How do you get enough protein?

[nathanpaul]

We all get asked it, and we all ask each other. So let’s start a big thread with our best advice!

I’m eating 1700-2200 calories a day with 150-200g of protein. I prefer to eat lower carb because it keeps my energy more consistent, but that’s just a preference. I’m female 5’3” and about 150lb. I train with a mix of conditioning and strength 4-5x a week. I’ve seen massive progress since I started eating this way.

Breakfast: tofu scramble made with extra firm tofu, bell peppers, beans, spices, and soy milk to melt in the spices. Eat with 1/2 avocado and 1 cup of fruit.
550cal/32g protein/42g carb/31g fat

Lunch: homemade seitan, broccoli, quinoa, sauce. I change up the sauce every week depending on my mood. Sometimes it’s store bought ranch, or something soy sauce based, or a blended tofu dressing. Depends on my mood. For seitan, I love Isa Chandra Moskawitz’s recipes. Isa Does It and Fake Meat both have great recipes.
555cal/57g protein/37g carbs/21g fat (on average)

Dinner: I like a light dinner. Sometimes I’ll just have yogurt or something, but a lot of times I batch make soups or curries for the week. The macros vary here depending on what I’ve made. I use tofu and beans/edamame to get my protein here.
This week was black bean soup and 1/2 block of tofu for 575cal/38g protein/68g carbs/18g fat. (In hindsight I should have added a green here too though)

Snacks: usually nuts (I love Whole Foods campfire trail mix) or yogurt. Kite Hill Greek-style yogurt with either powdered peanut butter or a 1/2 serving of protein powder, coconut sugar, fruit, and some “keto” granola is so good. Peanut butter protein and strawberries is delicious. (490/29/38/46)

Protein shakes: I work out first thing in the morning, so I start my day with a shake afterwards. I used Garden of Life Sport (35g protein and 2.5g leucine to stimulate muscle growth) in 8oz soy milk (+4oz water, 7g protein) with creatine powder mixed in. My second shake midafternoon varies by what’s on sale but usually has 20g protein. Yes, I think two shakes is fine. It’s 300 calories and isn’t crowding out any whole foods I would otherwise eat.

That all adds up to 190g of protein and about 2300 calories.

I’d love to see what everyone else does!

ETA: I came to this amount personally through trial and error, glucose tracking, and work with a nutritionist. I feel the best I’ve ever felt and I’m actually gaining strength for the first time in my life. I understand that this is a very high amount for my size, but I’m eating it because it works well for me. My intent isn’t to say that everyone should eat this much, just to give ideas to get this volume, and people can scale back as they prefer.

 

[wrangler]

@nathanpaul I get 120-140g of protein a day. And about 1600cal. I’m 5’2”, 115lbs, I lift 5 days a week and do hiit 2-3 days a week. Protein shake with pb2 and protein flax milk, protein bar, pastabilities pasta with Tvp, curried lentils or chickpeas with tofu or Tvp, seitan (homemade also), nuts, ramen with Tvp or tofu.

 

[jakob1997]

@wrangler Wow! Similar weight as me and also similar calories!

 

[orm97]

@wrangler What's tvp?

 

[wrangler]

@orm97 Textured vegetable protein, basically dehydrated soy. I actually prefer it over tofu because it’s less calories for the same amount of protein.

 

[harlowraina]

@wrangler I struggle to make it taste good though. Any recommendations?

 

[wrangler]

@harlowraina I season the hell out of it before I add the water. For the burrito “meat” I use packaged taco seasoning and nooch. When I make it for pasta I use a little marinara sauce, nooch, and Italian seasonings. Today I used vegetable broth instead of water because I need to use it before it goes bad but I honestly couldn’t tell a difference. I don’t mind the taste of Tvp plain though. Which brand do you use?

 

[harlowraina]

@wrangler I think it was bobs red mill, should be a good brand I think.

I have only rehydrated first, then use it like taco meat (sautee onion, add tvp and taco seasoning). Maybe because it has no fat in it I find it lacking? Seasoning before rehydrating is an interesting idea

 

[wrangler]

@harlowraina It could be the lack of fat, I guess. Are you new to veganism?

