My dear buff vegans, do you consume protein products?

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eclatunlimited

New member
So I need a little help here. I’m a new vegan, since 2 months ago.

I’ve been inhaling a lot of information on vegan nutrition, cuz I wanna make sure I’m putting my best foot forward and never going back to hurting animals again.

On the topic of protein, I’ve been getting many contradictory messages. Protein products (powders, bars, even tempeh and tofu) are generally stigmatized amongst those “science-y” gurus (like gojiman and mic the vegan). While the more fitness-y ones are into it. I do realize that some of them are sponsored.

If I were to do WFPB, I would get maybe 20g a day, or fucking hate my diet (I don’t like eating legumes very much). I would rather get my RDA from a blend of powders, bars, nuts, soy products, and around 10-15g from legumes. Basically, I’m confused both about the amount that I need, and the sources that are “best” for getting it.

What was your experience with this, and where on this spectrum did you end up at last?

For context, I’m 23F, 5’9, 138lbs. I do a lot of cardio (running, cycling, skipping, that kinda jazz), yoga, and recently some lifting. My goal is to lose a little weight, recompose and get to about 20% body fat.
 
@eclatunlimited 20g seems unlikely.

Maybe you should track your macros for a few days to get a better understanding of protein content If food and how much you actually consume.

Legumes are very healthy and versatile. Have you tried cooking or baking with chickpeaflour?
 
@atlas2023 I mean, 20g is an understatement because I do eat a lot of oats, chia, hemp hearts, pepitas, etc. But to get to about 70g daily eating these and one serving of legumes, my calorie intake would go through the roof.

I might have been doing something wrong on MyFitnessPal, I’ve mostly scanned barcodes and relied on the result. So far it seems like I can’t maintain a deficit and hit my protein goal without protein smoothies and bars.
 
@eclatunlimited Can of beans, half a brick of tempeh, half a bag of Right Rice. You've got 64 grams of protein on 945 calories, leaving you roughly half your calorie limit to hit all your other macros and only need to get 6 more grams out of that half.
 
@fiddlegal I’d never heard of Rice Rice before, sadly it’s not available widely in Canada (only online). And to be honest, I don’t really enjoy eating all three in one day, let alone fill up half of my calories that way. I have a huge sweet tooth and I’d rather have only one savory meal per day. Usually I’ll have a smoothie bowl with protein and chia for breakfast (37-40g), a salad with some sort of legume or tofu for lunch, protein bar as a snack, and bowl of oatmeal for dinner (weird I know). I don’t know if I’ll still be able to enjoy the food I eat if I go for savory protein sources all of a sudden.

Edit: I forgot that you said you don’t find anything wrong with protein powder, so I guess I gave too much unnecessary detail here lol. Thanks for responding!
 
@eclatunlimited I make my own seitan and eat a lot of that (it's pretty easy, I steam it rather than boil). Also lots of TVP and plenty of lentils and chickpeas. No protein powders because they are expensive
 
@eclatunlimited I only eat whole foods and have no problem gaining muscle mass

most of my calories come from lentils, oats, bananas, apples, cashews, peanut butter and a variety of other fruits and vegetables

It's pretty easy, eat enough to fuel your body
 
@eclatunlimited I for one don’t know what I would do without tofu, TVP, and VWG. For me I feel like eating even 1 fruit would throw me off from hitting my macros if I couldn’t get protein from those sources. I do have a protein shake daily but I try to limit my intake of premade seitans/tofurkey/fake meats. I love legumes and quinoa but I just cant see myself eating em in that volume.

I used to doubt how much protein you actually needed but since I’ve started counting and eating a lot more protein my numbers have gone up substantially faster.
 
@godislove99 Okay I’m getting a vast range of responses here, which makes sense now that I think about it. Don’t know why I was expecting a straightforward consensus lol

Alright, looks like I’ll have to experiment for a little bit and figure it out!
 
@eclatunlimited From my point of view there is no problem with eating tofu or tempeh. I eat a lot of tofu, I like the the taste, it has lots of protein. I eat tvp and homemade seitan too, and a lot of lentils. I like to vary my protein sources, I don’t want to eat tofu, brokkoli and brown rice everyday.
I avoid these fake meat products like nuggets or whatever because they mostly contain additives, sugar or whatever, but tbh I eat them from time to time because it’s easy and for the taste.

To build muscle is also important that get all the essential aminos (soy is very good in this point, seitan e.g. lacks lysine, you have to combine it with soy, peanuts, peas, pumpkinseeds or whatever contains lysine).

I don’t eat protein bars, because they contain a lot of sugar but I use protein powders to make shakes. It’s easier while you’re cutting to get enough protein. I prefer raw protein powders (I use hemp or pumpkin seed) without any additives or added sugar.

Don’t just focus on protein, the other macros and micros are important too. But as you said you‘re informing yourself a lot I guess you got that point already.
 
@eclatunlimited I agreed with the conflicting advice you have so many sides. It’s a literally shit fest of he said she said they said. You have buff people say this then you have the smarty people say that but they don’t even lift but then you have people in great shape that don’t know what there talking about it really is a smorgasbord of conflicting information.

At the end of the day you live in your body you have to deal with it everyday the aches the pain, the muscles, the mental and physical fatigue. That being said take what everyone says with a grain of salt. Do your research don’t be afraid to make mistakes and learn.

Eat for your lifestyle and goals. I personally do 3 scoops of Protien powder a day split through the day ahhh maybe a scoop and a half. Minimum 30g of protein per serving and I get the rest from every little nook and cranny of foods i eat. Lentils, beans, peanut butter, soy milk. Fruits veggies, mock meats, rice, trail mix, tofu etc

That’s 90g of protein a day from Protien powder. Filling in the rest is easy I get about 120g - 150g a day. With 80g - 90g on the low end. I stick with 0.8g of protien per “lean” body weight. And titrate that up depending on my goals and lifestyle.

I lift everyday. Goal is to build muscle and recover. Where as someone on a different spectrum wouldn’t take protein powder due to health concerns but doesn’t actively go to the gym just walks and what not.
 
@eclatunlimited I tried not to be biased and look at the perspective from both sides. But there is a lot of anti-protein powder people. A lot of people only support once side or the other unfortantely 🤷‍♂️

I think a lot of people expect you to workout 5-6 days a week eating all whole foods plant based. No powders or processed food.
 
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