[Gem]

Protein for muscle gain or weight loss for vegetarians

Meat eating is not essential, but it is unlikely that vegetarians consume quantities of protein replete with essential amino acids to optimally promote muscle growth or prevent muscle loss while losing weight.

Let's take the case of a 60kg (130lb) female to represent a 'healthy weight' for females of around average height of 5'3" say. The daily protein intake would be 90g to 100g.

Let's also assume the female has 3 meals a day. That means protein would ideally be 30 - 33g at each meal. This make sense because the dose of protein needed to fully activate muscle growth via the metabolic path (mTor) is about 30g. (this really means about 3g of the amino acid leucine, but that's devil's detail).

To get 30g protein from boiled lentils is about 1.6 cups... so it's about 5 cups a day. You'd need 5 eggs to get your brecky protein, so maybe 3 eggs, some yogurt with oats could do the trick... but the calories start building up, and you need to get the protein without blowing out on calories.

That's just a couple of examples to show it's possible, totally doable, but not easy, to optimise protein intake from vege food.

In comparison, 90g protein could come from 350g of meat/chicken/fish - or just under 100g when cooked 3 times a day would be the total need. That's not much. However, since we also get protein from plant food, the meat requirement is even less. Not very much at all.

The last issue is protein quality. Plant sources generally do not contain all the essential amino acids, and are comparatively low in leucine (the amino acid that stimulates hypertrophy). Hence, we are well advised to eat more plant protein... which makes it even harder.

All this is why I think vegetarians can get a lot of their protein from whole food, but can optimise their intake by consuming a protein powder shake once a day. The latest research on blended plant protein supplements showed they are equal to whey protein.

For vege's, a whey protein concentrate would be OK, and pea protein powder is just fine. You can pay more for isolates and plant blends, but I don't think it makes a lot of difference.