 

[harlowraina]

@wrangler Yeah I am, I’ve been vegetarian for 9 years tho

If I do a really intense recipe like https://www.seriouseats.com/vegan-chorizo-food-lab-recipe it’s great but looking for something quicker. Maybe some coconut oil would help

 

[wrangler]

@harlowraina You can try adding some fat via an oil but idk which one or how much. Or try a little liquid smoke?

 

[chauncywilltheologian]

@harlowraina You could try sauteeing it in a bit of oil/other fat first, dumping on the spices, and then adding water a little bit at a time. Don't just pour it all in, and be conservative with the water. If I'm making something like pasta sauce I don't do water at all, but pour the tomato sauce on top and let it rehydrate in that. Same with other saucy recipes, rehydrating in just the sauce has always been fine. It's also much faster and fewer dishes.

If you still can't get on board with tvp, I've seen a lot of alternatives pop up. Fava beans is one I've tried as it's a local product to me, but I've seen others as well. Worth looking around maybe.

 

[ctlguy]

@nathanpaul Two words: protein pasta. Thanks to keto and low carb and gluten free diets, there's tons of options. My favorite is lentil pasta, but edamame pasta has the highest amount of protein I've seen. I eat pasta several times a week, but if I was an athlete I'd probably eat it every day.

 

[lily42]

@ctlguy The spaghetti type edamame pasta is we like to make teriyaki noodle stirfry w them

 

[alicewonder]

@nathanpaul Damn! Im 5"10 185 and 200g was about what i was getting training for a powerlifting competition nice job!

I eat high carb but:
Breakfast: i make a flatbread i put a scoop of protein powder in slathered in hummus along with two field roast breakfast sausages (i keep telling myself im going to make my own seitan sausages but im too lazy) and a green smoothie

Lunch is a brick of extra firm tofu with rice and broccoli

A basic smoothie with milk of some kind (my secret weapon when i was training for my comp was homemade soymilk i didnt strain so all the soybean solids were still in it. The texture was horrendous but it was super high protein lmao) peanut butter, banana, and soy protein powder

Dinner is just pasta and a can o beans

It comes to a out 180g of protein and 3100 calories (a bit more im sure since there's cooking oil not included in there)

 

[nathanpaul]

@alicewonder Yeah, it’s a bit intense for a regular diet. But I’ve always struggled with muscle gain and recovery, so I figured maybe my body just needs more than the average. I feel great eating this way and my progress in the gym has been exponential.

 

[jakob1997]

@nathanpaul Ok ! Same here ! Thought I was going crazy as I made no progess at lower levels!

 

[tootsiepop52]

@nathanpaul After reading your post, my own eating habits seem so shit lmao. I'm male, 5'8, weigh about 155lb, I'm muscular (all upper body, climber) and lean. I'd estimate that my average daily protein intake is about 90g, caloric intake maybe 2400 avg. And yes, I have been able to build muscle with this. Maybe not as quickly as others would want, but at this point, if anything I want to lose muscle because it gets in the way of my climbing. More protein might still be worth the effort for potential recovery benefits, but I'm just lazy like that. I eat a fair amount of garbage, at least compared to many posts I see here (yours especially). Anyway, one meal I have been coming back to over the years is this:

Rice (or quinoa, I guess), bell pepper, broccoli, garlic, tomatoes, tofu, beans + either light vegan cream as a sauce or peanut butter (extra fat and protein). just cook the veggies for a bit, add tomatoes later, spices, beans n tofu (you can prepare the tofu seperately, but I don't find it necessary for this meal), then mix with your rice or other carb source. Change the proportion of rice to adjust for carb intake. I like to use the spice mix that commonly is sold under the "Vegeta" label for this, as well as chili.

 

[nathanpaul]

@tootsiepop52 I admit to being a bit overkill on diet quality. My body is pretty sensitive to my diet, so I do what I’ve gotta do. But of course I had beyond nuggets and vegan cheese for dinner last night so…

 

[tootsiepop52]

@nathanpaul atm, after picking up a side-gig at a bar, my fast-food and beer intake has gone up significantly. I'm still keeping up performance/shape-wise, so I think I may be lucky in terms of genetics/metabolism. I do want to make an effort and lose maybe 2kg for performance purposes. Is it just a matter of discipline for you?`Do you have a rigid structure to your eating? I have ADD, so maybe that's what I need (but it's also why I have a hard time adhering to any strict routine)