Episode 123: How to Hit Your Macros as a Vegetarian or Vegan

If you’re a vegan or vegetarian, protein is often the stumbling block. Here’s exactly what you need to know about hitting your macros as a vegan or vegetarian. 

If you need some help with protein choices, you can grab one of my favorite guides, 8 Ways to Add Protein to Meals You're Already Eating right here:

https://www.mindstrongfitness.com/proteinguide

Transcript

Becoming MindStrong: Episode 123: How to Hit Your Macros as a Vegetarian or Vegan

0:00  
Welcome back to the becoming mind strong podcast. If you've hung out here before, you have heard me say probably more times than any of us would like that, as a former teacher, I know that differentiated learning is real. If I knew 10 approaches to nutrition that I thought were sustainable, I would teach 10 and say, let's pick the one that works best for you. The reason that macros is the only form of nutrition I've ever taught that I can never imagine myself teaching is because I consider it to be the single most sustainable approach to nutrition. Part of that is, yes, it is the necessary temporary training ground to get to intuitive eating. More specific to this conversation, though, the reason that I believe it to be the single most sustainable approach is because there's no restriction, meaning we I am never going to tell you this is a good food, this is a bad food. This food is allowed. This food is not allowed. I am never going to change your shopping list. I'm not going to say you can never buy that food again, or you have to buy these foods, right? Sometimes people ask, What do I eat? And the answer is, whatever you want, we're just going to tweak and adjust the proportions. Obviously, we give more help than that. We'd be terrible coaches if that's all we said. But my point in saying this is, yes, we want to eat in our world. We use the word nutritious and less nutritious. We want to aim for more nutritious foods the majority of the time, while still allowing for those more fun, less nutritious foods now and then, because it's how we avoid caving and binging. So a lot of times when I'm doing workshops trainings, I hear the Yeah, but yeah, but I'm vegetarian, yeah, but I'm vegan, yeah, but I'm gluten free, yeah, but I have celiacs. And I always come back to the statement I just said. The beauty of macros is that there's no such thing as food you have to eat, or foods that you can't eat. So in today's episode, I want to specifically talk to people who are vegetarian and vegan and how macros can work for you. Check it out. So if you've never heard me talk about this before. In my younger years, I kind of went back and forth from being a vegetarian going back to meat, being a vegetarian going back to me eating meat quite a few years ago, I did what was supposed to be a vegan experiment. I decided for a month I was going to go full fledged vegan, and I felt so incredible that that month long, quote, unquote experiment turned into three years of being a full fledged vegan. For three full years one day, this is a true story. I do not recommend this, but one day I was at dinner, there was wagyu steak on the menu. I was like, That sounds delicious. And that was the end of my veganism. I do not recommend breaking it that way. Thankfully, my body was fine, but probably not the smartest move. So I say that to say I know what it's like to hit macros eating meat. I know what it's like to hit macros being a vegetarian, I know what it's like to hit macros being a vegan. I should also add that in my vegan days, I've never been a competitive bodybuilder. The thought of getting on stage and prepping for a competition has never appealed to me. And for a lot of my life, I lived a bodybuilder lifestyle, meaning I've put myself through bulks, through cuts, all the things that bodybuilders do, I have, I have older episodes that talk through that if it's something you're interested in. So not only was I hitting my macros as a vegan, I was eating a lot of protein as a vegan. So what I want to do in today's episode is speak to people who are vegans and vegetarians, because we get a lot of questions about that, be completely transparent about, you know, what's great about it, what's tough about it, and then give you some options and some help of how to do it, because there's two big challenges that come up when you're vegan or vegetarian. So first and foremost, you know me, I'm not a sugar coat person. It is tremendously easier to hit protein goals when you eat meat. When I was vegan, I got used to it. Again, we're going to talk about how to do it. I did it for three years. I could do it. I could eat large amounts of protein. When I went back to eating meat, I was like, oh, thank everything. This is so much easier now, as the time I'm recording this, yes, I eat meat again. I don't eat it very often, so it's primarily plant based, with some meat in there now. And then, the two big challenges for most vegans and vegetarians, first no brainer, it's what I just referenced, is getting enough protein in. We're going to talk about that. The second is that a lot of vegetarian and vegan substitutes tend to be higher in carbs and fat, right? If you're looking at sources, if you're trying to get protein in, it's kind of ties in with protein, right? A lot of it is when I'm trying to get protein in, it tends to be high in carbs. Or when I'm trying to get protein in, it tends to be high in fat. So let's start with carbs, a lot of beans, legumes, things like that. They are a carb source that have some protein in it, right? Chickpeas, lentils, these are carb sources that have a good amount of protein in them, but they're primarily carb sources. If we look at things like a lot of meat substitutes in the Vegan, Vegetarian world, a lot of them come with some oils. They're made with coconut oil, things like that, which have a lot of fat in them. So the second challenge that kind of goes hand in hand with the first first being, how do I get enough protein in and.

