How Much Protein Do Vegans Need, and How to Get It From Food

A vegan adult needs the same protein as anyone else: the 1991 UK dietary reference value is 0.75 g per kilogram of body weight a day, carried in the government's dietary recommendations as 45 g for a woman and 55.5 g for a man aged 19 to 64, and the sports and ageing position stands raise that to 1.4 to 2.0 g/kg for people who train and 1.0 to 1.2 g/kg over 65.^{1, 2, 3} For a 60 kg woman that is 45 g at the minimum and about 85 to 120 g if she lifts; for an 80 kg man, 60 g and 110 to 160 g. Pulses, soya, grains, nuts and seeds get there, provided each meal carries 25 to 30 g rather than the day's protein arriving at dinner, because plant proteins carry less leucine per gram and older muscle responds less to small doses.^{4, 5} The nutrient the NHS says a vegan diet may need from a supplement is vitamin B12.⁶ This is the food half of a pair with is vegan protein powder healthy.

How much protein do vegans need a day?

Start from body weight. The 1991 dietary reference value of 0.75 g/kg is the amount that prevents deficiency in nearly everyone.¹ The higher figures come from training and ageing: the sports-nutrition position stand puts people who train at 1.4 to 2.0 g/kg, the 49-trial meta-analysis found gains plateaued at about 1.6, and the PROT-AGE group recommends 1.0 to 1.2 g/kg for everyone over 65 and 1.2 or more if active.^{2, 3, 7} A plant-only diet sits a little higher within whichever band applies, because pulse and grain proteins are digested less completely than soya, egg or milk protein on the score regulators use.⁸

Which plant foods are highest in protein?

The figures below are from the UK's national composition dataset (CoFID), per 100 g as eaten, with a realistic portion beside each.⁹ Seitan is not in the dataset, so its row is a typical UK label value.

Per 100 g, seitan, pumpkin seeds, fried tofu, nut butters, almonds and tempeh lead, which answers the "king of protein" question for a vegan plate; soya is the one that also scores as a complete protein.⁸ No everyday food is "almost 100% protein": even a protein powder is about 78% protein by weight. "Poor man's protein" is the old name for pulses, and the table bears it out: 200 g of red lentils gives 16 g for pence.

How do you get 30 g in a meal, or 100 g in a day, as a vegan?

By stacking two or three protein foods in each meal rather than one. Breakfast: 50 g of oats with 250 ml of soya drink and 30 g of peanut butter is 18.5 g; add 25 g of pumpkin seeds and it is 24.5 g. Lunch: 200 g of red lentil dahl with two slices of wholemeal bread and 50 g of houmous is 27 g. Dinner: 150 g of fried tofu with quinoa cooked from 60 g is 43 g. Snack: 100 g of edamame is 12 g. That day is about 107 g. For 120 to 150 g, the targets of a heavier trainee, swap in 100 g of tempeh (21 g) and consider a shake. Asking how to "raise protein levels quickly" usually means a blood test: serum protein and albumin reflect illness far more than diet, and a low result is a GP conversation.

Does leucine matter on a plant-based diet?

It is the reason for the 25 to 30 g per meal advice. Leucine is the amino acid that switches on muscle protein synthesis, and plant isolates carry between 5.1% (hemp) and 13.5% (corn) of their protein as leucine, against 9% in milk protein; methionine is low in pulses and lysine low in grains, so dahl with rice complements itself.⁴ Young men reached the ceiling of the muscle response at about 0.24 g of protein per kilogram in a single meal, older men at 0.40 g/kg, and the position stand asks for 700 to 3,000 mg of leucine in a dose, which is why plant meals are sized at 25 to 30 g of protein rather than 15.^{2, 5} Eight adults who ate 30 g at each of three meals synthesised 25% more muscle protein over 24 hours than when the same total was skewed to dinner.¹⁰ Once the day's total was 1.6 g/kg, vegans on soya gained the same muscle and strength in 12 weeks of training as omnivores on whey.¹¹

When does a protein powder fit a vegan diet?

