Protein for Plant-Based Athletes: How Much You Really Need + My Daily Intake Breakdown

Protein is everywhere right now, but how much do plant-based athletes actually need?

In this episode, I’m breaking down everything you need to know about protein on a plant-based diet, inspired by a question I’ve been getting a lot lately: “How much protein do you eat in a day?” I’ll share my real numbers (and how I figured them out), plus what they actually mean for performance, recovery, and body composition.

We’ll cover:

• How to calculate your personal protein needs (without overcomplicating it)
• Why plant-based athletes may need to think about protein a little differently
• The truth about “incomplete” proteins (and why you don’t need to stress)
• The best high-protein plant foods (and how to build balanced meals)
• How to time your protein for better recovery and appetite control
• Whether protein powders and “high-protein” products are worth it

 Want help putting this into practice? Join Fuel Better: Nutrition Coaching for Plant-Based Runners to get personalized guidance, meal frameworks, and support to fuel your training the right way. Get a month free now!

Have questions or want to request a show topic? DM us @greenletes

Check out Natalie's book 📕: Planted Performance

Transcript

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Hello and welcome to the Green Leats Podcast. I'm your host, Natalie Rizzo, the sports dietician behind Green Leeds. And today we are gonna get into everything about protein. Specifically, protein for plant-based athletes. The reason I'm laughing is just because I feel like protein is a topic that's coming up constantly lately. I can't go anywhere without hearing about protein. I can't tell anyone I'm a dietitian without hearing about protein. But when it comes to plant-based people, it's a little bit different because there are some caveats to getting enough protein, making sure you're fueling yourself properly with protein, how to time your protein for your athletic performance. So we're gonna get into all of it. And the reason that we're even doing this episode, because I actually had a different episode planned, was because recently in the past month, I've been asked about my own protein intake by multiple people. Specifically, how much protein am I eating every single day? And when I was asked this, my first thought was, I actually don't really know. But then I realized that I did know. But and I'm gonna kind of tell you the story here. So uh a follower on Instagram, I posted about protein recently, and they DM'd me and they said, How much protein do you eat every day? And I was like, like I said, I thought to myself, I don't know, but I actually did know because I've been tracking my food intake for a while. So a little thing that I don't talk a lot about is that I actually have been trying to lose some of the baby weight. My my youngest is two now, so I don't even know if I can call it baby weight anymore, but I've hung on to about 10 extra pounds of just weight that doesn't feel super comfortable on my body. But I was training for things and I wasn't really focused on losing the weight. But since the beginning of this year, I have been focused on losing that extra bit of weight just because I want my clothes to feel better. I just want to feel better. So I have since the beginning of 2026 have actually been tracking my food intake using my fitness file where I just scan things and I kind of keep sense of how many calories I'm eating, how much protein I'm eating, that kind of thing throughout the day. Where am I eating? Maybe it's it's helped me a lot actually figure out that certain like eating habits that I wasn't super aware of. Like, for instance, if I'm super tired, I tend to eat just for I think making me feel better and not necessarily because I'm hungry, that I wasn't always great about recovery after a workout because sometimes I wasn't hungry, but I do need that recovery. And then, you know, sometimes I'm overeating portion sizes when I didn't need to. So it's been helpful for that. But it's also been helpful for getting a sense of how much protein am I actually eating? Because one of the things that comes into play when it comes to being plant-based is that you sometimes have to eat a larger volume of food than you realize to hit the macros that you want. So when it comes to protein, for instance, like maybe you know, I'm having a salad at lunch and I add half a cup of chickpeas, and I'm getting a few grams of protein from some of the vegetables in there, but then the half a cup of chickpeas only has maybe eight grams of protein, so like my lunch overall would be 10 grams of protein, which isn't really enough. But when I started tracking all of this and keeping a sense of it, I found that I was eating about 80 grams of protein a day. Now, we'll get into what that number actually means, but I wanted to start this all out with when people are asking me how much protein are you eating every day, or when people are talking about how much protein you need or how much you should get, everyone needs a different amount of protein. That's the baseline of where we're starting at. But I think what's really important to emphasize here is that do you actually know how much protein you're eating every day? Are you tracking it? Do you have a sense of that? Because if I wasn't on this journey to lose this 10 pounds of baby weight, I wouldn't