Any vegetarians? How do you get enough protein?

Cryptonomnomicon

Here is what PETA has to say about the topic. I am not a PETA member or a strict vegan. I am on a plant based diet. But this article is going along the lines of what i had read.

Nutrition experts estimate that most of us need between 0.8 and 1 gram of protein per day for every kilogram of body weight. That works out to 55 grams of protein per day for someone who weighs 150 pounds or approximately 10 percent of normal caloric intake (people in endurance training and pregnant women might require a bit more, of course). If a vegan eats a reasonably varied diet and consumes a sufficient amount of calories, he or she will undoubtedly get enough protein. And, unlike animal protein, plant-based protein sources contain healthy fiber and complex carbohydrates.

Read more: http://www.peta.org/living/food/much-protein-need/#ixzz34yaQZP6s

I guess that 45 number is on something else and discount that message. I'll be more careful on what i post in the future. The main point is you should be eating a balanced diet and shouldn't rely so much on processed foods.

Sorry if I annoyed anyone

Not annoyed, learning is fun, it is why we use the forums.

Some interesting links for you...

Research on Protein Intake

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/823505-research-on-protien-intake

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/869015-fundamental-flaws-with-rda-recommendations-for-protein

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1158604-eric-helms-protein-research

Also...

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/819055-setting-your-calorie-and-macro-targets

KinoM

That is fascinating!! Quinoa has 26. and pork chop only 5. ---- I never would have guessed that in a million years. I always think of protein as a meat based thing (or rather have always thought of - now I know better). Even Kale is up in the 15.s or so.

Wow. Who woulda thunk it!?!

thanks Deliverat. Very informative.

Those are the calories per gram of protein. The *lower* the figure, the higher the concentration of protein.

chjones21

Hi Eastern Echo thanks for your post and those between you and the_deliverat all v useful input to balance out - I find I am quite often under the 1200 calorie amount (not because I am trying to lose weight - I just don't eat all that much as a general rule) and get that warning from MFP that I am going into starvation mode or whatever ..... so probably ought to consider concentrating on getting some high protein sources into my diet!

Will check out your youtube link now..... :-)

Having always been slim, I have previously never really bothered with food and calories and nutrition knowledge before and was pretty much pig ignorant about the whole lot ---- and there is a whole world of it out there to discover it seems!!!!! I am being filled-in with new and interesting information every day.

chjones21

Oh!

Well there you go --- maybe I should try reading it properly next time. Oh dear. Thanks for heads-up.

chjones21

Thank you KinoM --- will check it out. And glad you pointed me in the right direction re. the protein too ..... well, I guess at least it makes more sense now.

TashTag

Im not vegetarian but MFB is and gets his protein from things like eggs, nuts, peanut butter, and most definitely Quorn Products. Very high in protein. AND really tasty!

lisa8x9

I'm a vegan and it's pretty easy to get protein from lots of leafy green vegetables, tofu, seitan, nuts, meat substitutes (if you're into it), beans, lentils... The list could be endless.

chjones21

thanks Deliverat - you have some great links (if only I can learn to read 'em right!) there.

chjones21

I'm a vegetarian, please feel free to look at my diary for protein ideas.

Thanks HeavenlyB Your food diary seems similar (although better) to the style I eat too. So that's really handy. You are better with the supplements I think.

One thing I want to ask (a technical question) how on earth did you do this:
Aubergine, courgette, tomato, green bean, celery, onion, mushroom, carrot, swede, spinach and quorn, 1 serving

I seem to have to put all mine in separately - guesstimating grams/lbs and things! The way you do it above seems much more sensible.

RodaRose

I eat legumes most days, two eggs once a week, and yogurt once or twice a week. On a rare occasion I buy tofu. Mostly I cook beans or lentils.

This web site (possible the same one sourced earlier in the thread explains that we are getting enough protein:

+++++++++
http://www.vrg.org/nutrition/protein.php
When we make a few adjustments to account for some plant proteins being digested somewhat differently from animal proteins and for the amino acid mix in some plant proteins, we arrive at a level of 0.9 gram of protein per kilogram body weight (0.41 grams per pound). If we do a few calculations we see that the protein recommendation for vegans amounts to close to 10% of calories coming from protein.
++++++++++

Eleonora91

I'm a vegetarian, I eat dairy but no fish or meat at all.
I recently tried to increase my protein intake from 20% to 25% but I've not been very successful - I'll need to be careful about it!
Anyway, I recently managed to reach my protein intake for several days in a row; I'm eating 1500 net kcals so 20% basically means I had to eat 75 gr of protein, which is not easy at all, especially if you're exercising (hence increasing your total recommended intake), and if you're trying to keep your other macros in control.

