How to get great protein & feel full when your a vegetarian 🌱

jlboundy5635

Hello everyone,
I'm looking for idea's, facts and suggestions on how to get great protein and feel full when your a vegetarian..
Give me some wisdom Thanks 😁

lynn_glenmont

Do you eat dairy or eggs?

If so, eggs, yogurt, cottage cheese and milk are decent sources of protein.

Good plant sources include legumes (beans, lentils, peas) and certain grains (e.g., quinoa), but just about all plants, even fruits, have some protein.

Have you tried logging to see where you stand with your current diet?

AnnPT77

Of course you want to get one big protein per meal, like the omnivores do. The plant-based biggies are things like tofu, tempeh, soybeans in other forms, seitan. (Note that seitan isn't essential amino acid (EAA) complete, so you need to complement it, not necessarily at the same meal, in order to get complete protein.) If you eat dairy, there are some calorie-efficient cheeses, cottage cheese, Greek yogurt, skim milk. If you eat eggs . . . well, eggs, right?

On top of that, take a look at the other foods you eat over the course of a normal day or few. Which ones have relatively many calories, but not much protein? Consider whether you can reduce or eliminate some of those to free up calories, then replace those with other foods you enjoy that have a bit more protein. There are grains with more protein than others, veggies with more protein than others, even some fruits with protein. Those tend not to be EAA complete, but varying the sources will tend to compensate for that to some extent.

Then think about using flavoring add-ins that will increase protein: A few examples are nutritional yeast, miso, peanut butter powder or almond butter powder.

Other examples are using home-made salad dressing with a base like Greek yogurt or miso or tahini; eating snacks like string cheese or crispy chickpeas/lentils/broad beans or dry-roasted soybeans; adding seeds like sunflower or pumpkin to your salads or casseroles for crunch rather than bread crumbs or croutons. And so forth.

Those small sources really add up over the course of a day, if you include a number of them.

Your food log here is a great tool for noticing opportunities where you can increase protein. Keep chipping away, changing your routine eating patterns in happy ways to provide more protein without increased calories. You'll get there.

I've been vegetarian for almost 49 years. Now, in weight maintenance, I target 100g protein minimum daily, and usually average more like 120. (I'm 5'5", low 130s pounds, for reference.) I admit that it was less when I was losing weight so on fewer calories - and less practiced at getting more protein in. Then, it was usually in the 80s-90s grams daily. The above is pretty much what I did to get more protein on reduced calories when I first started calorie counting.

BTW, you may find this thread helpful (I did):

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10247171/carbs-and-fats-are-cheap-heres-a-guide-to-getting-your-proteins-worth-fiber-also

Since the spreadsheet it links to is in order by protein efficiency - most protein for fewest calories - a lot of things near the top are meaty/fishy. Keep scrolling down in the spreadsheet, and you'll find plant sources. It also has columns that give you some idea of protein completeness.

ccmcdan

I'm a lacto ovo vegetarian and I eat protein pudding to help with my protein intake but I use plant based protein for this to ensure I'm getting a good amount of protein in my diet. If your comfortable with dairy look into this or maybe find a vegan substitute for the dairy parts there's a million options for this and it's been a game changer for me

perryc05

Brown rice and cooked legumes in combination are pretty filling. You can make superb Indian style meals with lentils, beans, split peas or chickpeas. They're tasty, cheap, high in plant based protien and you can take the base recipes and load them up with extra veg too.

Look up recipes online for rajma, dal and chana dal and/or chana masala. I tend to pull right back on the oil as the traditional recipes tend to be heavy handed with this.

It's not uncommon for beans and rice combinations to appear in other cuisines though so if you go looking about you'll find plenty more ideas:
https://www.allrecipes.com/gallery/how-the-world-does-rice-and-beans-recipes/