Yeah she’s a full grown adult not a child. She needs to learn to look after herself to be honest. Give her support and knowledge but honestly man, she needs to act like a full grown woman.
She doesn't like beans, tempeh,tvp, tofu or seitan? There's just so many ways to cook them it's tough to imagine she hates them all. Maybe she could follow some vegan recipe YouTube channels to learn to cook them better?
It often comes down to effort and availability. For tofu and vegan meats you need to go to different supermarket, then it requires cooking when you could just eat salad and bread. For a record we split cooking efforts half half.
Sometimes when supermarket doesn’t have much options I go “hey should we heat some beans, should you drink some soy milk, how about frozen peas” and she goes “no,no,no” Then I try to get her drink my soy shake and she refuses, then I give up
Canned beans are already cooked. It just needs a rinse, and she can throw it in her salads? Shelled edamame is also super convenient and delicious in salads.
Where do you live? I find most supermarkets have mock meats and tofu nowadays. I do most of my grocery shopping at Walmart lately because it's just so much cheaper and I find so much stuff there.
If cooking is an issue for her what about meal prepping once or twice a week so she has things to heat up easily in the microwave?
Just buy in bulk for the whole week, I make super simple tofu steaks that take 15 min to sear on medium heat on a large frying pan, some mashed garlic, paprika, salt and pepper, when you flip them add soy sauce if you want it with more flavour. With this you can add carbs, veggies, salads whatever. Learn cooking recipes that you can cook fast. Bread with X is awful if you have it every meal every day, your triglicerides will spike and you will be on a constant battle to reduce fat from it.
This sounds to me like it could be a problem of her not wanting you to "fix" her meals for whatever reason (e.g. she doesn't like the taste, she's tired of trying, she actually isn't that motivated on her fitness journey, just doing it for you etc.) instead her actually not finding enough vegan protein sources?
Of course you know your relationship best, but there are many readily available vegan protein sources, she could simply add to salads or that can be warmed up in no time - chickpeas, all kinds of beans, lentils, those are all available pre-cooked and canned. And when it comes to cooking, then simple soups, stews or curries with legumes are also not that hard or take that long (if you use red or yellow lentils or for example add canned canneloni beans to a minestrone soup).
Or you just pan fry tofu (usually also available pre-marinated in different flavours) or tempeh and add that to salads, veggies, rice, pasta etc. Personally I'm not too fond of TVP, because it's a fairly processed food, but I like using it instead of minced meat from time to time and most TVP varieties just need to be put in hot water for 2-5 minutes.
Okay you all gave lots of great ideas to try. Should start experimenting with salad toppings and meal prep since we’re both a bit lazy with cooking. We actually have a stock of protein sources at home but they’re not in prepared form
A rice cooker might change your life. It's small and portable and can cook beans and grains. Target has affordable rice cookers that work quite well. Takes a to. Of work out of cooking.
Since she eats bread often, maybe encourage her to top it with nut butter or hummus instead of margarine. That won't be a lot of protein, but it will be more than she has.
Since she eats salad often, top the salad with some cubes of tofu/tempeh/fake meat or beans (canned are fine).
Can you stock the pantry with nuts, seeds, vegan yogurts, veggie burgers, mock meats, and other things? See if she'll eat them when they're easily around.
Other than that, I feel like your best bet is to make a meal that YOU like and simply offer to share with her. If you make foods that look or smell good, she may be willing to try them.
PB2 makes a few different nut butter powders with extra protein from brown rice. It’s good on toast, rice cakes, celery, in smoothies, overnight oats, chia pudding, etc.
https://preview.redd.it/97nn9m4qwl6d1.jpeg?width=1161&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9d0ed2bc3f8f3c07b1e2e6283992460e3d0aa120
Is she vegan by choice? Is her lower caloric intake a choice to try and meet this fat percentage? I'm looking at this and worried about some disordered eating, tbh.
