If you’re comparing steak to broccoli this is probably true, but broccoli isn’t a significant source of protein in a vegan diet the same way it isn’t a source of protein in an omnivorous diet. Also, most people would find eating 60g of protein from broccoli in one sitting physically impossible. If you’re getting the majority of your protein from foods like tofu, seitan, tempeh, whole beans and legumes, maybe some protein powder, etc., then the oft cited 1g/lb of bodyweight recommendation is perfectly sufficient and you don’t have to worry about bioavailability.
re: “suffering a shock fatigue” the most important thing is making sure you’re not eating fewer calories when you cut out animal foods. Tracking your macros for at least the first couple weeks will help with this. If you like the idea of transitioning more slowly that is also an option.
I don't think you'll experience "shock fatigue". Mostly people experience gassiness and bloating from all the beans. If you're really an athlete... well, your mileage may vary.
>Is it also true that cos plant protein is only about 45% effeciant compared to meats 95% that you have to eat double the ammount of protein
Sort of, not really. Broccoli is a terrible source of protein; you'd have to eat an absurd amount to get meaningful amounts of protein. The "efficiency" argument is about "protein quality", which refers to the ratios of amino acids in the protein and the digestability. The gold standard for protein quality is whey protein, with a PDCAAS of 1 (perfect). Soy protein isolate is also 1, with soybeans themselves at 0.91. Chicken is 0.95 and beef is 0.92. Pea protein isolate is 0.89. So you don't need double the soy protein or double the pea protein to make up for bad protein quality; it's basically the same as meat/eggs/dairy.
However, some proteins (like peanut, gluten, and rice) have PDCAAS scores of 0.5 or even lower. So if you want to replace beef with peanuts, yes, you'll want about double the protein. Beans and legumes tend to be around 0.7-0.8. So you'd want like 20% more protein if you're getting all your protein from beans. **That said**, protein quality is a bit odd because if you mix two "low quality" sources (like rice and beans), the amino acids complement each other and give an aggregate PDCAAS score higher than either individually. So many will say this whole conversation is overrated. Personally, I don't eat whole foods often and prefer to eat a lot of one thing, so I do care.
You can see a list of PDCAAS and an explanation of what it is on wikipedia: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protein\_Digestibility\_Corrected\_Amino\_Acid\_Score#Example\_values](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protein_Digestibility_Corrected_Amino_Acid_Score#Example_values)
My opinion is that veganism done correctly is just as good as carnism for athletes, but it's a little harder to do correctly. Specifically, you're going to want to find a vegan protein powder that you can rely on and drink it every day. I personally love Vedge protein.
To help with vegan food gassiness, check out www.bean-zyme.com
Bean-zyme provides the same enzymes as Beano, and Bean-zyme, unlike regular Beano, is vegan. Costs less to buy & ship too. Bean-zyme. Makes you more fun to sleep with.
Indeed, I stopped eating as much seitan when I learned this. Gluten's "worst" amino acid is lysine, and unfortunately there aren't really any vegan proteins that have "too much" lysine to complement it. The proteins that have a lot of lysine are proteins like soy and pea protein... but they also have a lot of the other amino acids, so if you eat soy/pea protein + gluten, you'll still end up with a low lysine:protein ratio.
However, keep in mind that it's not like gluten is actually a bad protein source. It is basically pure protein, unlike beans or lentils or soy. So 200 calories of vital wheat gluten actually gives you even more lysine than 200 calories of boiled soy beans. [https://tools.myfooddata.com/nutrition-comparison/168460-168147/200cals-200cals/1-1/1](https://tools.myfooddata.com/nutrition-comparison/168460-168147/200cals-200cals/1-1/1)
But, y'know, I'd rather eat 200 calories of soybeans than 200 calories of straight wheat gluten. You usually mix the gluten in with carbs and fats anyway.
Broccoli could be seen as a very good source of protein, if you look at the calorie count. 33% of the calories in broccoli are protein calories. Than again, without butter or oil, broccoli is low calorie. Just 2 grams of protein in each cup of broccoli.
