Here's A Vegan Meal Plan that's Packed with Protein

Time to Read: 16 minutes

Contents

• Introduction
• How the Body Uses Protein
• How Much Protein Do I Need?
• Vegan Protein Sources
• Vegan Protein Supplements
• How to Design a Meal Plan
• High Protein Vegan Meal Plan for Men
  • Sunday
  • Monday
  • Tuesday
  • Wednesday
  • Thursday
  • Friday
  • Saturday
  • Shopping List
  • Screenshot
• High Protein Vegan Meal Plan for Women
  • Sunday
  • Monday
  • Tuesday
  • Wednesday
  • Thursday
  • Friday
  • Saturday
  • Shopping List
  • Screenshot
• Creating Your Own High Protein Vegan Meal Plan
• Summary

Introduction

Are you looking for a high protein vegan meal plan that you can build muscle on?

It’s a common misconception about veganism that if you want to be an athlete, you have to eat meat to get enough protein.

Just ask Carl Lewis, 10-time Olympic medalist and 10-time World Championship medalist who says that the first year he ate a vegan diet was his best year of track competition. Or you could ask former Heavyweight Boxing Champion of the world, Mike Tyson. That’s right, he’s a vegan too.

So what’s the secret of these muscle-bound vegan athletes? Is their entire life one big gym or do they eat a pound of tofu every day?

The truth is, there are lots of sources of protein that you can integrate into your vegan diet and you don’t have to sacrifice taste or variety to do it.

Today, we’ll present you with a high protein vegan meal plan, with the building blocks to create your own vegan meal plan every week.

How the Body Uses Protein

When you workout or perform strenuous activities, your muscle fibers are actually being torn and damaged by the intense strain. Your body uses the protein you eat throughout the day to repair and replace damaged muscle fibers by fusing them together to form new muscle protein strands.

Your body then uses “satellite cells” to add more nuclei to the muscle cells which directly causes the cells to grow. It doesn’t matter if your protein comes from a cow or a chickpea, your body just recognizes it as protein.

How Much Protein Do I Need?

Excercise increases the body’s protein requirements.

In 2017 there was a huge meta-analysis on the effect of protein supplementation on resistance training-induced gains in muscle mass and strength in healthy adults.

The conclusion was this:

With protein supplementation, protein intakes at amounts greater than ~1.6 g/kg/day do not further contribute RET-induced gains in FFM.

However, some individuals seem to do better with higher levels of protein. This was mentioned by the authors of the study:

…it may be prudent to recommend ~2.2 g protein/kg/d for those seeking to maximise resistance training-induced gains in FFM.

So… it looks like in order to maximise performance on a plant-based diet the optimal amount of protein to consume is between 1.6 - 2.2 grams of protein per kg of bodyweight.

Considering the fact that vegan protein sources are less bioavailable and contain less BCAAs than meat sources, it seems prudent to aim for the top end of this range.

Based on the above, here is an example of how to calculate protein requirements for an 80kg vegan:

80kg * 2.2g = 176g protein per day.

Vegan Protein Sources

If you want to be able to create your own high-protein vegan meal plan, then you need to know just which ingredients your protein will be coming from.

• Lentils - 9 grams per half cup
• Tofu - 10 grams of protein per cup
• Black Beans - 8 grams per half cup
• Quinoa - 8 grams per cup
• Amaranth - 7 grams per cup
• Soy Milk - 8 grams per cup
• Green Peas - 8 grams per cup
• Peanut Butter - 8 grams per 2 tablespoons
• Chickpeas (or hummus) - 8 grams per half cup
• Almonds - 7 grams per cup
• Black Eyed Peas - 8 grams per half cup
• Edamame - 8.5 grams per half cup
• Tempeh - 12 grams per cup
• Hemp Seeds - 13 grams in 3 tablespoons

This is by no means an exhaustive list of vegan protein sources, but you can clearly see how easy it is to get to your maximum daily protein on a vegan diet.

And of course, there is always protein powder. Plenty of meat eaters who hit the gym also supplement.