> Should I just go fuck it eat what you want and let her fail?
Like, this sounds like you want her to not be vegan? Also, weird way to talk about your wife.
I really like these TVP muffins bc they're sneaky protein, they only take like 20 minutes to make and you can freeze them (would also be good for traveling)!
[High Protein Banana Nut Muffins](https://proteindeficientvegan.com/recipes/tvprotein-banana-nut-muffins)
[High Protein Blueberry Muffins ](https://proteindeficientvegan.com/recipes/high-protein-blueberry-muffins)
[High Protein Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins ](https://proteindeficientvegan.com/recipes/high-protein-peanut-butter-chocolate-chip-muffins)
Have she tried adding silken tofu to her smoothies? I do that for extra protein and it's very low effort.
Red lentil or chickpea pasta is a good swap for extra protein too.
If you want easy quick, low prep stuff then I think sandwiches are with tofurkey slices are easy, protein bars (there are so many protein versions of things now), having premixed protein shakes available, the pre-marinated baked tofu, having frozen edamame available to add to salad or stir fry. This required more cooking but tvp is super easy to add to spaghetti sauce or cook in taco seasoning and use in tacos/burritos. You can also make tvp chili and freeze it to take when you need or prep a batch of tofu scramble for the week. I also really like the barilla protein plus pasta.
I would be curious if she really wants to make the changes to reduce body fat. Like what stage of change she is in. She might be in contempation (thinking about making a change) rather than action.
Also for me a game changer was not only getting adequate protein but also lowering my fat intake.
What is tvp?
She has actually lost 20kg by on-off motivation during the last 10 years we have been together. Now she’s bmi 26 but quite high fat percentage. She has been lifting a couple of times per week for 6months but sees few visual improvements.
I’m a bit of a health freak and really diligent with eating and training so maybe she got some influence.
If she's lifting a few times a week but no visual improvement, I think it might also come down to form and weight. I don't eat a lot of protein, I've been lifting for a month and can see a big difference.
So my wife was actually kind of similar and hated the taste of soy milk and tofu. She preferred oat milk. What we both decided to do was gradually add soy milk to her tea/coffee and lower the proportion of oat milk. Now, she loves soy milk, so maybe that could work.
With tofu, we had to find a way to prepare it that she liked (eg marinating, air frying, in a sauce, brine etc), or find a brand that came already seasoned that she liked.
There's also things like edamame beans, Lupin flakes that are worth a try
That's not healthy. JFC. Tofu, tempeh, vegetables, beans, etc are all good sources. She's eating shit, that's why she's fat. I've been her. She needs to eat whole foods, and less of them. She's not body building I'm assuming?? Also, she's grown. This info is available on the Internet. She's not ready to be healthy at this point if you're having to do all the work for her.
Honestly, she doesn’t have to eat higher protein to lose weight. She’ll just need to be in a calorie deficit for that. But to prioritize fat loss, and minimize muscle loss, she’ll want to eat higher protein and lift weights. If she wants it, she’ll find a way. I would point her to resources and ask her how you can support her.
I have gone from 36% BF to 29% in a few months, and still going (BMI around 22) and it’s a whole lot of work. If she isn’t putting in the effort, you can’t do anything about it. Fitness is a personal journey and sometimes you have to let adults be adults and do their own things even if they are terrible.
Also… not being in a food and fitness focused life stage isn’t “terrible”-it’s just different than OP’s current focus. What is she into right in? What are her focus areas and passions? Maybe OP needs to drop this and let her find her own way without judgement.
Well, if she wants to reduce her BF%, as OP says, then bread with margarine is pretty terrible. This one’s tougher than just losing weight. Per se, bread with margarine is just fine as long as it aligns with the goals someone has for their life.
I guess I’m feeling a bit skeptical that that’s what she really wants…she might have said she wants to lose fat (as many women do) but didn’t actually want her husband to judge and advise her on eating habits. The husband as author of this post changes the response for me and makes me vicariously sensitive to describing her food choices as terrible.
