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Q: I’m a vegetarian who trains three times a week to gain muscle. Can I get enough protein without eating meat, chicken or fish?
The short answer: You don’t need to eat meat, or any other animal protein for that matter, to help build muscle from resistance training.
That provides, however, that you eat enough protein each day from a variety of plant sources.
There is one more caveat. To maximize muscle growth, research suggests that you need to distribute your protein evenly across your meals.
Here’s a primer on protein – how much you need for daily health, the extra you need for muscle gain, and how to get enough in a meat-free diet.
Vegetarian eating patterns
Vegetarian diets vary from those that avoid all animal foods to others that include only a few.
A vegan diet excludes all animal products – meat, poultry, fish, eggs and milk.
A lacto-vegetarian diet includes milk, but omits meat, poultry, fish and eggs. Lacto-ovo vegetarians eat milk and eggs, but avoid meat, poultry and fish.
Flexitarians eat a mostly plant-based diet but occasionally eat animal foods.
Protein quality: animal versus plant
When it comes to synthesizing proteins, whether muscle tissue or otherwise, your body relies on a constant influx of amino acids, the building blocks of proteins.
Animal foods supply all nine essential amino acids in adequate amounts. As such, they are considered “complete” protein sources.
Plant proteins (eg, legumes, nuts, seeds, whole grains), on the other hand, are low in or deficient in at least one or more essential amino acids. The amino acid profile of soybeans is close to that of animal protein.
One essential amino acid, leucine, acts as a trigger for muscle protein synthesis when consumed in sufficient amounts. Plant proteins generally have a lower leucine content than animal proteins.
Because of the fiber in whole plant foods, plant protein is not as easily absorbed by the body as animal protein.
It is necessary to include a sufficient amount of protein in each meal to activate muscle protein synthesis. Research suggests that it takes 20 to 30 g of protein per meal to do that.
How much protein?
For sedentary people, the recommended dietary allowance (RDA) for protein is 0.8 g per kg of body weight per day.
The protein RDA target is too low, however, if your goal is to build or hold on to muscle when you’re older.
To maintain muscle, older adults need more protein each day, 1.2 g protein/kg body weight. With age it takes more protein to stimulate protein synthesis than when younger.
To gain muscle you need even more.
According to a 2022 review of 74 randomized controlled trials, a daily protein intake of at least 1.6 protein/kg body weight is required to increase lean body mass during strength training in adults under 65 years of age. (Physical activity is the most powerful stimulus for protein synthesis.)
Among adults 65 and older, consuming 1.2 to 1.6 g protein per kg daily resulted in a small increase in lean body weight with resistance training.
Eating twice as much protein as the official RDA resulted in an increase in lean body mass of 2.9 to 3.1 pounds among 66 studies in the review.
Can a vegetarian build muscle with these higher protein targets?
According to Stuart Phillips, professor of kinesiology at McMaster University and Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Skeletal Muscle Health and Aging, “with a carefully planned diet – I emphasize this – there is no reason why a vegetarian cannot compensate 1.6 g protein per kg … vegan, based on all the evidence, would also be fine.”
Convert protein goals into meatless meals
For a 170 lb (77 kg) person, 1.6 g protein/kg body weight/day equals 124 g protein.
To ensure that protein synthesis is maintained throughout the day, you will need to divide that protein evenly across three or four meals. Three meals, each containing 41 to 42 g of protein, will get you to that daily protein goal of 124 g.
For plant-based eaters, you’ll get 41 g of protein from 2 cups of cooked chickpea pasta (27 g of protein) and three-quarters of a cup of shelled edamame (15 g). Or an additional 170 g of firm tofu (28 g), 1.5 cups of cooked quinoa (12 g) and a tablespoon of hemp seeds (3 g) provide 43 g of protein.
If you eat milk and eggs, you’ll find 24 g of protein in one cup of Greek yogurt, 28 g in one cup of cottage cheese, 12.5 g in two large eggs and 8 g in one cup of milk (ditto for milk soy ).
Protein powders can be used to supplement your protein intake. Whey protein isolate (made from dairy products) provides 25 g of protein in one; plant-based protein powders typically provide 20 g.
Leslie Beck, a Toronto-based private practice dietitian, is Medcan’s director of food and nutrition. Follow her on Twitter @LeslieBeckRD
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