How important is hitting protein goals? Honestly.

saltedcaramel86

As the title says...

I'm 27 year old female, 5"5 and 123lbs. I do body weight training (You Are Your Own Gym) and am now looking at increasing my weight to about 127lbs as that's where I felt more comfortable.

Due to my lifestyle (I work full time with very unsociable, awkward and erratic hours; am in college; have a dog that needs walking 3 times a day; plus every thing in every day life such as attempting to have a social life sometimes!) I haven't got a lot of spare time. My only "down time" is reading before bed and occasionally baking every couple of weeks! It's now at a point where food is mostly for convenience as much as I love my food. I already have whole milk, full fat cheese/yoghurt, eggs, lentils, pulses, peanut butter, seeds, etc every single day, as well as a trying to ensure I eat enough fruit and veg (plus wholegrains and oils, etc). I eat as best as I can (although I love my chocolate!!) within the time contraints as well as packing foods that are easily transportable (thanks to leaving home at 11am one day to 5pm the next day!) and restrictions to cooking in work.

Anywoo! Lol. I KNOW I'm not getting enough protein as a vegetarian that strength trains. I try my hardest with the aforementioned restrictions but still not hitting my goals. And due to current financial situation, money is tight therefore can't afford protein powder right now (JUST run out )

How important are the protein macros for strength training? I have a fairly good balance of carbs/protein/good fats as well as my daily chocolate intake (my only vice in life haha) I'd say if I focus properly on protein intake, I can get about 80-90g a day with a protein shake. (I hate quinoa and cottage cheese and am going to force myself to like avocados!)

unesemainedecruaute

I'm/was in a quite similar situation you are: I had to cut my protein powder 'cause I had to prioritize the money into other things, and started to specialize in protein per food per cost. I even made an excel that you fill some data about the food and give you an insight about the protein/cost (lol, but true).

As far as this goes (month and a half) I haven't seen any particular change to my body response to muscle (compared to supplementing myself with whey protein), which is good. I did have sensitive changes to my diet/daily life, since I have to hit raw soy, lentils, eggs and some chicken (not partially vegetarian, just poor enough), as if the apocalypse were raising.

That's all I know

Forty6and2

I would suggest foods like Greek yogurt (you can add chocolate to it :flowerforyou: ) and soy nuts (I've found that soy nuts have more protein in them than any other nuts I've looked at), Kashi cereal has a surprisingly high protein content for cereal especially when coupled with whole milk. I know you said that you don't like cottage cheese, is it the flavor or the texture that you don't like? I have heard of people adding it to smoothies with fruit that can overpower the taste. I've never tried it before, but it's worth a go, right?

cadaver0usb0nes

Do you use tofu or tempeh to get extra protein? You could look for some recipes on making your own protein bars, better tasting and cheaper than buying the protein bars etc.

saltedcaramel86

Tom...it's good to hear that you've had a negative response from stopping the protein powder (hopefully in a few months I can afford a tub! Such is life!)

Forty6and2....Yeah I love Greek yoghurt but at this point in time, it's whatever is on offer right now (only buy organic dairy) Never heard of Kashi cereal but I'll have a look into any UK stockists. And can not stomach the texture of cottage cheese at ALL, would love to but its a definite no go! :sick: :noway:

Cadaver...not a fan of tofu (but do eat Quorn/meat substitutes) and never tried tempeh...can I even get it in the UK? And will definitely look into making protein bars!

mlyn0812

I think the general consensus is 0.8g to 1.0g of protein per pound of body weight for strength training and that anymore then 1.0g of protein per pound is really unnecessary. So for your stats that would be 98-123 g of protein a day. I'm not a vegetarian but greek yogurt and protein powders are probably the highest vegetarian protein bang for there buck choices. It truly is more difficult to get as much protein on a vegetarian diet without supplementation not gonna lie.