Vegan and Macros

bellebell22

Hey all,

I'm having a little trouble working out my foods.
Vegan, macro friendly, eating enough of everything.
My Macro is
CARB: 132g
PROT: 122g
FAT: 72g

Does anybody have any good tips?

TIA

strongwouldbenice

As a vegan it'll be really hard to meet that kind of protein with such little carbs. Do you struggle to meet your macros? Tofu and other meat replacements will probably be your friends, plus beans and lentils. What tips are you looking for in particular?

kimny72

I have a hard time getting 100g protein and 50g fat eating meat and dairy! Is there a reason you chose that macro split? Macros are pretty much personal preference, you might be better off tweaking them a little to get closer to your natural eating tendencies, rather than struggle to eat the right foods.

janejellyroll

I'll second the questions about how you chose those particular macro goals.

What high protein foods are you eating now? If you share what typical days look like for you, we may be able to offer suggestions of foods you haven't tried yet.

nickssweetheart

As a vegan, hitting 100 g of protein requires a certain amount of commitment and planning for me, and I almost certainly have more calories to work with than you do. And some days I still don't make it, depending upon what I choose to have for breakfast.

Tofu can help a lot for very minimal calories and is cheap. I like to buy it, drain it, slice it in half inch pieces and bake it. Then I can stick it in a freezer bag and just pull it out whenever I want to have tofu and toss it with a sauce. It's good with teriyaki or peanut sauce or even tomato sauce. There's always tofu scramble, too.

Some meat substitutes are pretty high protein too, but that can be an expensive way to get your protein, compared to most vegan sources (beans, lentils, broccoli) which are pretty low cost, all in all.

saragd012

That is a very ambitious protein goal for a vegan, I eat a mostly plant based diet and I really have to plan well every day to get over 100. Without snacks it would be almost impossible, I cannot imagine trying to get there with so few carbs. I tend to double up my portions when it comes to things like tofu, tempeh, beans, lentils, and quinoa while cutting back on other starches for balance, and even then I almost always need at least one supplemental shake/bar to reach my goal.

AmandaDanceMore

I spent some time working with a trainer who also had some macros requirements for me. Mine were a bit different than yours, but still high protein (around 100) and low carbs. It was impossible to hit the protein goal without going over in carbs, and I had to rely heavily on tofu, tempeh, protein powder, and protein bars to do it. And I basically lived off of veggie filled tofu scrambles (but not my favorite veggies, like peas, because they were too carby. And beans ruined everything). It was a sad way of eating for me, especially since eating a freaking banana or an orange would trash my macros for the day. And it did require a lot of planning. I ended up failing out on the diet portion, just because it was mentally too boring and sad for me to eat like that. My body also has never been a big fan of high protein, even, apparently, plant based protein. I had to take a digestive enzyme to help with stomach issues. And missed eating fruit! I’m back on calories in/calories out, and while my cal goal is lower than I’ve ever had it, I find it much easier to stay within it because I can eat more of a variety of things I like.

So, it IS possible to have high protein in a vegan diet. It’s not hard, actually, but staying low carb is impractical, I think. Everything we eat is carbs, but, like I told the trainer one time, it’s not like I’m sitting around eating a loaf of bread. All I was doing was eating plants!

fuzzylop72

It's probably going to be challenging to meet those macros without protein powder. Maybe you can make it with a lot of lower carb protein (tofu, seitan), though.