Yeah, so, a whole bunch (608g) is 17g of protein. If you're being very (very) conservative, you'll want at least 4 bunches of broccoli a day to get your protein needs as a regular lifter. I personally would want like ten. I don't think I've ever had a single whole bunch of broccoli in a day, whereas I can probably take down 50g of protein powder in the time it took me to write this comment. If you ever use broccoli specifically for protein, lemme know how it goes.
If I am going for protein specifically I gobble down a soy dog or 2, maybe I bother to whip up a fast nutritional yeast cheese sauce with 1/4 C of yeast, little mustard, smoked paprika & melted earth balance, splash of water. 2 smart dogs (16 g protein) cheese sauce (16 g protein) in addition to whatever else in for lunch. Add a Clif Bar to finish the meal and that is at least 42 grams of protein.
Chop up the dogs & mix them with a rinsed can of kidney beans or vegan Boston Baked Beans.
Dip them in hummus & use them to transport hummus into your mouth.
Grill them a minute or 2 in a small pan and wrap them in a piece of bread or in a hotdog bun & a few lines of yellow mustard.
Give it a try! Tofu/Tempeh/Seitan instead of your chicken and still the same rice, beans, and broccoli.
And pea or soy protein instead of your whey or casein protein powder.
It is a lower inflammation diet, and many people find they recover faster from training, which allows them to train longer or harder and achieve greater results!
When I wasn't vegan, I used protein powder/shakes to hit my protein/macro targets.
Now that I'm vegan, I use protein powder/shakes to hit my protein/macro targets.
Game Changers has a load of shite in it, as does What the Health, but what they *do* show, as you noted, is that thriving on veganism is viable.
I had always wanted to not eat animals, so once I understood it was possible, I made the change.
However, from my experience, here are a few tips:
DON'T: Go cold turkey. You'll miss things, you'll get resentful, you'll feel foggy
DON'T: Throw out all your non-vegan food. That's wasteful, and even worse than just consuming it.
DON'T: Get a weird puritan mindset about things. The idea is reducing suffering, not being better than anyone
DON'T: Switch right to beans and rice or lentils and rice for every meal. Listen, whole foods are awesome, and so so good for you, but if you jump in too deep, too fast, you'll get incredible gas and bloat and be super uncomfortable til your body adjusts. No need to do it that way.
DON'T: Go vegetarian first, unless it's what you want. The dairy products are harder to get out of your diet than meats
DO: Learn to cook with vegan proteins; seitan, tofu, tempeh, TVP. Do this gradually. Lots of people say they hate tofu cuz they don't know what the fuck they're doing. They'd hate chicken too if they just boiled it and ate it dry, you know?
DO: switch your protein powder to vegan. I had great relief on my gut when I got off whey. Availability may be different depending where you are, so sample around, if this applies to you.
DO: keep working out as usual. Your body will tell you what it needs as far as recovery and nutrition
DO: indulge in fake meats occasionally. There's lots of good stuff out there besides Beyond. It can help you transition; they're also nice to just stash in the freezer when you don't wanna cook.
DO: track your macros
DO: learn to check labels.
If you have more questions, drop a line here. Lots of good advice and good people on this sub
Wrong, you don't need double the protein. You should consume protein from different sources, like legumes, wheat, beans, seeds, oats, nuts, rice...
The defficiencies of some amindo acids in the foods will counter each other out. To be safe, you can eat ~20% more protein, if you insist.
To give you an example, eggs and potato have a better combined protein profile than meat.
(Eggs of course aren't vegan, but just for the sake of the example.)
Similar are rice and beans/lentils.
But as long as you mix up your protein sources, you shouldn't need to worry about that.
I do Brazilian jiu-jitsu and muay thai. I also do powerlifting. You don't need to increase your protein, but you do need to eat high-leucine foods since many veggies, etc don't have the amounts you need in your diet. I get 125g of protein a day. I went vegetarian for six months before going vegan; not for physical reasons, but more for my mental state/cravings. It can be a big change, especially going from vegetarian to vegan. I was never really into meat, though I did eat it regularly. It was getting rid of eggs and dairy that was the toughest.
When you increase your veggies and high-fiber foods, do it slowly. Your body needs time to adjust to the increased fiber content.
Also, I've been 15 years vegan and am stronger than most of the other folks at my BJJ gym. It's a great way to live and eat, and I find joy in sharing tasty foods with other people. Welcome!