Unknown Speaker  5:00  
As a vegan, vegetarian, the second being, while I'm trying to get more protein in I tend to be higher in carbs and fat. Those are the two big challenges for vegans vegetarians. So I want to zoom out and answer this in two different parts, one kind of big picture, and then I'm going to get logistical with with options and food choices.

5:19  
One of the things I harp on a lot and inside ignite our 12 week program, this is, this is a theme that we always come back to, is flowing with your body's tendencies. What do I mean by that? When we talk about goal ranges for protein, goal ranges for fat, we purposely are talking in ranges, right? There are certain ranges that our bodies want to be in. I have older episodes on that. There are ranges that serve our body best based on our body weight. The reason I harp so much on that word ranges, which now sounds weird because I've said it so many times, is because we want to flow with your body's tendencies, meaning, I'll use myself as an example. I don't have a gallbladder, my body does not do well with fat, so I've naturally over the years. I got my gallbladder out when I was, I think, 17, so it's been a lifetime of eating low lower fat. So when I got into macros and I started figuring out my goal ranges, I always gravitate toward the lower side of the range of fat, because that's what flows with my lifestyle. If you've hung out here, you know, I am not a fan of suck it up buttercup. This is how you have to eat because you're never going to stick with it. So I'm saying that because what I just referenced earlier, if you're a vegetarian or vegan, oftentimes it's I tend to be high in carbs, or I tend to be high in fat, because a lot of these substitutes go that way. Maybe I'm eating a lot of beans, maybe I'm eating a lot of lentils, maybe I'm eating a lot of meat substitutes that have a lot of oils in them. This is why it's so important to flow with your tendencies, because when we have members who are vegetarian vegans, we know, okay, they might have to be a little higher in their fat range, they might have to be a little higher in their carb range, and that's okay real quickly if you need some help with protein, one of my favorite guides that I have out there is called eight ways to add protein to meals you're already eating, and it even includes a whole bunch of vegan and vegetarian options. You can go to mind strong fitness.com/protein,

7:19  
guide, or just use the link in the comments below to grab your copy. Now let's get back to the episode. It's about, yes, we want to be in range for what works for your body

7:29  
in terms of getting protein in. This is a personal choice. You can absolutely do it again. I was eating large amounts of protein living a bodybuilder lifestyle as 100% vegan. If you're vegetarian, it gets a little easier, because you can put eggs and things like that in there. And even if you are full fledged vegan, you can do it. When I say it comes down to personal preference, because some people only like to eat foods where they know exactly what's in it, right? There's some people who, if you're vegan, vegan or vegetarian, you don't want the meat substitutes because they're too processed. Can you still do it? Absolutely. Is it more challenging? Absolutely. So some of the go to vegan vegetarian sources. I call them the big three of vegan and vegetarianism. Tofu is a fantastic one. Tempeh is a one. I personally don't like the taste of it, but it is fantastic from a macro point of view. And the third one is seitan. It's a terrible name, so it's like, I'm saying Satan. It's it's not, it is seitan. Seitan. Now, I almost said Satan. Seitan is made of vital wheat gluten, so if you're gluten free as well, you don't want to touch the one. But I always call seitan kind of like the grilled chicken of the vegan world. One of the reasons that grilled chicken gets the reputation it does in the bodybuilding world is that it's very high in protein and very low in carbs and fat. That's seiton. In the vegan world, it is very high in protein and very low in carbs and fat. It's I used to use it in like, stir fries, things like that. I personally love it. So tofu, tempeh and seiton, those are the big three. If you're someone who doesn't like a lot of processed food, those are going to be your go tos. Now, from there, if you're someone who doesn't mind, you know, eating the fake meats, the meat substitutes, you've got the kind of extreme end to that of as of the time I'm recording this, there's like, beyond burgers, impossible burgers, those have a lot of ingredients in them. They tend to be very high in fat because of the oils that we talked about earlier, and they're going to come with a lot of protein.

