I’m aware of essential and non essential proteins, but pretty ignorant beyond that. For example, what proportion of your intake needs be essential protein?
In: Biology
* histidine cauliflower, bananas
* isoleucine spinach, blueberries, apples
* leucine kidney beans, apples, blueberries, bananas
* lysine kidney beans, black beans, tomatoes
* methionine broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, tomatoes, apples, bananas, blueberries
* phenylalanine black beans, kidney beans, bananas
* threonine spinach, kidney beans, broccoli
* tryptophan spinach, apples, oranges, bananas
* valine spinach, broccoli, apples, blueberries, oranges
When it comes to being vegan, knowing your proteins AMINO ACID profile is number 1. Beans are not a complete protein and need to be eaten with brown rice. Same thing with lentils, must be eaten with brown rice. I also lift weights and build muscle on a vegan diet, and eat my body weight in in grams of protein.
Edit: From the research I’ve done and based off my own metabolism, I am on a 30/30/40 split. 30% fats, 30% carbs, 40% protein. 1 smoothie with protein powder a day, all other protein sources come from various plants. Every meal will consist of 2/3 types of protein as well.
As a dietitian I’m actually happy to see the way this turned out. Top answers aren’t bro science
I will say this. My sister works at a gym. A long time ago when she was trying to build muscle it felt like she hit a wall. She started eating meat again and no longer had issues. She is very much into health, nutrition and fitness. Might be part of the reason we don’t talk anymore.
Someone has probably cited the 1.5g protein/kg bodyweight guideline. That’s a good place to start.
Animal protein will generally be more “complete” than plant sources, in that they’ll contain the full spectrum of amino acids, including the EAAs (essential amino acids).
In general, though, splitting hairs over the details isn’t helpful. If you’re trying to gain muscle, ensure each meal has two palm-sized serving of high-quality protein. Chicken breast, fish, etc. I wouldn’t make it more complicated than this until you have a specific goal that requires it. [Good source here] (https://www.precisionnutrition.com/calorie-control-guide).
Protein isn’t the whole story, though. If muscle growth is your main goal, carbohydrates are a crucial element, as well, as they initiate the insulin response that causes muscles to take up the nutrients that need to grow. In addition to the two palms of your protein of choice, have a handful or two of some sort of carbohydrate, ideally:
– Rice, quinoa, or a similar grain
– Potatoes or other tubers
– Fruits
… Etc. This is also discussed in the link above.
Finally, people are sure to mention EAA and BCAA supplements, as well as nutrient timing (ie, post-workout meals, etc.)
To this, I’d say, the supplements are _supplements_. If your meals include enough high quality protein from food, feel free to add the supplements — they may aid in recovery. If your meals are regularly missing protein, the supplements are unlikely to make up the difference. Takeaway being: Focus on your *food*. Supplements will only make a meaningful difference if your diet is in place. And, if you choose to use them, I recommend EAAs over BCAAs, as they’re more “complete”.
As for timing — it’s definitely true that consuming carbs and protein immediately after a workout helps your body use the nutrients more effectively. If you can eat your normal meal within two hours of your resistance trainings, do so. Alternatively, the common “post workout shake”, and a meal later, works just as fine.
Again, though, “when” will be much less important than “what”. Make sure your meals contain the right amount of protein an carbohydrates for your goals. When your meal composition is consistently on point, fine-tune the timing.
More “advanced” strategies are useful for specific situations, but nailing the above _consistently_ goes a long way. Ultimately, there’s no “best” strategy for everyone (that we know of). Consistent meal composition and consistent progressive overload in your training will get you where you want to go, but I wouldn’t stress much over precision unless you’re a figure athlete, competitor, or have some other specific reason to do so.
If you’ve got a food log or representative sample of how you eat on a given day, we can probably give some more specific notes. No worries if not though!
Good luck on everything!
From a biochemical view:
Proteins are basically chains of small molecules (like chain links). As those chain links are different, the combination and sequence of those molecules make up the different proteins.
When you eat any food with proteins your body doesn’t go “Hey, that’s the protein i need, i’ll take it and throw the rest away”.
Your body disassembles the protein chains into it’s links and reassembles those links into the proteins your body requires. Many links can’t be produced by your humans, but animals and some plants can, that’s why need to eat them.
By that the very type of protein for muscle growth in general is not important, but i bet there are tiny differences bodybuilders will tell you about.
TLDR: Proteins are chains and get disassembled into their links and reassembled into the proteins you need; therefore the type of protein doesn’t matter
since you’re apparently a vegan, [here’s a vegan weightlifter](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5fsqg6aJOI) with some of his thought on the topic
In general you want a mix of amino acids that your body needs for optimal muscle growth, so serious athletes should stick to eating human flesh, preferably of fellow athletes. This is the idea behind feeding livestock trimmings to the same species of livestock (cattle eat cattle, poultry eat poultry), to accelerate their growth. The practice with cattle has been banned in areas that have had outbreaks of mad cow disease, which could infect cows who ate nervous system tissue from infected cattle. The same risk exists with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans, so you shouldn’t eat peoples’ brains, and should trim around spinal columns.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3662288/
I’d check out this article if you have a chance because it talks in great detail about all the benefits you can expect from a plant based diet and has a section dedicated to protein. It also tells you which foods have particular nutrients that vegans need to include in their diet.
As long as you’re eating a balanced healthy diet, you should have no problem getting your protein. I’ve been vegetarian for 11 years and vegan for the past 2, I’ve never had any problems meeting my protein needs. The other commenters emphasizing the protein source being insignificant are correct. Also, all plant protein contains all the essential amino acids, they only vary on the amount of each amino acid. Again, this is something you shouldn’t worry about as long as you’re eating a variety of healthy foods.
What is more important is making sure you are getting enough vitamins and minerals that vegans can tend to be deficient in. There are vegan supplements that contain all of these essential nutrients, or you can just ensure you’re eating foods that contain sufficient quantities and foods that are fortified with these ingredients. Almond milk is typically fortified with B12. Nutritional yeast is a vegan must if you don’t use it already, as it is fortified with B12 and other vitamins.
There are some great explanations in the thread, so I’m trying one for a five year old.
Proteins are like lego sets. You can build a lot of different things with the same bricks. Your body has 20 types of bricks (amino acids) with which it builds all protein the body.
When you eat protein, you disassemble (digest) one set and use the pieces to build your own sets (proteins).
The more similar the 2 sets are, the easier is it to build. If you want to build a starship (your muscles), it’s best to disassemble a similar looking starship (animal muscle aka meat). If you eat castles (plant protein) you need to disassemble more castle sets to get all pieces you need for your starship.
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