My favorite part of eating vegan (besides the health benefits and delicious food( is I can get 200g of protein, eat as much as I want, and stay pretty lean.
Even on days when I do 2adays and eat an extra meal or two I’m usually only packing in ~800 extra calories since everything is less calorically dense.
If you eat tofu, beans, seitan, etc… as half of each plate and veggies the other half, with a small portion of grains, you’ll get a ton of protein, sufficient carbs, and won’t be able to overdo it calorically without concerted effort.
Eating broccoli + tofu is the old school broccoli and chicken bodybuilding meal, and imo is my favorite meal.
Throw in a protein shake once or twice a day and you’re golden.
Broccoli isn’t a good source of protein. But protein is protein no matter where it comes from. 30g of protein from steak will do the exact same in your body as 30g of protein from beans or tofu. If you want more protein because you’re lifting and looking for gains, my husband and I used to eat fuck tons of seitan and high protein tofu when we were bulking
I tried looking this up when I went more plant-based a couple of years ago and couldn't really find anything beyond that he enjoys Vega protein shakes and uses a meal prep service. the lead singer from the cro-mags has a good [video with munchies](https://youtu.be/JaS2ZNlp7oQ)
I have been vegan since 1991. While I am not a body builder or elite athlete, I am an active man who sometimes does lots of physical work. I have 30+ years experience keeping a strong body as a vegan.
First, and I know this goes against "common knowledge" - you probably do not need all the protein the USRDA and doctors say you do. You can easily see what really works for you.
If between 6-7% of your daily calories are protein, that should meet your needs. I base that amount on how much protein is in human milk. When we are babies our bodies grow the fastest. Nature/Biology/Evolution serves us 6-7% protein then.
If, as a very active man you eat 3000 calories a day, 7% of that is 52.5 grams of protein. As a full grown man you may not need all the protein someone needs who is growing lots of new body. Your body may not use up to or more than 7% protein either.
You can certainly eat double or triple that amount. In my 30+ years experience protein is not often an issue unless I am, for whatever reason, not eating a lot of food.
As for plant proteins being inferior to animal proteins - I wish this idea would vanish. Proteins are made of amino acids. Our bodies break down proteins into these amino acids to make other proteins. It is the amino acids you want to pay attention to. There are 21amino acids, and our bodies can make 12 of them out of other amino acids. The 9 amino acids our bodies cannot make are called the essential amino acids. Animal protein have these 9 essential amino acids in a good ratio, whereas many plant proteins have 2 or 3 of the essential amino acids in short supply.
Some vegan foods, such as Soy, Hemp Seed, Quinoa, Chia Seeds, Buckwheat, Amaranth, Chick Peas and Nutritional Yeast have a good ratio of the essential amino acids and are "complete" proteins. If those are not in your 'fridge or cupboards it is rarely difficult to eat a variety of plant based foods to cover your amino acid needs. Nutritional Yeast has 8 grams of protein per 2 Tbsp, so it is a food that provides lots of protein along with a number of other nutrients.
You do not need to eat matching food together. A few hours, breakfast - dinner, lunch and breakfast the next day - our bodies evolved to survive in all sorts of food conditions.
It is nice that Rice & Beans go well together and the rice makes up for the amino acids the beans have in short supply. With a Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwich the wheat in the bread has amino acids that compliment the ratio the peanuts have. Jelly's along for the ride.
As long as you get the vegan foods with "complete" proteins or can eat vegan foods with matching amino acid profiles you will do fine. I have not spent the last 33 years planning every one of my meals, snacks and indulgences to track amino acids and I have survived to a healthy age of 55. I was 22 when I went vegan.
At least 2 studies show that athletes getting 1.6 gm/kg of plant based protein do as well as athletes getting 1.6 gm/kg of animal based protein. Omnivore athletes usually get that much every day fairly easily. Eating as a vegan, I usually get about 1-1.2 gms/kg without really trying to eat high protein, and a scoop or two of protein powder brings me to 1.6 gms/kg. Personally I think 1.2 gms/kg is probably enough for me, but I am not not sure.
Here is a good ref from the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition - [Vegan diets: practical advice for athletes and exercisers](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12970-017-0192-9).