Vegan Protein Supplements

Although it is totally possible to get enough protein from whole food plant based sources in your diet, adding in a clean protein powder supplement makes it much easier to hit your macros.

We usually use Sunwarrior Warrior Blend in our recipes

Other good brands are:

• Vega
• Garden of Life
• Plantfusion

How to Design a Meal Plan

If you want to succeed at following a meal plan, then it has to fit around your lifestyle.

There are lots of different ways to organise your meal plan depending on how you want to spend your time.

For our examples today we are going with 4 meals per day. Breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner.

Lunch is always leftovers from the previous dinner. This is because most people will need to go to work during the day, and don’t have time for cooking.

Snacks are prepared at the beginning of the week and frozen for the same reason.

So in the end you just need 10 minutes in the morning to make breakfast, and another 20-30 minutes in the evening to cook dinner.

If you would like a different meal plan configuration that’s no problem. The Vegan.io meal planning algorithm is totally customizable. You can eat many times a day, follow any intermittent fasting schedule you can think of, eat most of you calories in the morning or evening, avoid gluten, soy or any other ingredient, and much more.

You can try out our vegan meal planner here for just $4.

High Protein Vegan Meal Plan for Men

• Height: 184cm
• Weight: 80kg
• Activity level: Moderate (Desk job but 4 days gym, 2 days cardio per week)
• Age: 36
• Goal: Body recomposition (lose fat while maintaining size and strength)

Based on the above stats, the Vegan.io algorithm calculates a base metabolic rate of 2840 calories. The base metabolic rate is the amount of calories required to maintain weight.

We will pick 2 priority workout days per week. These are the days that we will train the muscle groups that we need to improve the most. On those days we will eat more calories.

On the two other workout days, we will consume our base metabolic rate.

Finally, on the three “off days” we will eat less calories.

Sunday

Meal Prep

Today you can make the following snacks for later in the week:

• Make the Vegan No-Bake Protein Bars and freeze
• Make the No Bake High Protein Chocolate & Pumpkin Seed Brownies and freeze

Rest day

Calories: 2547
Protein: 165g
Carbs: 307g
Fat: 103g

Total cooking time: 90 minutes

Monday

Primary workout day

Today is a primary workout day, so we boost carbs to overeat and fuel muscle growth and recovery.

Calories: 3484
Protein: 196g
Carbs: 449g
Fat: 127g

Total cooking time: 40 minutes

Tuesday

Cardio Day

Calories: 3619
Protein: 151g
Carbs: 356g
Fat: 83g

Total cooking time: 35 minutes

Wednesday

Seconday Workout Day

Calories: 2988
Protein: 203g
Carbs: 397g
Fat: 89g

Total cooking time: 20 minutes

Thursday

Cardio Day

Calories: 2561
Protein: 147g
Carbs: 299g
Fat: 107g

Total cooking time: 25 minutes

Friday

Secondary Workout Day

Calories: 2871
Protein: 165g
Carbs: 341g
Fat: 116g

Total cooking time: 35 minutes

Saturday

Primary Workout Day

Calories: 3350
Protein: 169g
Carbs: 377g
Fat: 156g

Total cooking time: 75 minutes

Shopping List

Below is a screenshot of the shopping list inside the Vegan.io app.

The numbers next to each ingredient are the days when they are required.

In the app it’s possible to click the dropdown arrows to see what meals each ingredient is required in, how much, what day and all the possible substitute ingredients in case you can’t find it.

It might seem like there is a LOT of stuff to buy. This is true, but only on the first week. Most of the ingredients last for a long time and only need to be replaced occassionally.

Generally you’ll do all of your weekly shopping in the fresh produce isle of the supermarket.

Screenshot

And here’s how this meal plan looks inside of Vegan.io

Get your own custom meal plan here, for just $4.

High Protein Vegan Meal Plan for Women

• Height: 160cm
• Weight: 65kg
• Activity level: Moderate (Desk job but 4 days gym, 2 days cardio per week)
• Age: 28
• Goal: Lose weight

Based on the above stats, the Vegan.io algorithm calculates a base metabolic rate of 2158 calories. The base metabolic rate is the amount of calories required to maintain weight.

