The nutrition plan says 3oz of lean red meat is equal to one portion of protein. Is it okay to use 97 or 98% lean ground beef as an option for protein?

I'm about 2 weeks into p90x using the portion approach and already getting really tired of chicken breast for dinner. Thanks for your help.

Throw in some fish and pork. And I don't see any wrong in lean beef, but a better substitue for that is ground turkey. It take very similar but of course it's turkey which is way better.

I use 97/3 ground beef in my diet. It inherently has more fat in it than chicken or turkey, but that's just the way beef is. It's allowed.

Ground turkey is good too (turkey meatballs anyone?), but sometimes you just want red meat.

As a matter of fact, I am eating beef for dinner tonight. I've been trying to think of a good meal to whip up. I may buy some whole wheat buns and eat my first burger in a month and a half. We'll see.

Short answer to your question is yes. Lean beef is acceptable in the P90X nutrition plan.

Awesome! That is great news.

A burger sounds really good right about now. And It's only been about two weeks for me.

I think I'll try the ground turkey first though. Thanks for the info guys.

Could also make a Salmon burger. I wash the Salmon off put in whole wheat dryed cracker and a Egg, Mix them all up pat it into a burger and put it on a bun or i just eat them as is.

I was actually planning on buying some canned salmon later this week or next week. Have you used canned salmon to make a burger before?

If you're going to use ground turkey make sure you get the ground turkey breast. Otherwise you're getting 7-12% fat in it instead of 1%.

Yeah I found 99/1 ground turkey at Walmart last week. I was excited. That's about as lean as you can get, I guess. I had never seen anything above 97/3.

By the way, I ended up making burritos last night. ground beef and diced onions on a whole wheat tortilla and a sprinkle of cheese (2% I think.) Oh my goodness it was delicious.

I also whipped up my regular veggies I make every day. It was a great dinner.

I wanted to grill burgers, but it was raining. Burgers this weekend!

Take a look at your daily nutritional intake. So if you are trying to consume X amount of calories and trying to follow a 40/40/20 (protein, carbs, fat) ratio or whatever ratio you have decided upon, then just make sure that you nutritional decisions will allow you to fall within your overall goal for the day. If 97/3 works into goal when looking at your daily nutritional requirements, then you are good to go.

Boomer - I'm trying to get to 2400 calories a day by following the p90x portion approach. So I never setup a pro/carb/fat ratio. I never saw it mentioned in the book. Were we supposed to?

Made some ground turkey breast burgers for dinner tonight. They weren't bad, but a little dry.

Following the guide is a good way to get started. However, I lost 50 lbs a year before I started my first round of P90X following a different plan. I basically followed a reduced calorie nutrition plan and I kept my ratios 40/40/20. When I started P90X I just dusted off my old nutrition plan and used it while doing P90X. I was able to go from 24% body fat to 11% body after my first round of P90X. I then went to 8.5% after my second round.

for those of you craving a burger...i tried this over the weekend. for any "Biggest Loser" watchers out there, they had a turkey burger made by Curtis Stone. its basically ground turkey (i added some garlic and black pepper into it, i think the actual calls for more spices and stuff, and also includes a condiment recipe for it). and instead of a bun, you use portobello mushrooms. grilled it up on the foreman, and WOW! i was surprised at how good it tasted. the full recipe is on NBC's website. i found just the turkey with the portobellos tasted good enough for me.