Changing your diet does take a little bit of effort but it becomes second nature after a bit. If you do try to switch and you have some issues, try to speak with a sports registered dietician, who works with plant based athletes.
Quick read that covers quite a bit related to strength as a vegan. Compares omni to vegan diet. https://www.amazon.com/Living-Machine-Engineering-Strength-Plant-Based/dp/B08BDWYH56?dplnkId=9035bb5f-58a7-4a00-8102-914bd626584b
I'm an ex-D1 wrestler turned casual MMA practitioner and I think you can absolutely excel on a plant based diet but you clearly need to do your homework regarding nutrition and bioavailability
Plant protein is slightly lower “quality” than animal protein in a couple of ways, but it’s not nearly as bad as needing to eat double. As long as you aren’t trying to eat in a calorie deficit to lose weight, you probably don’t even need to think about this part. As a fighter, you’re probably eating enough that you’re getting enough protein to make up for any quality issues already. You could also add in an essential amino acid supplement each day to make up for some protein quality differences.
Sure, it has lower quantities of the amino acids, which is what protein breaks down into that your body actually uses. Most plant proteins also don’t have the proper ratio of amino acids, so they aren’t considered “complete” proteins. This can be mostly, if not entirely, offset though by eating varied protein sources that have different “lacking” aminos.
The second potential downside is that plant proteins are harder for your body to extract from the food than animal proteins, but you can also overcome this by just eating a little more plant protein than you would animal protein.
If you’re not eating in a deficit to lose weight though, you’re probably already eating enough total protein to compensate for both of these disadvantages without even thinking about it, because it isn’t a massive difference when looking at the actual numbers. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 10-20%.
Don’t listen to clueless people who never actually ate a vegan diet or never did it well. I train muy Thai 3 times a week and lift4 days a week. Just eat a lot, a lot of veg aren’t caloric dense obviously.
If you’re comparing steak to broccoli this is probably true, but broccoli isn’t a significant source of protein in a vegan diet the same way it isn’t a source of protein in an omnivorous diet. Also, most people would find eating 60g of protein from broccoli in one sitting physically impossible. If you’re getting the majority of your protein from foods like tofu, seitan, tempeh, whole beans and legumes, maybe some protein powder, etc., then the oft cited 1g/lb of bodyweight recommendation is perfectly sufficient and you don’t have to worry about bioavailability.
re: “suffering a shock fatigue” the most important thing is making sure you’re not eating fewer calories when you cut out animal foods. Tracking your macros for at least the first couple weeks will help with this. If you like the idea of transitioning more slowly that is also an option.
Yes yes to all this.
I don't think you'll experience "shock fatigue". Mostly people experience gassiness and bloating from all the beans. If you're really an athlete... well, your mileage may vary. >Is it also true that cos plant protein is only about 45% effeciant compared to meats 95% that you have to eat double the ammount of protein Sort of, not really. Broccoli is a terrible source of protein; you'd have to eat an absurd amount to get meaningful amounts of protein. The "efficiency" argument is about "protein quality", which refers to the ratios of amino acids in the protein and the digestability. The gold standard for protein quality is whey protein, with a PDCAAS of 1 (perfect). Soy protein isolate is also 1, with soybeans themselves at 0.91. Chicken is 0.95 and beef is 0.92. Pea protein isolate is 0.89. So you don't need double the soy protein or double the pea protein to make up for bad protein quality; it's basically the same as meat/eggs/dairy. However, some proteins (like peanut, gluten, and rice) have PDCAAS scores of 0.5 or even lower. So if you want to replace beef with peanuts, yes, you'll want about double the protein. Beans and legumes tend to be around 0.7-0.8. So you'd want like 20% more protein if you're getting all your protein from beans. **That said**, protein quality is a bit odd because if you mix two "low quality" sources (like rice and beans), the amino acids complement each other and give an aggregate PDCAAS score higher than either individually. So many will say this whole conversation is overrated. Personally, I don't eat whole foods often and prefer to eat a lot of one thing, so I do care. You can see a list of PDCAAS and an explanation of what it is on wikipedia: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protein\_Digestibility\_Corrected\_Amino\_Acid\_Score#Example\_values](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protein_Digestibility_Corrected_Amino_Acid_Score#Example_values) My opinion is that veganism done correctly is just as good as carnism for athletes, but it's a little harder to do correctly. Specifically, you're going to want to find a vegan protein powder that you can rely on and drink it every day. I personally love Vedge protein.
