I've seen this discussed in bits and pieces here but I haven't found a topic that gets to the heart of what I want to know. Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated. As a quick background I weigh 133 lbs and my goal is to build muscle. Going by the rule of "1g per lb of body weight of protein" I should be consuming 133g of protein per day. I'm not. I'm finding it difficult to reach that number. In fact most days I only reach about half of that. My BMR is just below 1,600. I figured if I attempt to add around 2 lbs (7,000 calories) of muscle in a month then I should be eating around 200 more calories per day (7,000/30 days per month minus a bunch to be conservative). This means I should be eating around 1,800 calories per day, along with 133g of protein. So far, all sounds good and well. But I do not use a protein supplement and would greatly prefer not to. This leaves me with the option of consuming high protein, low calorie foods. (I'd like to steer away from the heavy bulk/cut cycle.) From what I can gather, tofu and spinach are my best bets with beans as a lesser used option. But I'm weary of eating a diet composed greatly of tofu. So to get to the point: Is a vegan diet for bodybuilding possible and appropriate without the use of a protein supplement? If it is, how do you personally manage it? What foods have I overlooked that will allow me to get the needed protein intake without adding extra calories? Are crazy amounts of cardio in my foreseeable future if I choose to continue on this path?