How Much Protein is in an 8 oz Chicken Breast?

🔊 Listen to this

Chicken breasts are included in many popular eating plans, especially when they’re designed for weight loss and muscle building. Its high-protein, low-carbohydrate combo works well in diets and it’s often more appealing than just eating vegetables alone. Chicken breasts are easy to prepare and eat. They are often the most tender meat of a chicken.

Many customers prefer to buy an 8-ounce chicken breast. For some of them, it is enough for a week, while serious athletes could consume it in a single day.

Protein in an 8 Oz chicken breast

According to different sources, an 8 oz raw chicken breast contains around 50 grams protein.

After cooking, however, 8 ounces of fried or baked chicken breast contains about 70 grams of protein.

If you need very accurate data, carefully check product labels before buying any product. I should admit that nutritional facts about the same product differ in available databases and on supermarket shelves.

Almost 80% of the calories you can get from 8 ounces of chicken breast come from protein. The remaining 20% of the calories are fat (more if the chicken breast has skin). When it comes to carbohydrates, chicken breasts have little to offer.

If you are not a fan of chicken breasts but still want to take advantage of their beneficial protein, you can replace them with chicken thighs. The thigh offers enough protein with the additional benefit of providing more nutrients. It is also cheaper—you just need to deal with a bone when preparing or eating.

Another alternative is shrimp. You will get around 50 grams of protein and only 4 grams of fat eating 8oz of shrimp.

Salmon is also a good replacement for chicken breast. A serving of 8 ounces of salmon provides 46 grams of protein. It does contain a bit more fat than chicken breasts. Salmon also lacks carbohydrates (46% fats, 54% protein, and 0% carbohydrates).

Does it provide enough protein?

On average, 70 grams are enough to provide your body the amount of protein it needs per day if you lead a sedentary lifestyle. According to the Dietary Reference Intake, people need 0.36 grams of protein per pound of body weight (0.8 grams of protein per kilogram) every day. This number is the recommended requirement of the human body to operate and prevent protein deficiency.

However, your body requires more to exercise intensely and also during low carb diets. In these cases, you even need to double your protein intake.

Reference

1. Chiken nutrition retrieved from: https://www.nutritionix.com