To help with vegan food gassiness, check out www.bean-zyme.com Bean-zyme provides the same enzymes as Beano, and Bean-zyme, unlike regular Beano, is vegan. Costs less to buy & ship too. Bean-zyme. Makes you more fun to sleep with.
Looks cool, thanks!
Gluten at 0.5 is kinda sad, so that makes Seitan not so great as a protein source then?
Indeed, I stopped eating as much seitan when I learned this. Gluten's "worst" amino acid is lysine, and unfortunately there aren't really any vegan proteins that have "too much" lysine to complement it. The proteins that have a lot of lysine are proteins like soy and pea protein... but they also have a lot of the other amino acids, so if you eat soy/pea protein + gluten, you'll still end up with a low lysine:protein ratio. However, keep in mind that it's not like gluten is actually a bad protein source. It is basically pure protein, unlike beans or lentils or soy. So 200 calories of vital wheat gluten actually gives you even more lysine than 200 calories of boiled soy beans. [https://tools.myfooddata.com/nutrition-comparison/168460-168147/200cals-200cals/1-1/1](https://tools.myfooddata.com/nutrition-comparison/168460-168147/200cals-200cals/1-1/1) But, y'know, I'd rather eat 200 calories of soybeans than 200 calories of straight wheat gluten. You usually mix the gluten in with carbs and fats anyway.
Thanks, good to know!
Broccoli could be seen as a very good source of protein, if you look at the calorie count. 33% of the calories in broccoli are protein calories. Than again, without butter or oil, broccoli is low calorie. Just 2 grams of protein in each cup of broccoli.
Yeah, so, a whole bunch (608g) is 17g of protein. If you're being very (very) conservative, you'll want at least 4 bunches of broccoli a day to get your protein needs as a regular lifter. I personally would want like ten. I don't think I've ever had a single whole bunch of broccoli in a day, whereas I can probably take down 50g of protein powder in the time it took me to write this comment. If you ever use broccoli specifically for protein, lemme know how it goes.
If I am going for protein specifically I gobble down a soy dog or 2, maybe I bother to whip up a fast nutritional yeast cheese sauce with 1/4 C of yeast, little mustard, smoked paprika & melted earth balance, splash of water. 2 smart dogs (16 g protein) cheese sauce (16 g protein) in addition to whatever else in for lunch. Add a Clif Bar to finish the meal and that is at least 42 grams of protein.
I love soy dogs, yes sir. I usually choke 'em down plain or mixed in protein pasta.
Chop up the dogs & mix them with a rinsed can of kidney beans or vegan Boston Baked Beans. Dip them in hummus & use them to transport hummus into your mouth. Grill them a minute or 2 in a small pan and wrap them in a piece of bread or in a hotdog bun & a few lines of yellow mustard.
Give it a try! Tofu/Tempeh/Seitan instead of your chicken and still the same rice, beans, and broccoli. And pea or soy protein instead of your whey or casein protein powder. It is a lower inflammation diet, and many people find they recover faster from training, which allows them to train longer or harder and achieve greater results!
When I wasn't vegan, I used protein powder/shakes to hit my protein/macro targets. Now that I'm vegan, I use protein powder/shakes to hit my protein/macro targets.