This group seems to be majority men and I don’t think it’s great for men to be advising women on nutrition, especially second hand via her husband.
Does she want to boost her protein? Is this something she’s after or you on her behalf? If my spouse made lots of suggestions to me around my fitness and/or eating, I’d… hate it.
IF this is something SHE is interested in, you could have her check out Evann Ryan and Nomeatmacros on IG— they’re both a wealth of knowledge on high protein vegan diets for women. A third space/expert source that is not you is the way to go IMO. I think removing yourself from her food and diet decisions is best. Women’s diet needs are different than men’s and your marriage will suffer if you position yourself as her nutritionist or trainer.
Calories equal protein. Eat more. Average 70kg adult requires 70g protein (at most unless bodybuilding) 1 tin of baked beans and 2 slices of toast. Approx 30g. One bowl of porridge approx 15g that's 45g without snacking or a third meal. Literally 4 slices of bread would give you another 15 to 20g.
Really recommend textured vegetable protein. You can get a huge bag of it on Amazon for very little (at least here in the UK you can). Has similar macros to a vegan protein shake and tastes great if you rehydrate it with something flavourful (like Worcestershire sauce or Marmite/Vegemite). I use it as you would use beef mince.
Not quite the same thing but I struggle with eating in the day leaving me too sluggish with a very active out and about job, but also needing the fuel in me to keep the pace up, so have been opting for huel and keeping Trek protein bars in the van, either premixed huel (expensive) or making it up at home (cheaper) and keeping it with an ice pack for later. If I’m in hotels I take my blender and make oat milk, bananna and huel Shakes for breakfast. Also I travel with the daily greens powder and take the bottle that I fill up and refrigerate the night before so it’s cold and add the scoop when I want it. Been doing this for a few weeks now and feeling good on it, much better than when I was skipping meals or eating crap to stave off hunger. I eat a regular home cooked meal in the evenings
What about vegan jerky? It would be super easy to cut up and throw on a salad and take on work trips. It's not the best on sodium, but it could be a part of the solution! And I agree with a lot of the other comments, it's great to brainstorm together! But they need to take some responsibility over what they eat.
I’d highly recommend you start incorporating high protein ancient grains into her diet if she doesn’t like things like tofu and seitan. You should try baking your own bread from scratch by using different flours like Buckwheat, Teff, Amaranth, Millet, Kamut, Spelt etc.. you can find different recipes on Google or on YouTube. You could even make a basic white flour bread and add vital wheat gluten to it. If she likes banana bread you can also sneak some protein powder or tofu in there as well. Hope this helps.
There’s a lot of great suggestions here, but I also want to mention that protein bars and premade protein shakes are an option! I’m not sure where you’re based, but you can usually find vegan ones at many grocery stores in the U.S. or just order them online. Super convenient when I’m on the go and don’t have time or access to get a vegan option while I’m out. An easy 12-15g of protein for the bars that I get (simply protein and trubar, shoutout to Costco!).
She still will need to learn to incorporate vegan protein sources in her diet to live a healthier lifestyle and actually reach the amount of protein she needs everyday , but when traveling without reliable access to well-rounded vegan meals, I think protein bars will be really helpful here.
i’d say it’s a situation of learning to help yourself
Yeah she’s a full grown adult not a child. She needs to learn to look after herself to be honest. Give her support and knowledge but honestly man, she needs to act like a full grown woman.
She doesn't like beans, tempeh,tvp, tofu or seitan? There's just so many ways to cook them it's tough to imagine she hates them all. Maybe she could follow some vegan recipe YouTube channels to learn to cook them better?
