The Protein struggle is real

Maybe reconsider your protein goal.

I set my protein goal to 60 grams about 4 years ago based on the my results from the USDA Dietary Reference Intake Calculator. https://www.nal.usda.gov/human-nutrition-and-food-safety/dri-calculator

I've had bloodwork drawn at least twice a year since then and have never shown a protein deficiency.

topaztopaz17 wrote: »

Annpt77 Can you please name foods that are getting you that much protein as a vegetarian Id love examples even black beans are only like 13 grams a serving I'm just curious because that is fantastic and I do actually love having some vegetarian meals too

Let me be clear: Even as a non-big li'l ol' lady (5'5", 130 pounds this morning, age 67), I have a higher calorie allowance. 1850 plus exercise calories is my target, and that's a little bit below true maintenance calories. That for sure makes it easier to get relatively more protein. During active weight loss, though, my goal was 1400-1600 plus exercise most of the time, and I was getting into the 90s grams of protein a lot of the time, rarely lower than 80s. Exercise calories vary from zero (once a week or so) to 500+, though something in the upper 200s to upper 300s of calories is common recently. So, most of the time my gross calorie intake is 1850-2300ish range.

I don't eat meat or fish, but I'm ovo-lacto vegetarian. I don't eat many eggs (less than a dozen a month for sure, typically), but do eat quite a bit of dairy. (Having meat or fish in the mix realistically opens up a lot of other choices that have more protein for their calories, but I've been vegetarian for 48+ years, so it's come to be a bit of a habit. ).

Typical day, not listing every detail but including the main protein contributors:

Breakfast is oatmeal with peanut butter powder, walnuts, hemp hearts, milled flax seed, Greek yogurt; plus coffee with hot skim milk. That's 44g of protein if I have 2 cups of coffee. That's pretty standardized.

Sometimes I have a lighter breakfast (before morning workouts), and have the oatmeal for lunch. The lighter breakfast is peanut butter on an Ezekiel pita, with a glass of kefir, and some hot skimmed milk on the side. That's around 29g protein.

Other meals vary way more, so I'll be more vague.

Usually at least one of lunch or dinner has a soy food as the major protein, with my most frequent choices being tofu, smoked tofu, tofu noodles, or tempeh. Once in a while it's seitan. That's usually combined with massive amounts of veggies (with some choices that also have relatively more protein, such as broccoli or cauliflower among others). Sometimes I use soy/edamame pasta in a stir fry. Sometimes I use peanut butter powder or almond butter powder or miso in a sauce. (The peanut butter or almond butter power are basically defatted nut butter, not flavored protein powder.)

For the other meal (of breakfast or lunch), usually the meal with less or no soy, I'm likely to have something like red lentil pasta with marinara and some cheese; or a tostada on corn tortilla with veggies, black beans, and cheese and a dollop of plain Greek yogurt; bean soup/stew with veggies, maybe nutritional yeast, maybe cheese; or black bean tortilla chips with a dip of lowfat cottage cheese and salsa. Once in a while, I do have scrambled eggs or an omelet but usually only 2 eggs and masses of veggies in with them, plus probably cheese.

I've found some more calorie-efficient cheeses that I like, even though reduced fat cheeses as a whole aren't IMO very good. I use blobs of Greek yogurt pretty often where many people would use sour cream, or in homemade salad dressings and such where many people would use mayo.

Lunch and dinner protein levels vary, but rarely less than 25g, and between the two meals plus snacks I'm averaging around 110-120g protein most days.

For snacks, I like crispy broad beans, the light Babybel cheese rounds, Yasso Greek Yogurt bars, dry-roasted soybeans, and things like that - not all of those are ultra low calorie, but all have some protein.

Like I said, appetite/capacity doesn't limit my intake, even though I can stay satisfied on appropriate-for-me calories (felt OK appetite-wise even during weight loss). I eat a lot of food. My basic daily nutritional goals are 100g protein minimum, 50g fats minimum (with a fair fraction of MUFA/PUFA and O-3s in the mix), plus a goal of 800g+ of fruits and veggies. I usually get about 50% of calories from carbs, but don't have any specific goals for carbs - they just fall where they may to hit my calorie goal. I do drink some alcohol, occasionally, too.

I still log most days, though not every day (in year 7+ maintaining a healthy weight, I skip some days). If you want to see what I eat in more detail, send me a friend request. I'm sub-par as an MFP friend (more of a forum gal), but my diary is open to friends, and I will answer questions on my status page or by DM about what I ate, how or why. The caveat would be that while I eat large amounts of so-called "whole foods", I'm not religious about that, so do use some processed foods and eat some treats; and I often cook from scratch without recipes so lots of my meals are just a list of ingredients, pretty much.

I hope that helps somehow (though I have my doubts ).

Best wishes!

patlopez1432532 wrote: »

I am 280lbs and trying to lose at least 50lbs by the end of summer. I follow a pretty strict diet, rarely eating over 2k calories (17-1800 is close) anyways I focus on a high protein low carb diet, but this recommendation of 1.2g of protein for every pound is insane. Others say 1.2 of every lb of lean muscle (which I don't know how to calculate). But I eat a lot of chicken, fish, protein shakes, protein powder in oatmeal etc... And at the end of the day I get like 160g of protein max... On bad days I struggle to get 100gs.

How many grams do you think I should be consuming? Same question for other macros based on weight loss goal n my current weight of 280lbs.

I like the calculator mentioned above:
https://examine.com/protein-intake-calculator/
Intuitively 160gr sounds like plenty to me.

Fat and carbs are pretty much flexible, depending on your preferences. (Although you do need a minimum of fat for health)

I am ecstatic to reach 70g protein a day. I'm vegetarian, and do not reside in the same zip code as yogurt or hard boiled eggs. I could definitely substitute more nutritious foods for sweets, but it seems they wouldn't be THAT high in protein. I use protein bars, occasionally peptides in my coffee, but I never ever hit over 100g protein. I feel fine, do dedicated exercise 4 to 5 days a week, and really don't need to lose anymore weight. <shrug>

nsk1951 wrote: »

https://youtu.be/08Wtj3ZW28Y

Yeah, no. Very typical advice from a plant based advocate. When he said that consuming more protein than the RDA for the average person might be dangerous, well, that's right out of the vegan handbook. The talk about wanting to reevaluate the definition of protein quality, arguing that even though animal protein might be of higher quality, it's animals which is unhealthy and leads to death and disease, therefore animal protein isn't as good as plant protein. These are a panel of Doctors, oh my.

I have a sweet tooth, so I've found the ninja creami to be a wonderful appliance addition. I've never been a fan of protein shakes, but when you freeze a protein shake and run it through the ninja creami, it is now really yummy protein icecream! If you like sweets, you might find this a helpful way of upping your protein. I'll also sometimes use casein protein powder to make a pudding in a pinch.