage cheese does not have this drawback - it does not contain lactose.

And finally, any food that is consumed frequently becomes boring purely psychologically. If you eat cottage cheese every day for several weeks, you will most likely get extremely tired of it. It would be a pity to give up an excellent dietary product because of banal satiety.

How to choose cottage cheese

The basic rule when choosing cottage cheese is to look at the production date and expiration date

Bottom right: production date and expiration date. It can be seen that the shelf life of cottage cheese is 10 days

If everything is ok with this, in principle, you can take it. Although you can still evaluate the packaging to ensure it is not damaged. When you open the package at home, check that the cottage cheese has a white or slightly yellowish color, uniform throughout the mass. The consistency should be soft, homogeneous, crumbly. Although sometimes there are highly compressed briquettes, so friability is not such an important indicator. The taste of the cottage cheese should be clean, without any foreign flavors. The smell is of a fresh fermented milk product - milk or yeast, without unpleasant aromas.

How much cottage cheese to eat when losing weight?

You need to focus on a general figure of 25-50 g of fat per day, which is best not to exceed. Let's calculate how much you can afford with such restrictions.

For cottage cheese with 5% fat content, you need to eat 500 g to get 25 g of fat in the load (5% of 100 g = 5 g). 2% cottage cheese has even less fat. It is unlikely that you will manage half a kilo of cottage cheese in a day. I think that 200 grams per day, no more, is just right.

The calorie content of 5% fat cottage cheese as an independent dish (200 g) will be approximately 230 kcal, which is quite acceptable, even with the addition of vegetables, herbs and berries.

Cottage cheese diet

There are several options for cottage cheese diets for those who want to lose weight smoothly and satisfyingly. Choose the most delicious one for yourself and lose weight for your health.

Seven-day diet

During such a meal, the main dish will be cottage cheese. And you can add some dietary products to it. Meals during the seven-day cottage cheese diet look like this:

Breakfast - always 100 g of cottage cheese, 1 grapefruit or apple, 1 grain bread.
Snack - always 100 g of cottage cheese.
Lunch - 100 g of cottage cheese plus a chicken egg, boiled chicken breast, fresh vegetables, lean fish or shrimp/squid. Choose one additional product and eat it after cottage cheese.
Dinner - fresh or stewed vegetables with steamed fish or meat.

Between meals you are allowed to drink pure water or herbal teas.

Kefir-curd diet

This is a mono diet that not everyone can handle. But the result is very good. You can lose up to 6 kg in a week. You can eat the following foods on a kefir-curd diet:

Kefir - 1 l;
Cottage cheese - 0.4 kg;
Fruits - grapefruit, orange or apple (2 pieces to choose from).

You need to eat this way for a week. It is useful to combine diet with physical activity. Yoga, walking, running, Pilates, etc. are well suited. A full drinking regimen (water and herbal / green tea) is required.

Interesting: What kind of cheese can you use when losing weight?

Kefir-fruit nutrition

It also helps you quickly and easily say goodbye to extra pounds. At the same time, you will not experience hunger. On such a diet, you are allowed to eat up to 500 g of cottage cheese per day in small portions and up to 1 kg of berries or fruits. All of them must be fresh and in season. The exceptions are grapes and bananas. They are high in carbohydrates and sugars.

You can eat cottage cheese and fruits/berries alternately, or you can combine them into one small dish for one meal. Always leave a large portion of fruit and a smaller portion of cottage cheese for the evening.

What to use cottage cheese with for weight loss?

For weight loss, it is better to eat cottage cheese with non-starchy vegetables (tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, young carrots and beets, etc.), herbs and berries.

You can eat it for breakfast as a separate dish, or you can take it to work if you need low-calorie snacks. If you get tired of the taste of cottage cheese, beat it in a blender with fresh or frozen berries to create a low-calorie protein smoothie.

It is good to prepare sandwiches with cottage cheese and herbs on whole grain bread and crispbread. Cottage cheese baked goods, all kinds of dietary cheesecakes, casseroles, muffins and cottage cheese cakes with the addition of zucchini, pumpkin and oatmeal are very tasty.

The main thing is to remember that on a hypocaloric (low-calorie) diet, cottage cheese should be eaten without sugar, otherwise the whole point of using this product as a dietary product will be lost.

Curd and carrot casserole

This is another not only tasty, but also life-giving recipe from cottage cheese for weight loss. To prepare it, you need to grate one carrot and mix it with an egg, 2 tbsp. spoons of sugar, salt and any spices of your choice. Add 200 grams of cottage cheese to the resulting mixture; you can also add nuts, raisins, fruits or berries. Bake the delicacy for half an hour in the oven, set the temperature to 180 degrees.