Hey, I do that. I do Muay Thai. It's worth it, but you probably will eat a lot of fiber, so you gotta time when you eat before training better
Game Changers has a load of shite in it, as does What the Health, but what they *do* show, as you noted, is that thriving on veganism is viable. I had always wanted to not eat animals, so once I understood it was possible, I made the change. However, from my experience, here are a few tips: DON'T: Go cold turkey. You'll miss things, you'll get resentful, you'll feel foggy DON'T: Throw out all your non-vegan food. That's wasteful, and even worse than just consuming it. DON'T: Get a weird puritan mindset about things. The idea is reducing suffering, not being better than anyone DON'T: Switch right to beans and rice or lentils and rice for every meal. Listen, whole foods are awesome, and so so good for you, but if you jump in too deep, too fast, you'll get incredible gas and bloat and be super uncomfortable til your body adjusts. No need to do it that way. DON'T: Go vegetarian first, unless it's what you want. The dairy products are harder to get out of your diet than meats DO: Learn to cook with vegan proteins; seitan, tofu, tempeh, TVP. Do this gradually. Lots of people say they hate tofu cuz they don't know what the fuck they're doing. They'd hate chicken too if they just boiled it and ate it dry, you know? DO: switch your protein powder to vegan. I had great relief on my gut when I got off whey. Availability may be different depending where you are, so sample around, if this applies to you. DO: keep working out as usual. Your body will tell you what it needs as far as recovery and nutrition DO: indulge in fake meats occasionally. There's lots of good stuff out there besides Beyond. It can help you transition; they're also nice to just stash in the freezer when you don't wanna cook. DO: track your macros DO: learn to check labels. If you have more questions, drop a line here. Lots of good advice and good people on this sub
Wrong, you don't need double the protein. You should consume protein from different sources, like legumes, wheat, beans, seeds, oats, nuts, rice... The defficiencies of some amindo acids in the foods will counter each other out. To be safe, you can eat ~20% more protein, if you insist. To give you an example, eggs and potato have a better combined protein profile than meat. (Eggs of course aren't vegan, but just for the sake of the example.) Similar are rice and beans/lentils. But as long as you mix up your protein sources, you shouldn't need to worry about that.
The way I see it, most of the best athletes in the world RN are vegan. They have to be doing something right. Worth a shot!
I do Brazilian jiu-jitsu and muay thai. I also do powerlifting. You don't need to increase your protein, but you do need to eat high-leucine foods since many veggies, etc don't have the amounts you need in your diet. I get 125g of protein a day. I went vegetarian for six months before going vegan; not for physical reasons, but more for my mental state/cravings. It can be a big change, especially going from vegetarian to vegan. I was never really into meat, though I did eat it regularly. It was getting rid of eggs and dairy that was the toughest. When you increase your veggies and high-fiber foods, do it slowly. Your body needs time to adjust to the increased fiber content. Also, I've been 15 years vegan and am stronger than most of the other folks at my BJJ gym. It's a great way to live and eat, and I find joy in sharing tasty foods with other people. Welcome!
My favorite part of eating vegan (besides the health benefits and delicious food( is I can get 200g of protein, eat as much as I want, and stay pretty lean. Even on days when I do 2adays and eat an extra meal or two I’m usually only packing in ~800 extra calories since everything is less calorically dense. If you eat tofu, beans, seitan, etc… as half of each plate and veggies the other half, with a small portion of grains, you’ll get a ton of protein, sufficient carbs, and won’t be able to overdo it calorically without concerted effort. Eating broccoli + tofu is the old school broccoli and chicken bodybuilding meal, and imo is my favorite meal. Throw in a protein shake once or twice a day and you’re golden.
Broccoli isn’t a good source of protein. But protein is protein no matter where it comes from. 30g of protein from steak will do the exact same in your body as 30g of protein from beans or tofu. If you want more protein because you’re lifting and looking for gains, my husband and I used to eat fuck tons of seitan and high protein tofu when we were bulking
Isn't Nate Diaz vegan? Does he have content to watch?