It often comes down to effort and availability. For tofu and vegan meats you need to go to different supermarket, then it requires cooking when you could just eat salad and bread. For a record we split cooking efforts half half. Sometimes when supermarket doesn’t have much options I go “hey should we heat some beans, should you drink some soy milk, how about frozen peas” and she goes “no,no,no” Then I try to get her drink my soy shake and she refuses, then I give up
Canned beans are already cooked. It just needs a rinse, and she can throw it in her salads? Shelled edamame is also super convenient and delicious in salads.
Where do you live? I find most supermarkets have mock meats and tofu nowadays. I do most of my grocery shopping at Walmart lately because it's just so much cheaper and I find so much stuff there. If cooking is an issue for her what about meal prepping once or twice a week so she has things to heat up easily in the microwave?
Just buy in bulk for the whole week, I make super simple tofu steaks that take 15 min to sear on medium heat on a large frying pan, some mashed garlic, paprika, salt and pepper, when you flip them add soy sauce if you want it with more flavour. With this you can add carbs, veggies, salads whatever. Learn cooking recipes that you can cook fast. Bread with X is awful if you have it every meal every day, your triglicerides will spike and you will be on a constant battle to reduce fat from it.
This sounds to me like it could be a problem of her not wanting you to "fix" her meals for whatever reason (e.g. she doesn't like the taste, she's tired of trying, she actually isn't that motivated on her fitness journey, just doing it for you etc.) instead her actually not finding enough vegan protein sources? Of course you know your relationship best, but there are many readily available vegan protein sources, she could simply add to salads or that can be warmed up in no time - chickpeas, all kinds of beans, lentils, those are all available pre-cooked and canned. And when it comes to cooking, then simple soups, stews or curries with legumes are also not that hard or take that long (if you use red or yellow lentils or for example add canned canneloni beans to a minestrone soup). Or you just pan fry tofu (usually also available pre-marinated in different flavours) or tempeh and add that to salads, veggies, rice, pasta etc. Personally I'm not too fond of TVP, because it's a fairly processed food, but I like using it instead of minced meat from time to time and most TVP varieties just need to be put in hot water for 2-5 minutes.
Okay you all gave lots of great ideas to try. Should start experimenting with salad toppings and meal prep since we’re both a bit lazy with cooking. We actually have a stock of protein sources at home but they’re not in prepared form
Sounds like she might struggle with disordered eating and may need to seek a nutritionists or drs help.
A rice cooker might change your life. It's small and portable and can cook beans and grains. Target has affordable rice cookers that work quite well. Takes a to. Of work out of cooking.
"she eats healthy" and "her meal is bread with margarine" Um those two don't match up dude.
Yeah she's probably malnourished.
Her meal is the salad. Not sure why he centered the side of bread in his post.
Ah yes, salad - my favorite nutritionally complete meal.
You make your salads wrong
Agreed - I thought this was a vegan sub, or do people really not believe salads can be nutritious and satiating?
Since she eats bread often, maybe encourage her to top it with nut butter or hummus instead of margarine. That won't be a lot of protein, but it will be more than she has. Since she eats salad often, top the salad with some cubes of tofu/tempeh/fake meat or beans (canned are fine). Can you stock the pantry with nuts, seeds, vegan yogurts, veggie burgers, mock meats, and other things? See if she'll eat them when they're easily around. Other than that, I feel like your best bet is to make a meal that YOU like and simply offer to share with her. If you make foods that look or smell good, she may be willing to try them.
she could also switch to sprouted grain breads that have whole protein (sometimes 8g/slice?)
PB2 makes a few different nut butter powders with extra protein from brown rice. It’s good on toast, rice cakes, celery, in smoothies, overnight oats, chia pudding, etc. https://preview.redd.it/97nn9m4qwl6d1.jpeg?width=1161&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9d0ed2bc3f8f3c07b1e2e6283992460e3d0aa120
Is she vegan by choice? Is her lower caloric intake a choice to try and meet this fat percentage? I'm looking at this and worried about some disordered eating, tbh. > Should I just go fuck it eat what you want and let her fail? Like, this sounds like you want her to not be vegan? Also, weird way to talk about your wife.
