❓How should I calculate protein intake for cutting on a vegetarian diet?
I've been training at the gym for a year and want to cut now. My trainer says I need to raise my protein ratio, but being vegetarian, I feel like I can never hit the gram target.
1 Answers
To preserve muscle during a cut, the recommended protein intake is indeed higher than usual — a common range is 1.6-2.0g per kilogram of body weight (estimate based on your goal weight or lean body mass, not your current weight). Hitting that number on a vegetarian diet does take a bit more planning than eating meat. Here's a way to structure it: include a serving of soy products or legumes at all three meals (20-30g of protein per meal isn't hard — think a block of firm tofu plus a cup of soy milk), have a scoop of plant protein powder after training (pea protein and soy protein isolate both absorb well), and swap chips for edamame or chickpeas as snacks. Track your actual intake for a week with an app — it's a lot more accurate than eyeballing it, and a lot of people find it's easier to hit their target than they expected once they actually do the math.