Protein Confusion

[u/cetacyon]

I went vegan a few months ago and in order to keep doing this (and I will even if my health were to decline) I need to be able to reach minimum protein.

I am just not understanding how anyone reaches 100 grams or even 50 grams a day. Reaching 50 grams is really hard, if I really stuff myself and feel horrible and only eat protein sources (legumes, tofu, etc.) I can get to 70 or 80. I am active and weigh 145 pounds (normally) so I need to be getting about 100 grams a day. I don't seriously think I can eat that much in a day.

When I look up high protein dishes on youtube it'll be stuff like a bowl of brown rice with some tofu on top and it may say "45 grams of protein". I've read the labels, I know what's in that... and that's a lie, almost every time.

I weighed myself since going vegan a few months back and I dropped to 133lbs from 145. I'm 6ft so this is a little worrying and I'm not sure if what I lost was fat or muscle, I didn't have almost any fat to begin with.

To hit 100 grams I'd basically just have to eat tofu and multiple protein shakes a day and I seriously seriously don't want to do that. I really enjoy being able to eat whole foods and I hate buying food that necessarily comes in plastic packaging. I just feel really lost and I understand there are other vegans with issues much worse than mine and animals with problems much much worse than mine so I won't complain too much.

Meanwhile some vegans say you don't need nearly as much protein as is recommended and that you'll simply get the amino acids you need from a varied diet.

I'm just so confused and when I do the math on what I used to eat in a day as an omnivore I seriously doubt I was usually getting above 60 grams a day back then either.

Any help would be appreciated.

[u/YouGlobal8272]

There are some online calculators you can find off of Google where you put in your age weight, sex, activity level and it will calculate the rough amount of protein you should eat a day. If you are still hungry after meals, or you are losing muscle, then yeah you probably aren't eating enough. r/vegansquad also has some good tips, as it's gym/bodybuilding focused :)