The potato is closest to meat in having about 36 calories per gram of protein and all essential amino acids, but it’s still only about 30% of the way to being as proteinaceous as non-lean steak or 15% of the way to lean steak.
As a highly active exerciser, OP may have needed up to 2.5x the protein as a typical person, while only requiring 40% more calories. So no, low-meat diet that would sustain the protein needs of a low-activity person doesn’t always straightforwardly translate to a high-activity lifestyle.
An 80 kg man at low activity might need 64 g protein/day and 2500 calories. If he starts exercising intensively, he may need 3500 calories and up to 160g protein. It’s not possible to do that with potatoes − 160g of protein from potatoes entails eating almost 6000 calories.
The only thing that would get you there on a vegan/vegetarian diet is protein powder, which is as protein-dense as lean steak at about 100 calories/15 g protein.
The only thing that would get you there on a vegan/vegetarian diet is protein powder
Not at all! 100g of beans is 8.9g protein and 132 calories. Eating 2500 calories of beans would give you 169g protein. So you can use just 1⁄3 of your calorie budget to get 64g protein. Even pasta is 5.15g and 131 calories in 100g, so getting 64g protein would use 2⁄3 of your budget.
Now, beans and wheat aren’t complete proteins on their own, but combined they’re pretty good! And since beans are so protein-dense you have a lot left in your calorie budget to work with.
I endorse this—I was reacting to the conventional way people use the word “vegetable,” which I don’t typically hear applied to legumes or to grain. But for the purpose of getting high protein on a low meat diet, it’s obviously not important it be from a vegetable per se.
Broccoli is higher in protein content per calorie than either beans or pasta and is a very central example of a vegetable, though you’d also want to mix it with beans or something for a better protein quality. 3500 calories of broccoli is 294g protein, if Google’s nutrition facts are to be trusted. Spinach, kale, and cauliflower all also have substantially better protein per calories than potatoes and better PDCAAS scores than I expected (though I’m not certain I trust them—does spinach actually get a 1?). I think potatoes are a poor example (and also not one vegetarians turn to for protein).
Though I tend to drench my vegetables in olive oil so these calories per gram numbers don’t mean much to me in practice, and good luck eating such a large volume of any of these.
True! I am a broccoli fan. Just to put a number on it, to get the proposed 160g of protein per day, you’d have to eat 5.6 kg of broccoli, or well over 10 lb.
Not to rain on any parades… but don’t eat spinach guys.
If you try to fix joint pains by getting more protein from kilograms of spinach or kale, you will be severly disappointed. I’m talking about oxalic acid. See my comment.
It is more likely though that you will get kidney injury or kidney stones as a first symptom. Some people have died of imbibing big green smoothies, which presumably contained spinach. Everyone knows rhubarb is bad because of oxalic acid. Spinach contains the same stuff in high concentrations.
The potato is closest to meat in having about 36 calories per gram of protein and all essential amino acids, but it’s still only about 30% of the way to being as proteinaceous as non-lean steak or 15% of the way to lean steak.
As a highly active exerciser, OP may have needed up to 2.5x the protein as a typical person, while only requiring 40% more calories. So no, low-meat diet that would sustain the protein needs of a low-activity person doesn’t always straightforwardly translate to a high-activity lifestyle.
An 80 kg man at low activity might need 64 g protein/day and 2500 calories. If he starts exercising intensively, he may need 3500 calories and up to 160g protein. It’s not possible to do that with potatoes − 160g of protein from potatoes entails eating almost 6000 calories.
The only thing that would get you there on a vegan/vegetarian diet is protein powder, which is as protein-dense as lean steak at about 100 calories/15 g protein.
Not at all! 100g of beans is 8.9g protein and 132 calories. Eating 2500 calories of beans would give you 169g protein. So you can use just 1⁄3 of your calorie budget to get 64g protein. Even pasta is 5.15g and 131 calories in 100g, so getting 64g protein would use 2⁄3 of your budget.
Now, beans and wheat aren’t complete proteins on their own, but combined they’re pretty good! And since beans are so protein-dense you have a lot left in your calorie budget to work with.
I endorse this—I was reacting to the conventional way people use the word “vegetable,” which I don’t typically hear applied to legumes or to grain. But for the purpose of getting high protein on a low meat diet, it’s obviously not important it be from a vegetable per se.
Broccoli is higher in protein content per calorie than either beans or pasta and is a very central example of a vegetable, though you’d also want to mix it with beans or something for a better protein quality. 3500 calories of broccoli is 294g protein, if Google’s nutrition facts are to be trusted. Spinach, kale, and cauliflower all also have substantially better protein per calories than potatoes and better PDCAAS scores than I expected (though I’m not certain I trust them—does spinach actually get a 1?). I think potatoes are a poor example (and also not one vegetarians turn to for protein).
Though I tend to drench my vegetables in olive oil so these calories per gram numbers don’t mean much to me in practice, and good luck eating such a large volume of any of these.
True! I am a broccoli fan. Just to put a number on it, to get the proposed 160g of protein per day, you’d have to eat 5.6 kg of broccoli, or well over 10 lb.
Not to rain on any parades… but don’t eat spinach guys.
If you try to fix joint pains by getting more protein from kilograms of spinach or kale, you will be severly disappointed. I’m talking about oxalic acid. See my comment.
It is more likely though that you will get kidney injury or kidney stones as a first symptom. Some people have died of imbibing big green smoothies, which presumably contained spinach. Everyone knows rhubarb is bad because of oxalic acid. Spinach contains the same stuff in high concentrations.