A few weeks ago I was feeling especially worn out. I assessed my diet and posited that maybe I wasn’t getting enough protein. In response to an alarming cholesterol test, I went mostly vegan, lowered my caloric intake, and increased my physical activity. My weight dropped, which was nice, but I felt exhausted. When I examined my protein intake, it was at best about 20 grams of protein, per day.
I have found ranges for suggested protein intake from credible sources to vary between .36 – 1.2 grams of protein per pound of body weight. The suggested protein intake can be adjusted based on factors such as age and activity. Let’s put my body weight at 160 pounds. So at the low end of the range, I should be consuming 58 grams of protein per day. I was ingesting only one third of the suggested low end of the range!
I have targeted 90 grams of protein per day as my goal. That puts me at .56 grams of protein per pound of body weight at 160 pounds, and .58 grams of protein per pound of body weight at 155 pounds, which is my goal weight. Consuming 90 grams of protein per day takes some planning for me. As a general rule, I refuse to eat until noon, each day as part of my intermittent fasting routine. Accordingly, my window for protein consumption is about 12 pm – 8pm. So I only have eight hours to get that protein in, which is made more difficult by a mostly vegan diet.
As a vegan, I can’t just eat a small, relatively low calorie chicken cutlet packed with protein, for example. A 3.5 ounce (92 grams) chicken cutlet has 30 grams of protein and 165 calories. As a vegan, maybe I turn to black beans for protein. Well, I’d have to eat 2 cups (344 grams) of black beans for a total of 454 calories to get the same 30 grams of protein! What’s worse is that it wouldn’t actually be “the same” protein, because the protein from the beans would not be complete protein. Black beans lack certain amino acids. Thus, I would need to add other plant-based foods such as rice, to complete the protein. Of course, rice means more calories and more volume.
For better or worse, I have added what I think are high quality, plant-based protein powders to my daily diet. That scores me an easy 20 – 30 grams of protein. I also eat beans, lentils, tofu, and tempeh along with grains such as rice and quinoa. Nutritional yeast is a nice way to sneak in a few extra grams of protein. I am phasing out highly processed plant-based faux meats. While they can provide a lot of tasty protein, they also tend to come with lots of saturated fat, which I don’t want.
Anyway, my PCH (Pretzel/Carrot/Hummus) lunches served their purpose to kick start discipline and weight loss. Now PCH has been replaced with a bowl of Fiber One cereal in almond milk with plant-based protein powder, two tablespoons of flax seed meal, three teaspoons of cacao nibs, strawberries, blueberries, and banana slices with a dash of cinnamon. A few hours later, I usually have beans/lentils, tofu/tempeh, rice/quinoa with nutritional yeast, and then I have something similar for dinner. That gets me to about 90 grams of protein within my eight hour feeding window, without having to eat insane volumes of food.
Because I am mostly vegan but not completely vegan, I do allow for very small quantities of dairy and eggs. On average, I eat one egg per week and half a cup of low fat cottage cheese per week. That provides for a little bit of easy, complete protein once in a while and perhaps fends off chaos in my gut biome.
That’s where this middle-aged man is at!
With Love,
P. Gustav Mueller, author of The Present
An easy to read guide on protein intake is available for free from Arnold’s Pump Club.