I've been vegan almost two years now and I'm STILL having to deprogram my own beliefs about how much protein we need. From personal experience, it's less than we've been programmed to believe. The health industry has taken us along for a ride long enough, their profit at our expense.
I've had a solid two decades of indoctrination into the belief system that says you need 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight, give or take. So when I went vegan, I carried this myth into it. I even increased the amount of protein shakes I took to be sure I wouldn't dwindle on a plant diet.
Well two years in and I'm down to taking just one scoop of vegan protein powder and still making gains! I know I can go without ANY shakes..that's my next step. I've been discovering it's really more about total calories...I know..what a concept. All those years and decades always carrying around an extra protein bar for hunger emergencies when really a banana or two is all it takes. At the end of the day, it's about total calories which does include enough protein.
I've come to learn that the average adult male needs about 50 grams of protein per day. I know, seems like so little! An athlete will obviously need more, but how much more?
My weight fluctuates between 170 and 205 pounds, depending if I'm training/eating consistently or not. But I'm now eating 100-120 grams of protein per day. That's about 0.5 grams of protein or pound of body weight.
I've always been that skinny guy. I'll be blogging more about that journey and the transformation. And even up to today, I seem to workout in phases. When I'm consistent and working hard, I gain. When I slack off, I lose quickly and I shrink right down to my default slim look. At this moment and in this photo, I've been back to training hard consistently for 4 weeks. So all my gains are on a vegan diet, not carried over from a meat diet.
I've been a pretty private person but I'm ready to start coming out and sharing my journey more because I realize there's a movement going on and lots of people are now looking for inspiration, tips and information. I'm now ready to share!
Subscribe here and upvote if you're interested in some vegan badass info and updates! Thanks!
Further, just started a youtube channel. If I get one subscriber, I'll take that as a cue from the universe to start doing vlogs! Here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1KsE-d_GKHhkaXt4_SVs6g?&ytbChannel=You%20Are%20the%20One%20You%27ve%20Been%20Waiting%20For