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Getting Enough Protein as a Vegetarian

If you want to get stronger, you need to get enough protein. Your body needs protein to build muscle, and it needs a lot of it. The general recommendation for people who are actively strength training is to get around a gram of protein per pound of weight in pounds. That is, if you weigh 150 pounds, you should consume anywhere from 120–150 grams of protein throughout the day.

For the omnivores among us, this is straightforward: eat a serving of animal protein with every meal, and maybe a snack in between, and you’re probably set. Animal protein is a complete source of protein, and the other trace proteins you get from the rest of your food can make up the difference. It’s not so simple for vegetarians. For one thing, there aren’t that many good vegetarian sources of protein. A lot of them end up on many people’s picky-eating list: cottage cheese, greek yogurt, fake meats like tofu and seitan, lentils and beans. Additionally, plant sources of protein are usually not complete proteins . That is, they don’t contain all nine amino acids that humans need to maximize muscle building.

So how do you deal with this? I recommend a combination of whey protein shakes and:

  1. Find a collection of recipes that provide lots of protein (or ways to modify existing recipes) and put them in your rotation (I’ll be putting and linking to some recipes on this site)
  2. Find ways to make high-protein snacks the ones you go to
  3. Get used to some things on your picky-eating list

Quite simply, there’s no way to get around number three. It’s hard enough even for omnivores to get enough protein for strength training; you’re not going to be able to do it as a vegetarian without coming to love things like greek yogurt, fake meats, and whey protein shakes. If they’re not palatable by themselves, figure out ways to make them so. For instance, add a teaspoon of honey or some blueberries to a cup of greek yogurt.

It’s important to realize here that figuring out ways to make a high-protein vegetarian diet work for you is the best way to ensure that you stick with it in the long run. And perfect is the enemy of good. For the example 150-pound person above, I would rather they get a good 120 grams of protein that they enjoy if getting to 150 means they have to eat foods they really dislike.

Here are some tried-and-true foods in my rotation:

Breakfast

  • Eggs in any form
    • Typical omelet for me: 2 eggs, 2 egg whites, cheese, spinach and tomatoes
    • Scrambled eggs with cottage cheese
  • Swoalts (thank you Casey Johnston for this wonderful contribution to my diet)
  • Cinnamon Pear Cottage Cheese
    • I make this with 1 cup cottage cheese and 1 tablespoon almond butter for a better macro split
    • I have also recently started using Angry Mills spread for an even better macro split and wow what a time to be alive!
  • Vegan Breakfast Meats (my wife and I particularly like Field Roast’s Apple Maple, but find one you like)
  • Some sort of quick protein shake
    • e.g. 1 cup milk, 1 scoop whey protein powder, 1 tbsp chia seeds, 1 tbsp almond butter

Lunch/Dinner

This is a little less interesting, but also a little easier to deal with. Basically, take any meat recipe you find and substitute the meat for tofu//vegan ground beef//seitan//tempeh//etc. I have also found that things like adding a cup of greek yogurt to a meal (which is particularly with Indian food, which already uses yogurt liberally), or substituting greek yogurt for sour cream, are good ways to increase the protein content of a meal. For a couple of ideas:

Snacks

  • Greek yogurt
  • Protein bars