really have a sense of it either. Now, do I think that everyone has to track it? No. But I do think it is important for you to kind of like know, even thinking about at that meal, what was the protein source and how much did I get of it? Read some labels, get a sense of is that actually a good source of protein? For instance, like people think peanut butter is a good source of protein. It's not really the best source of protein, it's more a source of healthy fats, which there's nothing wrong with that, but just getting a sense of where the protein even comes from. So that's kind of like the underlying reason that we're even doing this episode. But we're gonna back up and we're gonna start at the beginning of protein. We're gonna go into the protein 101 and really talk about it in terms of plant-based. And if you're a plant-based person, what does protein mean to you? How do you get it? How much do you need, that kind of thing. So let's talk about protein in general. Protein is one of the three macronutrients, meaning that you need it for energy. It's important for your muscles, and it's also important for appetite. So it helps control your appetite. So you may hear, like, you know, if you have a snack, like you're eating pretzels or something, people will recommend including some protein in there so that it keeps you full until the next meal. So that's an important part of protein. For athletes, it's really important for recovery after a workout to make you feel better, to help you grow stronger. Low protein intake can lead to fatigue, it can lead to sugar cravings. This is one of the things that I hear most often when people tell me they crave sugar all the time. I'm saying maybe you're not getting enough protein, and it can also lead to overeating, that you're not uh you're not full, so you're eating more. When it comes to protein intake, this is why it is so confusing. Like, how much protein do you need? Protein recommendations are based on body weight. So they're based on body weight, but they're also based in kilograms. In the United States, we don't use kilograms to determine our weight, we use pounds. So this is why people get super confused. So the recommendations for protein have recently changed with the new dietary guidelines that came out in 2025. But basically, everyone should be getting at least 1.2 to 2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight. So for pounds, that's about 0.45 to 0.9 grams per pound of body weight. The way that I tell people to estimate this is, and this is a rough estimate, take your body weight in pounds, divide it in half. So say you're 150 pounds, divide it in half, that's about 75 grams of protein. That's like a rough estimate of what you need. It can go up from there. If you're a person who does intense workouts, works out a lot, does a lot of strength training, bodybuilding, really wants to grow your muscle mass, it can go up from there. It can go down from there. It really depends on the person. Most athletes, this is from like research studies, benefit from about 1.6 grams per kilogram, or boy, about 0.72 grams per pound. So going back to myself and how much protein I was getting, if you're watching this YouTube video, I am literally taking out my calculator right now. I weigh about 135 pounds right now. Like I said before, I'm trying to get down to about 125. I'm only 5'3. So that's about the size that I feel the healthiest at. But 135 pounds, we're gonna do dividing that by 2.2, is 61 kilograms. If I was gonna be in that 1.6 range per kilogram, so that would be about 98 grams of protein. That's about you know the healthy amount I should be having if I'm marathon training or something like that. Right now I'm not really training for anything. What I was getting about 80 to 85 grams, let's say about 85 grams per day. 85 divided by that 61 kilograms is about 1.4 grams per kilogram. So it's not bad. Like that's a that's around the middle of the range of how much I am eating per day. This is why, again, protein is so confusing, is because it's really based on your body weight, it's based on your activity level, it's based on how you're feeling. The one thing that you may hear as a plant-based person is that, okay, your body's actually not absorbing the same amount of protein from plants that it is from animal foods. Now, there's research again on this, and that's not entirely true. Soy-based foods are absorbed about their soy and pea protein, and actually potato protein, are absorbed almost as well as whey protein. Whey is the protein that's coming from dairy, and that's how they do the research a lot of times. So that kind of protein is absorbed as well. Some of the protein from beans and legumes, it's not about 75% as absorbed as animal protein. So it's not like your body's not getting protein from these foods. It's getting plenty of it. You may need a little extra, but you don't really need that much extra because your body is getting it from these whole foods and is absorbing it well. And on top of that, with the whole plant-based proteins like soy, beans, legumes, you're also getting a lot of other added benefits like fiber, which helps keep you full and helps keep your digestive system regular regular. It also helps with your heart health, and then you're also getting a lot of tons of vitamins and minerals, right? You're getting things like magnesium, potassium, basically every vitamin and mineral that you