When the target is 1.6 g/kg and appetite or time runs out, when a meal is missed, or after 65 when each meal needs 30 to 40 g to register.^{3, 5} It is one route to the same daily total; a serving of a vegan protein powder typically supplies 20 to 25 g of protein with 1.5 to 2 g of leucine. What to read on any label is on the vegan protein powder page linked above, and the questions women ask are on protein powder for women. Whey is dairy and collagen is animal protein, so both are off a vegan list (is there a vegan collagen covers what plant "collagen" products contain); for everyone else the trials found soya and whey doing the same job at the same dose, and nobody needs to "stay away" from either unless allergic.¹¹ No trial in the position stands shows whey raising testosterone; strength comes from the training.

What are the signs of too little or too much protein?

Too little is rare in a UK adult eating enough food. The two deficiency diseases people search for, kwashiorkor and marasmus, are forms of childhood malnutrition in famine, not features of a vegan diet; in adults, muscle wasting and fluid retention come with illness or a very low food intake, not with pulses instead of meat. Too much, in healthy kidneys, has not shown up in trials: 28 trials in 1,358 adults found no change in kidney filtration on diets of 1.5 g/kg or more.¹² The kidney matters only when already diseased; the PROT-AGE paper names severe kidney disease as the one reason to limit protein.³ Foamy or dark urine is not a sign of eating too much protein; foamy urine can mean protein is leaking from the kidney, which is a test at the GP, not a diet change.

Frequently asked questions

Are two eggs enough protein for a day?

Not for a vegan, and not for anyone: boiled egg is 14.1 g of protein per 100 g, so two medium eggs give about 14 g, a third of a 60 kg woman's reference intake and a sixth of a trainee's.⁹

What is the 30-30-30 rule for vegans?

A social-media rule: 30 g of protein within 30 minutes of waking, then 30 minutes of easy exercise. The part with evidence is the 30 g at breakfast; the 30-minute clocks have none.¹⁰

Is nutritional yeast a source of B12?

Only when fortified, and the label says so; unfortified yeast has none. The NHS lists fortified yeast flakes, fortified soya drinks and fortified cereals, and says a B12 supplement may be needed.⁶ More on what vitamin B12 is good for.

Why do some doctors say no to protein powder?

Caution in kidney disease, mostly. For a healthy adult below target, a powder is a food like any other; for someone with kidney disease, the target is set with a renal dietitian.^{3, 12}

Which is the best protein for vegans?

Soya, for completeness; a mix of pulses, grains, nuts and seeds across the day does the same.^{4, 8} No single food is best.

Sources

1. Public Health England. Government dietary recommendations: energy and nutrients for males and females aged 1 to 18 years and 19+ years, 2016. gov.uk.
2. Jäger R, et al. International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand: protein and exercise. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 2017. PubMed 28642676.
3. Bauer J, et al. Evidence-based recommendations for optimal dietary protein intake in older people: a position paper from the PROT-AGE Study Group. Journal of the American Medical Directors Association, 2013. PubMed 23867520.
4. Gorissen SHM, et al. Protein content and amino acid composition of commercially available plant-based protein isolates. Amino Acids, 2018. PubMed 30167963.
5. Moore DR, et al. Protein ingestion to stimulate myofibrillar protein synthesis requires greater relative protein intakes in healthy older versus younger men. Journals of Gerontology Series A, 2015. PubMed 25056502.
6. NHS. The vegan diet. nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/how-to-eat-a-balanced-diet/the-vegan-diet.
7. Morton RW, et al. A systematic review, meta-analysis and meta-regression of the effect of protein supplementation on resistance training-induced gains in muscle mass and strength in healthy adults. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 2018. PubMed 28698222.
8. Herreman L, et al. Comprehensive overview of the quality of plant- and animal-sourced proteins based on the digestible indispensable amino acid score. Food Science and Nutrition, 2020. PubMed 33133540.
9. Public Health England. McCance and Widdowson's Composition of Foods Integrated Dataset (CoFID), 2021. gov.uk.
10. Mamerow MM, et al. Dietary protein distribution positively influences 24-h muscle protein synthesis in healthy adults. Journal of Nutrition, 2014. PubMed 24477298.
11. Hevia-Larraín V, et al. High-protein plant-based diet versus a protein-matched omnivorous diet to support resistance training adaptations: a comparison between habitual vegans and omnivores. Sports Medicine, 2021. PubMed 33599941.
12. Devries MC, et al. Changes in kidney function do not differ between healthy adults consuming higher- compared with lower- or normal-protein diets: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Nutrition, 2018. PubMed 30383278.

General information, not medical advice: anyone with kidney disease sets their protein target with their GP or renal dietitian.