Hi, I'm trying to lose weight and build muscle. I don't want to be big and buff just nice lean muscle. I'm vegan so I don't eat any meat or eggs or drink milk, I get a lot of my protein from soy, beans and seeds and whole grain products. I see a lot of great looking vegans out there Andre 300 from outkast, Toby McGuire,Woody Harrelson, they are all well toned and have great muscle, I don't want to look like them but they just inspire me cause i know that I can build lean muscle even though I'm vegan. So how much protein should I be eating? I'm 5'6 286, I do cardio circut training a lot cause that burns a lot of fat while building muscle, so when I finally get down to my goal weight I won't have tons and tons of flab, i'll actually have some muscle. Any help? Suggestions?

SW 336
CW 286
GW 125

Thanks a lot!!!

Hi SAPF and welcome to LWL!

Don't worry about getting too bulky like all those hunky guys -- we women usually can't get like that (even if we'd want to) because we just don't have the hormones for it. So keep lifting and you'll end up with that lovely, lean muscle when you get to goal (and it will help rev up your metabolism so that you get there faster ... ).

About how much protein you need -- you'll see lots of different recommendations, so it can be confusing. I'm no nutritionist, but the one that I go by is one gram of protein per pound of goal weight (not current weight -- that would be way too much). For me that's about 135 g/day, which is about what I average (and feel very good at). For your goal of 125, that would be 125 g/day.

I don't know much about protein sources in vegan diets but I imagine that you can get adequate protein from a vegan diet with some knowledge and meal planning. Do you track your food now with Fitday or something like that? Do you know about how much protein you're currently eating?

I track it on slimfast.com I get about 60-100 grams a day. 50-70 grams a day is good for most people but weight lifters need more I think. I ran out of soy protein powder so it's around 60 now. I'm getting some more this week. I also heard that too much protein is bad for your bones and puts you at a higher risk for osteoporosis, have you ever heard about this? Too much protein takes the calcium out of your bones, something like that, I do a lot of research on nutrition and I came across this study,

"What's the main cause of osteoporosis, a condition that affects every woman and most men if they live long enough? Lack of calcium or eating too much protein?

A study from the University of California, San Francisco shows that elderly women who eat lots of meat have much greater loss of hip bone density and more hip fractures than those who eat primarily vegetable protein. Societies that eat large amounts of meat have a high incidence of osteoporosis. When you take in more protein than you need, your body cannot store extra protein, so it converts protein building blocks called amino acids into organic acids that acidify the bloodstream. The kidneys neutralize the acidity by pushing large amounts of calcium into the urine.

Whether it's animal protein or vegetable protein is probably not important; it's just very hard to get too much protein from vegetable sources because they are much less dense foods. You are far more likely to take in too much protein with a diet that includes a lot of meat and dairy products than with a primarily vegetarian diet.

Lack of calcium also can cause osteoporosis, but this study shows that you may be able to prevent osteoporosis by eating large amounts of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, seeds and nuts."

I was thinking if i take in about 125 grams of protein and weight lift along with getting in plenty of calcium I won't be at a high risk cause weight lifting makes you stronger and it can help prevent osteoporosis. I think anyway. I see a lot of older woman around here with osteoporosis and it's hard for them to walk or ever sit up straight, that's one of my fears, it doesn't run in my family but women are at higher risk, which sucks.