What? How much protein? Seriously? But Im vegetarian!

pietromas

So I have been poking around and have discovered that I should be getting 160g, give or take, per day for muscle growth (http://www.musclehack.com/how-much-protein-is-needed-to-build-muscle/). By my calculations, to day I have gotten about 50g, and that's with eggs for lunch, whey protein shake, quorn for dinner, and snacking on almonds.

My stomach just isn't big enough to get that much protein! I'd need to eat 5 bags of almonds (600g), 15 eggs, or 5 more shakes to make up the shortfall. How the hell??

Suggested high protein snacks?

EileenG

Cottage cheese. Egg whites (you can buy cartons in Dunnes and other supermarkets and they are dead handy for making high protein chocolate mousse and all sorts of other things), beans, lentils, pulses, soybeans fresh or roasted, vegetables. Low fat cheeses (higher ratio of protein to fat).

As a vegetarian BB-er, it's worth stocking up on whey and casein. You can make pudding-type stuff out of casein, eat it for dessert and get an extra 20g+ of protein per meal.

aye

Remember there are high amounts of protein in vegetables too, spinach, brocolli etc.
Quinoa is a high protein grain you can use also.
Protein is not just contained to animal foods, nuts and shakes.

Spirilina is a good source for vegetarians also.

here's some good reading on vegetable protein sources:
http://michaelbluejay.com/veg/protein.html


You can find some nutrition programs here: http://www.veganbodybuilding.com/?page=menu_nutrition

raptorman

The problem with non animal protein is that it isnt complete, i.e. it doesnt contain all the amino acids. This can be overcome by selecting stuff that combined will provide a full amino acid profile.
Maybe other veggies can chime in on this as its something I dont know much on.

Two protein shakes is 60g, four eggs is 24g and a tub of cottage cheese is about 24g I think. Thats not a bad start.

The veggie forum might be a good place to look for advice.

Sorry, I forgot to add that apart from protein you'll need a calorie surplus about 500ish above maintainance. So for example if you use 2500 a day due to basic functions and 500 training giving a total of 3000, you'd need to be consuming 3500cals to build muscle. This is only an example though.

Fitday.com is a great resource for tracking cals and gives calculations as to your cal requirments based on your stats.

Noodles5

How about some protein bars as snacks? We should be eating some form of protein every 3 hours so between eggs for breakfast, the shakes, bars and
veggies etc for dinner it should be enough? Maybe go into a health store and see if you can get some type of tablet supplements?

raptorman

Do you eat fish?

aye

raptorman wrote: »

The problem with non animal protein is that it isnt complete, i.e. it doesnt contain all the amino acids. This can be overcome by selecting stuff that combined will provide a full amino acid profile.
Maybe other veggies can chime in on this as its something I dont know much on.

This is simply not true. And is a myth. So don't worry about this OP.

"A vegetarian diet based on any single one or combination of these unprocessed starches (eg, rice, corn, potatoes, beans), with the addition of vegetables and fruits, supplies all the protein, amino acids, essential fats, minerals, and vitamins (with the exception of vitamin B12) necessary for excellent health. "

http://www.circ.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/full/105/25/e197

raptorman

I'll have a read further into this as I'm not convinced. Apologies if I have led the OP astray.

aye

raptorman wrote: »

I'll have a read further into this as I'm not convinced. Apologies if I have led the OP astray.

No worries, and i would have thought the same only recently, I've just read a few papers on it which dispute it.

The idea of vegetables being an incomplete source of amino was released in a book in 1971 called "Diet for a Small Planet".
10 years later the author actually changed her position on the idea, in a subsequent edition of the book.

mloc

aye wrote: »

No worries, and i would have thought the same only recently, I've just read a few papers on it which dispute it.

The idea of vegetables being an incomplete source of amino was released in a book in 1971 called "Diet for a Small Planet".
10 years later the author actually changed her position on the idea, in a subsequent edition of the book.

The confusion generally lies in the fact that whilst a single vegetable type on its own might not be complete, a few different vegetables together (or indeed together with beans/pulses/etc) forms a complete source.

aye

mloc wrote: »

The confusion generally lies in the fact that whilst a single vegetable type on its own might not be complete, a few different vegetables together (or indeed together with beans/pulses/etc) forms a complete source.

Well that is they myth.

"any single starch or vegetable will provide in excess of our needs for total protein and essential amino acids—thus there is no reason to rely on beans or make any efforts to food combine different plant foods"

http://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2007nl/apr/dairy.htm

http://www.diseaseproof.com/archives/diet-myths-complementary-protein-myth-wont-go-away.html

mloc

aye wrote: »

Well that is they myth.

"any single starch or vegetable will provide in excess of our needs for total protein and essential amino acids—thus there is no reason to rely on beans or make any efforts to food combine different plant foods"

http://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2007nl/apr/dairy.htm

http://www.diseaseproof.com/archives/diet-myths-complementary-protein-myth-wont-go-away.html

I'm afraid I have to disagree there, particularly with the "any single" part. Try getting a balanced amino acid profile from exclusively brocolli and then get back to me on that one.

aye

mloc wrote: »

I'm afraid I have to disagree there, particularly with the "any single" part. Try getting a balanced amino acid profile from exclusively brocolli and then get back to me on that one.

Funnily broccoli does contain a balanced amino acid profile.

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=nutrientprofile&dbid=82

mloc

aye wrote: »

Funnily broccoli does contain a balanced amino acid profile.

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=nutrientprofile&dbid=82

Having minute (or even trace) amounts of AAs doesn't count as balanced in my book; if someone has a high protein requirement, relying on green veg as a protein source just isn't going to cut it.

Jonny303

just to go back to a previous post about the egg whites, how are you making mousse with them, sounds good

aye

I never actually said to rely on it.

I said don't forget that it can be counted toward his protein requirements and that protein is not only from animal based foods.

Also those figures are based on 156g of broccoli, a small amount.

There are plenty of vegetarian/vegan bodybuilders out there.

EileenG

Jonny303 wrote: »

just to go back to a previous post about the egg whites, how are you making mousse with them, sounds good

I make a paste with cocoa powder and a small amount of hot coffee and a little sweetener and leave to cool. You can add a little gelatin if you want to be fancy and make it set more firmly.

Whisk your egg white till stiff and fluffy, then fold the cocoa mixture through until it's brown all over. Chill in the fridge or freeze, according to taste.

You can do also dissolve a sachet of sugarfree jelly in a small amount of hot water and leave to cool. Whisk your egg whites until almost stiff, then pour in the jelly as you whisk, then chill. Gives a dense mousse/semi-marshmallow effect.

Michael Bluejay

mloc wrote:

Try getting a balanced amino acid profile from exclusively brocolli and then get back to me on that one.

Okay, I'm getting back to you.

Broccoli, like other common vegetables, contains all the amino acids we need, and in the proportions we need them, as clearly explained in the article already provided. If you don't want to look at the article, that's fine, but then I don't know why you're arguing against something you haven't read.

The article is referenced with official sources. If you disagree, you can run your own analysis and then show us how the numbers don't add up. (e.g., Pick a vegetable, calculate how much of each amino acid it provides if the vegetable is used as the sole source of calories, compare those amounts to the amino acid requirements as per the World Health Organization) Because if you do that analysis, you'll see that vegetables are very much complete -- as the article shows.

Here's the link again: http://michaelbluejay.com/veg/protein.html