Picking The Best Meat For Weight Loss

Have you ever been to the meat section of your local supermarket and felt completely overwhelmed by the options on the offer? 

Don’t worry, it can often to be hard to pick the best meat to eat, particularly when you’re on a weight loss journey.

To help you make the best decision, we’ve put together this handy guide that breaks down the amount of protein, fat and iron within beef steaks, chicken breast, pork tenderloin and kangaroo steak — as well as giving you a cost comparison. 

Let’s get into it.

When it comes to protein, your best bet is the chicken breast, which contains 29.55g of protein per 100g piece. That said, the humble beef steak isn’t that far behind with almost 28g of protein per 100g. 

•    A 100g piece of chicken breast contains 29.55g of protein.
•    A 100g piece of beef steak contains 27.29g of protein.
•    A 100g piece of kangaroo steak contains 21.5g of protein.
•    A 100g piece of lean pork tenderloin contains 20.99g of protein. 

When it comes to fat, kangaroo is the leanest meat with less than 2% of fat. This is because kangaroos are active animals that dine mainly on natural foliage. Pork is also surprisingly lean, but only if you opt to eat a trim tenderloin. 

•    A 100g kangaroo steak contains 1.4g of fat. 
•    A 100g piece of lean pork tenderloin contains 3.41g of fat.
•    A 100g piece of chicken breast contains 7.72g of fat.
•    A 100g beef steak contains 15g of fat.

When it comes to iron, your best bet appears to be a piece of kangaroo steak which manages to pack in 3.4mg into a 100g serving. 

•    A 100g piece of kangaroo contains 3.4mg of iron.
•    A 100g piece of beef contains 2.4mg of iron.
•    A 100g piece of pork tenderloin contains 1.2mg of iron.
•    A 100g piece of chicken breast contains 0.73mg of iron.

Of course, cost is always a big concern for blokes when they head down to the supermarket. We’ve crunched the numbers, and it turns out that chicken breast is the cheapest option out of our four chosen meats, costing $11.00 per kilo from your local Woolies and Coles. There’s then a pretty sizable jump if you fancy pork or kangaroo – and then there’s steak, which appears to be quite costly right now.

•    Chicken breast costs around $11 per kilo.
•    Pork lion costs around $20 per kilo.
•    Kangaroo steak costs around $22 per kilo.
•    Beef rump medallion costs around $40 per kilo. 

Now that you've selected your meat, check out our guide on how to cook it properly!