Vegan Diet?

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1

Hey y’all! Just wanted to ask about vegan diets. I’ve already asked on the Nutrition Q/A if switching to a vegan diet would be okay and the answer is yes as long as there’s enough protein. However, I don’t really know where to start. I’m thinking I’ll just replace milk with fortified soy milk and just replace meats with beans/legumes. I’ll probably also pick up BBM’s vegan protein power. Are there any vegans who can help me with actual meals? Any suggestions on what to eat to get enough protein (I’m 15 and 135lbs so my protein intake should be somewhere around 130-160g a day I presume)? Also, does BBM’s vegan powder taste good?

Thanks!

2

I got the BBM vegan chocolate protein powder, it has a better amino acid profile than any other vegan protein powder I’m aware of and there isn’t much else in it. That means there’s a lot of leucine and not much flavoring, so it smells bad, and the taste isn’t great. I just use it in smoothies with fruit or peanutbutter to cover up the taste.

My go to meals (cheap, easy, tasty, fit my macros):
Beans and rice, spices, vegetables
Beans with salsa, guac, nutritional yeast, chips
Tofu and spaghetti with tomato sauce, peas and nutritional yeast.
Tofu cooked in soy sauce with rice and veggies
Take some firm tofu and fry the hell out of it so that it’s crispy, good with anything.
Field Roast vegan hot dog (I think gluten is a poor protein source but these are the only fake meat I like so I thought I’d mention it)
I eat a lot so there’s also a lot of: cereal, peanutbutter sandwiches, mixed nuts, berries, occasional protein smoothies.

3

Hi Roman. Vegan since 2015 here.

First, don’t forget to take a good B12 supplement as this is crucial to live a long and healthy life as a vegan.

You seem to be a tiny bit underweight. Try to track your calories to make you sure you eat enough. Most vegan food have low caloric density.

I’m not saying this to “shame” you but I noticed that a lot of vegans on the “skinny side” tend to undereat on this diet.

Are there any vegans who can help me with actual meals?

There is a lot of good FB group. I’d recommend “vegan bodybuilding and nutrition”.

My “go-to” ingredients are: rice, pasta, beans and legumes, coconut milk, soy product (tofu, tempeh, TVP, soy milk, soy yogurt), seitan (I make my own batch every weekend), tomato puree, bananas, oats, chia & flax seeds, some kind of nuts.

You can also use some fake meat/cheese products but I wouldn’t recommand making it a staple food (not the best ingredients + can be expensive, especially at your young age).

Any suggestions on what to eat to get enough protein

Beans/legumes, soy product, seitan, “fake” meats, soy milk.

I’d recommend mixing them, for example: 1. (Chili) Beans + TVP + rice + vegetables
2. (curry) Red Lentils + tofu + coconut milk
3. (bolognese) TVP or tofu + tomato puree + pasta.

You can really end up with a very high protein meal (50/60g).

I’d recommend following “noproteindiet” on Instagram. His username is obviously a joke because he post a lot of simple high protein vegan recipe

Hope this helps.

4

Personally I always try and make sure I combine different plant based protein sources that have different AA profiles, e.g. nuts/seeds grains and Quorn (traditionally rich in Methionine + Cysteine low in Lysine) with Legumes (rich in lysine, low in Methionine+ Cysteine), as a rule of thumb this works well for me, also I have found some reading that suggests a slight increase of protein intake for Plant based options, (+0.2g/kg from what i remember), however not sure how much this truely matters.

5

I’ve been vegan for almost 5 years. My go to meals are things like veggie and tofu stir fry, lentil curry, bean chilli, and I enjoy fake meat here and there. Although this is not strictly vegan, I occasionally also eat some bivalves like mussels and scallops (because I think it’s highly unlikely they are sentient but that is really just another issue) which are high in protein and b12. I throw in some vegan protein powder with soy milk if I’m low on protein for the day (deffo not necessary though, especially if you’re on a budget). BBM has recently said that as long as you’re hitting >1.6g protein/kg of bw, it doesn’t really matter if you’re vegan or eating meat. So at roughly 60kg, 100 grams of protein a day on a vegan diet is fine. But at only 15 y/o I would say don’t obsess over tracking stuff, just be mindful of your protein and caloric intake and enjoy your training so that you’re still lifting decades from now. I also started lifting weights at 15 and if you’re following BBM advice you’ll be off to a much better start than me, good luck!

6

Dude, there are different opinions about supplements, because how many people - so many opinions. For example, I believe that they give our body the missing components. Products can not enrich our body with all the useful components in the right form in our time. I decided to get my body in shape, and gain weight for a comfortable state for me. I think everyone knows that just proper nutrition is not enough. My trainer advised me to try Bluebonnet products , because they are completely natural and enrich the body with vitamins that are in short supply. Now I managed to gain 15kg and I am sure that this is the merit of this company. I hope that my experience was useful for you and you will trust this company,as I did in my time and did not regret it.

7

I’ve been switching to soy milk for a few months now, but not enough for protein. There are vegan protein supplements out there, you can look them up, I’m sure you’ll be interested in them.

8

If you only eat carbs, fats and very little protein your body will still burn fat but the extra unused calories will be stored as fat but if that protein intake is increased you can actually see those muscles properly fed.

Best time to eat carbs is after a workout along with some protein source. You can keep eating healthy fats throughout the day tho as long as you don’t exceed your maintenance requirements.