In order to lose weight we will need to under-eat by around 10%. Vegan.io calculates this calorie target to be 1943.

However, we are going to cycle carbs to try stop the body adjusting to our lower calorie intake.

We will pick 2 priority workout days per week. These are the days that we will train the hardest. On those days we will eat our maintenance calorie requirement, with more carbs.

On the two other workout days, we will consume less carbs, eating closer to our weight loss target.

Finally, on the three “off days” we will eat far less carbs and total calories, aiming for closer to a 20% calorie deficit.

Sunday

Meal Prep

Today you can make the following snacks for later in the week:

• Make the Vanilla Breakfast Protein Bites and freeze

Rest day

Calories: 1816
Protein: 102g
Carbs: 221g
Fat: 76g

Total cooking time: 50 minutes

Monday

Primary workout day

Today is a primary workout day, so we boost carbs to overeat and fuel muscle growth and recovery.

Calories: 2272
Protein: 128g
Carbs: 329g
Fat: 64g

Total cooking time: 45 minutes

Tuesday

Cardio Day

Calories: 1805
Protein: 119g
Carbs: 249g
Fat: 48g

Total cooking time: 40 minutes

Wednesday

Seconday Workout Day

Calories: 1944
Protein: 133g
Carbs: 242g
Fat: 61g

Total cooking time: 25 minutes

Thursday

Cardio Day

Calories: 1820
Protein: 105g
Carbs: 265g
Fat: 50g

Total cooking time: 40 minutes

Friday

Secondary Workout Day

Calories: 2075
Protein: 121g
Carbs: 283g
Fat: 67g

Total cooking time: 25 minutes

Saturday

Primary Workout Day

Calories: 2307
Protein: 112g
Carbs: 337g
Fat: 73g

Total cooking time: 35 minutes

Shopping List

Below is a screenshot of the shopping list inside the Vegan.io app.

The numbers next to each ingredient are the days when they are required.

In the app it’s possible to click the dropdown arrows to see what meals each ingredient is required in, how much, what day and all the possible substitute ingredients in case you can’t find it.

It might seem like there is a LOT of stuff to buy. This is true, but only on the first week. Most of the ingredients last for a long time and only need to be replaced occassionally.

Generally you’ll do all of your weekly shopping in the fresh produce isle of the supermarket.

Screenshot

And here’s how this meal plan looks inside of Vegan.io

Get your own custom meal plan here for just $4.

Creating Your Own High Protein Vegan Meal Plan

The Hard Way

We have a page full of high protein vegan recipes. You can filter by breakfast, smoothies, dinner and more.

Pick out recipes for breakfast, snack and dinner every day, and adjust the serving size so that you will get enough calories and protein.

Make a note of all the ingredients and add them together into a shopping list.

If you are cooking for more than one person then just add your protein requirements together before calculating the recipe servings.

The Easy Way

Let Vegan.io do all the hard work for you.

When you signup you will need tell us your date of birth, activity level, gender, height, weight, etc. We will use that to calculate your carb, fat and protein requirements.

If you have multiple people following the meal plan you can add their details too.

You will also be required to complete a short questionaire to let us know if you have any allergies, what kitchen equipment you have, how much time you have for cooking, etc.

Our algorithm will use all of this data to create the perfect meal plan for your needs, along with nutritional breakdowns and an interactive shopping list.

We’ll be launching integrations with Instacart and Amazon Fresh soon, to deliver ingredients directly to your door.

Signup for our meal planner here

Here’s a sample vegan meal plan and grocery list

Summary

People who have never attempted to try a vegan diet will always be quick to tell you that you can’t get enough protein to be healthy as a vegan. The truth is, you can get plenty of protein, and you can do it without the harmful saturated fats, toxins, and calories that you get from red meat sources.

If you want to pack on the muscles and strength, don’t give up your vegan diet for the protein of chicken and beef. With nuts, beans, greens, and seeds you can get more protein than you could possibly need without weighing your body down with trans fats and toxins.

Don’t wait another day to start on your path to the body you want. Try our high protein vegan meal plan and start flexing those muscles!