That's what I've been eating and how much protein I got each day:

Day 1) 250 ml skimmed milk (8 gr protein)+ 20 gr peanut butter (4 gr protein)+ fresh peas (4 gr protein)+ seitan (15 gr protein)+ greek yogurt (15 gr protein) = 75 gr of protein (considering other foods too, such as pasta and bread; notice I severaly exceeded my carb intake that day)

Day 2) 20 gr peanut butter + 250 ml skimmed milk + greek yogurt + 100 gr light feta cheese (20 gr of protein) + other legumes = I got 79 gr of protein overall, I didn't exceed my fat intake

Day 3) Soy burger (17 gr protein) + milk + greek yogurt + seitan = I got 82 gr of protein this day overall, did not exceed my fat intake

Day 4) Peanut butter + mozzarella cheese (20 gr of protein) + protein shake (12 gr of protein) + milk + greek yogurt + veg burger (19 gr of protein) = I got 94 gr of protein this day, which wasn't my goal since I had exercised and neede 102 gr

So you basically see that's not a LOT, but I struggle to get to 70 gr of protein a day and it's not easy. Greek yogurt only has so much protein when I buy it plain, flavoured ones have 11 gr of protein here. Burger and other vegetarian products are very expensive and usually also high in carbs or fats, which makes me exceed with my other macros if I want to get enough protein. I haven't managed to increase my intake from 20 to 25% yet, I really hope I don't need it.

Creiddylad

I'm a lifelong vegetarian - couldn't stomach 'f'lesh' as a kid and have eaten neither meat or fish all my life, but I love dairy and couldn't imagine a world without cheese. The official term for us I think is 'lacto-vegetarians'.

When I was growing up, being a vegetarian was akin to being a martian and I was looked upon as something of a freak. At home my mother would just dish me up vegetables basically - the dinner without the meat/fish part and that was it!

At school - my 'vegetarian option' for lunch was wait for it .... a baked egg. Every single day - they would put a little mashed potato into a gratin dish and break an egg on top of it and put it in the oven. Nine times out of ten the egg wouldn't be cooked properly and would be all snotty and runny - so I ended up hating eggs as well and now can't eat those either.

To be honest, I've never really thought about protein. I have milk, cheese, yoghurt, quorn, beans, nuts etc and seem reasonably healthy, albeit overweight!

I've only filled in one day's food diary and see I was slightly under on the protein count but not by much. Maybe it's something I should pay more attention to?

elliej

'm a vegetarian, I eat dairy but no fish or meat at all.
I recently tried to increase my protein intake from 20% to 25% but I've not been very successful - I'll need to be careful about it!
Anyway, I recently managed to reach my protein intake for several days in a row; I'm eating 1500 net kcals so 20% basically means I had to eat 75 gr of protein, which is not easy at all, especially if you're exercising (hence increasing your total recommended intake), and if you're trying to keep your other macros in control.

I'd tend to disagree.

I'm veggie too, I eggs and dairy. I'm on 1600cals a day and get 85-100g of protein most days.

I have greek yogurt for breakfast or a snack most days (150g pot = 90 cals, 15g) really like (full fat) cottage cheese (half a 300g pot = 160cals, 18g). I make a Quorn mince, kidney and black bean chilli which has 25g per serving at about 250 cals (no oil) - so over 55g protein for around 500 cals.

pandabear_

So I am a semi-vegetarian. I will eat fish and dairy but no meat. Having done my calorie diary for a week, I am good with the carbs at 49% but my protein is low at 14% and my fat too high at 37%. What do other vegetarians and/or vegans do to up their protein intake?

Thanks

You're not a vegetarian or a 'semi-vegetarian', you're a pescetarian.

If you eat fish, maybe eat some more fish and that will up your protein.