could think of in all of these plant-based foods. So you're getting a lot of that, and your muscles are also getting the protein. Now, when we talk about plant-based protein sources, the ones that are gonna be the highest amount in the smallest volume of food is going to be the things like soy-based foods. So you're gonna get tofu, tampei, soy milk, edamame. That's you're gonna get for the smallest volume of food the most amount of protein. Then on top of that, you're going to get beans and legumes have a decent amount of protein as well. But then there's other options as well. Things like seeds, you know, hemp seeds, three tablespoons of hemp seeds has 10 grams of protein, peas, oats, you're gonna get five grams of protein and half a cup of oats. Quinoa has some protein, whole grains have some protein, nuts, a handful of almonds, have six grams of protein. And then there are some other options like something called Sayton, which has a ton of protein, about 21 grams. It's got a weird chewy texture, but you're gonna get a lot of protein in plant-based foods. When it comes to building a meal that has enough protein, I always talk about making sure that you are combining different elements. So here is the kind of um comparison I always give. If you're the type of person who eats chicken and you have three grams, three ounces of chicken, you're gonna get upwards of 20 grams of protein there, and that's really all you need. You can add something else, and you're maybe have some rice there, maybe have some Brussels sprouts, and you're gonna get 30 plus grams in a meal. But when it comes to plant-based proteins, you have to a lot of times combine different foods. So the thing I always give is you know, a lot of plant-based people love the meal of rice and beans. Rice and beans is great, but it's probably only, you know, 10 grams of protein. So how what do you add in there to add other things? Maybe you add some veggies, broccoli has a little bit of protein, maybe you add some seeds on top. How do you combine foods to get enough? The same with if, say, for instance, you're doing something like a burrito, the tortilla itself has some protein. Then you're gonna do the rice, the beans, the veggies. Maybe you do add cheese if you're a cheese person. Like it's combining different foods to get enough protein in one meal. I think a lot of people struggle when it comes to breakfast foods. Maybe it's oatmeal or something like that, and it's very carb heavy. So, how do you add the protein in there? Maybe you're gonna add some chia seeds, you're gonna add some soy milk, a tablespoon of uh peanut butter. You know, how do you combine the things to get enough in one meal? Now, when we talk about combining proteins, we're also talking about something that comes up a lot, which is complete proteins. You may have heard this term. What complete proteins means is that the food has all nine of the essential amino acids that the body cannot make, so it needs to get from food, and those nine essential amino acids are what help you build muscle. In the past, it has been thought that plant-based proteins were incomplete, meaning they don't have all nine of those essential amino acids. Now, newer research shows that it's not that they're incomplete, it's that plant-based proteins are limited, meaning that they they don't have high amounts of all of the nine essential amino acids, but they still have them. So when it comes to complete proteins, you know, people saying that plant proteins are incomplete, that's actually not true. It goes back to making sure that you're combining your protein sources to get enough of all of those nine essential amino acids. For instance, lysine is very present in grains, and then methionine and cysteine are low in legumes. So if you start combining those proteins because lysine is in legumes and you combine it with grains, then you're gonna have, you know, more, you're gonna get everything that you need in one meal. So if you have a varied diet, you really don't need to worry about missing out on certain amino acids. That's not something that you have to worry about. Now, when we talk about protein timing, for instance, with athletes and when should you have protein throughout the day. Protein is important again for keeping you full. So, say you're the type of person who works out after work or at lunch or in the afternoon, you're gonna want to have some protein spread throughout the day to make sure that you're staying full and you're not eating too much leading up to the workout that your stomach feels over like overly full. So, ideally, protein should be at every single meal and every single snack so that you're getting enough throughout the day, especially because on a plant-based diet, if you're only doing it a lot at dinner or a lot at lunch, you may not be getting enough throughout the day. So it should be at every single meal. And then when it comes to snacking, things like edamame, crunchy chickpeas, those are really good sources of protein that you can add into your diet. Roasted lentils, like have you ever had crispy lentils? They're absolutely delicious. That's a good way to add more protein to your day. The question will always come up about protein powders and whether or not I recommend them. I think they are a convenient option for people who feel like they can't get enough protein. When it comes to, you know, people who are really on the go and they want to