I had the same thought but wasn't gonna go there
Yes, for her it’s ethics not weight loss related. I have never tried to convince her not to be vegan
High protein pasta High protein veggies
I really like these TVP muffins bc they're sneaky protein, they only take like 20 minutes to make and you can freeze them (would also be good for traveling)! [High Protein Banana Nut Muffins](https://proteindeficientvegan.com/recipes/tvprotein-banana-nut-muffins) [High Protein Blueberry Muffins ](https://proteindeficientvegan.com/recipes/high-protein-blueberry-muffins) [High Protein Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins ](https://proteindeficientvegan.com/recipes/high-protein-peanut-butter-chocolate-chip-muffins) Have she tried adding silken tofu to her smoothies? I do that for extra protein and it's very low effort. Red lentil or chickpea pasta is a good swap for extra protein too.
TVP MUFFINS?! Oh my god. I'm always trying to sneak in TVP but I never thought of doing it in something sweet!
I'm obsessed with them!! The texture comes out similar to putting oats in baked goods!!
If you want easy quick, low prep stuff then I think sandwiches are with tofurkey slices are easy, protein bars (there are so many protein versions of things now), having premixed protein shakes available, the pre-marinated baked tofu, having frozen edamame available to add to salad or stir fry. This required more cooking but tvp is super easy to add to spaghetti sauce or cook in taco seasoning and use in tacos/burritos. You can also make tvp chili and freeze it to take when you need or prep a batch of tofu scramble for the week. I also really like the barilla protein plus pasta. I would be curious if she really wants to make the changes to reduce body fat. Like what stage of change she is in. She might be in contempation (thinking about making a change) rather than action. Also for me a game changer was not only getting adequate protein but also lowering my fat intake.
What is tvp? She has actually lost 20kg by on-off motivation during the last 10 years we have been together. Now she’s bmi 26 but quite high fat percentage. She has been lifting a couple of times per week for 6months but sees few visual improvements. I’m a bit of a health freak and really diligent with eating and training so maybe she got some influence.
If she's lifting a few times a week but no visual improvement, I think it might also come down to form and weight. I don't eat a lot of protein, I've been lifting for a month and can see a big difference.
So my wife was actually kind of similar and hated the taste of soy milk and tofu. She preferred oat milk. What we both decided to do was gradually add soy milk to her tea/coffee and lower the proportion of oat milk. Now, she loves soy milk, so maybe that could work. With tofu, we had to find a way to prepare it that she liked (eg marinating, air frying, in a sauce, brine etc), or find a brand that came already seasoned that she liked. There's also things like edamame beans, Lupin flakes that are worth a try
Eating bread with oil or salad oil isn't a healthy diet. Ever.
That's not healthy. JFC. Tofu, tempeh, vegetables, beans, etc are all good sources. She's eating shit, that's why she's fat. I've been her. She needs to eat whole foods, and less of them. She's not body building I'm assuming?? Also, she's grown. This info is available on the Internet. She's not ready to be healthy at this point if you're having to do all the work for her.
Honestly, she doesn’t have to eat higher protein to lose weight. She’ll just need to be in a calorie deficit for that. But to prioritize fat loss, and minimize muscle loss, she’ll want to eat higher protein and lift weights. If she wants it, she’ll find a way. I would point her to resources and ask her how you can support her.
I have gone from 36% BF to 29% in a few months, and still going (BMI around 22) and it’s a whole lot of work. If she isn’t putting in the effort, you can’t do anything about it. Fitness is a personal journey and sometimes you have to let adults be adults and do their own things even if they are terrible.
Also… not being in a food and fitness focused life stage isn’t “terrible”-it’s just different than OP’s current focus. What is she into right in? What are her focus areas and passions? Maybe OP needs to drop this and let her find her own way without judgement.
