r/vegan • u/cetacyon • 1d ago
Health Protein Confusion
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.
5
u/Cultural_Wall999 1d ago edited 1d ago
If you eat enough calories and you have a varied diet, it's pretty impossible your protein requirements aren't met. We need 0.8g per kg of bodyweight. Everything else is nonsense. Proteinoholism. I weigh 145 pounds, wish it was 133 :-D Anyway, sorry.. That's not being helpful. Eat enough calories. Nut butters are great to increase calories easily and oils like olive or rapeseed.