have a protein powder after a workout to get the protein in, go for it. It's helpful that it's more helpful than not having any protein. But if you can do something that has, you know, a smoothie with soy milk, your body actually absorbs the protein better from foods than it does from supplements. And you also get a lot of other things like the carbs that you need after a workout in a food as compared to a supplement. So I always say food first, but supplement if you need that convenience food. And then in terms of like when to get in protein, you know, some people will tell you you need to get it in immediately after a workout to help with muscle protein synthesis, which means just growing stronger after a workout. And it is there is true, it is true. Like within that two-hour window after a workout, if you get in some protein, it definitely helps you recover. What I always say, especially for runners, is that your body doesn't necessarily always want food right after a workout. It is incredibly important to take in something, even if it is something small. The reason for this is not only for your muscle recovery, but for your appetite control. Maybe you've been one maybe you've been there before where you've done something super intense like sprints or uh you're training for a marathon and your stomach just feels terrible and you're like, I can't eat this, you know, I just don't want this food. So you don't eat anything. And then three hours later you're so hungry that you're eating everything. If you have a little bit of food after a workout with some protein in it, that will help with that appetite control. So it helps you recover and it helps with the appetite control. So I always say like a snack right after a workout. Could be a protein shake if you want it. I'm very partial to smoothies with fruit to get some of the carbs in there that restocks glycogen as well. Or edamami and grapes is another one that I like, which is the carbs in the protein. And then two to three hours later, when you're when the hunger starts to creep up, then you have a meal that has some protein in it. So for instance, with myself, in the morning I'll go out for a run. I'll have something really just super carb heavy uh before maybe it's like a waffle, some spore strings during the run. Finish the run, I will make the smoothie, which is not a full meal. A lot of times it's you know 200 calories or something, and then two hours later is when I'm having maybe lunch or a full meal, which could be some sort of lentil soup, or um, you know, it could be a uh a salad with edamame, it could be whatever I'm eating for lunch that day. So that's kind of how I space out my protein. Making sure that I am getting it after the workout, but then you're getting it again later. And recovery actually happens for up to 24 hours after a workout. So it's not just about cramming in tons of protein right out after a workout. It's about spacing it out throughout the day so that it helps control your appetite and helps your muscles recover. And that's really the way to go about making sure that your protein needs meet what you're doing on a daily basis. So those are kind of the basics of protein: how much I'm getting, how to get it through food, incomplete versus complete proteins, you know, how much you actually need in a day based on your activity level, how to get it, and then how to space it out throughout the day. If there's more things that I miss that you want to hear about, I would love to know. Put it in the comments if you're watching this on YouTube, send me a DM if you're listening to this as a podcast episode. There is only these questions come up constantly. The one last thing I will add, and this kind of goes back to the protein powder thing, is all of these foods that have protein added into them now, where do they fit into a healthy diet? Generally, if you want to have something that, for instance, protein pretzels, protein water, protein coffee, protein popcorn, all of those things, in my opinion, don't necessarily need protein included in them. I think when you start to add protein to everything, it's kind of like what is the point of these foods? Why not just eat whole food sources of protein? I'd rather you have just pretzels and add a protein source on the side. You know, be especially for athletes, you need some of these carbs. There's nothing wrong with eating some of these foods that have carbs in them and then pairing it with some sort of protein source. Not to mention that I don't think that protein pretzels keep you full, you know. I think like if you have a protein with a Greek yogurt, uh, which by the way, Kite Hill Greek yogurt is a fantastic plant-based source of Greek yogurt that I love. But, you know, or you have a you have a handful of lupini beans are one of my favorite sources of plant-based protein too, as a snack. You have those with some pretzels. That's really where I would love for you to get your protein, not in these processed protein snacks or drinks or whatever. Think about that as you're picking out protein. Again, let me know if you have more questions about this. It's a very nuanced topic. More research comes out all the time, and we can always do a follow up episode. And I appreciate you all for listening. I appreciate anyone who watches the YouTube video. We're doing a lot more on YouTube now, so check us out over there, and we will be back next week. See you then.