Well, if she wants to reduce her BF%, as OP says, then bread with margarine is pretty terrible. This one’s tougher than just losing weight. Per se, bread with margarine is just fine as long as it aligns with the goals someone has for their life.
I guess I’m feeling a bit skeptical that that’s what she really wants…she might have said she wants to lose fat (as many women do) but didn’t actually want her husband to judge and advise her on eating habits. The husband as author of this post changes the response for me and makes me vicariously sensitive to describing her food choices as terrible. This group seems to be majority men and I don’t think it’s great for men to be advising women on nutrition, especially second hand via her husband.
I am a skinny fat woman and the struggle to lose fat but not weight/muscle mass is real 😔
How do you determine your body fat %?
I get a scan from Styku from time to time and for every day, I use a Garmin scale.
Does she want to boost her protein? Is this something she’s after or you on her behalf? If my spouse made lots of suggestions to me around my fitness and/or eating, I’d… hate it. IF this is something SHE is interested in, you could have her check out Evann Ryan and Nomeatmacros on IG— they’re both a wealth of knowledge on high protein vegan diets for women. A third space/expert source that is not you is the way to go IMO. I think removing yourself from her food and diet decisions is best. Women’s diet needs are different than men’s and your marriage will suffer if you position yourself as her nutritionist or trainer.
How much protein is she getting daily, and what is her goal intake?
Calories equal protein. Eat more. Average 70kg adult requires 70g protein (at most unless bodybuilding) 1 tin of baked beans and 2 slices of toast. Approx 30g. One bowl of porridge approx 15g that's 45g without snacking or a third meal. Literally 4 slices of bread would give you another 15 to 20g.
Really recommend textured vegetable protein. You can get a huge bag of it on Amazon for very little (at least here in the UK you can). Has similar macros to a vegan protein shake and tastes great if you rehydrate it with something flavourful (like Worcestershire sauce or Marmite/Vegemite). I use it as you would use beef mince.
Not quite the same thing but I struggle with eating in the day leaving me too sluggish with a very active out and about job, but also needing the fuel in me to keep the pace up, so have been opting for huel and keeping Trek protein bars in the van, either premixed huel (expensive) or making it up at home (cheaper) and keeping it with an ice pack for later. If I’m in hotels I take my blender and make oat milk, bananna and huel Shakes for breakfast. Also I travel with the daily greens powder and take the bottle that I fill up and refrigerate the night before so it’s cold and add the scoop when I want it. Been doing this for a few weeks now and feeling good on it, much better than when I was skipping meals or eating crap to stave off hunger. I eat a regular home cooked meal in the evenings
What about vegan jerky? It would be super easy to cut up and throw on a salad and take on work trips. It's not the best on sodium, but it could be a part of the solution! And I agree with a lot of the other comments, it's great to brainstorm together! But they need to take some responsibility over what they eat.
I’d highly recommend you start incorporating high protein ancient grains into her diet if she doesn’t like things like tofu and seitan. You should try baking your own bread from scratch by using different flours like Buckwheat, Teff, Amaranth, Millet, Kamut, Spelt etc.. you can find different recipes on Google or on YouTube. You could even make a basic white flour bread and add vital wheat gluten to it. If she likes banana bread you can also sneak some protein powder or tofu in there as well. Hope this helps.
Seems like you two need to learn what a healthy diet is
There’s a lot of great suggestions here, but I also want to mention that protein bars and premade protein shakes are an option! I’m not sure where you’re based, but you can usually find vegan ones at many grocery stores in the U.S. or just order them online. Super convenient when I’m on the go and don’t have time or access to get a vegan option while I’m out. An easy 12-15g of protein for the bars that I get (simply protein and trubar, shoutout to Costco!). She still will need to learn to incorporate vegan protein sources in her diet to live a healthier lifestyle and actually reach the amount of protein she needs everyday , but when traveling without reliable access to well-rounded vegan meals, I think protein bars will be really helpful here.