9:27  
There are meat substitutes. There's a I don't represent any of these companies, by the way. This is not me promoting them. They're just foods that I have eaten and love and are very popular with a lot of people that are vegetarian and vegan. There's a brand called Abbotts. They make this, this, what is it called? I don't know if they call it soy Rizzo or they just call it soy chorizo, but they make a chorizo That is delicious. I mix that in with my eggs. Sometimes, to this day, I still eat that and the other big one, again, not affiliated with them, but daring chicken, D, A, R, I N, G, I believe daring.

10:00  
Chicken is soy based. I don't I can't vouch for that, but in our household, we eat a decent amount of daring chicken. It's the most chicken tasting fake chicken that I've ever had. So Abbott's, I think it's two b's, two T's. Don't quote me on that. And daring chicken are, are they're still processed, they're still meat substitutes, but they have less ingredients then you're beyond burgers and You're impossible burgers. Those are kind of the go to so if you want pure, pure vegan, vegetarian, less processed, you've got tofu, tempeh, seitan. If you want meat substitutes, there's things like, like abbots and daring chicken. From there, it gets into the conversation that, that we started this conversation with where things like chickpeas and lentils and we can branch that out into chickpea pasta lentil pasta, which I love. If I'm gonna have pasta I'm gonna have chickpea or lentil pasta, because you get to have pasta and there's extra protein in it, or even just chickpeas and lentils by themselves, black beans, things like that. Those are carb sources that also have protein in them.

11:03  
Hemp seeds are a fat source, chia seeds, flax seeds, those seeds are fat sources that have protein in them. So if you're vegan or vegetarian, they're fantastic, and you want to make sure that you're fitting them into your macros. What I mean by that is, if I'm going to have Satan, that's almost all protein zero carbs are fat. It's pretty easy to fit it into my macros. For the purposes of protein, if I'm going to sit down and have a bunch of hemp seeds, I know that I'm going to get a lot of fat with that protein, which is great. We need it. We need healthy fats, and we want to make sure that it fits into the balance. So the proportions. If you hung out here, you know, when people ask me, how much should I eat? The answers, I can't answer that. I need to know what your body needs. It's about fitting it into your personal plan. But for the purposes of today, what I hope is clear is number one, yes, you can absolutely track macros as a vegan, vegetarian. We are never going to tell you you have to eat this food. You can't eat that food. Will it be more challenging to get protein in? Yes, absolutely. Meat sources tend to be easier, eggs, fish. They're very easy to get protein in without a lot of carbs and fat. If you take those away, you can absolutely still do it, just going to be a bit more challenging. If you want the less processed stuff, then we're looking at tofu, tempeh, seitan, if you want the meat substitutes, there's things like impossible beyond burgers. We talked about abbots, daring chicken. And then from there, we just, I call it the nerdy game of Tetris, right? How do I eat the foods I love and fit them together? That's where we get into things like lentils and chickpeas and hemp seeds and flea chia seeds and flax seeds and feeling like Forrest, Gump, fried shrimp and grilled gym. So if you were vegan, vegetarian, we have worked with hundreds, if not 1000s, of women that fall in that category, myself included. It is 100% possible. It is doable. It's going to be more challenging in the beginning. You're going to lock it in. It's going to get easier as you go.

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