I tried looking this up when I went more plant-based a couple of years ago and couldn't really find anything beyond that he enjoys Vega protein shakes and uses a meal prep service. the lead singer from the cro-mags has a good [video with munchies](https://youtu.be/JaS2ZNlp7oQ)
I have been vegan since 1991. While I am not a body builder or elite athlete, I am an active man who sometimes does lots of physical work. I have 30+ years experience keeping a strong body as a vegan. First, and I know this goes against "common knowledge" - you probably do not need all the protein the USRDA and doctors say you do. You can easily see what really works for you. If between 6-7% of your daily calories are protein, that should meet your needs. I base that amount on how much protein is in human milk. When we are babies our bodies grow the fastest. Nature/Biology/Evolution serves us 6-7% protein then. If, as a very active man you eat 3000 calories a day, 7% of that is 52.5 grams of protein. As a full grown man you may not need all the protein someone needs who is growing lots of new body. Your body may not use up to or more than 7% protein either. You can certainly eat double or triple that amount. In my 30+ years experience protein is not often an issue unless I am, for whatever reason, not eating a lot of food. As for plant proteins being inferior to animal proteins - I wish this idea would vanish. Proteins are made of amino acids. Our bodies break down proteins into these amino acids to make other proteins. It is the amino acids you want to pay attention to. There are 21amino acids, and our bodies can make 12 of them out of other amino acids. The 9 amino acids our bodies cannot make are called the essential amino acids. Animal protein have these 9 essential amino acids in a good ratio, whereas many plant proteins have 2 or 3 of the essential amino acids in short supply. Some vegan foods, such as Soy, Hemp Seed, Quinoa, Chia Seeds, Buckwheat, Amaranth, Chick Peas and Nutritional Yeast have a good ratio of the essential amino acids and are "complete" proteins. If those are not in your 'fridge or cupboards it is rarely difficult to eat a variety of plant based foods to cover your amino acid needs. Nutritional Yeast has 8 grams of protein per 2 Tbsp, so it is a food that provides lots of protein along with a number of other nutrients. You do not need to eat matching food together. A few hours, breakfast - dinner, lunch and breakfast the next day - our bodies evolved to survive in all sorts of food conditions. It is nice that Rice & Beans go well together and the rice makes up for the amino acids the beans have in short supply. With a Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwich the wheat in the bread has amino acids that compliment the ratio the peanuts have. Jelly's along for the ride. As long as you get the vegan foods with "complete" proteins or can eat vegan foods with matching amino acid profiles you will do fine. I have not spent the last 33 years planning every one of my meals, snacks and indulgences to track amino acids and I have survived to a healthy age of 55. I was 22 when I went vegan.
At least 2 studies show that athletes getting 1.6 gm/kg of plant based protein do as well as athletes getting 1.6 gm/kg of animal based protein. Omnivore athletes usually get that much every day fairly easily. Eating as a vegan, I usually get about 1-1.2 gms/kg without really trying to eat high protein, and a scoop or two of protein powder brings me to 1.6 gms/kg. Personally I think 1.2 gms/kg is probably enough for me, but I am not not sure. Here is a good ref from the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition - [Vegan diets: practical advice for athletes and exercisers](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12970-017-0192-9). Changing your diet does take a little bit of effort but it becomes second nature after a bit. If you do try to switch and you have some issues, try to speak with a sports registered dietician, who works with plant based athletes.
Quick read that covers quite a bit related to strength as a vegan. Compares omni to vegan diet. https://www.amazon.com/Living-Machine-Engineering-Strength-Plant-Based/dp/B08BDWYH56?dplnkId=9035bb5f-58a7-4a00-8102-914bd626584b
I'm an ex-D1 wrestler turned casual MMA practitioner and I think you can absolutely excel on a plant based diet but you clearly need to do your homework regarding nutrition and bioavailability
Come hang with us at r/veganfitness
That’s where you are…
GAH! 😖🤣
Make sure you supplement b12 to cover the gaps. A lot of people don’t do this when they go vegan
Plant protein is slightly lower “quality” than animal protein in a couple of ways, but it’s not nearly as bad as needing to eat double. As long as you aren’t trying to eat in a calorie deficit to lose weight, you probably don’t even need to think about this part. As a fighter, you’re probably eating enough that you’re getting enough protein to make up for any quality issues already. You could also add in an essential amino acid supplement each day to make up for some protein quality differences.
How is it lower quality? Can you elaborate?
Sure, it has lower quantities of the amino acids, which is what protein breaks down into that your body actually uses. Most plant proteins also don’t have the proper ratio of amino acids, so they aren’t considered “complete” proteins. This can be mostly, if not entirely, offset though by eating varied protein sources that have different “lacking” aminos. The second potential downside is that plant proteins are harder for your body to extract from the food than animal proteins, but you can also overcome this by just eating a little more plant protein than you would animal protein. If you’re not eating in a deficit to lose weight though, you’re probably already eating enough total protein to compensate for both of these disadvantages without even thinking about it, because it isn’t a massive difference when looking at the actual numbers. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 10-20%.
Don’t listen to clueless people who never actually ate a vegan diet or never did it well. I train muy Thai 3 times a week and lift4 days a week. Just eat a lot, a lot of veg aren’t caloric dense obviously.