You could also try quorn, eggs, cheese, tofu, spirulina, beans, nuts.

shapefitter

Lonsdale chocolate flavoured protein shake, for lunch gives me 24g of protein. I consume 70-100g of protein a day. Every meal, is at least 10g of protein. Nuts, coconut, avocado etc etc

blastbeat78

I'm vegan and my protein intake accounts for 30% of my daily calories. I aim for 125g a day but often exceed this.

My main sources of protein are home made Seitan, Mock Duck, Tempeh and Sun Warrior protein powder.

rebalee8

So I am a semi-vegetarian. I will eat fish and dairy but no meat. Having done my calorie diary for a week, I am good with the carbs at 49% but my protein is low at 14% and my fat too high at 37%. What do other vegetarians and/or vegans do to up their protein intake?

Thanks

If you want to up your protein, that's clearly up to you, but there's no rule that says you have to. You're not really "too low". Nor is your fat "too high" (unless you've been told to lower it for medical reasons). I've been losing steadily for months (just hit another 20lbs/15 weeks today) on pretty much those percentages, and according to my scale*, my increasing lifting ability and the way I feel... I'm not losing lean mass.

So, like others have said, if you want to increase, the easiest is to add more fish (since you eat it), but also tofu, eggs, cottage cheese, legumes, yogurt and milk. At the same time, you probably don't need to worry that much about it if you're not getting those 20-plus percent numbers.


*I know scales aren't the most accurate measure of body fat percentage, but they're okay for relative - and what's happening is my weight and bf% are going down leaving my lean mass staying about the same.

Eleonora91

I'd tend to disagree.

I'm veggie too, I eggs and dairy. I'm on 1600cals a day and get 85-100g of protein most days.

I have greek yogurt for breakfast or a snack most days (150g pot = 90 cals, 15g) really like (full fat) cottage cheese (half a 300g pot = 160cals, 18g). I make a Quorn mince, kidney and black bean chilli which has 25g per serving at about 250 cals (no oil) - so over 55g protein for around 500 cals.

I'm not saying it's impossible, because I manage to reach my protein intake sometimes, but it's not easy. It needs a lot of planning.
I have greek yogurt as a snack on most days too, and yep, that's 15 gr of protein.
I don't like cottage cheese, but I used to eat it every now and then; I'd rather eat mozzarella cheese anyway, or any other cheese, the point is that light cheeses always have a good amount of fat that adds up quickly.
We don't have Quorn here in Italy, I usually buy seitan, soy burgers, or tofu, so that I can get 15-30 gr of protein per serving, and I can have a serving twice a day (lunch and dinner), but they're expensive. I can buy 2 servings of seitan for 3-4 euros, which means I'd have to spend a lot of money to get them everyday.
Also, not all vegetarian substitutes have the same amount of protein. I recently bought vegetarian wurstels and vegetarian mortadella - and I found out it's mostly fat instead of protein.
So I'd basically have to eat the same combinations of food everyday: greek yogurt, seitan/soy/tofu products, milk, eggs, and so on. There's not much choice and sometimes I feel like changing, but I always end up not getting enough protein.
Protein shakes are also expensive - 15 euros for a pot, and it's around 10 servings. If I had to drink it everyday, I'd only last 10 days.
I've never reached 100 gr of protein before and even when I get around 80 or more, I always go over my fat intake (which is 50 gr).
So, if you're finding it so easy, you're probably eating different things than I am. But I can tell you I've been trying different combos and it's both expensive and needs a lot of planning personally.

edit: you can look at my diary if you want to, or I could try to give a look to your diary so that I get a few ideas since we're eating a similar amount of calories

rebalee8

I'm vegan and my protein intake accounts for 30% of my daily calories. I aim for 125g a day but often exceed this.

My main sources of protein are home made Seitan, Mock Duck, Tempeh and Sun Warrior protein powder.

This is a good point.

I always forget to mention protein powders and bars since I don't use them.

There are a host of them available. And for a non-vegan, whey powder is even on the table.

Eastern_Echo23

http://www.vegetarian.org.uk/factsheets/Protein-vegetarian-vegan.pdf

Came across this article. Might be worth looking into:

Although protein is vital for our survival, we don’t need as much
as is commonly believed. Recommended amounts have more than
halved in the past 20 or so years as several chronic diseases have
been linked to eating too much animal (not plant) protein. The
average adult needs to consume between 45 and 55.5 grams of
protein per day (COMA, 1991).