Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

Hi guys. I just realized that after over a year of being a vegan and over a year of body-weight workouts I have not been watching my protein at all and I also just realized that this is probably why I haven't been seeing the results I believe I deserve. I have always just thought that protein is extremely overrated and whatever I eat is just enough. I don't like to rely or even use shakes. I am 22 years old about 165 lbs and I work hard. I have been trying to put on weight for a long time but it just doesn't happen. I realized that even though I may eat enough, I definitely do not get enough protein.

So, how much protein do we really need? I know that it is hard to gain using body-weight fitness only, but I am pretty sure that I deserve some gains considering how hard and regularly I work out. Please advise. Thank you.

Also, what do you guys use for protein? I eat a lot of peanut butter but I feel like I have been eating way too much bread. Also not too fond of soy. Thank you.

Hey,

i am not doing calistenics but i am training in gym for about 10 years now. I will just tell you how i get my protein, and my opinion on "how much do we really need".

I am 25 years old and i weigh also 165lbs. I am eating 100 - 110 g of Protein every day and I had great success with this amount of protein. I think 120g is the upper limit, you do not need more. In my opinion is the most important point that you eat "smart", which means high carb (fruits), low fat and enough calories (i eat 2700-2900 kcal every day). In general i get 60 to 80% of my calories from carbs, 10 to 20% from protein and 10 to 20% from fat. Most of the time its 70/15/15.

A normal day looks like this:

- first meal (10-15 minutes after i wake up): Smoothie: 2-3 bananas + 2-3 apples + spinach + frozen fruits + lupine flour ( 20g, lupine flour consists of 40% protein) + cannabis seeds (10g) + flaxseed (10g)
(~600kcal and 15-20g Protein)
- sendond meal (30-40 minutes after the Smoothie): Oatmeal + raisins + "milk" (soy, oat, almond, hazel, rice...)
(~600kcal and 15-20g Protein, 10 additional with soy "milk")
- third meal: A great Stew with beans, chickpeas, lenses, maize (beans+ maize = great biological value). (500kcal and 20-25g protein). I often add some rice or potatoes => 900 kcal and 30-35 protein. I always add a salad to this meal (2-3g protein).
- fourth meal: some vegetable: I really like broccoli and cauliflower. Both has almost no calories but 2-3 g protein per 100g. 300g broccoli has approximately 100kcal and 9 g Protein

=> Summarized : 2200 kcal and ~72-87g Protein.

During the day i often eat some sprouts, bananas, dates (almost any kind of fuits) and nuts (not more than 20-30g) to fill up my calories. (5 - 15g protein)

In total i reach 80-100g protein. 100g are fine, but 80 is a bit low. If i only reach 80 g of protein, i just add one Sunnwarrior protein shake.

Tobias, thanks for your reply and sharing personal experience/examples. I don't think I can do too well counting my calories and proteins though because my diet varies so vastly from day to day. I try to make a smoothie every morning as well but this ends up happening only 3-5x a week.

In between which meals do you work out? And how often? What do you think about the time in between working out and getting protein in our system? I have heard that the sooner the better (but no real explanation as to why) and I usually don't get any protein in my system sometimes for even up to an hour after working out.

For me (personally) is counting calories really easy. I am from Germany and there is a smartphone app called "FDDB Scanner". It is really simple with this app. I am pretty sure a similar app exists in other countries. I know there exists also a Facebook app called "Cronometer" to count calories. In my opinion it is really helpful (maybe you try it least for a few weeks to get a "feeling" on what/how much you have to eat).

I prefer to work out between the 2. and 3. Meal. Generally i work out 5-7 times a week. 5 times when i am doing "normal split training" and 7 times when im doing "highfrequency training" (i dont know if you have heard about it).

I dont care too much about the time when i getting protein. Everything in between 2 hours after working out is ok for me. Maybe its better to get it directly after working out, but i am not a professional bodybuilder, so i dont care about it

you look massive in the avatar pic how long have you been vegan for? do you order sunwarrior from healthxl.eu or you can find it at some local store in germany?